Breakfast

As I mentioned, I made myself a massive amount of juice this morning, and it was so so good!

The hardest thing about live below the line is how uniform everything tastes. We actually finished with about 1/2 a chicken left over (we were both being so cautious at the beginning of the week) and three eggs. The things is, you can't buy 1/2 a box of eggs, and we got the chicken at a really low price, so less wouldn't have been cheaper.

There really was just no way we could budget in fruit. We barely had any vegetables as it was.

I think it's the lack of carbohydrates that was making me feel a little light headed because with in a few minutes of drinking my juice my mood was visibly brighter and I was convinced I was having a mild 'caffeine buzz' (despite no caffeine) and my head was clearing.

It's horrible to think that for some people this isn't just an unpleasant week, but a lifestyle.

How long can the body cope on that kind of diet, without long term damaging effects? Sure, I felt a little foggy and light headed, but if this was my long term diet, would I be causing serious damage?
Is there a link between poverty and learning disabilities?
Is that why children from poorer areas achieve less?

Live below the line has once again made me so thankful for things like breakfast cake, but more importantly for the privilege of being able to feed my children, good nourishing foods, make the best choices for their educations and give them opportunities that millions of people around the globe will never have.

It makes me thank God for where I was born, and when I was born.

Why Live Below the Line

Live below the line is close to my heart because we plan to adopt, not just any orphan, but one of the world's poorest.

Actually, that's not strictly true. We plan to adopt from the 75% of the worlds population who we consider to be the world's poorest, but who are statistically much more average than we have ever been.

Maybe this video will explain it better than I can, but live below the line reminds me that somewhere, out in the vast world that I have no comprehension of, one or more of our children is currently living on less than this.

One Week to go...

So there's only one week left until we start the 'Live Below The Line' challenge, and this year it's going to be harder than ever. This is on the most part because although I said I wasn't going to start the GAPS diet until after live below the line, we actually already started and seeing the improvement in our health, I don't want to go back.

I recently watched a documentary called 'Food Inc' too.

Now it's not just about health, but an ethical decision to want to stick to the diet. How can I justify getting sponsorship to raise awareness of extreme poverty, whilst buying products which exploit the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people?

That's right, people.

It's not just the animals that are abused in battery farming. Illegal immigrant workers are used for cheap labour in slaughter houses throughout the industry, whilst the subsidised corn prices in the US put third world farmers out of business and create famine, and genetic copyright laws are putting farmers under crippling debt or out of business.

If you haven't seen Food inc, you really should. You can watch it on netflix, who will give you a one month trial for free if you sign up with your facebook details, no obligation and you can cancel right after you watch it.

The most heart breaking section of the documentary is when they follow a family who have just $1 a day to buy food, so they buy fast food burgers from a 99c menu. The parents want to feed their children better, but they take a trip round a supermarket and show you that they can't afford broccoli ($1.29) or pears ($1 would only buy two, which wouldn't fill them up for the day). One of the reasons they can't afford any more is because the father is on medication for severe diabetes - caused by their diet. They can't afford the medication and a change of diet, and don't want to risk losing the father by coming off the meds.

These are the decisions faced by families in extreme poverty every day.

I'm going to be making some really difficult decisions about what I eat for the next week. I think that homemade yoghurt is going to be key once again as it only costs me 55p to make just over a pint, but I'm honestly not sure where else I can save. Some very careful budgetting is going to need to happen if we are going to eat real food in an ethical way and stay below budget.

2012

It's almost time for Live Below the Line 2012 - Well, I say it's almost time, actually there's still about 3 months to go, but we've already signed up and are ready to go.

For those who didn't follow us last year the basic idea is that from the 7th-11th of may we are going to live on less than £1 a day. This is supposed to simulate the extreme poverty that 1.4 billion people around the world live in.

Our experience last year told us that it is achievable, but not at all pleasurable. There's absolutely no wiggle room, and you can't afford to get sick as there's not budget for any medicines.

So what can you buy with £1 a day?

Not a bus ticket, not formula milk for a baby and certainly not a magnum ice cream.

We could afford Salt and Pepper Sandwiches, Strawberry Thai Chicken risotto and plain rice.

But the reality is, as hard as we found this, we still aren't even close to experiencing poverty like many others do. We are only budgeting £1 a day for food and drink. We haven't included living costs like heating, rent and travel (luckily we live where we work, but this isn't true for many).

We also aren't going to be including the children until they are much older and able to understand what's happening. This means that we get to spend the whole £1 on ourselves each day, where plenty of mothers around the world have to go hungry to be able to feed their starving children.

There are a few things we'd like you to consider doing this year.

1. Taking part in Live Below the Line yourself. You can read the rules and sign up here.
2. Consider sponsoring one or both of us (we're raising money for the same charity, but can't help getting competitive about it!)
3. Just follow our blog. Raising awareness of extreme poverty is one of the reasons we are taking on this challenge, so we'd love for you to keep reading and share with us in this experience.

Blog posts might be sporadic over the next three months, but we promise to update at least daily during the challenge.

If you do decide to get involved and want to blog your experiences too, let us know so we can link up.

Mother's instinct

My mothering skills have been put to the test during live below the line, but never more so than last night.

I was having my standard plain jacket potato with salt and pepper and Will wouldn't stop asking for some, despite having just eaten a red pepper, cheese, spaghetti in tomato sauce, two oranges and a kiwi. I gave him a few bites, but on the fourth forkful I started to complain. Matt told him he could have a bite from his (identical) potato, but no; he only wanted mine.

I put my foot down and said no. He crumpled on the floor in a whinging heap.

The thing is, in this situation I felt quite justified. I only had a measured amount of food and I knew he wasn't starving. He could eat anything else in the house. But there are plenty of families all over the world where parents choose not to eat so that their children can.

As I was pondering this Matt announced that he was going to fast today, and that I should eat the extra food (I did lie on the floor during breakfast - not being dramatic, I was just really dizzy; it's hormonal and not hunger related, though I doubt this is helping). He would gladly fore go a days food for his sickly looking wife.

Now I feel like a really bad mum.

I'm not going to take the extra food (although Matt is still going to fast) mostly because I feel like it would be cheating my sponsors.

Besides, I'm planning a midnight feast, and I won't enjoy it nearly as much if I've eaten more during the day...

How much....

In preparation for our 'live below the line' week, I thought I'd better work out how much our standard groceries cost so that we can be sure we are spending less than 33p per meal.

So here is my base list* so far (obviously, I'll be adding as I go):

Milk 100ml = 8.9p [1 ltr = £0.89]

Porridge oats 50g = 11p [1kg = £2.25]

Bread 2 slices = 7p [loaf = £0.75]

Rice 75g = 4p [1kg = £0.49]

Black Eyed Beans 50g = 9p [500g = £0.90]

Ribena 15ml = 5p [600ml = £1.91]

Eggs 1 egg = 20p [12 =£2.50]

Muesli 100g = 7p [1kg = £0.67]

Butter 10g = 5p [250g = £1.30]

Jam 15g = 1p [454g = £0.38]

Peanut Butter 10g = 4p [340g = £1.29]

Some more food from our final above the line shop:

Red pepper = 80p

potato = 11p

kiwi = 12p

cucumber = £1

lettuce = 79p

banana = 11p

corriander bunch = 99p

bowl of coco snaps = 10p

cup of soup = 8p

donuts = 83p

*Prices are based on grocery brand already owned, at their current value from Tesco.com where possible, otherwise at local supermarket prices.