Tuesday 17 May 2011

Living below the line!

So last week I spent 5 days living on £1 a day for food and drink with my sister Sophy.
To be honest, when I signed up to do it, i thought it would be fairly easy!  Once we got to the supermarket and started looking at prices, I started to feel nervous!

The main items in my basket were porridge, UHT milk, potatoes, kidney beans, pasta, tuna, chopped tomatoes, rice, basic tea bags, apple juice & basic chocolate digestives! By day 2 I decided to swap out the apple juice (and later a tin of tuna too) in exchange for nice (tea direct) tea bags and real milk!  A few thoughts on what I learnt:
  • Porridge is the sensible breakfast choice, I should go for it more (even eating it cold, it serves it's purpose)
  • I really love a decent cup of tea
  • Snacking is a hobby I didn't know I had 
  • Variety is a luxury 
  • Simplicity in meals is under-rated  
  • Saying Grace before a meal took on a new dimension, I really was grateful for having something in my stomach. 
  • Wasting food is even more distressing than before  
  • I could only bring myself to eat 3 mini eggs on Saturday, more than that seemed excessive...
A very thought provoking challenge which I will definitely do again, to stay grateful, and keep contributing to the global poverty conversation.  Thanks to all my sponsors, I wonder how many micro finance projects we will have started with the £375?  The global poverty project guys think we can see an end to extreme global poverty in our lifetime, I hope so.