By John McKie
As anyone who has ever given up something for Lent well knows, you begin to miss it after a while.
The challenge of Live Below the Line, a fundraising initiative in solidarity with the world’s 1.4 billion people surviving in extreme poverty, is that after five days – on a £1-per-day budget – you have to miss everything.
Having just emerged blinking and rubbing (my stomach) from my five-day exile from chocolate, beer, coffee, sweets, milk, cereal, fruit juice and pizza, it’s not something which comes warmly recommended – but it is achievable.
Former first minister Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale completed the fiver-for-food challenge and Hugh Jackman would have done it too if he hadn’t been eating three raw steaks a day for breakfast in preparation for the Wolverine sequel.
Some ways to survive are obvious. Don’t go to Starbucks on the first day and buy a latte and a muffin for breakfast, unless you fancy a four-day fast. Don’t go near a pub – and, if friends ask you out, stay in for five days. Stock up on pasta, or rice, or bread.
If you have already Lived Below The Line, or want to inspire others, please add your tips. Having seen an amazing project in Nicaragua at first hand with Christian Aid, I didn’t feel able to pass up the chance to raise money for Christian Aid Week (other charities participate). But it’s a useful exercise in either self-restraint or how to eat a great deal of pasta.
Here are a few ideas on how to cope:
Planning is essential
I never normally take packed lunches. Had to here. I never really think about stocking up on bread. Once I bought a loaf here, I had to freeze half of it and remember to defrost it midweek. Forgetting was not an option. Same with the five pasta dishes to which, I learnt the hard way, you’re better adding the sauce and vegetables daily. That also means if you buy your vegetables late in the day, they’re cheaper. Like comedy, one of the secrets to doing this is timing.
Allow yourself one “luxury”
Cheese cost me 20 per cent of the budget, but I had to have something with the bread. Some I know bought a nice pasta sauce. Others a huge loaf of bread. Or a pack of chocolate bars. Or strong coffee. But if your budget doesn’t deny you a slightly more expensive treat, you shouldn’t deny yourself either.
Fighting poverty on a small scale can involve some contradictions
The Live Below the Line ethos is about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those in the world most affected by extreme poverty. These same communities often lift themselves out of poverty with sustainable small-scale businesses and home-grown food.
But when you’re doing this, the supermarket budget range – the antithesis of all that – does help in getting the job done. Look at it as two steps forward, one step back. But remember – when you get a bargain, like that 18p sauce, you’re not really striking a blow for the small-scale business.
Variety is the spice of life
But you can forget that here. Both “variety” and “spice”. I had the same lunch four days in a row and a variation on pasta five consecutive days. As for spices, unless you’re prepared to borrow and swap salt and pepper from others, forget it. You really see the value of pickle on a cheese sandwich after a week like this.
Swap
Swap with friends – food, advice, menus. This blog from a colleague helped. Some shared teabags, salt and pepper, or cooked alternate lunches for one another. It all breaks up the monotony.
Ice cubes
Unless you spend a quid on dilutable fruit juice, chances are you’ll be drinking tap water all the time – and, from a distance, ice cubes can make it look like an exotic drink. Or at least make it taste a fraction less like tap water.
It’s not easy – but it’s not that hard, either
It’s not that hard as you get into a rhythm – and when you do a deal with your cornershop to buy two onions for 10p, or tomato purée for 29p, such small consumer victories can make you giddy with delight.
By the end of the week, I stubbornly refused to start spending money (ignoring my own advice), even though I could have afforded eight bananas for a quid.
Ultimately, it’s not easy. Walking past three pubs in a street with people spilling out on a Friday, craving a sugar fix in mid-afternoon, having no breakfast (my preference) or a breakfast of water and porridge oats. It can feel like there is an absence of choices.
Then you remember you have your central heating, running water and secure accommodation to console you – and, in five days’ time, a slap-up meal waiting for you. That in itself presents plenty of choices, a luxury many others do not enjoy.
Realising that is rather the point of the whole exercise.
My weekly menu:
Bread 70p
Two bags of supermarket budget-brand pasta 18p
One jar of supermarket budget-brand sauce 18p
Cheese £1
Two cans of supermarket budget-brand soup 34p
Carrots (reduced) 26p
6 x crème caramel 45p
6 x supermarket budget-brand chocolate mousse 28p
Two onions 10p
Tin of tomato purée 29p
Two peppers 20p
Total – £3.98
To sponsor the writer, or anyone else doing Live Below the Line, please click here.
Want to discuss other issues? Join the debate on our new Scottish Voices forum
Related posts: