Drinking water at a farewell dinner party

Day 7

The last couple of days have been busy, with me being out of the house quite a lot. Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem but Live Below the Line makes it a bit harder. I tried to plan ahead and although it worked on Tuesday, when I cooked my meals for the day to take with me, it didn’t quite work yesterday. I had to go home each time I was hungry to cook soup - not a very portable meal anyway.

I didn’t mind as much until a dear family friend from New Zealand invited me to dinner and drinks to say goodbye to him and his wife as they are moving back to Auckland. I said I would love to come but that I would be fine for dinner. I didn’t mention anything about the drinks but knew I had to kindly decline them too – on a farewell night!

I had some very interesting conversations over my glass of water while everyone else (it turned up to be a dinner party) enjoyed a festive pre-Christmas dinner. I kept telling myself that as a vegan I wouldn’t have been able to eat much anyway but that’s not true. I know my friend would have made an effort for me.

Everyone wanted to know more about Live Below the Line and interestingly, I didn’t have as many questions about what I would eat as I had in the past. People there seemed to be aware that living on under £1 per day in developing countries means that little money has to cover everything, not just food. I enjoyed the conversations we had, raised awareness of extreme poverty and felt good about only drinking water all night. Farewells don’t have to be about food. It’s all about being together and having a great time, which we had. 

Today is my last day of the Live Below the Line challenge and I’m well prepared. I’m flying to Norway to spend Christmas with my family and take the last couple of meals with me – lunch to have in the plane and dinner for tonight. I cooked those meals at the beginning of my challenge to ensure I wouldn’t run out of food on my last day. Travelling without eating all day is not fun.

Moroccan chickpea tagine with polenta - my dinner on Tuesday.

Speaking of running out of food – breakfast this morning is a little smaller than usual but overall I still have some food left from my challenge! The planning ahead certainly paid off and provided enough meals. Now I just hope that security at the airport will allow me to take my prepared food with me. It’s hard enough not to have any water unless I find a water fountain once I walk through security…

Can you accept free food?

Day 5

Over the past few days quite a few people asked me if I could accept free food, i.e. cooked meals prepared by others to help me throughout my challenge. The answer (long and short) is strictly ‘NO’. But why would I need it anyway?

Live Below the Line has taught me many things so far, and one of them is how to cook excellent meals for very cheap! Ok, I admit that some of them aren’t as filling or could do with some quinoa or rice on the side to be more filling, but at least I’m cooking different, non-staple meals every day.

Today's lunch

Obviously, I’m not busy enough to have that time to cook but that’s not a bad thing. I’m experimenting with the few ingredients that I have and cook dishes that I usually don’t have time for. Tonight, for instance, I had an Indian-spiced lentil soup with veggies in it. Never tried that before and it’s delicious. For lunch I had a small baked potato with beans and home-made salsa – not tinned baked beans, I can’t stand them. Tomorrow I’m planning on cooking a chickpea and veggie tagine, as I don’t often cook Moroccan dishes so why not tomorrow?!?

So as you can see, Live Below the Line is totally do-able if you prepare a bit in advance. Go through your recipe books before you go shopping to get some ideas of what to buy and cook. Otherwise you may end up eating the same food every day and that’s boring. And yes, I’m aware that the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty don’t have that choice and probably do eat the same food every day but I chose to buy different ingredients for my £8.

Another interesting thing I’ve experienced is frying with water – can you actually call it ‘fried onion’ if you only use water, no oil? I didn’t have any cooking oil at home and didn’t want to buy it either so I’m only using water to fry onions and veggies. It works, you just have to use more spices to give your food taste!

Try it. Live Below the Line for at least 5 days next year!

Half way there – can you tell I’m counting down?

Day 4

I’ve been living below the line for 4 days now, which means I’m half way through my challenge – YAY !!! 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m doing fine. I have a roof over my head, clothes to keep me warm, and a good health that doesn’t require any long-term medication. In fact, I should be ashamed that my reasons for counting down to the morning of Christmas Eve, when I FINISH this challenge, are rather insignificant ones… (Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries is on that list too!) But mid-point is a good time for thoughts and reflections. My conclusion: Yes, I will easily manage to take on the next 4 days to Live Below the Line.

