Challenge Yourself: Live Below the Line

Challenge Yourself: Live Below the Line



Live Below the Line is a charity with an objective to raise awareness on poverty. Participants of this challenge are to live on $1.50 for food per day for a total of five days. That's only $7.50 per person total for the five days.

I agreed to be a part of this challenge when asked by BzzAgent. I have two daughters, which means that the three of us must live on $ 22.50 for the duration of the five days. My hypothesis is that we will be able to eat three meals a day, but they won't be foods that are considered healthy. I'm making this hypothesis based on my observations within the grocery store. Healthy foods tend to cost much more than quick foods, which have little to no health benefits.

One positive for us is that we already drink only water. That means we won't have to spend any money on drinks. I suppose if you only had $1.50 per person to spend on food each day that you would have to forget about buying juice, tea, or coffee anyway.

Here is my menu plan for the three of us for the five days:

Breakfast: 1 box of ShopRite cereal for $1.99 and 1 box of ShopRite Instant Oatmeal for $1.69. I'll need to spend $1.59 on 1 qt. Of ShopRite milk to use with the cereal. I use water with the oatmeal.

Lunch: ShopRite white bread is on sale for $1. I can make sandwiches each day by purchasing a 12 oz. jar of ShopRite peanut butter for $1.79 and an 18 oz. of ShopRite grape jelly at $1.59.

Dinner: Ramen Noodles are $.20 per pack, which means a total of $.60 for the three of us. If we eat that for dinner two nights, we'll need to subtract $1.20 from our budget. We can also get a box of elbow macaroni noodles for $.66 and a jar of pasta sauce for $1.29. That will get the three of us through dinner another two days. The last day we can eat ravioli's in a can for $1.00 a piece (a total of $3). We'll get the meat raviolis, since they contain protein.

We are then left with a total of $6.70, which we can use to buy canned veggies and fruits to have with lunch and dinner. Also, this week ShopRite has an 18 ct. of eggs on sale for $1.88, so I'll purchase that first. After subtracting it from the $6.70, I have a total of $4.82 remaining. We will be able to boil some eggs for snacks. This gives us some much needed protein throughout the day.

ShopRite has canned carrots, peas, and green beans for $.75 a can. Buying 1 can of each of these vegetables leaves me with $2.57. I can get a can of ShopRite fruit cocktail for $1 and two cans of mandarin oranges for $.79 each, but that does put me in the negative a penny. So pretend I found a penny on the street (which my daughter does often).

I strongly urge you to sign-up and take part in this challenge. It is a great way to try and put yourself in someone else's shoes for 5 days.

Note: I used the ShopRite order from home prices for my hometown to plan my menu.