Author Topic: Live below the line  (Read 7612 times)

Parizade

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Live below the line
« on: May 10, 2012, 06:30:49 PM »
I saw this UNICEF challenge too late, but it intrigues me nonetheless. I think most people on this board know how to make a meal for one for less than $1.50, but could you make 3 meals? Would they be nutritious enough to live on?

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us-unicef

How does it work?

So you want to Live Below the Line, but you’re not sure what you’re getting yourself into. Ok so here are the basics:

    From May 7th – 11th, you can spend no more than $1.50 a day on food and drink.
    This means you have a total of $7.50 with which to buy all ingredients for your meals.
    The full cost of all the items you consume must be included in your budget. This means budgeting for whole packages of food such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc.
    For items such as salt, pepper, herbs and spices, simply work out the cost of each item per ounce and budget your shopping proportionally. Separate your items before the challenge so there’s no need to be digging around in your pantry.
    One of the easiest ways to partake in the challenge is to share the cost of ingredients amongst a team, as long as no participant spends more than $1.50 a day or their total $7.50 budget. Working as a team will allow you to pool together funds and do more with your cooking.
    You can’t grab a snack from the pantry unless you include the cost of buying the item new in your budget.
    You can use food sourced from your garden as long as you can account for the price of production!
    No combination of meals on any given day can exceed the $1.50 spending limit. Remember this is a challenge to eat creatively – don’t at any point deprive yourself of three meals a day.
    You cannot accept ‘donated’ food from family or friends, but monetary donations towards your fundraising goals are acceptable, and encouraged!
    You are allowed to drink tap water – remember you should try and drink at least 6-8 glasses of water each day.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2012, 06:33:55 PM by Parizade »

arebelspy

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2012, 07:06:51 PM »
I could do that for 4 days, easily.

A year?  I doubt it. That would be a monthly budget of $93 for the two of us. That's tough, and at that point I'd probably start dumpster diving.
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velocistar237

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2012, 07:12:28 PM »
There's a cookbook!

Parizade

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2012, 09:37:47 PM »
There's a cookbook!

oh SNAP velocistar, excellent find!

strider3700

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2012, 12:59:06 AM »
I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that there isn't any meat at all in the entire book.

shedinator

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2012, 05:25:58 AM »
I'm sure if I went back and did out the calculations, I'd have come in below that number more than half the time during lent this year. But for me, it was a choice, and it was made easier by the knowledge that I could spend more on things if I wanted to, whereas the people who actually live below the line have no such luxury.

Parizade

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2012, 05:36:41 AM »
I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that there isn't any meat at all in the entire book.

I was surprised to see fruits and vegetables in the recipes, as they seem to be the biggest expense in my grocery budget.

kolorado

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2012, 07:30:19 AM »
Hadn't heard of this challenge before. $1.49 a day is what I've actually spent on food for each person in my family of five all this year so far. Now I cheated a little bit because in March and April I barely bought any food and ate down our food supply in the freezer and pantry before the move.
My regular budget is $2 a day per person and that's the rate I was spending when I bought the food we ate from the freezer and pantry. I buy plenty of extras with that budget. The kids have good ice cream every day. I buy the best beef hot dogs. I make chicken nuggets for them with real chicken. We drink a ton of coffee. The baby and I drink almond milk instead of cheaper cow's milk. I buy natural peanut butter, wheat bread and just fruit jelly and we go through a lot of it. I even buy a treat or two every week like soda for pizza night, ice cream novelties(Magnum bars are so good!)and chips. That budget also includes a fast food meal once a month. So I know I could cut out the extras, or use close nutritional alternatives to our preferred foods(frozen broccoli instead of salad for example), and get down to $1.50 a day fairly easily.
The big secrets are to limit variety of ingredients to those you can acquire frugally(we still get a lot of variety in actual finished meals though), stock up when you find low prices, limit portion sizes to what is appropriate for caloric needs, make as much as you can from scratch and don't waste food. I save everything leftover for next day's lunch. If it isn't eaten then I throw it in the freezer as an ingredient for a future meal.

