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.