Live Below The Line: T-minus 2 days

I'm planning what I'm going to feed our family for our budget of $20 for the week this morning. I'm writing down ideas on a page of lined paper from an old uni notebook that I have kept since 2007. I feel really overwhelmed by the challenge set before me. Living on $2 is not unrealistic, but it is definitely going to be a challenge, particularly because I am going to have to work through withdrawals from sugar and caffeine.

I initially was going to budget an extra $10 and include Luke. Although it isn't a lot more to add, I just feel overwhelmed by the prospect of putting him under any pressure. We are currently battling with him and food, as he thinks he is a vegetarian, eating no meat, or vegetables. Yet he loves his fruit, yogurt and breast milk. We're exploring other ways for him to get some protein into his diet.

So at this stage in the game, I think it would be unfair to include Luke in Live Below the Line, but at the same time it has challenged my thinking: people battling poverty wouldn't just say, "oh, Luke, it's okay if you don't want to eat this, I'll buy you this instead" - there isn't money to do that. People in poverty wouldn't just throw food away because it's a failed attempt of him eating it. People in poverty don't often have the nutrition to breastfeed effectively. People in poverty don't have the choice of, oh he can't choose whether he wants to participate in it or not. He would just have to. But nonetheless I think I will save Luke's live below the line for when he can appreciate it.

In the meantime I'm still trying to comprehend how I will cope in the next week. I'm afraid I won't make the week, but I'm going to give it a red, hot go. I've also got to live through mothers group and MOPS, one of which includes the Biggest Morning Tea which I can't participate in if I fully pledge myself to $2 a day. (Donated food is 'not allowed'). But I think part of this challenge is kind of like the 40 hour famine, in that you are missing out on a way of living we take for granted in the west. It's more than just raising money, you are actually experiencing a piece of what it's like to live below the line. Support me?

Donate/join me: 

www.livebelowtheline.com.au/lovelifeluke