Right....things that I've noticed

1) weighing out portions
Reading the back of packets and finding out what the real size of a serving is has stopped me over eating and also means my food is lasting longer! Sounds simple but it goes further than that; by eating the recommended portion sizes it stops you from over eating, which means you don't stretch your stomach making you feel hungrier later!

I've chosen not to prepare my lunches at the same time as I do my meals as I know that i'd just eat my lunch... I have no self control!

2) Splashing out a little has mad ALL the difference!!! Pesto for 98p, cream cheese for 50p and it sounds silly but cake mix for 22p have been the highlights of the past week. With basic staples that had absolutely NO flavour....[wall-papper paste I'm sure has more gastronomic appeal than cous-cous I'm SURE] but hey ... slap a bit of pesto in and you're away!

3) The whole week I've been craving sugar! That's where the cake mix coupled with the marmalade came into play! 22p basics cake mix would have been awful and dry....very dry! I had wanted to but Lemon curd so I could do a makeshift lemon drizzle cake but neither supermarket had any. which is why I ended up with marmalade. I boiled some down and added it to the mix along with one of my eggs and the rest of the orange-jam-syrup concoction was poured over the cake once it was done! I WAS SO HAPPY! Was it the best cake I'd ever eaten? NO Did I care? NO! I had cake! I was happy!

4) It is REALLY hard to eat healthily on a budget! Cheap food is not healthy! I could have bought 20 sausages for a pound apparently...NO THANKS! Pizza's for 40p! chicken nuggets for who even cares! I don't want it! I want fruit and veg! I walked past the market and there was a stall with the most beautiful apples! I think I may have to indulge this week on some fresh fruit and veg but then there s the risk of it going off! Right now it's a risk I'm willing to take!

5) Something else I've noticed is that there is pretty much NO VARIATION in my meals! I saved up some of the more 'exciting' foods till the weekend so I had something to look forward to! The joke was on me! It got to Saturday and my stomach  had shrunk! I made myself a breakfast of two fish fingers, an egg, half a tin of beans and two slices of toast......I ate.......most of the beans, half the egg, a fish finger and one slice of toast...I WAS STUFFED! I ate the rest for lunch I wasn't going to waste it!

6) I do not drink anywhere near enough water! The first few days I had a constant headache and often contemplated just going to bed so I didn't have to think about food!

6.5) I snack ALL THE TIME! I recognised all of the times during the day when usually I'd have had a biscuit or a tomato or an apple or some sushi...I don't snack on normal things...which is probably why I nearly jumped a five year old with a pear the other day!

7) Alot of people at some point in the life have lived on less than a pound a day! My favourite stories coming from students that have lived of chopped tomatoes and toast...and I thought I had it bad!

8) Some of my friends are not the kind of people you really want to be around when doing this challenge. Having bananas waved in your face or dominoes pizza just being left beside you....NOT FUN!

9)It is worth it! On so many levels that I couldn't have comprehended before I started it is SO worth it. I have had loads of interesting conversations and had so much support not only for this but also my Global Poverty Ambassador venture for this year!

Ok So this is the second year I have taken up the live below the line challenge; last year I didn't document it and up until this point I hadn't documented this years challenge either....so here I go. This year I am taking up the challenge as a Global Poverty Ambassador, but for Restless Development.

The Challenge (if you choose you accept it) Is to live below the extreme poverty line (country specific) for 5 days. In the UK that means £5 for 5 days food and drink, thats breakfast lunch and dinner....33p per meal. My goal is to raise £365 which is the equivalent of living a year below the line.

When I tell most people what I'm doing the question they all ask is why; I'm doing this for the same reason that I present the 1.4 billion reasons presentation, to give a glimpse into the lives of 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the line everyday- and who have to make £1 cover a lot more than food and drink.

My shopping list for this week is as follows
loaf of bread - 47p
pasta - 30p
cous cous - 68p
pesto - 98p
cream cheese w/ garlic and herbs - 50p
pasta sauce - 39p
fish fingers - 60p
frozen mixed veg - 75p
instant mash - 20p
marmalade - 22p
gravy granules - 20p
6 eggs - £1
tin of beans - 27p
sponge mix - 22p 

the grand total of £6.78 leaving 22 pence to treat myself during the week WHOOP!

Ok today wasn't the most memorable day in my 23 years of living...

Breakfast - toast and marmalade
Lunch - 2 toast pizzas (surprisingly tasty)
Dinner - mixed veg and cous cous with a little bit of pesto......absolutely no flavour what so ever 

Tomorrow will be interesting to say the least! Over the past week I've had a constant headache that I'm going to put down to dehydration and a lack of sugar. My favourite meal last week (although it wasn't planned) was my left over chilli with pasta ...yes, it sounds vile but hey, small mercies!

Lets see how this goes!

If you'd like to sponsor me you can HERE
You can find out more about live below the line HERE
Find out more about Restless Development the charity I'm doing it for HERE

1) The tags for the post below read Found, Future, Job! I only just realised but it must have been an omen as this Summer I will indeed be working for THE CHALLENGE! I honestly don't think anyone can fully comprehend how excited I am! On top of that I still have the possibility of maybe doing two sessions of wither the challenge or two sessions of EFY ......or I might just do one of each; either way this Summer is going to be HECTIC! add into the mix that I'm on the committee to organise a conference for up to 800 people between 18 and 30 and Im starting to question what on Earth I was thinking!

