Live Below the Line 2013: Let’s Do It Together

From one exciting campaign to another!

Tomorrow marks the start of Live Below the Line for Jonathan and I. From Monday to Friday we will live on £1 per day for 5 days on food and drink to raise awareness of extreme poverty and raise funds for charities who are actively working to end extreme poverty.

If I’m honest, I felt a bit blasé about doing the challenge again this year because, well, we did it last year. Not just that we did it last year, but we managed okay, gleaned some important insights about poverty from the experience, and chatted to people about extreme poverty. The importance of those conversations cannot be stressed enough and I am looking forward to engaging in further conversation this year, but I did wonder if this challenge would offer any new insights the second time around.

That was until my friend and fellow ambassador Roxanne started amassing a small group of people in our office who were eager to join us as we lived below the line. Soon, about 8 of us were meeting together at lunch time to share top tips on living on a £1 per day. It became clear that this year’s experience would be nothing like last year’s. The excitement created by doing the challenge together with people who we work with everyday has already been such an encouragement, which I’m sure will only increase as the week goes by. But the group dynamic has a practical impact on the experience as well. We are planning on doing a shop together and share various items between us so that each of our £1s will stretch just a little further.

This has deeply enriched my understanding of the power of cooperatives. By doing this challenge with a small group, we are able to get more for our money so that everyone benefits. We also have the potential to raise more funds as more of us spread the word.

I am so excited to take part in Live Below the Line with this group of passionate individuals who really care about making a difference and can’t wait to see the difference it makes when we work together to end extreme poverty.

If you would like to join us please sign up here. If you would like to sponsor me as I live on £1 per day for 5 days on food and drink please go here.

I’ll be blogging my experience so you can expect to see details of our shop later today!

Dine Below the Line

I’m more than a little embarrassed by how long it has taken me to get this post up, especially considering the brevity of its content.

As you may or may not recall, we held a Dine Below the Line breakfast to cap off our Live Below the Line challenge. The goal of Dine Below the Line is to cook a meal for your guests that costs just 33 pence per person. We did a little brainstorming and figured out that we could easily make enough pancakes for about 10 people for less than £3.30, complete with homemade white sugar syrup. Jonathan is the pancake making star in our home, so he hopped out of bed and got a start on the pancakes, much like any other Saturday morning. To cut back on cost we opted out of using baking powder, but kept the flour, eggs, and salt in the mix. The cost of syrup combined with the low frequency of pancake consumption in our home means that we often make our own syrup although this time we replaced our usual brown sugar with white sugar to keep down the cost. Throw in some Fairtrade tea bags for less than a penny each and we had a rather lovely Saturday breakfast, though some of our guests would have enjoyed a nice hot cup of coffee, but that simply would not fit into the budget. Fruit would have also been a nice addition, but was a luxury we could not afford.

We spent some time talking about our Live Below the Line experience with the group and lamenting the things we had missed throughout the week. Chocolate and berries were on the top of my grocery list!

We were all a little surprised by how much you could do to make a simple breakfast on such a small amount. Of course, a pancake breakfast isn’t enough to sustain anyone for a prolonged period of time or to expend any substantial amount of energy that might be required on a normal work day. But on a lazy Saturday, the pancakes hit the spot and we all left grateful for the blessings we do have here in the UK. I was especially excited to get to the grocery store to start preparing our first post-Live Below the Line meal, bouillabaisse- which is a type of fish soup, and to get my hands on some chocolate.

Overall our Live Below the Line experience was certainly challenging, but it was a great experience that revealed similar challenges faced by the 1.4 Billion people living in extreme poverty world wide. I’m excited to take the challenge again next year and to continue to raise awareness of ways that we can end extreme poverty as well as raising funds for organisations who actively work to end extreme poverty.

Will you join me and Live Below the Line in 2013?