Being a Sunday, I didn’t get up too early. Then after rushing around doing things, I was on my way to my friend’s place to celebrate her birthday. As I received the invitation before I started the challenge, I deducted 80p from my daily £1 allowance and didn’t spend it on extra food either (that would be cheating). Additionally, I didn’t eat anything at home to make sure I wouldn’t go over but stay below the line. It worked out quite well. Polenta and vegetables are well within my budget.

I had quite a few discussions about this challenge over dinner, and most people asked me what I would be eating for £1 per day (particularly in London). Some even assumed I would only have one meal per day, which is not true.

The interesting thing, however, was that quite often it was me who moved the discussions beyond talking about the choice of food and variety/ number of meals I have. I frequently highlighted that for the 1.4 billion people living on under £1 per day food is not the only issue, which they lack or which they have to spend their £1 on. That ‘piece of information’ was enough to deepen conversations about extreme poverty. Great, way to go!

I’m always interested in finding out how much, if anything, people know about extreme poverty. I’m certainly no expert but I’m motivated to open up or join conversations about this issue and tell people whatever I know to raise awareness.

Living Below the Line is making an impact on me. Often, I catch myself thinking that I can’t go somewhere because transport costs are too high, and I have already spent my daily £1. I keep reminding myself that I only live below the line on food, and everything else is excluded – unlike for 1.4 billion people worldwide where everything is included in the £1. I wish I could change that quickly and forever. And then I would reward myself with one of the many things I couldn’t have while living below the line. 

Bring on the second half, I’d say!

Cancelling plans due to lack of planning

Day 3

Like every weekend, I spent most of the afternoon of my third day in a local café to work on my laptop – big mistake. I don’t know if any of you realised that food and hot drinks smell sooooo much nicer when you can’t have them?!? Being vegan and gluten intolerant I actually know that particular café I went to doesn’t have much on offer in regards to my special dietary requirements. However, today I thought any smell that passed my nose smelt delicious. Then there was a point where I couldn’t bear it anymore so I took out my home-made lunch that I brought with me – along with my own water so I wouldn’t have to continuously ask staff for a cup of water and draw attention to me. After all I didn’t buy anything although I sat there for hours… In all honesty – my lunch didn’t even smell nearly as nice as the café food.

The lack of choice and planning ahead are certainly key aspects when you live on under £1 per day. I can’t just buy food on the go. If I’m hungry while I’m out, I either eat something I take with me from home or I wait until I get back to eat then - and potentially fade away in between (my portions aren’t that big, as I'm afraid of running out of food before next Thursday).

Last night was a good example. My breakfast and lunch weren’t as filling as I was hoping so I needed to ensure my dinner was, otherwise I could have easily gone to bed hungry – again! So instead of attending a class to which I was planning on going, I “had to” stay home and cook dinner. I knew I wasn’t able to wait until I got back home to eat then. So I had to cancel my plans for the night because I didn’t plan ahead and cooked something earlier to take with me.  I basically didn’t have much of a choice other than to stay at home and cook.

I’m glad I’m capable of learning from mistakes so I could go to my local café with my own food and work today - even if I was tortured by those smells...

Going to bed hungry

Day 2

Food I would have loved to buy but couldn't afford

“You can’t compare it” are words that stuck in my head all day today.

I went to the market to get my vegetables for the next seven days, as they are much cheaper there (I paid as little as £1.66 for 5 large potatoes, 4 onions, 4 carrots and 1 sweet potato). After looking at various prices and the products I couldn’t afford, I picked the veggies that were reasonably priced.

This is all I am going to eat for the next 7 days.
The veggies are all I could afford for the week.

The discussion opened up with the very friendly and chatty woman at the veggie stall, and we were talking about my Live Below the Line challenge. We didn’t talk for long as that’s not good business for her and there were other people waiting to be served. But we talked for long enough for me to explain what I am doing. She asked me straight away if I have been to any of those countries where people live in extreme poverty. Without giving me a chance to respond she continued saying she’s been there, she’s seen it all. “You can’t compare it” were her last words before she shifted her attention to the next customer.

Of course, she is right. I am only living below the line for food and drinks. The £1 doesn’t include the medication I am currently taking for my cold. It doesn’t pay for my rent or transport. People living in extreme poverty only have that £1/ day to pay for everything, not just food – shelter, education, health, clothes, and everything else apart from the air they breathe, as my friend Sandrine pointed out.

