The Finish Line!

Day Five!

Well, it's been a long week, folks!  I can't say it's been eventful, necessarily, but it was definitely interesting trying to be full, healthy, and cheap all at the same time.  I'm just glad that Ingles has blessed me with Ramen Noodles.

But the bigger picture is that there are still billions of people, families, that face this reality every day of their lives.  When the Earth's resources are open to all men, how can we still deny them to so many?

I hope you feel as strongly as I do about this issue.  When The Global Poverty Project brought their film to Western Carolina University, I was so blown away by the things that they showed us.  Families living in landfills, without the opportunity of employment and a better future, living off of $1.50 a day for everything: medical needs, food, hygiene, clothing, a home, school, everything...

Call me dramatic, but I'm being completely honest when I say that it's mere luck which determines when and where we're born -- luck, that separates us from the severe conditions faced by billions of people every single day of their lives.  We take everything we have for granted... this computer I'm typing on, for instance!  The schools we go to, the beds we sleep on.  I could go on and on about it, but I have a very famous quote that explains what I'm thinking better than I ever could:

"If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" 

-- 1 John 3:17 (NIV)

Please, take a second out of your day to donate to the efforts of the Global Poverty Project, and their continued fight to end world poverty.  You can do that here.  Remember, you can donate until May 31st!

Chelsea

Ending Global Poverty

Day Three.

Enough about me!  If you guys come here, you deserve to know about the issue at hand.

Since the Global Poverty Project first initiated their efforts at alleviating poverty, the number of those in extreme poverty has been reduced from 1.4 Billion to to 1.2 Billion, and things are looking up!

The Global Poverty Project utilises the power of education, communications, advocacy, campaigning and the media to advance the movement to end extreme poverty.

We know extreme poverty is a complex issue, and that it can’t be eradicated overnight, or by one person. That’s why we’re building a global movement for change: focused on making a difference now, and changing the systems and policies that keep people in poverty. 

We do this in two ways: 

• Campaigning for government, business and consumer action that will create important systemic change for the world’s extreme poor, and

• Building a movement that engages and educates people, and supports them to take simple but effective individual actions for change.

If you're interested in the Global Poverty Project and want to help them take action against the injustice of global poverty, you should check out there website, here.  If you're interested in helping them gain funding, you should consider donating to them, here.

Chelsea

The Great Generation

Day Two.

Today came on a lot easier than yesterday did.  I think having my groceries, my "menu" if you will, laid out for me really helped.  My two eggs for breakfast were delicious, and in case you didn't know, eggs are pretty much perfect: super cheap, ($1.33 for the carton!  Only .11 cents a piece, yahoooo), left me feeling semi-full, and packed with a decent amount of protein in that tiny little shell.

Tuesdays are always my busiest, so I ate a banana on the go.  And just for creative measure, I ate the exact same dinner as last night.  (But don't worry!  I plan on breaking out those black beans tomorrow.)

I decided to splurge since it's day two and I'm doing pretty good, I ate a couple m&ms for dessert, but I subtracted a nickel from my budget, and I still have .29 cents left for the night, in case I need a midnight snack!

As it turns out, the college life is really fantastic preparation for living below the line.  This isn't the first time I've survived off of ramen.... but still, it makes me look forward to that gigantic home-cooked meal I'm going to have at the end of the week, and guilty because I know I'm doing this for those who don't have that big meal to look forward to.  Bittersweet, but I'm so thankful for my situation!  It only makes me want to support the Global Poverty Project and their efforts to alleviate global poverty that much more.

Kris suggested that next year I should just make a big bowl of spaghetti or macaroni with my $7.50 and eat a little serving a day.  Not a bad idea, what do you guys think?

Thanks again for all of your support & kind consideration!  Remember, if you have $1.50 of your own, please consider donating to the Global Poverty Project -- I've pledged to raise $150 for them, here.

"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice.  Like slavery, and Apartheid, poverty is not natural.  It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.  Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great.  You can be that great generation.  Let your greatness blossom." - Nelson Mandela

Chelsea

The Littlest Blessings

Day One.

If there's one thing that this challenge will make you acknowledge with haste, it's all the little snacks and blessings that we take for granted every day.  It requires mental concentration and effort to make sure that we don't eat more than our budget allows and that within itself tells us just how truly blessed we are.

My day started off without any breakfast, since I hadn't yet prepared my week's groceries.  At work, I let my mind slip for just a few minutes and I absentmindedly reached into the little "goody" bowl for a handful of mints; I ate them before I realized that they would count against my budget -- so my day started off with .50 worth of mints, first thing.  Nutritious breakfast, huh?

But no worries, my plan developed as the day went on, and I finally invested in $5.95 worth of groceries to last me the rest of the week: eggs, bananas, yogurt, ramen noodles, and black beans.  I feel like it's a good start for my first time living with such a small budget, especially since I still have $1.05 of spare cash in case of a hunger emergency later in the week.

For lunch, I ate a banana, another .21 cents from my daily allowance, with little substance to get me through the day.  By dinner, I was ravenous.  It didn't help that Kristopher decided to cook himself a giant batch of beef stroganoff in my kitchen tonight, either.  Not to seem whiny, but the smells made my stomach clench.  The first night, and I feel like my eyes are already open a little wider -- if I can't even last 24 hours on this small-budget diet, I can't imagine what a lifetime of hunger would be like.

My conscious felt guilty for being hungry already, which made it easier to swallow my .70 cent dinner: a bowl of ramen and a cup of yogurt, .23 cents and .50 cents, respectively.  My meal seemed tiny in comparison to Kris' dinner -- the dinner I would have been eating during normal circumstances -- but I know it was huge in comparison to the dinner that millions around the world were lucky to eat tonight.

All in all, it was a pretty good first day's experience.  I can't wait to see what the following days have in store.

I'm so thankful for all the support from my family and friends; if anyone has a spare dollar or two, please consider donating to the Global Poverty Project by going to my pledge page, here.

"There is so much that people take for granted." - Vivienne Westwood

Chelsea