Live Below the Line: Day 5

I didn’t feel quite human today and struggled to get any real work done. I was also extremely emotional and struggled to hold back tears at the most random times of the day and I don’t think it’s because I’m sad this challenge is over. I’ve found each day increasingly difficult and come home feeling hungrier and more exhausted than the day before. To be honest, I am so excited to be able to indulge once again tomorrow. And it’s not just the food I’m looking forward to, but the experiences that go along with the food such as a coffee out with my husband, or a picnic lunch with friends, or having a quiet night in to bake. Living on £1 per day not only limits what you can eat, it limits your social life as well, which is part of the reason why poverty can be so isolating. It’s difficult to share your life with others when you can’t afford to share common experiences with them and food often plays a significant role in our shared experiences.

We totally splurged today and totalled £0.97 per person. Here’s how:

• Oatmeal breakfast with tea = £0.25
• 5 biscuits = £0.05
• 3 cups of tea throughout the day = £0.01
• Chick peas with a splash of oil and spices = £0.17
• Flour and water pizza dough with ham slices and courgette = £0.23
• Noodles and broth with pork sausages = £0.26

Over the past five days I’ve come to dread the question “why are you doing this?” because I know that behind that question is another question, “how does living on £1 per day for five days do anything to solve extreme poverty?” The simple answer is that it doesn’t. I am under no delusion that the food I’m not eating and the money I’m not spending is somehow making its way to someone who lives in extreme poverty. And, to be honest, I’m glad that’s not the case. I am not campaigning for a temporary solution to extreme poverty. What I desire is lasting change. And I believe that a permanent end to extreme poverty is possible within my lifetime. Live Below the Line is, in part, a symbol of my commitment to do everything I can to see the end of extreme poverty within a generation.

My choice to live on £1 per day for five days has no immediate impact on the lives of those who did not choose to live in extreme poverty. I have had complete control as I took this challenge. I could have stopped at any point. But many do not have that choice. While I can celebrate my accomplishment of successfully completing a challenge and go back to eating whatever I want, whatever it is that I’ve longed for over the last five days, there are 1.4 billion people in the world who endure this longing, hunger, and exhaustion without an end in sight. Ghandi once declared, “poverty is the worst form of violence.” Part of that violence, I think, comes from experiencing longing and desire for extended periods of time without a foreseeable end to the struggle. Whether that struggle is to be able to afford enough food to eat each day, or to provide adequate housing for your family, or to put your children through school, to live without hope for the future because there seems no end to your current circumstance is as detrimental to a person’s health as not being able to afford groceries.

But there is hope. Though many go hungry, there is enough food in the world to feed everyone on the planet one and half times over. And there are many who believe that we are living in a unique time in history when we have the resources and the knowledge to eradicate extreme poverty. Jeffrey Sachs is one of many people who believes change is possible and he explains why below.

To see how we can all play a part to end extreme poverty why not book the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation? Feel free to contact me for more info.

If you’d like to help me as I work to see the end of extreme poverty, please donate here.

Thank you so much to all of you who have followed along and offered your encouragement and support. Stay tuned tomorrow as I share about our Dine Below the Line breakfast.

Live Below the Line: Day 4

It’s day four of Live #belowtheline and I’m tired and hungry. We’re just not eating enough each meal to feel satisfied and there’s not much room in the budget for snacks.

I’m also tired of talking about my poverty. The bulk of the conversations I’ve had over the last four days have been about this challenge and what I can and cannot afford to eat. On one hand that means that this challenge is serving its purpose perfectly as it opens doors to talk about what extreme poverty looks and feels like. On the other hand there’s a part of me that would love to be asked about something else going on in my life right now, something other than my own personal ‘poverty’. Which leads me to wonder how often we define ‘the 1.4 Billion people’ by their poverty rather than their humanity. Just like me, those living in extreme poverty likely have other things on their minds apart from the food they do or do not have access to. Some may have concerns about their role as husband or wife, others may be struggling to keep up decent grades (which is made more difficult by insufficient nutrient intake), while others might be moving from one place to another and are struggling with the stress of that move. People should not be defined by their poverty. And when I stop to think about those living in extreme poverty as whole individuals who are made up of so much more than their current circumstance, my passion to see their lives changed and my resolve to have more conversations about extreme poverty and how we can see its end in a generation grows stronger.

