Caffeine Fix

Missing my morning cuppa...hot water just isn't cutting it!!

Day 4

I'm definitely fed up with this now, with one more day to go, I'm already planning what I want to eat on the weekend. It's going to involve a whole lot of coffee and cake!

Today we tried to cheer ourselves up with a little lunch time tea party - sans actual tea of course, but the pretty cups and saucers made things all together more cheery. Shame about the food...

Breakfast - porridge
Lunch - smartprice sausage sandwich with cheese single
Dinner - pasta with mushrooms and passata

One more day to go!

Swindon Advertiser

Guess who made it into the paper today...

Horrific photo but it's all good exposure for the cause!

Day 3

Well this is getting harder now...for most of today I was hungry. Given that I'm off work ill, with nothing to take my mind off it all day, my poor housemate has had to listen to me moan. And yes, I've moaned A LOT.

Breakfast - two boiled eggs and dippy soldiers
Lunch - spaghetti hoops on toast
Dinner - smartprice sausages, potato, smartprice stuffing, carrots and smartprice gravy.

Dinner was a smartprice spectacular, incredibly salty but we were just thankful to have something with some flavour!

Two more days to go...all I can say is, thank goodness I only have to live this way for a week. It's been such an eye opener. Sign up and see for yourselves https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk-partners

Days 1 and 2

Yesterday, I'm not going to lie, was horrific. It was a bit of a shock to the system. Anyone who knows me, will know that I don't exactly have the cheapest of tastes, so I think it's finally hit me just how hard this is going to be...

Day One:
Breakfast - porridge oats with skimmed UHT milk
Lunch - two hard-boiled eggs and two slices of plain bread
Dinner - rice with onions, mushrooms and passata and sausages with cheese single

Day Two:
Breakfast - two slices of dry toast
Lunch - left over rice
Dinner - jacket potato with beans and cheese single

It's not that we don't have enough food, I'm certainly not going hungry. It's just that nothing has any flavour. I'm really craving salt, or any kind of seasoning really.

Even more than this, I'm really craving fresh fruit and veg, but there just wasn't enough in the budget to cover any greenery. I can see why those on a strict budget really struggle to eat healthily.

Three more days to go...

Epic Shopping Trip

So here it is. A weeks shopping for two, on a tenner.

We certainly got some funny looks in the supermarket, arguing over smartprice onions, and we had more than a little bit of difficulty doing the simple maths on our iPhone calculators. Ironic, isn't it. It's hard enough having to shop for food on such a meagre amount, but imagine having to actually live day to day on it. When you consider the real meaning of actually living below the poverty line, it doesn't bear thinking about.

That's why we are taking on this challenge, not just to raise money for some awesome causes, but more importantly, to raise awareness. We don't often consider that people are living in absolute poverty right under our noses, but every day people go hungry in our own communities.

Foodbanks accross the UK are becoming more and more necessary. Check out the Trussell Trust website for more info on how you can get involved, become a volunteer or help with food donations.

Abbie and I will be living below the line from 30th April, raising funds for Unicef and Christian Aid, but more importantly, raising awareness of a plight that doesn't just affect those you might think.

Donate to Carrie

Donate to Abbie

P.s. a big shout out to my friend Matt Edwards for shamelessly plugging the cause....follow his blog if you think you can handle it.

The Challenge

So here we go...it's nearly time to start the challenge. There's 4 days to go before the hunger begins and I would be lying if I said I wasn't dreading it. But it's all for a great cause, so it's got to be worth it, right?

The Challenge:
Spend 5 days feeding myself on £1 a day - the UK equivalent of the extreme poverty line.

Why?
To give a glimpse into the lives of 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the line every day - and who have to make that £1 cover a lot more than just food...

I'm raising money for Christian Aid - a charity close to my heart, not just because I used to work for them, but because I really believe in the work that they do. Christian Aid are a global charity, working through partner organisations to eradicate the causes of poverty, striving to achieve equality, dignity, and freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality.

The money I raise will go to communities like Mo-Albert in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is one of the hungriest places on earth, with most people living on less than 80p per day. Fishing is the main source of both food and income in this tiny village, and has been for many generations. The Methodist Church of Sierra Leone is working in partnership with Christian Aid on community fishing projects, teaching a more sustainable approach to fishing, and making a huge difference in the lives of these people.

If I've done a good job of convincing you, please dig deep and sponsor me...
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/carrienapier

Or, even better, sign up and take part! https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk