Live Below The Line- 31 Day Challenge
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I love the idea of this and have been thinking about doing it for a while, but think my partner would need a bit more convincing! I think it really highlights how much a lot of us take for granted in terms of food budget as well as the selection of food/availability to most of us (as in those of us who aren't living on/below the poverty line). We often have budget dinner days but this would be much more challenging over a month, not so much in terms of getting enough calories but getting a healthy balance too. Looking forward to following the rest of your challenge OP, good luck
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This is easy in the UK if you're able to cook with fresh produce and make a bit of an effort. I spend about £90-100 per month on all groceries, but this includes artisan bread every Saturday or Sunday, snacks and a few other luxurious items. Cutting these out I could easily eat on a lot less.1
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Leslierussell4134 wrote: »Thank you for the few of you reading. It's been fun coming home at the days end to report back on this challenge.
I'd like to start by apologizing if I truly offended anyone, that's not me, I'm kind and cringe if I think I've hurt someone's feelings. I guess I wanted to share this experience with others for enlightenment, motivation and fun. However, some are intent on pointing out what my motivations must be or what they should be. Too late, already started, and this is what my challenge is. I'd gladly read yours for 5 days or month if you have suggestions on how to do it better or different. Honestly, there are 12 months in a year...we could get really creative.
Enough of all that, thanks to those who are still with me.
DAY 2
More calories, a few more grams of protien and still under budget. I was hungry later in the day and decided to make a version of my grandmothers Sopa De Fideos. Basically it's a Mexican soup with noodles, tomatoes, onion and chicken bouillon. No chicken here, so I seasoned with spices and salt. Added some beet greens to the broth for extra potassium...husband approved. Otherwise all my other food was the same as yesterday, but I'm not complaining....yet.
I think someone asked me if I usually ate the same things daily and if it was going to bother me if meals became repetitive. It might, because I do eat a lot of variety. We'll reassess around day 10.
Sam said he misses crunchy textures, kept wanting to munch on something. He's thinking of dehydrating some carrots tomorrow, we'll see what happens there.
Honestly I'm more used to snacking than I am hungry, but I had a few stomach growls today. Was around a prediactric patient who kept wanting me to share his twizzlers and crackers, I of course, refused.
Daily Total $1.19
Until tomorrow,
Leslie
Hi Leslie - I love what you're doing, am just pushing back because I think you're being unnecessarily hard on yourself. But you disagree, and that's fine, I respect that
Re: variety - in 2004, I was in charge of making lunch at a tiny yoga retreat center in very remote Costa Rico. I had a very limited pantry. Our staples were rice, black beans, lentils, and pasta. Fortunately, I did have a wide range of spices, fruits, and vegetables, and that's how I created variety.
My favorite concoction was coconut curry lentils with mangoes and rice, mmmm. We didn't pay for the coconuts or mangoes - we just picked them up off the ground.
The rice and beans were delivered by local farmers on horseback. I'm really bummed I can't remember how much they cost; I just have a memory of these giant bags being really cheap.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »Thank you for the few of you reading. It's been fun coming home at the days end to report back on this challenge.
I'd like to start by apologizing if I truly offended anyone, that's not me, I'm kind and cringe if I think I've hurt someone's feelings. I guess I wanted to share this experience with others for enlightenment, motivation and fun. However, some are intent on pointing out what my motivations must be or what they should be. Too late, already started, and this is what my challenge is. I'd gladly read yours for 5 days or month if you have suggestions on how to do it better or different. Honestly, there are 12 months in a year...we could get really creative.
Enough of all that, thanks to those who are still with me.
DAY 2
More calories, a few more grams of protien and still under budget. I was hungry later in the day and decided to make a version of my grandmothers Sopa De Fideos. Basically it's a Mexican soup with noodles, tomatoes, onion and chicken bouillon. No chicken here, so I seasoned with spices and salt. Added some beet greens to the broth for extra potassium...husband approved. Otherwise all my other food was the same as yesterday, but I'm not complaining....yet.
I think someone asked me if I usually ate the same things daily and if it was going to bother me if meals became repetitive. It might, because I do eat a lot of variety. We'll reassess around day 10.