As we head into the final day of Live #belowtheline I’d like to thank those of you who have offered your generous support to either my or Jonathan’s campaign! In case you’re curious, today’s budget works out as follows.

• Sugar, cinnamon, milk with oatmeal and tea for breakfast = £0.25
• 5 biscuits = £0.05
• Leftover spaghetti with pork sausage, courgette, tomatoes and spices = £0.20 (the photo is of last night’s portion)
• 3 cups of tea throughout the day = £0.01
• A sneaky chick pea snack before supper = £0.05
• Flour and water pizza dough with ham slices and courgette = £0.23

Our grand total for the day comes to a whopping £0.79.

If you would like to “buy us lunch” and support us as we raise money for the Global Poverty Project, please donate here.

Live Below the Line: Day 3

The sunshine was a welcome distraction today and I was perfectly content with my leftover pizza lunch and few biscuits. In fact, I was more than content and felt absolutely fine and energetic until about 2/3 of the way through my walk home from work when I started feeling shaky and had to slow my pace significantly. Fortunately, Jonathan had just started our spaghetti, courgette, tomato, pork sausage supper as I walked through the door so I didn’t have to wait too long for something to fill my belly.

You’ll recall that our oatmeal breakfast rings in at about £0.25 per person and the pizza is £0.30 per person. Tonight’s supper cost surprisingly little. We split the spaghetti meal by four, 1 serving per person for tonight and 1 serving per person for lunch tomorrow, which brings the cost per person per meal to only £0.20. Add to that the cost of tea and biscuits and my food for the day comes in at £0.82. Jonathan ate fewer biscuits and totalled £0.80 for food for the day. I agree with Jonathan who says that being able to afford biscuits feels like cheating. This leads me to wonder if, when people talk about extreme poverty, they’re supportive of helping those living in extreme poverty to gain access to basic needs, but are less enthused when those people move beyond the basics and are able to exercise choice, freedom, and even frivolousness in their day to day lives. Personally, I would love to live in a world where everyone, not only the richest, has the ability to choose what they eat, wear, where they will live, etc.. I think ending extreme poverty is about more than just ensuring the basic survival of 1.4 billion people, but about helping those people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty so that they can experience the same spectrum of choice that I enjoy every single day.

I mentioned yesterday that I’m busy enough throughout the work day that I don’t really feel as though I’m significantly lacking food. But on the way home today, especially once I started to feel less than fantastic, I longed to pop into Starbucks for a cool, creamy drink or to grab some strawberries as I walked past the grocery store. I was salivating at the thought of fresh fruits like mangos and plums. Our diet is definitely carb heavy. Spaghetti, noodles, oatmeal, dough, cous cous. There’s a lot of brown in our diet and not much colour. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a luxury we can no longer afford.

After dinner I was quite desperate for a second serving of spaghetti or another handful of biscuits or some chocolate. Desperate in a way I haven’t been in the previous two days. Desperate in a two-year-old-throwing-themselves-on-the-ground sort of way. I’ve had to remind myself that I can’t just run to the grocery store to get those one or two items I crave. But I’m also grateful that, under normal circumstances, I can afford to buy plums, strawberries, mangos, and so much more. Today I became increasingly aware of how easy it is to get something to satiate my thirst, hunger, or simple craving at any time. As I go to bed tonight thinking about all the goodies I’ll indulge in over the weekend I am struck by a sense of gratitude and a realisation of the privileges I enjoy. 1.4 Billion people in the world are far removed from the simple pleasures of fresh strawberries and a completely indulgent and unnecessary biscuit now and then, which is precisely why, as part of the Live Below the Line challenge, I am raising money for the Global Poverty Project. Please consider donating via my participant page and be part of the movement to help end extreme poverty.

Live Below the Line: Day Two

Day two of Live Below the Line has been okay even though I had to start the day with cold oatmeal because I was too slow getting up and Jonathan had made enough for the two of us prior to leaving for work.

Our oatmeal breakfast and cup of tea came to £0.25.

We had leftovers from our noodle and pork sausage mixture for lunch, which cost about £0.31.

