Live Below the Line - $2/person/day for 5 days

[lewelma]

Has anyone done this? https://www.livebelowtheline.com/

 

We are on day 2. You can only spend $2 per person per day (very small kids get less). So for a family of 4, we get $40 for 5 days. No gifts, nothing out of the pantry, no bulk buying, no sneaking chocolate ;).

 

First of all, I can say that it can be done, although I think I am losing weight. We have had to give up: meat, milk, cheese, nuts, wine, coffee, dessert, ALL packaged goods, and unfortunately quite a lot of fruit and vegis. I am trying to eat a balanced diet, rather than just living on white rice. So I know it would be a LOT easier if you eased this restriction.

 

Here are some of my thoughts so far:

1) fruit and vegis are very expensive here even at the market and in season. And they don't have a lot of calories.

2) We are eating a lot of starch. Yes it is wholemeal flour and brown rice, but as we are running out of food, I am starting to replace protein with starch just to have enough calories.

3) We have eaten a larger proportion of the toppings (dahl, humus, etc) than allotted in the first 2 days, and more rice than expected. This means that for my last meal of fish patties, I can only spend $3 instead of $4 because I need that other dollar for 3 more cups of rice.

4) I am aware of each $1 as I am planning out the end of the week, because $1 is a lot of rice but very little fish. And fish patties for $2.80 is virtually impossible, but doable for $3.40. So where am I going to get $.60? I quit eating my 1 allotted kiwifruit each day to save $1 over the week. This gives me $.60 more for the patties and $.40 for more oil because my younger son is too hungry.

 

Really, really eye opening.

 

Ruth in NZ

[VeganCupcake]

That is amazing. I'm really impressed. I would love to do it, but I can't imagine how we would make it work.

[lewelma]

Our normal grocery budget is $2.41 per person. I have to say, I don't even want to try $2.

 

ETA: Did a little research and for the U.S. it would be living at $1.25 per person, per day.

 

My mom told me that last month she fed 40 people for $25. :001_huh: Wow. How did you do that? Well, eggs were on sale for $.50 a dozen, so she bought 8 dozen for $4!!! The cheapest eggs I can get are in a flat of 30 and they cost $6.50. So that is 22 cents per egg not 50 cents for 12!!!

 

And kiwifruit are the cheapest fruit here in NZ at this time of year and they are 23 cents EACH at the market which is 30% off usually!

 

So $2/day/person is REALLY hard here. If I even had $50 instead of $40, I would be able to handle it so much better.

Edited September 25, 2012 by lewelma

[Impish]

figures. They have the US, UK, AUS, NZ...but no Canada. And our prices are way diff than the US.

[lewelma]

I will say I am hungry right now, but there is no food to eat until dinner, (except of course all the food in my pantry that I am not allowed to touch. sigh).

 

I should not have gone for a brisk walk today. Need to conserve my calories!

[BakersDozen]

Interesting! I've gotten us down to about $2.50/person/day but that's stretching it (and using a lot of sales/coupons). With as much fresh fruit and veggies as we eat, we're closer to $3.25/person/day.

[lewelma]

So for a week (7 days) I can spend $56. NZ grocery prices are expensive, very expensive. My current budget is $230/week! I cook from scratch but do buy nice cuts of meat and we eat a LOT of fruit and vegi. Chicken is $9/lb, on sale is $5.50/lb. Milk is $3.0 to $5.50 per gallon. Brocolli is currently $3/head. It just costs a lot. I know of one person who is making due on $150/week for a family of 4. Everyone else is around $200/week. Point being, $56 is tough, really tough. This is not supposed to be poverty level in NZ, because our social net is more generous, but it is supposed to represent poverty on the world wide scale (poverty, not starving Ethiopian style). As a pp mentioned, I think $1.25/person/day is probably equivalent in the USA.

 

I have had people tell me that it would be cheating to buy in bulk, because people at the poverty level would be shopping day to day. So I have not bought in bulk. All I can say is rice, rice, and more rice. Plus going hungry so my kids can eat.

 

Ruth in NZ

[nd293]

That's a very interesting idea. We'll definitely give it a try, although I think it will have to be done during the holidays, or we might attract attention at school.

 

My children's school will be doing a "rice only" day for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in mid October. The school will provide rice for the younger ones, and rice or maize for the older children. That's just for lunch, but I think we will do it for the whole day (something like rice with coconut milk for breakfast and rice with some veggies from the garden for dinner).