Sam said he misses crunchy textures, kept wanting to munch on something. He's thinking of dehydrating some carrots tomorrow, we'll see what happens there.
Honestly I'm more used to snacking than I am hungry, but I had a few stomach growls today. Was around a prediactric patient who kept wanting me to share his twizzlers and crackers, I of course, refused.
Daily Total $1.19
Until tomorrow,
Leslie
Hi Leslie - I love what you're doing, am just pushing back because I think you're being unnecessarily hard on yourself. But you disagree, and that's fine, I respect that
Re: variety - in 2004, I was in charge of making lunch at a small retreat center in very remote Costa Rico. I had a very limited pantry. Our staples were rice, black beans, lentils, and pasta. Fortunately, I did have a wide range of spices, fruits, and vegetables, and that's how I created variety.
My favorite concoction was coconut curry lentils with mangoes and rice, mmmm. We didn't pay for the coconuts or mangoes - we just picked them up off the ground.
The rice and beans were delivered by local farmers on horseback. I'm really bummed I can't remember how much they cost; I just have a memory of these giant bags being really cheap.
That all sounds amazing, and now I'm wishing there was a coconut tree near by...mangos are my favorite! We are getting a little produce from our garden most days, and I did plant some micro greens from seeds I collected. Hoping they start piping up in the next few days for a poor man's salad.
And just to clarify, I've loved your feed back. Thank you.0 -
firlena227 wrote: »I love the idea of this and have been thinking about doing it for a while, but think my partner would need a bit more convincing! I think it really highlights how much a lot of us take for granted in terms of food budget as well as the selection of food/availability to most of us (as in those of us who aren't living on/below the poverty line). We often have budget dinner days but this would be much more challenging over a month, not so much in terms of getting enough calories but getting a healthy balance too. Looking forward to following the rest of your challenge OP, good luck
Absolutely! Thanks for your response and encouragement.
I know you're partner might have reservations, but maybe you all could do the 5 day challenge to start? It's been a real eye opener, and I'm excited to see what the months end will teach us. ❤1 -
Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.16 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.
Yes, I think there is a huge difference between someone realizing "I can eat well with temporary minimal cash outlay [because I have resources and advantages that others don't have]" and "I [and by extension others] can eat well with minimal means." As long as the difference between the two is clear, experiments like this can be interesting. It's when the former bleeds into the latter that they trouble me also.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.
Yes, I think there is a huge difference between someone realizing "I can eat well with temporary minimal cash outlay [because I have resources and advantages that others don't have]" and "I [and by extension others] can eat well with minimal means." As long as the difference between the two is clear, experiments like this can be interesting. It's when the former bleeds into the latter that they trouble me also.
I've certainly spent time playing with reducing my monthly food budget over this last year, but I am under no illusion on the differences. I have access and security that isn't afforded to those under the poverty line. I think that there is value with raising awareness of poverty, I'm just not convinced this is the way to do it. While awareness was raised as an initial reason, the thread itself hasn't been focused on poverty issues. So I don't see how it's achieving that stated goal either.2 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.
Well, when I did my "Live on FL Max Food Stamps Benefits" it was challenging to me on $200 a month, so Leslie is far more challenged on $1.90 per day.
I did it because a friend was receiving benefits. I realized I had many more advantages than he did, some of which you mentioned - complete kitchen facilities, time to meal plan, being able to drive to the store. I also knew a lot more about cooking and nutrition than he did. I wasn't trying to equalize all my advantages, just answer the simple question "Can I live on this and stay within my food ethics?"
Plus the real disadvantage my friend had was his father dying when he was a baby, his mother dying when he was 10, and his 28 years of being a heroin addict. There's no way I could equalize that.
I believe that Leslie is sincerely coming from a humble place. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she went on to share her knowledge with the truly disadvantaged.4 -
Leslierussell4134 wrote: »firlena227 wrote: »Absolutely! Thanks for your response and encouragement.
I know you're partner might have reservations, but maybe you all could do the 5 day challenge to start? It's been a real eye opener, and I'm excited to see what the months end will teach us. ❤
Haha well he surprised me when he was happy to do veganuary this year so maybe! Im in England so the live below the line is usually £1 per person per day, definitely doable. Best of luck with the rest of your challenge1 -
Whoops somehow managed to quote myself in response to one of the OPs responses... doh!!1
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kshama2001 wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.
Well, when I did my "Live on FL Max Food Stamps Benefits" it was challenging to me on $200 a month, so Leslie is far more challenged on $1.90 per day.
I did it because a friend was receiving benefits. I realized I had many more advantages than he did, some of which you mentioned - complete kitchen facilities, time to meal plan, being able to drive to the store. I also knew a lot more about cooking and nutrition than he did. I wasn't trying to equalize all my advantages, just answer the simple question "Can I live on this and stay within my food ethics?"
Plus the real disadvantage my friend had was his father dying when he was a baby, his mother dying when he was 10, and his 28 years of being a heroin addict. There's no way I could equalize that.
I believe that Leslie is sincerely coming from a humble place. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she went on to share her knowledge with the truly disadvantaged.
The bolded part bothers me a bit. How does living with a small budget without all the other disadvantages for a month make you more knowledgable about poverty than people who have been living it and experiencing it for a lot longer? I think it would be the other way around. It will for sure help her understand a bit bettee but it in no way makes her more knowledgable than those who don't have a choice.11 -
singingflutelady wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »Leslierussell4134 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So if you took the Maximum CalFresh Allotment for a family of 2 of $352, and divided it by half to get you from 200% of the federal poverty level to 100%, divided that by 2, and that by 30, you'd get $5.87 per person per day.
When we bought rice and beans in Costa Rico, we were getting them directly from the farmers. No transportation costs, no supermarket markup.
So we though of this as well, but at over $5 per day, there really isn't a challenge. Over $350 per month for 2 people, I mean many people do that and less. I believe this country provides a lot of those who don't have the means to provide for themselves, but this is also a first world country. This challenge is meant to simulate extreme poverty, third world poverty. If you look up the challenge, AU and NZ have a $2 a day budget. other countries have similar guidelines, although many of them do it for just 5 days at a time, once per year.
So far I'm realizing how well I can eat with minimal means. It just takes a lot of planning.
I've been trying to figure out why this isn't sitting well with me, and to be honest it's a very complex intermingling of concepts. While I think your intentions are good, I'm having a hard time figuring out how this experiment really does what you say with regards to challenging you.
I think part of it is that you have access and means that people living below the poverty line don't. You mention a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and having time to meal plan. You mentioned something about drying some carrots (I think, I didn't reread before posting this), is that with a dehydrator? I suspect that you were able to drive to the grocery. Being able to drive expands the selection or grocers because you can go further to get food and thereby allows you to reduce the price. You also aren't limited by what you can carry on the bus.
I get that the challenge is not about simulating poverty. Your access to all of these additional conveniences makes it less challenging for you to live on less. What really doesn't sit well with me is the bolded part above. I think that is because it is an unequal comparison, and makes it sound like poor people could be doing better with what they have. They have other issues that compound this problem for them. You have more time, less food scarcity, and more housing security.
I'm not trying to put you down or belittle you. I'm just confused.
Well, when I did my "Live on FL Max Food Stamps Benefits" it was challenging to me on $200 a month, so Leslie is far more challenged on $1.90 per day.
I did it because a friend was receiving benefits. I realized I had many more advantages than he did, some of which you mentioned - complete kitchen facilities, time to meal plan, being able to drive to the store. I also knew a lot more about cooking and nutrition than he did. I wasn't trying to equalize all my advantages, just answer the simple question "Can I live on this and stay within my food ethics?"
Plus the real disadvantage my friend had was his father dying when he was a baby, his mother dying when he was 10, and his 28 years of being a heroin addict. There's no way I could equalize that.
I believe that Leslie is sincerely coming from a humble place. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she went on to share her knowledge with the truly disadvantaged.
The bolded part bothers me a bit. How does living with a small budget without all the other disadvantages for a month make you more knowledgable about poverty than people who have been living it and experiencing it for a lot longer? I think it would be the other way around. It will for sure help her understand a bit bettee but it in no way makes her more knowledgable than those who don't have a choice.
