Live Below the Line

Live Below the Line

From April 29^th to May 3^rd Robert and I participated in the Live Below the Line challenge to help bring awareness to global hunger. We had a budget of $1.50 a day per person for five days. That’s right $7.50 each. Although it wasn’t recommended for children to participate in the challenge, I decided to include Emma, except for her formula since her finger foods are made from what we eat. We had $22.50 total when we went to the grocery store to prepare for the week.

I couldn’t live out of my cupboards because people who live below the poverty line don’t have a 4 month supply of food in the cupboards and freezer. I was able to use my spices as long as I accounted for their cost in the budget.

Here’s what we lived on for the week:

• 2lbs of carrots ($0.89)
• 1 head of iceberg lettuce ($0.56)
• 1lb broccoli ($0.89)
• 1lb zucchini ($0.69)
• 3lbs tangerines ($1.63)
• 4 apples ($0.76)*
• 3 bananas ($0.51)
• 6 potatoes ($0.38)*
• 8 chicken thighs ($2.38)
• 1lb ground sausage ($1.30)
• 1 stick of butter ($0.47)*
• 1 dozen eggs ($1.07)
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies ($0.56)
• 1 loaf of bread ($0.98)
• 1 can spaghetti sauce ($0.58)
• 1 bottle Italian dressing ($0.89)
• 2 cans green beans ($0.66)
• 1 can corn ($0.33)
• 1 frozen apple juice concentrate mix ($.89)
• 1 container rice milk ($1.28)

The following items were purchased from the bulk foods section of our grocery store:

• 3lbs brown rice ($1.53)
• 2lbs black beans ($1.12)
• 2 lbs spaghetti noodles ($0.68)
• 1lb rolled oats ($.48)

One of the tips given on the Live Below the Line website was to combine your purchasing power by shopping with someone else and splitting the cost of larger quantities. I did this with the eggs, apples and potatoes. My mother in law and I purchased a 4 stick pack of butter, 2 dozen eggs, 5 lbs of potatoes and 3 lbs of apples and I took 1 stick of butter, 4 apples, 1 dozen eggs and 6 potatoes.

Total grocery bill: $21.51 this allowed for me to use black pepper, salt and olive oil from my pantry which I measured out and left on the counter so I didn’t go over our budget. I know that these prices are lower than most prices, but I shop at Winco which tends to have overall lower prices than most stores. I only buy produce that’s on sale and I buy meat that is on sale. I shop mid-week and have learned when the meat is marked down so I shop on those days.

Here is our 5 day menu (menu is shown per person)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	¾  cup oatmeal with ½ cup rice milk with 1/3 baked apple 1/3 baked apple for Emma split between breakfast and lunch	2 eggs 1 piece toast 1 tangerine ½ banana and black beans for Emma	2 pieces of toast 1/3 baked apple 1/3 baked apple split between breakfast and lunch for Emma	2 eggs 1 piece toast 1 tangerine ½ banana and black beans for Emma	¾  cup oatmeal with ½ cup rice milk with 1/3 baked apple 1/3 baked apple for Emma split between breakfast and lunch
Lunch	Salad (1/4 head of iceberg lettuce shredded with 3 carrots and 3 Tbs Italian dressing  and 1 slice of bread with 1 pad of butter Emma had green beans and the rest of her baked apple slices	1 chicken thigh seasoned with black pepper ¼ cup black beans ½ cup brown rice with 1 pad butter 1 tangerine Emma had green beans and black beans	1 ½ cups spaghetti noodles with 1/3  cup of pasta sauce and  ¼ cup of ground sausage 1 tangerine Emma had the rest of her apple green beans	Salad (1/4 head of iceberg lettuce shredded with 3 carrots and 3 Tbs Italian dressing  and 1 slice of bread with 1 pad of butter Emma had mashed potatoes and black beans	4 Chicken thighs cooked in Crockpot with 1 can diced tomato and sliced zucchini split between two adults for 2 meals (Thursday dinner and Friday lunch) Emma had ½ banana and green beans
Dinner	1 chicken thigh seasoned with black pepper ¼ cup black beans ½ cup brown rice with 1 pad butter 1 tangerine Emma had baked carrots	1 ½ cups spaghetti noodles with 1/3  cup of pasta sauce and  ¼ cup of ground sausage 1 cup steamed broccoli  Emma had 4 little trees of broccoli and some plain noodles diced	2 eggs 1 grilled potato ¼ cup black beans Split the left over ground sausage Emma had mashed potatoes and ½ steamed zucchini	4 Chicken thighs cooked in Crockpot with 1 can diced tomato and sliced zucchini split between two adults for 2 meals (Thursday dinner and Friday lunch) Emma had ½ steamed zucchini and 1 baked carrot	Black beans and rice with the rest of the salad vegetables and corn Emma finished the black beans, zucchini and green beans.

We drank apple juice with dinner and had water the rest of the day.

We are already pretty frugal when it comes to grocery shopping, but shopping on an even smaller budget and not having access to my pantry was definitely harder than I thought. Since I cook enough at dinner for lunch the next day I had to measure out lunch and pack it up before serving dinner otherwise we ran the risk of not having enough left for lunch the next day. We also had to really manage portion control to make sure that each day’s meal didn’t total more than $1.50 per person.

In addition to living below the poverty level for 5 days on the grocery budget we decided that we couldn’t live in all the rooms of our home. If you live below the poverty level, you don’t have a three bedroom house to spread out and get comfy in. We decided to live in our kitchen, living room and one bathroom. This meant we closed off our dining room, Emma’s room, guest bedroom and our guest bathroom. For the most part we didn’t use our bedroom, but Robert did sleep in there at night when he had to work the next day. Emma and I camped out in the living room quite a bit because I wanted to really experience what it was like to have a limited amount of space to raise my family in and know what it was like to have everyone sleeping in one room. Living like this with one child was manageable, but I don’t know how people do it with larger families.

Overall, the experience living below the line is one that I will always remember and I plan to participate in it again next year.

You can find out more about Live Below the Line at their website https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us and on their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiveBelowTheLineUSA?fref=ts