Living Below The Line.

As I was browsing Twitter I came across Emily Greenwood who was taking part in ‘Living Below The Line’ and I asked her to write a piece as I thought you lot may find it interesting!

Over to her…

So this is my first blog, ever! However, I’ve been asked to write about my experience living ‘Below the Line’ for the past 5 days. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Below the Line asks you to live off £1 per day for 5 days on the equivalent of what the poorest people live on all around the world. As the Marketing Coordinator for Oxjam Music Festival in Cardiff, our primary aim is raising awareness and raising money to go to Oxfam – the UK’s leading charity fighting poverty. So me and 3 of my team members decided to take on the challenge. For us, it wasn’t just about worldwide, but people on our doorsteps who are living in poverty.

Of course, I really didn’t realise what I was in for. I decided to budget and spend the £5 upfront as the most cost-effective way of preparing food for the next 5 days. I spent over an hour trawling the aisles of B&M bargains and Asda, desparately just trying to find enough food to feed me for 5 days! My shop total was £4.62:

– Reduced milk

– Porridge oats

– 4 soup sachets

– Baked beans

– Reduced half loaf of bread

– Pasta

– Tomato sauce

– Reduced Yoghurts.

As you can probably see, the food above was hardly luxury, with most items out of date, nearing their expiry date, or in a very small quantity. Meals were very similar each day; porridge, soup, Pasta. Porridge, soup, beans on toast. Porridge, soup, pasta. Not only was there severe monotony in the food, but also very small portions. My average daily calorie intake was averaging at 800 calories, under half of the GDA for adult females. As a result, massive lethargy and tiredness kicked in and my usual exercise regime had to be completely cut as I struggled to even walk into work. Considering my body was used to eating three substantial meals a day as well as several cups of coffee, averaging at around 1800-2000 calories, you can imagine how hard this became. Being constantly around people eating and drinking was perhaps what made this such a challenge. The only thing that kept me persistent, was the huge support I received from friends and family who so generously donated to the cause.

The final day passed in a flash, as I spent the entirety thinking about the food I was going to consume in order to make up for the lack recently. Of course, the celebration of our achievement consisted of a very large glass of wine and burger with my fellow team mates. We would like to thank the many people that have so generously donated to both myself and my teammates, as we managed to raise over £800 in aid Oxfam, through Oxjam Music Festival.

Check us out on social media as we will be putting on a variety of fundraising events over the next few weeks: Facebook and Twitter.