How much does it cost to eat?
Finding a full belly for one dollar per day.We had a crazy idea, a challenge, that went along with the poverty summit taking place at the UN. The idea of a fast came from the Sojouner's 30,000 campaign, where people are encouraged to write the government and tell them how they are fasting to support the 30,000 children who die as a result of extreme poverty each day.
Here are the rules we used to keep us on track for the week. For each day, we could spend one dollar on food for each of us (a total of $14 for the week).
We also made the assumption that even in a very basic lifestyle there is an opportunity for at least some self sufficiency and carryover. Consequently we decided to use things like food grown in our small community-garden (tomatoes, basil, and one or two peppers) and some basic spices (soy sauce, curry powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and rice vinegar).
You can check out our list of food below. We ended up spending slightly less than $14, but that includes a great deal we got on a tub of yogurt because the market had mispriced it.
We never got hungry, but we did crave tasty things. In addition to a lot of rice, we made pesto pasta with some tomatoes from our garden, and experimented with several ways to make curried vegetables on rice. Once we cooked a rice noodle soup with a few peppers, but could barely finish it for the lack of taste. In an effort to fill my craving for junk food I started making little tortillas from a dough of flour, salt, sugar and yogurt.
I believe the fast would be more sustainable going forward because you wouldn't have to buy the same things every week. For example, we barely made a dent in our sack of brown rice, while we had used all our flour. We ate all our oatmeal and raisins, but had enough black eyed pease and noodles for a few more meals.
Though we did live on $1/day, this was only for food. If we were truly living on a 'poverty' budget, we would include rent, transportation and utilities (which would probably add another $17/day). In addition we had the ability to make a large purchase at the beginning of the week, but to really be poor might mean living more dollar to dollar, or week to week. Truly living on $1/day may not be possible in the US, unless you were relying on some form of aid. Still, it was an interesting experience to get our thoughts rolling. I don't think we'll do it again unless we have to. Read this article from the BBC for what it's like to truly live on $1/day.
Here are the receipts:
Hi-Lo Foods (register: Jessica)
Sunmaid Raisins $2.49
Bird's Eye Chopped Spinach $0.89
Bird's Eye Chopped Spinach $0.89
Goya Red Lentils $1.29
Total $5.56
Super 88 Market (register: Li Ying)
Hinode Calrose Brown Rice $2.99
Lafe Spaghetti - 2 for 1 $1.00
Lafe Instant Oats $0.79
Goya Wheat Flour $0.69
Red-Flower Black Eye Beans $0.69
Sprouting Jasmine Tea $0.59
Garlic - 0.31lb $0.62
Old Ginger - 0.12lb $0.23
Rice Noodles $0.65
Grocery $0.50
Total $8.25
Whole Foods (register: Phillip)
Hawthorn Valley Plain Yogurt $2.99
refund -$2.99
Total $0.00
Grand Total $13.82
