Last year I mentioned Live Below the Line, a challenge to live on £1 a day for five days. It’s a way of raising awareness about poverty and development, and raising funds for charity. I was hoping to take part, but the week of the challenge was the same week that our son was born. With hindsight, the combination of hunger and sleeplessness may well have pushed me over the edge entirely, so I’m glad we didn’t do it in the end.
My wife and I are taking part this year however, and I’ll be blogging about it for the Global Poverty Project. The main challenge is on the 7th to the 11th of May, but we’ll be doing it the week of the 23rd of April in the run up to the main event.
I’m going to be inviting some friends locally, but if you’d like to join in where you are, let me know. I’m sure it would be easier with a team of people, and it would be a great way to educate your kids about poverty or raise some interesting conversations with your friends and colleagues. You can also choose from over 20 different charities to raise money for, and it’s just five days. Does anyone want to join us?
The Earthbound Report 
Is this just for food and per person? We average way below that, but then we grow and forage most of our food. I’m organising a wild food walk and lunch next week. I’ve just done my shopping list: I’ll be feeding 15 people an 8-course meal including wine for about €12 in total. Mind you saying that, I’ve just come back from the UK and was shocked at the way prices have gone up there!
A friend of mine fed himself on £1 a day for the whole of lent this year, eating normally on Sundays. He called it ‘going hungry to feed the starving’ and got sponsored, giving the money away to a charity that I can’t remember.
Great idea.
There was a Russian-speaking spiritual teacher from Ukrainian descent, who was walking barefoot and shirtless throughout the whole year, including freezing blizzards during the winter. He advised people to take showers by pouring on themselves a bucket filled with cold water twice a day – in the morning and in the evening. He gave many practical advises about achieving harmony with God’s order in the Living Nature. One of them was completely abstaining from food from Friday evening to Sunday morning every single week. I have personally tried it for a few years and have found that it does miracles to your health, your wallet and your attitude to life and other people. On top of that, when you do the maths, you can see that in this way, adding an occasional 3-7 days fast during the change of seasons you can reach close to 120 days out of a whole year without food. So, by a minor exercise of willpower (it might seem difficult in the beginning, but it gets progressively easier, trust me) you can save a 1/3 of your food bill for somebody else – or something else. Of course, it is good not to boast about it, but share it with those who are even slightly interested – you might actually change a life. Good site though, and really nice seeing someone speak openly about faith in the public sphere.
My partner and I absolutely love your blog and find many of your post’s to be precisely what I’m looking for.
Would you offer guest writers to write content for you?
I wouldn’t mind writing a post or elaborating on many of
the subjects you write about here. Again, awesome weblog!