We decided to try the pizza recipe for supper. This meant a trip to the grocery store to spend our remaining £0.80 on courgette and possibly an apple if the budget would allow. We did manage to get a courgette for £0.43 and then debated whether we should get an apple that we could use for two desserts at best or whether we should buy biscuits that we could ration to last the rest of the week. We found a package of 36 biscuits for £0.31 so we put the apple back and enjoyed one small biscuit each on the way home. The biscuits cost just shy of £0.01 each, which meant that I could eat three tonight without going over budget.

I was a bit nervous that making pizza for supper would push us both just over £1 for the day, but my fears were quieted when Jonathan did a quick double check of the math. Our flour and water dough with ham slices, courgette, tomato, and a few herbs and spices came to a grand total of £0.60. Split between two people our dinner came to £0.30 per person.

My grand total for the day, including tea with breakfast and three biscuits comes to £0.89. I must confess that, for the most part, I’m busy enough during the day that I’m not overly aware of my restricted diet. However, I do miss having snacks at regular intervals.

One of the most interesting parts about this challenge is the reaction of those around me. One woman asked me what exactly I was eating on only £1 per day, in a tone suggesting that it was simply not possible. She remained slightly unconvinced even after I described what we had for supper last night and it wasn’t until I gave her the price of the major meal pieces that she was satisfied and even impressed that it is possible to feed yourself on £1 per day.

Some colleagues see the challenge as really no big deal, knowing that in a few days I’ll be back to my normal eating habits, while others are genuinely saddened when they realise I cannot partake in whatever indulgence they were hoping to share with me.

As day two draws to a close I am feeling mostly satisfied though extremely tired. But I am definitely already thinking about what luxuries I can indulge in once the weekend arrives and how lovely it will be to be able to afford apples again. If you would like to donate to help support those who will not be able to afford apples by the weekend you can do so online by visiting here.

Live Below the Line: Day One

Today’s post will be short and sweet as it’s after 11:30pm and I’m certain part of the successful completion of Live Below the Line is getting enough rest!

Having planned out our meals for the week, sticking to budget today was pretty simple.

For breakfast we had oatmeal with milk, a dash of salt, and a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar along with a cup of tea with milk which added up to roughly £0.25 per person.

Lunch was a simple mix of chick peas, cous cous, and another sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, which roughly came to £0.28 per person.

Dinner was a splurge at £0.31 per person and consisted of noodles in broth, pork sausages, a quarter of a carrot, and a bit of onion.

Within this amount we even managed a small dessert! Jonathan tried the pizza dough recipe from the Live Below the Line cookbook, which consists of only flour and water. With this doughy base and a final sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar we had a sweet and tasty, treat to finish off the day!

Our grand expenditure comes to £0.84 per person today.

Overall the day went well although I’m definitely missing snacks and biscuits. I also discovered that it would be beneficial to bring more for lunch as I was very shaky and just a tad curmudgeonly as we made our way home after work (sorry Jonathan!). But all was well when I realised we had room in the budget for dessert!

As part of Live Below the Line I am raising money to support the work of the Global Poverty Project. My aim is to raise £200. If you would like to make a donation please visit my participant page.

Live Below the Line: The Big Grocery Shop

Well, I didn’t exactly make several trips to the grocery store or trial run any recipes as I suggested I would in my last post. I did, however, have another read through of the rules and confirmed that I cannot accept donations of food as I take the challenge, nor can I benefit from food banks or other such charity. The point of the challenge is to gain a glimpse into what life is like for those who live in extreme poverty, which means living on less than what you can buy in the UK for £1 per day. And I only need to apply that to my food expenditure. Those who live in extreme poverty must make the equivalent to this amount stretch far enough to cover food, housing, clothing, transportation, medical expenses, and education. The math doesn’t add up.

Generally, the challenge requires that you buy whole packages of your main food items, such as a full pack of spaghetti, even if you’ll only use part of the package over the five days. The only exception to this rule is for items such as salt, pepper, herbs and spices. For these items the Live Below the Line team suggest working out the cost of each item per gram, figuring out how much you will use over the 5 days, and subtracting those amounts from your overall budget.