shedinator

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2012, 09:04:37 AM »
Hadn't heard of this challenge before. $1.49 a day is what I've actually spent on food for each person in my family of five all this year so far. Now I cheated a little bit because in March and April I barely bought any food and ate down our food supply in the freezer and pantry before the move.
My regular budget is $2 a day per person and that's the rate I was spending when I bought the food we ate from the freezer and pantry. I buy plenty of extras with that budget. The kids have good ice cream every day. I buy the best beef hot dogs. I make chicken nuggets for them with real chicken. We drink a ton of coffee. The baby and I drink almond milk instead of cheaper cow's milk. I buy natural peanut butter, wheat bread and just fruit jelly and we go through a lot of it. I even buy a treat or two every week like soda for pizza night, ice cream novelties(Magnum bars are so good!)and chips. That budget also includes a fast food meal once a month. So I know I could cut out the extras, or use close nutritional alternatives to our preferred foods(frozen broccoli instead of salad for example), and get down to $1.50 a day fairly easily.
The big secrets are to limit variety of ingredients to those you can acquire frugally(we still get a lot of variety in actual finished meals though), stock up when you find low prices, limit portion sizes to what is appropriate for caloric needs, make as much as you can from scratch and don't waste food. I save everything leftover for next day's lunch. If it isn't eaten then I throw it in the freezer as an ingredient for a future meal.

Hmmm, this has me wondering if UNICEF should step up the challenge and say you can't use a freezer or refrigerator. Also, good tips!

Nancy

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2012, 10:57:36 AM »
I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that there isn't any meat at all in the entire book.

Rice, Veg and sausage p.14

Parizade

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2012, 02:16:18 PM »
Hadn't heard of this challenge before. $1.49 a day is what I've actually spent on food for each person in my family of five all this year so far.

well done kolorado! you are inspiring me.

TLV

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2012, 02:41:05 PM »
    This means you have a total of $7.50 with which to buy all ingredients for your meals.
    The full cost of all the items you consume must be included in your budget. This means budgeting for whole packages of food such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc.

No way I could do that - the unit cost of buying small quantities is way too high for most things. 50 lbs of rice: ~30 cents per pound. 2 lbs of rice: ~$1.50 per pound.

Parizade

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2012, 05:31:58 PM »
    This means you have a total of $7.50 with which to buy all ingredients for your meals.
    The full cost of all the items you consume must be included in your budget. This means budgeting for whole packages of food such as rice, pasta, noodles and eggs etc.

No way I could do that - the unit cost of buying small quantities is way too high for most things. 50 lbs of rice: ~30 cents per pound. 2 lbs of rice: ~$1.50 per pound.

They do recommend taking the challenge with a team, that way you can pool resources and buy in larger quantities

Guitarist

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2012, 02:35:32 PM »
Can I take my $1.50 to Africa to buy food?

velocistar237

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2012, 05:37:20 PM »
The believe the $1/day figure often quoted is adjusted for purchasing power.

sol

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2012, 10:27:42 AM »
The believe the $1/day figure often quoted is adjusted for purchasing power.

It also covers more than just food, if you read the accompanying literature. $1/day also has to cover housing/shelter, clothing, water, education for your children, and and any luxuries like medicine for your sick baby.

They just reduce it to food only for western audiences who can't otherwise even fathom the point of the exercise..

reverend

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2012, 10:47:58 AM »
This statement always baffles me. I thought old wives tales were either gone or backed up by science...
It's real easy to dismiss organizations for simple factual errors like this.

*sigh*


Quote

    You are allowed to drink tap water – remember you should try and drink at least 6-8 glasses of water each day.


velocistar237

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2012, 11:28:40 AM »
This statement always baffles me. I thought old wives tales were either gone or backed up by science...
It's real easy to dismiss organizations for simple factual errors like this.

Unfortunately, it meets Curmudgeon's Law of Numerical Fiction, and will therefore be very slow to die.

Guitarist

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2012, 11:32:36 AM »
The believe the $1/day figure often quoted is adjusted for purchasing power.

It also covers more than just food, if you read the accompanying literature. $1/day also has to cover housing/shelter, clothing, water, education for your children, and and any luxuries like medicine for your sick baby.

They just reduce it to food only for western audiences who can't otherwise even fathom the point of the exercise..

At 1.4 billion people, I would like to see how they survive.
I figure about none of them worry about even obtaining medicine. Some live in landfills. Education is doubtful. Housing and shelter comes in the form of shanty towns or whatever has passed down the family. Clothing is passed down, made, or found. Food is found. And water is not anything I would want to clean a pet with.

It is awful.

sol

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Re: Live below the line
« Reply #19 on: May 18, 2012, 02:21:51 AM »
I figure about none of them worry about even obtaining medicine. Some live in landfills. Education is doubtful. Housing and shelter comes in the form of shanty towns or whatever has passed down the family. Clothing is passed down, made, or found. Food is found. And water is not anything I would want to clean a pet with.

It is awful.

On the bright side, while an innocent child was dying from a water-related illness every 8 seconds day and night all of last month, my bond fund made almost a thousand dollars!  Woohoo, I'm that much closer to giving up my cubicle and watching reality television all day!  Win!




I find humanity despicable.