So the Wog and I just finished our last day of 'Below the Line', with our charity of choice being UNICEF.
$1.75 is the Canadian equivalent of the extreme poverty line. Living on so little gave us a glimpse into the challenges faced by the 1.4 billion people
who have no choice but to live below the line every day – for everything
- food, medical care, transport, education, everything.
Our Below the Line Page
It was definitely an affair to remember. When I first broached the subject with him a few weeks ago, he was very hesitant; he felt it might negatively impact our kids. Thankfully, I think having them present [though not participating] enriched the experience.
Living on less than two dollars a day is a lot harder than it seems on paper; that was the first lesson we learnt. Just grocery shopping turned into an epic journey of frustration and compromise.
He wanted hot dogs [ew] and I wanted eggs...I conceded but only if I didn't have to eat the oatmeal.
As a side note, anyone who has read earlier posts in this blog knows that last year we nearly lost our house; it's not something I like to talk about, but it did happen, and during that period of time I was a master of the family budget. Trying to stretch things became a matter of pride for me; it didn't matter if half our food was coming from Dollarama...we were eating and that was the important thing.
It did hurt my heart a little when Goose asked 'Momma, did Daddy lose his job again?' when we sat down to our first dinner. Thankfully, after a careful explanation both he and Roux relaxed and came to enjoy that they were eating a variation of our meals.
All in all it was a learning experience, and a valuable one; it helped us remind us how close we came to losing everything we had...but it also helped us see how far we'd come.
