My First LBL: What I’ve learnt about myself and the value of $2
For those who don’t know, Live Below the Line is a challenge to eat on $2 a day for five days. Funds raised help rebuild schools, train teachers and provide education opportunities for thousands of people in East Timor. For more info visit https://www.livebelowtheline.com.au .
This year is my first time doing LBL, so I was a bit clueless when I started planning for it a few weeks ago. But with the help of my older sister, my parents, my bestie Bridget (my LBL partner) and the LBL facebook group, I was ready. Finishing last night, made me reflect on my experience. I have included pictures of my main meals (some look a slightly more appetizing than others J). I’ve also included a picture of the cupcake I had at midnight the night I finished–I have never appreciated a cupcake as much as I did that night.
Here are my four tips for anyone thinking about participating and four realisations:
Tip #1: If you are looking for a cheap sugar hit, get Aldi Jelly. Before LBL, I didn’t really like jelly–and during the week, I found out I really don’t like jelly–but it was still the thing I looked forward to every day because I wanted sugar.
Tip #2: Do it with a good friend if you can. It helped when teachers gave us chocolate rewards at school and we both couldn’t eat them. It also helped when we were shopping and we could afford luxuries like a little butter for our pasta because we joint our money.
Tip #3: Popcorn is a super cheap snack.
Tip #4: Pickling onions. They are mini onions that are usually pickled and eaten whole but at my local market they were about half the price of regular onions. Another perk is that because they are small, you can cook them as you go and keep the rest fresh. They are also so much easier to cut up.
Realisation #1: I never realised how much flavour a little bit of butter or some onion can go.
Realisation #2: The amount of time I save when I don’t stare into the fridge or pantry is quite a lot. Usually every time I am at home and I am either bored or procrastinating from something I will stare into the fridge and/or pantry looking for something to eat. Most of the time there isn’t really anything to have, but I will continue to stare. This week, I haven’t needed to, as I can’t eat any of it even if there was something.
Realisation #3: I haven’t really missed things like vegies or meat as much as I have missed the little things, like golden syrup on my Weetbix every morning.
Realisation #4: I have some really bad habits that I have only really noticed this week and I think a lot of us do this: If I see food that I can take, I will take it. Bridget and I were in the situation on Friday night (our last night of LBL) where there were sausage rolls and party pies and later ice cream being handed out and we had to resist the urge to take them. And I was thinking - if I wasn’t doing LBL at that time, I would have taken one without even thinking, even though I had just had dinner.
For those wondering, here is my menu for the five days:
Breakfast each day: 2 x Weetbix with 180mL milk
Recess each day: half a banana and 30g uncooked popcorn, cooked
Lunch x 2: 100g pasta, 100g frozen peas, corn and carrot, 10g butter
Lunch x 3: 100g rice, 200g pumpkin, on one day I had ½ pickling onion cooked in some leftover butter in my rice (made it ten times better)
Snack: apple
Dinner x 2: 3 x Homemade hash browns with 3 eggs
Dinner x 3: Homemade flatbread with one egg and plastic cheese
Dessert: 1/5 pack of jelly
Overall it was a really rewarding experience and I really encourage everyone to do it next year. A big thanks to all my sponsors (and if you haven’t donated yet, you still can!), this is the most money I have ever raised for anything.
Matilda xo