Jonathan and I worked out the price per gram of our salt, pepper, cinnamon, oregano, basil, brown sugar, and olive oil and estimated, on the slightly generous side, how much of each we thought we would use as we took the challenge. The total for these came to £1.11, which we subtracted from our joint budget of £10.

We did have a glance at the Live Below the Line cookbook to get some meal ideas as we thought about the rest of our shopping list. The only recipes that really grabbed us were the pizza, the veg and pork noodle broth, and the cinnamon apple with oats. Apart from these ideas we simply thought up things we often make at home when short on time and money and adjusted accordingly.

We decided to have oatmeal for breakfasts and had just purchased a new, yet untouched, bag of oatmeal a few days before. We subtracted the cost of the bag of oatmeal from our budget, £1.29, and headed to the grocery store with £7.60 to spend on food for 10 lunches and 10 suppers.

At the grocery store we purchased,

• Milk (4 pint) £1.18
• Can of chick peas £0.69
• Bag of flour £0.77
• Bag of cous cous £0.69
• Bag of spaghetti £0.39
• 8 pack of pork sausage £0.57
• 1 loose carrot £0.12
• 1 onion £0.11
• A package of 80 Fairtrade tea bags £0.27
• 2x small packages of ham £1
• 6x packages of noodles £0.66
• 3 loose tomatoes £0.35

The total came to £6.80 leaving us with £0.80 in the budget for one loose courgette, which the grocery store had sold out of, and the hope that we might be able to afford an apple or two later in the week to make some dessert.

Apart from all the figures, factors, and details of our grocery shop two realisations impacted me. When weighing out how much we thought one courgette might cost, which impacted whether we saved the extra £0.80 or splurged instead on a £0.45 tube of biscuits, we realised that it was cheaper per pound to buy the package of four courgettes than to buy them loose. However, on our budget we couldn’t afford the package of courgette. If we had more money we could save more money. But we didn’t have more money and, once the grocery store has loose courgette in stock again, we will be penalised and forced to pay more because we have less.

The second insight came when, in our excitement to be able to afford tea, we were suddenly faced with a conundrum. How would we drink tea at work? Jonathan and I both work in an office that provides us with tea and an endless supply of milk for our tea to drink throughout the day. But over the next five days we must forgo that privilege. With 80 tea bags in our grocery basket, surely there must be a way for us to have tea at work, we thought. But what about milk? We can’t use the milk on site. And then I remembered that we had saved a couple of small glass jars that once held various condiments. Jars with lids that screwed on tight and were perfect for transporting just the right amount of milk for tea to pop into one of the office fridges and have on hand for the occasional tea break. So it was settled, we could have our tea and drink it too!

I found it interesting that, even though I work in a safe, warm environment, which pays me more than enough to afford the essentials, I am still treated with small luxuries such as free tea. I was struck by the notion that those who earn a decent wage and work in comfortable jobs are provided with these extra luxuries. I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with our organisation for providing their staff with a mid-afternoon pick me up. I simply find it interesting that someone such as myself, who is earning more than enough to provide my own tea, would be able to subtract this small expense from my daily budget and in this small way am rewarded for my affluence.

I’ll end there for now, but will chronicle our meals and further insights over the next five days.

Live Below the Line: Can’t I Just Buy Your Lunch?

In exactly one week I will be living on £1 per day for food and drink for 5 days. In the lead-up to that I will be doing some meticulous meal planning and will make a few research trips to the grocery store to see exactly how far my money will stretch and what I can purchase beforehand to ensure that I eat as well as I can for those 5 days. Poverty is time consuming. I certainly will not be able to grab lunch on the fly next week. I will need to plan ahead, know my schedule, and say no to things that will prohibit me from eating my pre-planned meal.

Fortunately, my husband will also be taking the challenge with me, which means that our purchasing power will double as we combine our resources, so we’ll be able to make our money stretch a bit further. For example, a small bag of rice costs the same whether I eat the whole bag over the course of 5 days or not so if two of us can share the bag of rice, ensuring that it all gets used up, but still spend the same amount of money there will be more money for us to spend on other things. This is a tangible example of what life is like for the world’s poorest. You may have £1 to spend on food that day, but if the smallest portion of food you can buy costs £1.19, then it is simply out of reach and you must go hungry.

As I chat about this challenge with people there is one question that almost always comes up. “Can’t I just by your lunch or dinner for you so that you don’t have to worry about spending the money and thus successfully complete the challenge?” This question reveals the generosity of my friends and family and their desire to alleviate any inconvenience I may experience during the challenge. It also emphasizes the power of community and how quickly and easily those with money can step in and help those without. Which leads me to wonder, who is buying lunch for the world’s poorest?

With that question I do not mean to advocate simply paying for people’s needs as a method of alleviating poverty. If one friend buys me lunch next Monday (which of course I will not allow) another friend will have to buy me lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. If living on £1 per day were my permanent reality then, in this model, someone would need to buy me lunch everyday and I may never break free from the cycle of poverty. However, if my friend were to use that money to invest in my education or an irrigation system for my farmland, then I’d be more likely be able to provide my own lunch eventually and maybe even invite my friend over for lunch.

For me, the question “who is buying lunch for the world’s poorest?” is more about community and support. If so many of my friends and family are willing to step up and support me to ensure that I don’t need to go hungry or deprive myself in any way, who is stepping up to ensure the same for the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty? Where is their community of friends to whom they can reach out for support? I think there is a rather large and capable community who has the means to assist those who live below the poverty line to lift themselves out of poverty in a more practical way than simply ‘buying them lunch’ day after day and year after year. Those of us in the developed world have the means to come alongside our friends in the developing world and support them through the challenges of extreme poverty. Which is why I am choosing to Live Below the Line. Not only will the challenge give me insight into the lives of those who live in extreme poverty, it also gives me the opportunity to be part of that community who comes alongside the world’s poorest people to offer my support. As part of the challenge I will be raising funds for the Global Poverty Project as they continue to work diligently to see extreme poverty eradicated in a generation. Rather than buying me lunch or dinner, why not use that £5 or £10 to help me raise funds as I Live Below the Line. To lend your support or to learn more please visit my participant page.

Live Below the Line

As a Global Poverty Ambassador, one of the best ways for me to understand what life is like for the 1.4 Billion people who continue to live in extreme poverty every day is to live in a way that aligns me with their experience. And, contrary to popular belief, I don’t need to spend an extended amount of time in rural sub-saharan Africa to gain this knowledge.

The World Bank describes extreme poverty as anyone living on less than the equivalent of what you can buy in the US for $1.25 per day, which is roughly equivalent to what you can buy in the UK for £1 per day. This number is adjusted for purchasing parity, so when I say $1.25 or £1 per day it doesn’t mean what you can buy in a foreign country for $1.25, which in some cases might be quite a lot. Instead, imagine what your life would look like if you only had $1.25 or £1 to spend on food, clothes, rent, transportation, entertainment, and medical expenses everyday where you live right now. Here in the UK, £1 isn’t even enough for one bus ride, or a 2 litre jug of milk, or most of the fruit in the grocery store so the thought of having only that much to live on everyday is unsettling.

Taking the Live Below the Line challenge is a way for me to undertand what life is like for those who live in extreme poverty in a way that is relevant to where and how I live right now. For 5 days, from 11-15 of June, I will live on a £1 per day for all food and drink. I will still be able to spend £1.30 on a bus ride, or £12 to see a movie if I desire, but for those 5 days I hope to begin to understand what it means to only have £1 per day to spend on one of my most basic needs, food and drink.

Thankfully, I will not have to do it alone as a group of friends and my ever supportive husband will take the challenge along side me. I’d like to encourage you to take the challenge as well. Or, if meal planning on $1.25 or £1 is unappealing, then please consider sponsoring me as I raise money for the Global Poverty Project.

One of the most exciting things about Living Below the Line for me is being able to share my experiences with you! Please stay tuned as I begin to grocery shop and meal plan and share my experiences and insights. I’m so excited to have this opportunity to grow in my understanding about extreme poverty.