Living Below the Line - Day 5

End of day 5 - the aftermath... I'm not eating that bread crust

It's over!

While yesterday wasn't the hardest day physically, it was definitely the hardest psychologically. On several occasions throughout the day I found myself absent-mindedly getting up to make a cup of tea and having to remind myself I couldn't. I kept thinking, "It's the last day, who will know. What is one more day anyway..." but my resolve stuck and I didn't crack.

I'm also thrilled to announce that I raised $270 towards Live Below the Line, which beat my goal of $250 (of course you can still donate by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post).

I was going to try and use up whatever I had left on the last day, but that would have entailed eating about 10 bowls of porridge which was never going to happen so I'm proud to say I have food left over.

Breakfast - a bowl of porridge with milk (7c)

Mid morning snack - 2 pieces of buttered toast (13c)

Lunch - 2 minute noodles with vegetables and barley in broth (43c)

Afternoon snack - a bowl of porridge with milk (7c)

Dinner - an omelette with zucchini, barley, onion and garlic ($1.25)
This would have been delicious with some cheese, salt and pepper so I'll file it away to try again when I don't have such a strict budget

Not quite Jamie omelette

Day 5 total - $1.95

Week total - $8.36

I learnt a lot this week doing the challenge. I learnt how hard it is to be so strict with what you eat you have to go hungry some days. I learnt that flavour is a luxury that most people can't afford. I learnt that nutrition is also a luxury as I felt drained and fatigued every day of the challenge. And I learnt I can make 1 onion and half a bulb of garlic stretch across 5 meals!

I also learnt that social support is one of the most important things when undergoing a struggle like this. I never would have been able to finish this challenge if it hadn't been for the fact that three of my very close friends were doing it with me. Even though we didn't see each other throughout the week (two being in other states) it made all the difference to get an email or a text message in the middle of the day asking how I was going and sharing their struggles. Just knowing my friends were going through the same thing made it easier.

Finally I learnt that living this way is easy when you know you have a plate of bacon and coffee and oven baked pizzas waiting on the other end of the five days, which is something millions of people don't get. While what I put in my mouth matched living below the poverty line for a week I still had an unlimited supply of clean water. I still had a roof over my head and a safe place to sleep. And if worse came to worse, and I got so sick I couldn't continue, I had a support system there to take care of me.

Thank you to everyone who donated throughout my challenge, seeing the numbers climb each day made living below the line worthwhile. A reminder that you can still donate up to the 31st July so if you haven't yet, please drop some money into this very worthy cause.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to eat an obscene amount of bacon.

Please support my effors the Live Below the Line Challenge by clicking here. Even a couple of dollars will make the difference! The money raised goes towards educating children in Cambodia and New Guinea in order to break the poverty cycle