so my beautiful wife Val wrote a cool blog which you should go read here and the bottom line of which is we are going to be taking the Live Below the Line challenge next week [may 2-6]
her summary of it is here:
“From May 2-6, I will be taking the Live Below the Line challenge. I will be living on the equivalent of 1 Pound a day, or R12. I am doing this to raise awareness for and to better understand the challenges faced by the 1.4 billion people who live in extreme poverty. The money that I would have spent on food during the week (check out the rules), I will donate to a poverty alleviation project. This is not a warm-fuzzy-feeling initiative though. The truth is that most of us have absolutely no idea what it is like to live below the poverty line. Conversely, we lose sight of the abundance we enjoy daily. Yes, I will be limiting my food and drink costs to R12 per day while the truth is that for those 1.4 billion people living below the poverty line, their R12 or $1.25 or 1 pound has to cover far more than food. It is all they have to cover their health, housing, transport, food, education, hygiene, electricity and other needs. I cannot even begin to fathom such living.”
[tbV wrote this before chatting to me so when she says “I” she means “we” cos she didn’t know i was joining in with her yet]
so we are going to give it a try and would like to invite you to join us – some of the people i would specifically like to invite to join are those who have had a lot to add to my blog lately – people like Amanda and Cindy [the pita Royal Wedding], Morne, Warren, Joanne, Filon and Jeff, [simple is the way], Nathan, Elton, Bernard and Gizelle [new audio thort – forgiveness] – you have had a whole bunch of stuff to say about me and the way i do things and so i would love to extend the invitation to get involved in something positive that we are going to be doing and the money you save during your week can go to whatever charity you see fit to support [World of Birds included]
as Val says, this is nothing in terms of making a significant impact on poverty or anything like that but probably more for us to, at least for one week but hopefully for much longer and even forever, really ‘get’ it a bit more – also maybe for a bunch of us to see just how much we are able to do without and some of the stuff we waste our money on…
so it’s just one week – only food and drinks – and going for R12 a day – who is in?
and go and read her full blog post if you haven’t yet
you can also check out the shopping list we are using here and the menu for the week here and we’d love your thoughts, comments and ideas if you have any..
please let us know who is going to be joining us…
Interesting idea. I don’t think I can live on that. What do you buy? Maybe some suggestions would help.
Would that be R24 for you both combined? So it would be better doing it with s partner as you can buy the bigger bag of pap. Are you going to buy groceries for the week at R24 x 7? Or is it buying each day?
Does it just go for food? What about hot water, toiletries, which the poor don’t have much access to either.
go read my wife’s blog where most of those answers lie and also check out the official site – the point is thinking “I don’t think I can live on that.” and then realising that the point of this exercise is so many people do – whether it’s combining the money [do it with a neighbour if you want a day] or just using R60 for the whole week is not the point [and for this particular exercise it is just food/drink but with the realisation that poor people have to do everything with that] but the point is having a week of less and more uncomfortable and possibly boring so we START TO get what the majority of the people in our country or the world are living on and then start to realise that with our choice or 8 to 20 different spice bottles and our quick snack of chips, biscuits, wine and our 8 different sandwich spreads etc etc that we can actually live with so much less and if we can cut R100 or R1000 or R10000 out of our monthly budget, where is a good place where we can be investing that into the lives of those who don’t have the choice.
join us. change your world!
This is like communism in a way- people that work hard should reap the rewards. So ye sow, shall ye reap? Why live poor on purpose if you have money to give and still eat healthy. Woolworths has better quality fruit and veg, also organic. Unfortunately also more expensive. Cheap fruit and veg stores have pesticides which lead to illness.
Rather work very hard, eat more expensive healthy food and you will have money to help the poor. Also more energy.
Instead of cutting food, how about petrol – stop driving around all over, catch a train. Maybe cut out something that will not affect your health.
no chantel, it is about identifying with the poor on one level [and realising that their average R12 a day also has to cover rent, electricity, travel, clothes, etc etc] and hopefully in the process realising something about how we waste the resources we have but also about how sometimes when you’re poor poverty feeds itself because you can’t afford to buy in bulk for example and so end up spending more on less whereas richer folks get to spend less on more [and better if you go organice/free-range etc etc] – cutting petrol is an excellent idea…
In the commune I used to live in, we cooked a huge pot everyday as well as lots of rice pots. We would mix the two. As it was a Krishna commune, only vegetables were eaten. I’d say with 20 people, it actually works out R5 per day or even less. At the Simple Way you’ll see how that works when people combine resources, pretty amazing.
thankx maurice, thats great and i guess could explain why in poor communities community seems to thrive a lot more than in rich communities – cos it has to in terms of everyone is needed to throw their bit into the pot whereas in rich communities people have the money to cut themselves off which is quite sad…
In our commune we were far from poor. We had everything we needed. We grew vegetables and corn. What we did not have we bartered or bought from the local store. It was a great thing to be a part of. Water is also one of the most important and overlooked nutrients. It has energies in when you drink from a stream high up in the mountains. Tap and bottled water has not much energy left depending on where you are. Drink lots of it but not too much and you will be healthy beyond expectations.
Interesting endeavour, guys. Started writing a comment about it, but it was way too long. So blogged it here: http://relentlessabundance.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/biting-off-less-than-they-can-chew/