People who live in food deserts may have only seen rice in boxes and beans in cans. They may not know about the much much cheaper option of buying in 5, 10, 20 pounds bags. They might not know how to cook dried beans. (Lots of people don't.)
Lots of people could use tips on meal planning. It's easy for someone to just get takeout because they are tired and didn't plan, but if they have someone coaching them on meal planning, they can save a lot of money and potentially eat more healthily.
We used to have a poster here who was a social worker whose job included teaching things like this. She also spread the word about communities where food stamps went farther at farmers markets.
https://thesouthern.com/news/local/program-doubles-snap-dollars-spent-at-farmers-market/article_07adce6d-2a77-593d-8d0d-0d58b8867b94.html
****
This is not a diss on poor people. I learned that having a fan in my attic will help me save money on air conditioning through a state sponsored energy audit that was full of money saving tips like this for home owners.
Knowledge is power!2 -
I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.15
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singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
Well, I didn't expect her to be going up randomly to people
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singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
can you not just congratulate the OP for trying to open up her life experience a bit?
instead of being so dismissive. ok you did it for longer and under more "severe" conditions.
good luck OP.
i'm big on soups and making my own bread(trying) and cookies and such.7 -
singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
can you not just congratulate the OP for trying to open up her life experience a bit?
instead of being so dismissive. ok you did it for longer and under more "severe" conditions.
good luck OP.
i'm big on soups and making my own bread(trying) and cookies and such.
It's not a contest, but there is a big difference between eating this way because it's an fun challenge that you hope will educate you and doing it because you have virtually no other options. So seriously, the little scare quotes around "severe" are totally unnecessary.
It's not the same thing under more and less "severe" conditions, they're totally different things. Choice matters.7 -
singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
can you not just congratulate the OP for trying to open up her life experience a bit?
instead of being so dismissive. ok you did it for longer and under more "severe" conditions.
good luck OP.
i'm big on soups and making my own bread(trying) and cookies and such.
@mbaker566 I have no issue with the OP or this experiment. I am replying to someone else who made a statement I disagree with.0 -
singingflutelady wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
can you not just congratulate the OP for trying to open up her life experience a bit?
instead of being so dismissive. ok you did it for longer and under more "severe" conditions.
good luck OP.
i'm big on soups and making my own bread(trying) and cookies and such.
@mbaker566 I have no issue with the OP or this experiment. I am replying to someone else who made a statement I disagree with.
You may have missed this in her thread in Debate:Leslierussell4134 wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Is it just for awareness and weight loss, or does the money you save go to causes that provide groceries or meals to those who are hungry or food insecure?
Ive been talking to my husband about this all night, the best way to handle our saved money. We've decided to donate it to a state run assisted living and skilled nursing facility down the street. I am a nurse, and I'm passionate about the senior or geriatric population some of my favorite patients. It so happens this is the most food insecure population in my local community.
She's a nurse and passionate about seniors - her helping to educate the food insecure population in her local community with whom she already works is not a stretch.3 -
janejellyroll wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »I agree knowledge is power but just by doing this experiment doesn't automatically make you more knowledgeable than people who live in poverty. I am poor. I have a vast knowledge of nutrition and how to save money (I don't have any credit cards so I can only spend what I have). If someone came up to me and started giving me "shopping tips" because they did it for a month I don't think I would react positively. What makes that person's 1 month experiment more valuable than my multi year experience of living under the line.
can you not just congratulate the OP for trying to open up her life experience a bit?
instead of being so dismissive. ok you did it for longer and under more "severe" conditions.
good luck OP.
i'm big on soups and making my own bread(trying) and cookies and such.
It's not a contest, but there is a big difference between eating this way because it's an fun challenge that you hope will educate you and doing it because you have virtually no other options. So seriously, the little scare quotes around "severe" are totally unnecessary.
It's not the same thing under more and less "severe" conditions, they're totally different things. Choice matters.
severe is a matter of perspective. maybe it's severe to one person, and just plain old life to another
at least the op is trying to expand her experience even if she is only doing it for a challenge. the point is that she is making a choice to have a closer experience to those that have no choice
i've also learned length of experience does not necessarily mean better advice.
as was mentioned, the Op knows it's not a perfect comparison.3
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