Preparation for Living Below the Line

Extreme poverty is something that I see on TV, read about in the newspapers and think I have got my head around, but it seems far away from where I am....because it is.

How can you get your head around the fact that people live/ survive on the equivalent of £1 a day and that £1 has to cover everything, not just their food. We could say that it's ok for them because they can grow their own food, but they have to start somewhere and that costs too.

So my family have been challenged to go a little way towards understanding the issues faced and try and raise some money to go towards projects that are working full on to help communities move out of extreme poverty.

For about a week, we have been trying to have a family get together to decide how we will pool our £1 each a day, giving us a food budget for the week of £25.

Live Below the Line have loads of suggestions and recipes to help make the money go further and fortunately I have a week off work, so I can give head space to deciding what the meals will include and look like, but if I was at work I can't see that it would happen.

Keith will be going to work and he has said that he will need lots of help and support to stick to the challenge;

3pm cakes breaks and a subsidised canteen will be tempting him away from his meagre lunch of a sandwich, half and apple and some tap water. Tea and coffee are included in the £1 and have to be budgeted for!

Today, after rummaging through the cupboards and seeing what we already have to inform our 'big shop', we set off to Sainsburys.

Armed with calculator ( on my ipod touch), we were comparing and contrasting the cost and nutritional content of Beans - Heinz, Supermarket brand and Basics range, bread, eggs, orange juice,cereal, fruit and veg.

I suggested going to the market for veg, but even Joe was really fed up by then, and he loves a locally produced bargain. It was stressful!

For Joe there are other issues at stake too - ethical shopping has to be put to one side as Fairtrade and/ or Organic are completely out of our range now. Mind you, we are all going to have to be veggies this week, as, on the face of it, so is meat!

We will be donating the rest of the money we would have spent on our weekly shop to The Salvation Army Generation Project.

If you'd like to sponsor us, you can do the same and we are just getting our donation page sorted on the LBTL website. so watch this space.