My attempt on doing the challenge is not to compare the situations because there is no comparison! How could I possibly compare my challenge to someone living in one of the poorest countries in the world, where 70% or more of the population lives in extreme poverty? How could I compare myself to someone who has no choices about how to spend their little money?

All I want to achieve is raising awareness and get discussions going about this issue. There are 1.4 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty! That has to change!

On my way home from the market I was thinking about the meals I would cook today. Last night I went to bed hungry because I had my small dinner way to early. I didn’t want to repeat that so today I started my day with a late breakfast – almost found myself licking the bowl, as I was still hungry after finishing my cereals.

The breakfast I have every day

My lunch (left) and a meal for another day. 

For lunch I had a bean and sweet potato curry – no rice or anything else with it though. For dinner I will cook a yellow split pea soup with a carrot and a potato in it. I hope that will keep me going for longer and I won’t have to go to bed hungry.

Missing my nuts.... and seeds for breakfast

Day 1 accomplished - food-wise anyway

My first day to live below the line went well…ish. Of course, nothing bad happened, and I ate £1 worth of food, but I greatly missed my additional breakfast ingredients, such as nuts, seeds, dried cranberries and soya yogurt. Despite being filling enough and keeping me going for hours, cereals with a banana and soya milk weren’t quite the same. I guess, missing food makes you appreciating it more when you do have it.

Lunch and dinner were a little more exciting for me, though to be honest, it was just one of my usual staple meals: quinoa with lentils, chickpeas and broccoli. I like it because you can easily cook it up in one pot and not dirty more dishes than necessary. Just boil the lentils for five minutes before you add the quinoa and later the broccoli. Drain, season with salt and pepper and you’re done! Easy!

As quinoa is one of the most expensive grains compared to rice or even buckwheat groats, I did spend just about the whole £1 on food today. Breakfast was 25p and lunch and dinner combined cost me 72p. There was no money left to buy snacks although I didn’t even crave any. Now I’m hoping I won’t wake up hungry in the middle of the night. As you can see in the photos my meals weren’t particularly big…

On a different note, I was thinking of making the LBTL challenge more interesting by start measuring my waist to see if I lose any weight. The idea came more or less from my friend Jeremy who posted the following on my Facebook:  “that's an awesome idea uschi! I'm surprised it's not more common, really. "The Poverty Line Diet -- Lose Stomach Fat With This One Weird Tip". 

Of course, it's not the purpose of this challenge to lose weight but it wouldn't harm to see if and how much I lose over the next 8 days...

Getting started

Welcome to my first blog!

Tonight, I went shopping for my upcoming eight-day challenge of Live Below the Line. 

I must admit, shopping for the groceries wasn't a challenge in itself - it was no different to my usual weekly shopping. I've been living on a very tight budget for the past four months - ever since arriving in this extraordinary expensive city (!) - so I am definitely used to comparing prices and buy my food at different supermarkets to ensure I get the best deals for the products I purchase. So tonight I went to two supermarkets and I'll go and buy my veggies at the market on Friday, as they are much cheaper there. But what is the challenge then? I guess I will figure that out over the next eight days!

I'm allowed to spend a total of £7 on food, as I have to count things that I will use but already have in my cupboard, such as salt and pepper, spices, herbs and cooking oil. I'm not going to use much of each within eight days so I figured deducting £1 pound for everything is fair (to give you an idea - the cheapest bottle of oil costs 62p and spices such as ground cumin, cayenne pepper and turmeric cost between 40-70p/ 40g pack. All of those last a long time anyway.)

Well, let me tell you $7 for eight days worth of food is not that much - especially in London! I bought some tinned beans, tinned tomatoes, dry lentils, split peas, polenta, and gluten free cereals, soya milk (it was on special, lucky me) and bananas for breakfast - and spent a total of £4.38 including the £1 for spices etc. The rest goes on fruit and veggies.

The plan is to have three meals per day - that's how many I usually have as I'm not a snack person. I put some thoughts into what I'm going to cook each day, and went through recipe books to ensure I won't have the same meal every day as variety is good :) I'd see it as cheating to cook something as basic as rice, veggies and beans every single day just to keep it within the budget. I wanted more challenge than that, and in fact, I didn't even buy rice!

Oh well, I'd say the next eight days are going to be very exciting - let the challenge begin!