Food for thoughts

Here is what I have purchased for this month's purposes.  The total budget for this month is $38.75

1 - 25lb bag of Riceland rice  $8.74
3 - 1lb bags of Kroger red beans $1.59 (each) $4.77 (total
1 - 5 lb bag mixed frozen vegetables $4.49
1 box of 18 granola bars (for breakfast) $3.49
1 - 6 lb bag of chicken $10.98

Total spent so far $32.47

This leaves me with a balance of $6.28 for the month to purchase any other items.  Any other incidentals I use (such as cooking oil, soy sauce, etc.) will be priced out on a per unit basis from my own pantry.


Using this list, the big thing I did tonight was cook up a big pot of red beans and rice.  I took 4 cups of rice and cooked it up with 2 pounds of red beans.  I have never cooked beans before and I was interested to learn that you had to soak the beans overnight.  I soaked them over the day by putting them in water this morning and then cooking them up this evening.  I then combined them with the cooked rice and seasoned them lightly with some everglades seasoning for a lightly spiced creole taste.  I used 2 pounds of beans ($1.59) and 2 lbs of rice. ($.65) and about $.15 of seasoning from my pantry for a total cost of $2.39.  Out of this I have filled 7 Gladware containers full of this red beans and rice mixture.  I guess this will be an experiment into how much I can stomach rice for this month....

As mentioned before this comes no where close to describing the conditions in these countries.  How do you gather all this food, cook it, work all day, clothe your family, bathe your family and provide a shelter for your family all on a buck twenty five each day? 

It seems impossible, even when you consider that prices in other countries are far below those here in America.  Just considering the odds stacked against people in this type of situation is overwhelming.  What happens when catastrophe strikes, or a child is injured, or the head of the family falls ill?  This is even worse than living pay check to paycheck, this is living mouthful to mouthful.  There is no room in these budgets for entertainment or other luxuries.  Clothes must be handmade or free hand-me-downs or worse, children must survive without clothes.  I don't think any of us could truly conceive of a life where these essentials are considered luxuries that can not be afforded and it puts our own lifestyles into comparison.

The Order of Worship for the month of March

Here is the lineup for the month of March. Following each country is the percentage of people who live on a buck twenty five or less each day

1st - Liberia (83.7)

2nd - Mozambique (74.7)

3rd - Madagascar (67.8)

4th - Chad (61.9)

5th - @#!*% (65.9) (I find it interesting, and slightly frustrating, that the porn blocker on my computer always changes this into @#!*% on my pages...)

6th - Nigeria (64.4)

7th - Central African Republic (62.4)

8th - Guinea (70.1)

9th - Uzbekistan

10th - Namibia (49.1)

11th - Malawi (73.9)

12th - Zambia (64.3)

13th - Haiti (54.9)

14th - Mali (51.4)

15th (Beware the Ides of March! Especially if you are Julius Caesar!) Democratic Republic of the Congo (59.2) / The Republic of the Congo (54.1) Since this is the midway point, you get two for the price of one this day.

16th - Angola (54.3)

17th - Burkina Faso (56.5)

18th - Nepal (55.1)

19th - Sierra Leone (53.4)

20th - Lesotho (43.4)

21st - Laos (44)

22nd - Uganda (51.5)

23rd - Swaziland (62.9)

24th - Bangladesh (49.6)

25th - Benin (47.3)

26th - Comoros (46.1)

27th - Guinea-Bissau (48.8)

28th - Rwanda (76.6)

29th - Burundi (81.3)

30th - Tanzania (88.5)

31st - Mystery Nation (?)

Last weekend...

Today I ate dinner at a local Mexican restaurant called "El Barzon". I had the Burrito El Barzon, a massive Burrito stuffed with steak, chicken, chorizo and shrimp smothered in queso and topped off with two slices of pineapple....

I know what you are thinking...."Pineapple?" but believe me, I am not a pineapple fan but then it is cooked on top of the burrito, it adds a wonderful sweet flavor that compliments the rest of the feast wrapped inside the flour tortilla. It is absolutely divine and I have a weakness for it that can only be starved for so long.

Even so, I know I should not have eaten it. All the while I was enjoying it, I could not shake the reality that within a few days I would be embarking on this month-long experience of identifying with the poor of the world and I could not get comfortable with the dichotomy of the situation. Here in America I can have as much food as money could buy. In fact, often we buy too much. We over eat, we waste, we spoil and we consume more than what we need.

Today I consumed two pieces of ham and egg quiche and two large glasses of chocolate milk for breakfast, a foot-long chicken-bacon ranch sub from subway with jalapeño chips and a large soda for lunch and chips and salsa, two glasses of Pepsi and a large burrito El Barzon for dinner. Currently I am participating in a "Biggest Loser" weight loss competition at my job. My current lifestyle consists of a greatly reduced calorie load than what I was consuming but today represents what I might have consumed before this competition. Honestly I am afraid to count the calories I consumed today but it will stand as an interesting measure of comparison to the meals that I will be enjoying for March.

Why do we consume so much? Is it an economic mindset? an entitlement mindset? or a need to quench some felt-need deep inside us? We can blame it on others, our situation, or our genes, but ultimately we have choices to make and we make them for right or for wrong. Hopefully this month will bring new insight into why I choose the way I choose and perhaps give me a new option when I am once again confronted with the urge to over-consume again.

Goal for this project

I have a couple of goals for this project. First I just want to experience the challenges of living on such a meager budget. A lot can be learned from experience that cannot be learned from a book. This experience will give me a birds eye view of what it is like to make tough choices each day and to live in a world where affluence is all around you but just outside your grasp.

Second, I want to raise the awareness of people regarding global poverty. Many of the nations that suffer absolutely crushing poverty are nations we may have never heard of, or if we have, only as sound-bites on the news. These are places that contain real people but are often never given a second thought. They are economically insignificant but they still have spiritual significance and therefore I will do my best to shine a light on the disparity and injustice of their situation.

I have several other reasons some personal, some selfish, some altruistic but these two are the most significant so I end this post with them. My ground rules are these; The food I consume will cost no more than $1.25 per day. If I go out, then I have to choose the free options (such as oyster crackers and water at Skyline, or chips and salsa and water at basically ANY Mexican restaurant) instead of food. If someone wants to pay for a meal then they are permitted to do so (hey, if you live on $1.25 a day you are in no position to refuse charity!) but I will limit this to only once per week. I must do my best to eat three meals a day. My experience will be limited to food because I cannot find a way to live entirely on $1.25 a day and still drive my car to work to remain gainfully employed so while this experience will not be exactly like living in poverty, I hope it will be something close.

My hope is that you will read this blog and that you will comment. Join in if you like but I have no illusions of a mass following of people clamoring to starve themselves on a bucktwentyfive a day. Do with it as you will, but do something with it. Do not leave me with your silence. Silence is the enemy because to often, if we ignore it, then it does not exist and we are able to play the part of Pilate and wash our hands of the burden. Join me in whichever way you see fit, but please do something, even if it is nothing more than to pray for these people and hope for a better tomorrow.