 

We spent a month in a village in the Phillipines a couple of years ago, and one thing that really struck home was that many things were sold in very, very small portions. People were managing day-to-day: if there was money, extras such as a sachet of washing powder or shampoo could be bought. Some families were depending on rice from the government and whatever they could grow in their garden or catch in the sea.

[lewelma]

we might attract attention at school.

 

:iagree:My son was at his home ec/shop class today at the local school and his lunch box had in it:

 

1 rice ball (size of his fist, wrapped in seaweed)

1 boiled egg

1 kiwifruit

1/4 carrot (we could only afford 4 carrots for the week for all of us)

 

I told him that the seaweed was too expensive. 20 cents per sheet and he could have a second egg for 22 cents or 3x the amount of rice. But he wanted the seaweed. He is hungry.

 

Ruth in NZ

[lewelma]

That's a very interesting idea. We'll definitely give it a try,

 

It takes a LOT of planning, which was really good for the kids. We had to research prices and portion sizes. We especially had to think about how much oil/butter/fat and any spices/flavorings we needed. We were very frustrated that a single can of tomatoes is $1, so we could not make tomato based foods.

 

Also, we live in the city and the grocery store here is expensive. I did not think it was fair, however, to drive into the suburbs to get cheaper prices. A poor person could not do that.

[nd293]

In between posts I've been to the grocery store - just the idea of $2 a day makes me look at food differently... I also realised I really don't have much idea what food costs - I pretty much buy what I want. We mostly cook from scratch, don't eat a lot of meat, and I choose the cheapest brand available at the time, but I don't look at prices per se. I'm going to talk to dh and dd11 about this tonight. Ds5 will just have to come along for the ride - even if it means a week without Nutella!

[lewelma]

We have found these the best prices:

protein: lentils and eggs and chicken carcases for chicken broth which we are using in the lentils and the rice

starch: rice, and we are making just a bit of bread with cheap wholemeal (I usually by the quality stuff)

fruit: swiss chard, onions, carrots, lettuce, kiwifruit

oil/butter: butter is cheaper than quality olive oil, but I am not pleased with that option.

flavorings: salt and pepper and sugar!

Free: we have parsley in the woods behind our house, but we cannot make tabbouleh because we cannot afford tomatoes. We have one swiss chard plant left in our garden. My mom suggested that we dig up the dandelion and cook it because you can eat it.

 

But if you don't do bulk, you have a problem. Really.

[Renee in NC]

I would have $10 a day total, which would make things more doable. However, it would be beans and rice, with some eggs and carrots thrown in.

 

What is the definition of buy in bulk? I can get 20 pounds of basmati rice and 20 pounds of pinto beans for $20-25. Five dozen eggs would be another $8. Five pounds of carrots is $5. Salt is $1. Oil is $3. That is up to $42. I would spend the other $8 on whatever fruits/vegetables I could find on sale. I regularly buy that much when I do (we can easily go through 5 pounds of carrots in a week!) I have a book called "Material World" and another called "Hungry Planet" that compares families around the world. Some of the poorer families still buy rice and beans (or other staples) in bulk. I notice that most of them also grow a lot of their own food. So, if you could take that $1.25 a day and plant a garden, you could eat a lot better.

 

Honestly, though, you would get more calories and be more filled by buying white bread ($1.25 per loaf), potatoes, pasta w/ sauce, macaroni and cheese, etc. Looking at my local grocery store ad, lettuce is 99 cents and dressing is $1.50. Pasta is 98 cents per pound. Tomatoes $1 a can. Vienna sausages 10/$5. Frozen veggies are 2 pounds for $1.97. Pasta sauce 99 cents. Red potatoes $2.99 for 5 pounds. Chicken is $2.99 per pound (but cheap processed smoke sausage is $2 a pound.) Peanut butter for $4.19

 

It would be terrible to live that way day in and day out. I spend about $200 a week on actual food, and I am so happy to have it.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Renee in FL

[Joyofsixreboot]

I would have $11.50. We could do it but it would be dull. I do have the advantage of living in a relatively inexpensive area. We do stick to a pretty tight budget but I have the luxury of a garden and wild fruits. An urban dweller wouldn't have that available. I currently spend about $150/week. That's twice the $77 I'd get on the challenge.

[Elizabeth in MN]

We live in $1.80 per person per meal. Produce and meat tend to be out of our price range.

[Lily_Grace]

It would be really, really tight here! I know we'd be eating a lot of apples, plums, green peppers and tomatoes (all free from the backyard). On the upside, there's fresh thyme and basil in the front yard so I could make a decent spaghetti sauce.

