Day 2

Two days in and I'm getting into a routine. Living alone, I don't normally cook much but each meal has needed careful preparation and measurement to eke out my ingredients over a week. Slightly to my surprise, hunger hasn't been an issue, mostly because I've chosen to spend my money on bulky goods like rice, pasta and oats - and as far as the pasta and oats goes, I honestly can't tell the difference from the 'branded' items I would usually buy (but no more...).

What would be an issue though, over the long term, is the nutritional value of what I'm eating. I've calculated I'm getting 1300-1400 calories a day, if the values on the backs of the packets are in any way accurate, compared to the recommended 2000 calories a day for an adult woman. So you might say I'm on a Reverse-Atkins diet. I weighed myself at the start of the week (10st 5lb) and I'll be interested to see if I lose any weight. A couple of people have already asked for my recipe 'book' (it's a sheet of paper, folks!). I sit at a desk all day so this isn't an issue over the short term, but I'm thinking there are hundreds of millions of folk all over the world that do manual work on this kind of diet.

I'm also getting nothing green, save a few chives and marjoram cut from the garden (free!). I'm certainly not getting 'five a day', but with lentils, tomatoes, oats and onions I'm hoping I'm getting a reasonable variety of vitamins.

Here's my dinner tonight: lentils, tomatoes and onion flavoured with garlic and curry powder and served with bargain-priced rice. At 59p it has to be my main meal, but was surprisingly tasty....

 

 

 

 

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-what-is-extreme-poverty

The preparation....

So, I've signed up for the 'Live Below The Line' challenge, mostly as a personal challenge, to see what it feels like to be among the poorest 1.4 billion (yes, billion) in the world. There's always a financial side to these things though, and my friends, family, and colleagues have been extremely generous in support both monetary (to UNICEF) and moral. I'm hoping their support is matched by their good memories from tomorrow, when the challenge starts, and I don't have to stump up the willpower to turn down too many coffees and treats...

The challenge is all about walking a few days in the shoes of those who can only afford to live on what you can buy in the US for one dollar and 25c each day, or £1 here in the UK. So, assuming that's all food, what is that? I did my 'fiver shop' earlier today, and this is what I'm living on for the next week (other value brands are also available...):

 

 

 

I was chuffed to bits to find rice a whole 89p cheaper than I'd found it when checking prices online - this gives me enough change to have a little milk with my porridge and some garlic with my lentils. But now I'm thinking... the 'value' brands are so much cheaper than the 'name' ones, what's going on here? Are the people who produce it - maybe some of the 1.4 billion - getting a fair price? This is more complicated than I thought...

 

More tomorrow....

 

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-what-is-extreme-poverty