1. 'Ah that’s easy, I did that all the time when I was a student'
Yes and I’m sure that was a famously lovely, nutritionally-balanced time of your life. Also this time you’re doing it to raise money for charity, rather than because you blew your loan on Jager Bombs and doner meat.
2. 'Simple! All you need is... *proceeds to list a series of completely unfeasible or ill-thought ingredients*'
This is good for highlighting people who don’t really understand what a balanced diet is e.g. ‘just get a big bag of pasta, £1 from Lidl, and live off that!’ Sure, I’ll have pasta for 3 meals a day for 5 days and then I will sell my stomach on Gumtree for parts.
3. 'I could do it if it was £10 a day hahahahahah *cue merriment and thigh slapping*'
Thanks for your support.
4. ‘Well that’s easy, you can just eat whatever you want when nobody's looking.’
This is of course true, but we like to have just a smidge more faith in our participants than that, and hope they won’t Lie Below the Line. If you’re privately scoffing Greggs while claiming to be meditating on systemic global inequality then you need a talking to.
5. ‘Can’t you just go around bumming free stuff off of people?’
Put down the free sample of Lidl chorizo Sir, for you have missed the point entirely.
6. ‘£1 over here can’t buy the same amount as what it would over there’
Anyone who has ever been hungry near a Pret A Manger will know that this is distressingly true. However, the £1 a day figure is calculated using Purchasing Power Parity, which adjusts for the cost of living. Sadly £1 is the UK equivalent of the figure you would live on if you lived in extreme poverty here, and not just to cover food and drink – for everything. There's more info on this in our FAQ here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk/challenge
7. ‘Aren’t you just playing at being poor?’
This is a very fair one. At no point do we claim that taking the challenge gives you a realistic experience of living in poverty. Instead the campaign is designed to spark conversations and highlight the lack of choice faced by those who live on less than £1 a day. The campaign also raises vital funds to ensure that they never have to make those difficult choices again.
8. ‘Why don’t you focus on poverty over here?’
Again, another fair question. Our campaign primarily seeks to raise awareness and raise funds specifically for those who live below the extreme poverty line, who survive on less than £1 a day for everything. 1.2 billion people live below this line which we believe to be an outrage and will continue to do everything in our power to see the end of extreme poverty by 2030.
9. ‘Just… why???’
Last year over 1.2 billion people survived on less than £1 a day, while the UK wasted four Wembley Stadiums full of food. That’s why.
To sign up to Live Below the Line, head to https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk