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!! 😉