
Well done
My "Live Below the Line" quid-a-day nosh challenge has entered its final stretch, and as I wait for the Tibetan blackbird* to spread its mighty brown wings over the great white telephone, I've got time - and just enough remaining energy - to ponder what purpose the last week has served. Before I do that, though, I'd like to …
"... Well, I say three; could be four or five. Could be nine or ten, doesn't matter. Could have been fifteen, twenty - fifty. Round it up. Hundred. Let's go mad, eh - two-fifty. Tell you what, double it up - five hundred. Thousand! Oh, I've gone mad! Two thousand! Five thousand! (adopting auctioneer persona) Anyone? Five thousand, six thou, six thousand, ten thousand! Small town in Hertfordshire goes into a pub! Fifteen thousand blokes! Alright, let's go - population of Rotterdam. The Hague. Whole of Northern Holland. Mainland U.K. Let's go all the way to the top - Europe, alright? Whole of Europe goes - I say Europe. Could be Eurasia. Not the band, obviously, that's just two of them. Alright, continents - North America! Plus South America! Plus Antartica - that's just eight blokes in a weather station. Not a good example.
"Alright, make it a lot simpler, all the blokes on the planet go into the pub, right? And the first bloke goes up to the bar and he says "I'll get these in." What an idiot!"
How many read this site? Better find an obscure bar for that first drink back... ;-)
I know you've probably had a lot of folks deriding your effort as being a sham and that it isn't a "real" view of what it's like to live below the breadline.
But they're missing the point.
The phrase "there's people worse off than you" is a really shit way to gain insight and empathy - it's like saying "unless you are this depressed/discriminated/disabled, your views don't mean jack and are therefore irrelevant". It doesn't help. All it does is breed resentment. If it has changed *your* view on the world and your view on others, that's all the matters.
Besides, even the most snarky person would have to agree that raising over a grand for charity can only be a good thing.
"It's also had a knock-on effect on those around me. My 11-year-old daughter doesn't understand the concept of having practically nothing, but the last week has got her thinking. While offering to stick the kettle on for her poor old dad, she's been formulating a grand vegetable garden and henkeeping scheme so we can eat "for free" - the kind of thinking which can only be applauded."
Best possible outcome, surely ? A good example of "Lessons for Life", and why the best learning doesn't always happen in 'school'. Imagine if those of us with kids old enough to 'get it' (most over 7-8 yrs old), did this, and then *they* start talking to their friends, and so on .... "Pay it forward", please !
Wipe? If he's very lucky he'll be in circumstances that allow for merely wiping to be appropriate.
My guess is that the poor bugger's gonna need a bucket and a hose, and possibly some wire wool, once his diet returns to some normality.
Still, it's all for a good cause, right? And he'll be able to walk normally (and sit down without wincing) after a few days...
(I'm sure I'm not helping here :D)
MNMU deserves great respect for setting up the challenge. You deserve respect (but not of the great kind because £1/day was only a little under what I spent on food when unemployed recently) for taking up the challenge.
But as my recent unemployment reminds me, the food needs to be cooked and cooking takes energy and energy costs money (or labour costs scavenging for fuel). So, in the UK, that £1/day is not a sustainable, realistic figure. I hope the Tories don't get wind of the challenge or they'll be insisting that the unemployed, disabled and elderly all survive on that little.
Lester:
gratz on raising funds for a worthwhile charity. And kudos for having the balls to give this a shot, I hope that it does help your perspective and that of your family.
I recall being incredibly fortunate to travel the world as a youngster, several trips out of country let me see the way that life ran in other parts. It has lent me a different world view. I would not hesitate to take my kids out of the *first world problem* perspective by travelling if it was in my budget. I'm starting to suspect that this concept might be something that we could try in our current circumstances, in an effort to open the eyes of the teenagers. Most especially, it being (finally) spring in my neck of the woods I'm thinking its time to teach this lot to how to grow food, especially since I've a yard of some size (yes I'm spoiled and I realize it).
I get the shouty types yelling about how you aren't really "experiencing poverty". And yes, they are right, most of us here on the intarwebz are as far from poverty as one can get. I've seen what real poverty looks like, even if I haven't lived it. But, as a parent I also get that the youngsters (and I do mean every single last one of them) in my area have no goddamn clue how spoiled they are. Even the 16 year old single mother, living on what is no doubt shoestring support from the gummint, is really spoiled in the long run. At least, taking this challenge on, you are conceding that you live well, and are at least willing to step out of that comfort zone, and try to live on less, even if only for a week.
Personally, I believe that as a society, we of the *first world* need to change our perspectives on what is "success" and "living well" -- and I think perhaps, that this challenge can lend a hand at that effort.
Now, I'm hoping that you've been containing all those highly volatile gas emissions to be reused in a followup project for SPB. It would be interesting to see if the efficiency was worthwhile.
Beer, for the kudos tomorrow, and just because its a gorgeous day out in the back yard.
Whilst you undertake this admirable task has anyone considered the greater impact it may have on the local economy?! If everyone were to spend only the equivalent of £1 a day what would that do to our small businesses that rely on an income? The trickle down effect would only lead them to become impoverished and scraping by. We only have to look at your local public house to see the sort of detrimental effect this kind of thinking can have. 75% drop in profits this week or so I have been told. Lester WE HAVE TO TALK.
Hi Lester,
I've been following your experiment all week . I won't bore you with my past of walking 20 miles each way to school up hill in the snow. However, I have been through some lean times in my 50 or so years. I do remember my father using the phrase "The wolves are at the door" which I later learned was the bank coming for our house. One lesson I learned when looking for work as a teenager, get a job at a restaurant. It may not pay much, but there is food available. AS the dishwasher, I was amazed at the nearly full plates of food that came down the line to be washed. I'm not ashamed to say I helped myself to a few half eaten steaks when no one was looking. Later in college, I had to live with my g/f and her brother to get by. We were lucky her grandmother lived nearby, and we could get gummint cheese, dry beans, and pasta of sorts from her for free as she was allotted much more than she could eat herself. It was all welcomed!
In that spirit, I raise a glass to you for raising awareness and cash for charity!
David
p.s. When George Lucas' chocolate drops, I hope you find relief
I'm definitely going to have a go at this next year, and my best friend is also up for it (so we can combine our budgets). We've the best part of a year for menu planning, so we can be checking prices and doing calculations in the meantime, and thus have no excuse not to live it up a bit on our £2 a day between us .....
And no, it's not by any stretch of the imagination the same as actually having to live on £1 a day full-time. Those days are behind me now, touch wood .....