Last week, I completed the Live Below the Line challenge.
Over 1.2 billion people in our world live on less than £1
per day, and the live below the line challenge is about raising awareness and
funds for various charities that work with these people to end the poverty.
Let me give you a summary of my week.
For the challenge, I went to Aldi and spent £4.82 on my
food. This bought me:
• 1 kg
porridge
• 2 tins of
rice pudding
• Jelly
crystals
• 500g penne
pasta
• 1kg
frozen mixed veg
• 1 loaf of
white bread
• 1 pack of
chocolate cookies
• 1 tin of
tomato soup
• 2 jars of
tomato and herb pasta sauce
• 500g of
spaghetti
Then, starting Tuesday 6th May, I began my
challenge.
Day 1 was not too difficult. I started with a bowl of
porridge made from water (disgusting) and this kept me going fairly well. I did
get peckish about 11.30 for a biscuit, but I think that was habit rather than
real hunger. My lunch was half the soup, two slices
Day 2 I was at home all day, and I had very little appetite,
making the challenge slightly easier. I had my porridge again, and for lunch I
had four slices of dry toast. Dinner was the same, and I had 2 cookies during
the day. I made up the jelly ready for tomorrow.
Day 3 was tough. I had my porridge with a side bowl of jelly
(for that sweet kick), and then went to Starbucks in Peterborough for a meeting
about Summer School. Being in there wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I
didn’t feel tempted by the coffee and didn’t look at the food so I couldn’t
feel hungry. The problem came when the staff came round with samples of new sandwiches
they have. Even though this wouldn’t ‘cost’ me anything, you cannot accept free
food when living below the line. The smell was delicious and it took great
effort to say ‘no thanks’. Those I was meeting with weren’t very supportive,
and helped themselves! But I couldn’t really blame them.
It was interesting to
be in the city, passing café’s and shops, seeing the cost of things, and
thinking how a sandwich would cost me a day or more’s worth of food. It was
quite an eye-opener!
I kept focussing on eating my bread on the way home, and
this got me through the meeting. When I got in, I hurriedly made my spaghetti,
veg and sauce, and enjoyed this. I waited a while before having my rice
pudding, but I still had a severe case of the munchies! I ended up devouring 8
(!) cookies before the end of the evening.
Day 4 began again with porridge and jelly. Lunch was the
rest of the soup, two slices of toast, and two cookies, and dinner was
spaghetti, veg and pasta again followed by the last of the rice pudding. A
further 3 cookies were eaten.
Day 5 – I was so happy to have reached the last day! I
couldn’t bear another bowl of watery, tasteless, gloop (porridge), so I started
with a couple of cookies. I then had a further two cookies before lunch, which
was pasta and veg, with no sauce as I was saving that for my dinner. Dinner was
again pasta, veg, and sauce, followed by two cookies. I was craving fast food
or a takeaway A LOT. But I had reached the end. And I was over the moon.
When Sunday dawned, I happily got up and made my first cup
of tea for days and made my usual wheetabix with hot milk (MILK!). It was bliss.
I am so grateful to have enough money to live and enjoy
life, and Live Below the Line affected my thinking greatly over the 5 days.
My prayer now is that I remember the struggle, and that my
thought process will remain the same when it comes to buying food.
I want to challenge you again to take the challenge for
yourself. And if not, please sponsor me here.
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