Easter egg radishes, just harvested (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Thank goodness, this is the last day of this challenge. I had a rough time today…had a rough day at work…so busy that I didn’t have time to take breaks or lunch…headache from not eating…really, really wanted to stop and get a pizza after work, but talked myself out of it…if I were truly living in extreme poverty, stopping for a pizza wouldn’t even be a possibility…so I did make it thru the final day.
Let’s see, how did I do?
Breakfast:
(Once again)…2 slices of toast 10¢, 1 T peanut butter 6¢, 6 oz oj 14¢, 8 oz skim milk 15¢
Total for breakfast…45¢
Lunch:
no lunch…no time…did drink a diet Pepsi tho…so the cost of that was 46¢, so I’ll count that as my lunch
Total for lunch 46¢
Dinner:
grilled cheese sandwich 20¢, radishes (free-someone asked about the radishes really being free, cost of the seeds and all…yes, I did buy seeds a couple of years ago, but let one of the radish plants go to seed last year and saved the seeds…so surely we can consider that to be free now, right?), celery 8¢, pickle chips 14¢, hot tea 4¢
Total for dinner…46¢
Total for the day $1.37
So…not the healthiest of days today…but I did it.
What did I take away from this challenge? Well, obviously how difficult it is to eat a healthy, nutritious diet when you have to scrounge for pennies to buy your food. Also how much planning and preparation would go into being able to eat even semi-well for such a miniscule amount of money. I definitely have a greater appreciation for my mom and grandmother and all of the time they put into gardening, preserving what they grew or gathered, and cooking. That’s a lot of work…and they did it year in and year out. But we always had enough to eat and a much better variety of food than what I spent the past week eating.
I have always thought we need to teach people to be self-sufficient…after this week, I believe that even more. Now to figure out how to go about doing that…what organizations are already doing this? And what can I do to help?
Related articles
- Food Stamps Reduced The Number Of Children Living In Extreme Poverty By Half Last Year (thinkprogress.org)
- 12 Days. 12 Reasons. (agirlcalledlynsey.com)
Filed under: food, social issues | Tagged: Extreme poverty, frugality, Live Below The Line |
Run4joy59's Blog 
Great job again Patti. There’s no way I could eat like this, especially if I were working, even for five days. When I have a job, I eat a lot of soda biscuits. Milk is filling too, but what I do since 2% and whole is the same price is buy the whole and water it down.
It seems to me you’re already doing a great deal. It might be interesting to interview some of the people on your blog to see how they make it. Because they have limited resources, I don’t think we’re hearing their stories so much.
hmm…good idea about the interviews and subsequent posts…I know there are elderly and disabled folks here in the complex where I live…many of whom I see coming and going from the food bank as I drive by…wonder what they would think of me asking questions???
You made it through the week! I wonder how much weight you lost eating minimally. Sorry you ended up with a headache. It sounds like you came away from your experiment with ideas on how to help those in your community who don’t have enough to eat.
Thank goodness I made it thru it all…not sure if I lost weight or not, probably did tho…altho I tend to lose weight more easily when I’m eating more fruits and veggies…yeah, I really would like to come up with ways to help people help themselves…of course we all need to eat healthy nutritious food…and we feel so much better about ourselves when we overcome adversity…definitely food for thought in this challenge…