It Was Horrible Living Below The Line Last Year, That's Why We're Doing It Again

Every year thousands of people take part in the Live Below the Line challenge. This year, we’re using all of the funds raised by our supporters during the week to help the children of Syria for whom living below the line is not a choice but a fact of life.

The one thing we hear over and over again from below-the-liners is that it’s so much harder than they thought it would be, but so much more enlightening and rewarding, too. For those of us who can’t run marathons or who refuse to jump out of planes for charity, this is the perfect way to get involved and help children who have been forced to flee their homes live free from the fear of hunger.

By Richard Tipping, World Vision UK supporter

I often find myself unwittingly involved in some or other event that my wife Charlotte is involved with or thinks would be a ‘worthwhile idea’. Living below the line was one.

With little forethought or menu planning we suddenly found ourselves one Monday morning – after a celebratory meal with friends the previous evening – commencing 5 days living on just £1/day for food.

Whilst they tucked in to a hearty breakfast, Charlotte and I considered how much we had paid for our eggs and whether we could have a whole one each without immediately blowing our budget. Would the left over sausage count? Who is counting??

Rocky road

From a rocky start we wobbled through a series of menu choices ¬– often centred on the odd packet of lentils or can of some sort of bean hidden at the back of the cupboard and, once, a planned shop!

Dahl is great, but not for three meals on the trot. Cost per meal using larger cans is less, but boy does it get boring if there are only two of you using it. Baked potatoes never seemed so appealing!

After trawling the internet to establish the ratio of meat to bone on your average chicken, I calculated the cost of the remnants of the Sunday dinner, so we could have a meat treat – ecstasy.  Although making a tasty stock of the carcass was welcomed, the weekend had never seemed so far away.

Humbled

I found the whole exercise very humbling.

Whilst it is clearly possible to live on meagre rations, it is not easy and can leave you feeling a ‘little jaded’. Certainly, after a hard day at the office, and as someone who likes his food (and meat), returning to a (randomly) mixed bean chilli was a bit of a letdown and caused moments visualising recipe options for the dogs legs. 

It did, however, make me think much more of the people for whom this is normal life. No choices. Where they can’t just look in the store cupboard and eat something fulfilling and what they might actually want.

It made me think of those whose £1 probably includes the cost of actually cooking the food and probably heating too, rather than just the ingredients.

It made us appreciate the cost of food and appreciate how much food is wasted. I overheard a young father in a shop asking his daughter if she fancied having an apple for lunch today. I think their plight meant more to me as a result of my £1/day experiment.

Even a year on, it feels as though it was a few months ago. We both thought it would be easy, a doddle, not a problem at all. It wasn’t, but we will be doing it again.

This time we will plan our cupboard contents and menu for the week and allow ourselves some time to reflect on the plight of those for whom this is not a slightly whimsical experience, but an everyday trial.

A word of caution to potential candidates – leave the telly off. Cooking programmes don’t help!

If you want to help the children of Syria live free from the fear of hunger, join us and sign up to Live Below the Line today.