2) I turn 23 in less than a month! I cannot decide on a pie party, a pimp that snack party or a panther party....or if in all fairness I just want to go and get food with people that I love.....the last one is kind of winning!

3) Yesterday I had SUCH a lovely day! One of my best friends sisters has been living roughly twenty minutes WALK away from where I live during her first year of university, now that the school year is coming to a close I actually met up with her and spent some time just chatting! We went to the farm.....(where I take everyone) and then we went to Manton's....(where I take everyone else) it was so fun and we've vowed to do it again! (I didn't take any pictures as the whole time at the farm we were being harassed by crazy dogs and terrorised by greedy geese! just a normal day down at the farm!)

4) Scotty and Aaron are coming down on Thursday! from Scotland! Ahhhh I actually can't wait...although I haven't got a clue what we're going to do!

5) A charity that I volunteered with when I was at school emailed me the other day about an informal interview for a role I'd applied for! OH HAPPY DAY [let us also not forget that this charity share an office with THE CHALLENGE....I don't know why I insist on always typing it in CAPITALS] so Dharshna is chatting away and asks me if I have any questions..... I tell her no...as I've done it before...she tells me I don't need to come in on Thursday and she'll just send me a CRB form in the post! I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!!

England held a General Election yesterday which has resulted in a hung parliament.

Gordon Brown is in the position as former ...sorry current prime minister to have the first chance at forming a coalition to run government. Many have said that Labour should just join up with the liberal democrats yes second and third together can beat first into submission and pretend that they never existed....they are fools...this still would not provide Labour with a majority so Ol' Gord would also have to include all other marginals which I doubt would go down well at all... Who wants a country run by every one that didn't win rather than the party that has the most seats. Ok most of the country did not vote conservative but more people are in favour of them than any other party...see where the difficulty arises?! most of the country do not want david Cameron as PM! So what do we do?....

We currently have an unelected prime minister which isn't rare....we've had two unelected Conservative Prime Ministers in the past...oh hello John Major! ...but this one is Gordon Brown and I just don't like him! Neither do most of the country! What about all those who voted Labour ...as in pro Gordon Brown and may now end up with Milliband as Prime Minister if Gordon is forced to step down! It's just one big circus! Conservatives forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats would provide a majority... but how they would ever manage to form a comprehensive manifesto that they can both agree on...the Liberals and the righty's come together to form a very English middle of the road ruling power!

The Liberal Democrats have never had this much power....more votes, but less seats....got to love the system. Nick Clegg now can decide whom he forms a coalition with; the countries eyes are on Nick!

Oh England!

While I was waiting for my Ethics lecture doing my best granny impression; swamped in knitwear, sucking on a Werthers reading the guardian G2, I came across Tanya Golds article about the Harrods Christmas Shop. After she had described the many different types of Santa Clause she was surrounded by [all looking somewhat Like Goerge Clooney according to her] she writes

"I almost want a baby Jesus back. Almost. But Santa has sat on him. Cot death. "

"I realise that baby Jesus is too religious for Christmas. Baby Jesus[unlike Santa] isn't commercial. He doesn't sell things"

It's a sad thought, but it's true. Christmas has progressively lost the true meaning and become to many people a holiday for holiday's sake. Gift giving, food eatting and clearly most importantly Santa Clooney who brings even more presents and could probably balance that mince pie on his chisseled jaw line. While watching one of our favourite Christmas films; Elf [Will Ferrel at his finest] I realised that this film too gave the impression that Christmas was all about believing in Santa Clause! As society becomes more and more secular the more we should try and preserve the true meaning of Christmas and not let it become swept up in Commercialism.

Christmas when I was younger was all about the birth of Christ, my nan wouldn't have let us forget even though I myself was not religious. I worry that future generations will not experience a true Christmas, every year we get less Carol singers, less Nativities[my cousin's school haven't had one for the past three years] and more elaborate with our presents not mentioning Santa's grotto looking more like pimp my crib! So let's not forget where it all started; in a manger, in a stable, in Bethlehem.



...show me anywhere in the scriptures where it makes reference to PENGUINS!!??

Ok so I've been meaning to write on here for the past few days. Like most thing I start with a huge amount of enthusiasm and slowly...well ... within a week and a half it dissipates drastically so we'll see how this holds up! I walked into a seminar on Thursday and sat down knowing it was going to be the usual ball of fun! (Tom Porter is my actual hero!) On the desk infront of me someone had left their newspaper insert and the headline was

Every person that walked into the room looked at it with a hilarious look of disdain, turned up their nose and walked on! ...I slipped it into my bag...rather than just laughing at the awful picture on the front I thought that I'd have a look at what the article had to say! Scientific tests and surveys of the like have been done to say that women would much rather stay at home with "a baking sheet rather that a spreadsheet" while their partner goes off to work. My other favourite line was a comparison between ironing boards and the boardroom. Various women were quoted in the article