Live Below the Line, Part 2

Ok, I am two days into Live Below the Line Challenge. Three days to go. It's still light outside with hours until bed time and I cannot eat or drink anything more today except tap water and maybe (if I'm particularly desperate) some sliced white bread. Value of course.
Now, I'm not a particularly foody person (Kirsty is...she must be suffering) but this just takes so much thought. Here's a joyful picture of my shopping basket for the week:

The binge on Sainsbury's Value products was only stage one of preparation though. Next came sums. Erghhhhh!! I haven't done so much maths since I was 16. Did you know that a portion of porridge costs 8p. That is for an adult portion. I can only manage a 4p Jess-sized portion because I have no milk or sugar to make it with. It is gruel and tastes of sadness.
I think I'm doing pretty well though. Yesterday I only ate 52p worth of food all day (porridge, a banana, half a value pizza). Yes, that is not much food. I had intended to eat more but I didn't have a chance to do the proper shop before Monday. And you know what that meant: hungry grocery shopping at the end of the day, and with a strick £5 budget. Possibly the most painful thing EVER. No marsbar for the journey home for me. Minisob.
And today I felt genuine hunger before lunch. My stomach grew a small and very loud monster that growled a lot.
And then I get to the meals themselves. I mentioned the porridge already but dinner this evening was just so bland. And stodgy. And uninspiring.
Yes, yes...the food I cook is often uninspiring. I don't put much effort into cooking for myself normally. That's the beauty of working at a nice cafe that feeds me. Good food, no effort.
This challenge is just that: a challenge. I'm eating, yes. But I actually have to spend time both planning and cooking and I get nothing tasty. Sigh.
Of course, some of you reading this will put thought and love into your food on a regular basis. But that probably means you are good cooks and buy stuff like salmon, asparagus, steak... mmmm.... not rice, stock and frozen veg.
So it's difficult, and for my efforts, and Kirsty's (who likes food much more than me) you should definitely sponsor us by clicking here. Your money will go straight to UNICEF to help children who live like this...no much worse than this all the time.
Thank you to you kind and wonderful people who have already donated. For all of you, and in case you need more persuading, here is our charity video that is sure to melt the stoniest of hearts:
DONATE!!! by Kirsty Green and Jess Williams. Filmed by Amy Gomez.

Living below the line

Here are some friends Kirsty and I made in Kolkata. They were the first kids we met who asked us, not for money, but for a chapati. They are smiling so much because they got biscuits and lassi. And everyone loves a photo.
Before I went to India, of course I knew about poverty. I mean, Comic Relief is on every year. But when you see it with your own eyes, you walk past it lying in the street, it's different. When you talk and laugh with children who are all bone and carrying their baby brother or sister on their hip, your heart breaks a little bit because you can't help them.
But we, and you can. With a little help from Unicef, we have decided to take part in this year's Live Below the Line. The challenge is for us to spend only £5 for five days of meals each. This is the maximum that millions of people around the world can spend on food a week. For us, this means 5 days of porridge and cheesy pasta. But we are lucky enough that the challenge will be over before we know it, leaving us with just a memory of how difficult it is. For people who actually live below the poverty line, this is a way of life.
OK, I know we haven't got a lot of spare cash at the moment. Most of my friends are as poor as me: living in a very expensive city on nearly minimum wage jobs is hard. But don't try to fool me. I know you are all coffee addicts. How about giving up a week's worth of coffee and donating the money to our cause instead? Or on Friday night, get your flirt on, find some banker to buy your drinks and give us your beer/wine/JD&Coke money. That's your challenge.
Ours starts on 29th April. You have almost a month to donate, and you can do it buy clicking HERE!!!!!!! Now definitely no excuses, plenty of time to accommodate a whole variety of paydays. But please please please don't just read this and move on. Don't just be impressed by our noble and generous spirits and forget about it. As soon as you read this, click on the link (look here's another!) and give us whatever you can afford. £5, the same as we're eating on for the week; £500, if any random millionaires are reading this; or £1.50 because every little helps.
Thank you so much, in advance, for your gift. Those kids at the top of the page...their smiles are for you.