“Live Below the Line is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty.”
Can you live on $1.50 a day for food? This is the U.S. equivalent to the poverty line according to LiveBelowtheLine.com, and 1.4 billion people across the world are faced with this challenge every day.
In order to fight poverty, it’s helpful to understand it. I’m taking the challenge along with part of my family to Live Below the Line for 5 days, from April 27 to May 1.
My husband wanted nothing to do with taking the challenge, nor did my son. Growing tween boy and the man with the world’s highest metabolism? I can understand why not. But my daughters were all willing to give it a go. The fewer people in our house participating, the harder it is to spread the purchasing power, but we’re trying it anyway. I don’t know of it will be impossible, but it sure will be hard.
I made a grocery list, planned out some meals and we trucked to the store to gather our main supplies for the next 5 days.
Here’s my grocery store stock. Only 4 of our 6 household members are participating, so the guidelines suggest a total of $6 per day for our 4 people ($1.50 each) totaling $30. It was much harder to do than I anticipated, despite our store having some amazing sales this week.
- 12.25 oz box Honey nut cereal
- 1 gallon Booth Brothers RSBt-free skim milk
- 2 packages Quaker Rice Cakes (14 cakes each)
- 26.5 oz jar Skippy Natural peanut butter
- 2 boxes Annie’s Shells and Cheese
- 16 oz box whole wheat rotini pasta
- 4 bags of Bird’s Eye frozen vegetables (2 peas, corn, and green beans)
- 24 oz jar Barilla Marinara sauce
- Top Ramen 6-pack ramen noodles
- 1 lb peeled baby carrots
- 1 red mango
- 1.93 lb green cabbage
- 3 lbs white potatoes
Our bill came to $31.48, but there will be leftover peanut butter, and some of the groceries will be prorated as they will be prepared and shared with the 2 non-participating members of the household: mac and cheese, cabbage, potatoes, marinara, and pasta. $7.83 in groceries prorated to $5.17 (66% of the cost) bringing our $31.48 total down to $28.82, which gives us a small amount of wiggle room for seasonings we may use over the next 5 days.
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[…] participating in the Live Below The Line Challenge. We eat well, no doubt, but not amazingly well. Our grocery bill is about $110 for 5 days for 6 […]