Today starts the Live Below The Line challenge! What line? The poverty line. Five days of living on $2 or less per day. I think I already swallowed my 2 bucks! (The official sites & FB pages state $1.25, $1.50 & $2)
The coffee I drink costs $14 a pound. I use half & half & organic sugar. I’m terrible at math but I’m guessing that’s about $2? I don’t really know! But I’m hungry. I’m not very good at fasting, either, but I must! Tomorrow morning I’ll make a better choice for breakfast!
I’m doing this to raise awareness about extreme poverty. The charity I chose to have my donations support is Malaria No More. I got a $20 donation today!
I can’t do this 100% because of nerve damage. The nerves that are damaged control the nerves to some very important organs. I take herbs to help with that. If I don’t take them, I’ll be quite uncomfortable & grumpy. But I suppose that is part of the reason for doing this challenge. If I really only had $2 a day, maximum, to live on, I’d have to forego the herbs. Hmm. I’ll see how many days I can go without them & maybe have one day where I take them.
The $2 is only applied to food (herbs are food). I have a nice house with all the necessary utilities & even unnecessary ones like internet & cell phones. I have all the major appliances, furniture, and loads of things I don’t really need! I think it’s impossible for the vast majority of Westerners to live on $2 a day or less.
When the Rock Star visited, he went for a walk & encountered a woman & her daughter begging for money. He chatted with the woman & she said “Let me buy you lunch”. She treated my friend to lunch at Subway! I’d guess it’s at least $3 per sandwich, that’s already over the limit! Obviously, she didn’t need the money that bad. If she did, why would she take a stranger to lunch?
This week, I only have to think about what I’m going to eat, knowing I have plenty of food & could easily break my agreement to live below the line! I know that all my needs are taken care of.
I’ll be making a big pot of beans & living off that this week! I don’t even know what a homemade salad costs. I use organic produce so I’m sure even a small salad is over two dollars.
For today:
- Think of better breakfast choices
- Work out how long I can eat beans before getting sick of them :p
- Pay extra attention to my body & how it responds to not taking herbs
- Answer this: Will I be working out since I won’t be taking in enough calories to support my workouts?
- Pray, pray pray!
I won’t be making any recipes from my Pinterest lists until the 12th, at the earliest. But I have some recipes to review, so I’ll do that. Hope it doesn’t make me hungry!! 😉