 

I've done three of us on $25/week, but that was when we lived in an area with competitive discount grocery stores. I'd buy the loss leaders and get creative with meals. Nothing went to waste. Half eaten apples were peeled, diced, and served back to the child as a hot applesauce dessert or baked into a mini-pie for school. I traded with neighbors. We did what we could to not feel like the budget was so close.

[Renee in NC]

We live in $1.80 per person per meal. Produce and meat tend to be out of our price range.

 

Per meal or per day? Per meal I spend $1.19 per person.

[justasque]

My mom suggested that we dig up the dandelion and cook it because you can eat it.

 

I have put dandelion in quiche before, and it worked much like chard. My family liked it. Just be sure it hasn't been sprayed with any chemicals, and wash it well.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Well, I now know why I'm not happy with my grocery budget. Breaking it down per day like this allows me to see why my monthly budget feels so unreasonable. 9 people (though we have two more tonight), 4 of whom are adults, just means a lot more money. $600/month is more than I wish to spend and yet may well be necessary <sigh>.

[vonfirmath]

But if you don't do bulk, you have a problem. Really.

 

But saying can't buy bulk somewhat artificially creates that problem. I've known folk who were so poor that they had two eggs in the house to eat. When one fell on the floor, they scooped it up with a spoon. But because this was a long term issue, they STILL set aside a little bit of money every week to buy essentials in bulk because they were looking ahead to the long run and not just eating one week on that budget. They found other solutions to make that little budget stretch as far as they could and used every saved penny to make the future easier by buying on sale/in larger quantities, etc.

 

(Hrms. And truthfully they lived in a richer culture where they had friends and church family ready and willing to help them out as well.)

Edited September 25, 2012 by vonfirmath

[Susan in TX]

$2 per day per person is what I budget for food: .50 cents for breakfast, .50 cents for lunch, and $1.00 for dinner. I often exceed this budget because I buy extras: ice cream, snack foods, frozen fruit for smoothies etc. It is very difficult to stay within this budget if you are cooking from scratch. I never thought I'd see the day when convenience foods would be cheaper than cooking homemade meals!

 

Susan in TX

[Tutor]

There is a fantastic documentary about something like this: Food Stamped. A couple in California (she's a nutritionist and he's a filmmaker) try to eat on an average food stamp budget for a couple in their area. It amounted to $2/ person/ meal/ day or about $50 for the week. They added additional restrictions to see if they could eat a healthy, mostly organic diet. I liked that they also investigated the lack of food options in poor, urban areas, the increasing number of farmers markets accepting food stamps, and how to handle having company and special celebrations when on such a tight budget.

[Parrothead]

So for a week (7 days) I can spend $56.

Wow! I spend almost that much on produce alone.

 

Yes, I could do it. And have. But it was all starchy foods. And I used stuff from the pantry - balking powder, salt, etc.

 

I can't imagine trying to do a week's worth of groceries from scratch for $56.

[Parrothead]

Ok five days. But what would I buy? I can't think of anything within that price range.

Lots of beans, rice and biscuits. :D

[lovinmomma]

But saying can't buy bulk somewhat artificially creates that problem. I've known folk who were so poor that they had two eggs in the house to eat. When one fell on the floor, they scooped it up with a spoon. But because this was a long term issue, they STILL set aside a little bit of money every week to buy essentials in bulk because they were looking ahead to the long run and not just eating one week on that budget. They found other solutions to make that little budget stretch as far as they could and used every saved penny to make the future easier by buying on sale/in larger quantities, etc.

 

(Hrms. And truthfully they lived in a richer culture where they had friends and church family ready and willing to help them out as well.)

 

Yes. even if you're trying to survive on a $50/wk budget you still try to buy in bulk if you know that this is a long-term budget. At least I do. I buy what meat is on sale and I buy as much as I can. If I always buy just for that week I will always be behind and having to buy meat for a much more expensive price. I have to work really hard to keep my per meal cost very low. I can get a jar of spaghetti sauce for $1 or less and noodles for less than $1.

[lovinmomma]

Oh, and TUNA. Tuna is often cheaper than meat.

[Mandylubug]

I have done that basically. When we were at our "tightest" budget wise we ate for 50 a week for a family of six. There was a TON of beans, potatoes, pasta, chicken thighs, biscuits, cornbread, pb and j sandwiches. No cereals, no prepackaged foods, no desserts, no fresh fruits or veggies and I menu planned each meal per day.

 

We aren't cutting our budget that closely any more because I am trying to avoid so many carbs, etc. to lose weight. I don't like how I feel when I eat so cheaply if that makes sense.

 

I would however, LOVE LOVE LOVE to grow my own garden, etc... but I just do not have the time for it.

[lovinmomma]

I have done that basically. When we were at our "tightest" budget wise we ate for 50 a week for a family of six. There was a TON of beans, potatoes, pasta, chicken thighs, biscuits, cornbread, pb and j sandwiches. No cereals, no prepackaged foods, no desserts, no fresh fruits or veggies and I menu planned each meal per day.

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

[Entropymama]

I think this actually gets easier the more people you have. I'd have $14/day, or $98 for the week. My normal budget is $150 for the week, so it would be tight but I think doable. It has a LOT to do with where you live, though. I can get whole chickens for .85/lb, potatoes for .50/lb, carrots for .50/pound, eggs for $1.25/dozen. It would be very different in a higher cost of living area.

[Annie G]

There is a fantastic documentary about something like this: Food Stamped. A couple in California (she's a nutritionist and he's a filmmaker) try to eat on an average food stamp budget for a couple in their area. It amounted to $2/ person/ meal/ day or about $50 for the week. They added additional restrictions to see if they could eat a healthy, mostly organic diet. I liked that they also investigated the lack of food options in poor, urban areas, the increasing number of farmers markets accepting food stamps, and how to handle having company and special celebrations when on such a tight budget.

 

That was a really good documentary! The couple actually ate better than I expected, and the food stamp program is a supplemental program, not intended to be the sole source of a person's food. So considering that, they did REALLY well.

I thought they only had about $50 to spend for the week- which isn't $2 per person per meal. Wasn't it more like $1 per person per meal? Anyway- it was a good documentary. Mercola had it available to watch for free earlier this month but now it's only for sale. Bummer.

[Excelsior! Academy]

We could do it. With 9 kids we would get $22 a day, which is doable. But $2 for one person does not seem equal to $22 for 11. We definitely would have more breathing room.

[Lisbeth]

I don't care what adults do to themselves, but please tell me people aren't making their kids go hungry to prove a social point...

[Elizabeth in MN]

Per meal or per day? Per meal I spend $1.19 per person.

 

Per meal. I need to find some hook-up to your brain so I can download good food ideas :D

 

That was a really good documentary! The couple actually ate better than I expected, and the food stamp program is a supplemental program, not intended to be the sole source of a person's food. So considering that, they did REALLY well.

I thought they only had about $50 to spend for the week- which isn't $2 per person per meal. Wasn't it more like $1 per person per meal? Anyway- it was a good documentary. Mercola had it available to watch for free earlier this month but now it's only for sale. Bummer.

 

Many of us living in poverty only have food stamps and no other source for food, especially we rural poor. My dd is too old to get WIC anymore and the assumption is that she gets a meal at public school. The food pantry in our area just closed, but I never used it because I view it as a stop-gap measure for the working-poor (people too "rich" to get food stamps but too poor to be able to afford all the food they need). There is no senior nutrition program in our area, nor surplus foods.

 

It's also MUCH easier to eat in CA on food stamps than here in MN. Gosh I miss Safeway and their low-price leaders that were buy-one-get-one-free! When I lived in San Francisco I was able to feed us a great diet of whole and organic foods. Here in MN, not even close.

 

Hands down the most expensive thing in our food budget is my Lactose-free milk. It's almost $5 a half-gallon. I struggle with a lot of guilt over it because on one hand my doctor tells me I need it both for my bones and for my seizures, but on the other hand it costs nearly $20 and it's for me alone.

 

The other thing to keep in mind about food stamps in the US is that there has not been a cost-of-living allowance in a long time. I think it was maybe five years ago that the food stamp allowance went up? Think of how much the price of food has gone up in that time! My social worker explained to me that the amount for food stamps is $237 as a base and then an extra $100 per person after that.

[lewelma]

I don't care what adults do to themselves, but please tell me people aren't making their kids go hungry to prove a social point...

 

No, I am going hungry so they can eat. But they are getting really bored with beans and rice. Plus, it is only for 5 days. I really don't want to imagine a lifetime of this.

 

Ruth in NZ

[lewelma]

But $2 for one person does not seem equal to $22 for 11.

 

This is exactly the buying in bulk issue. My thought, and it might be wrong, is if you were at the poverty level you would be buying week to week as you got paid. So I only bought a week's worth of rice and potatoes, which made them substantially more expensive.

 

Plus, of course, it is really hard to know how all the regional prices compare. $2 here is different than $2 rural vs $2 New York City.

Edited September 25, 2012 by lewelma

[lailasmum]

The UK one was £1 a day. It seems ridiculously low, I can't really see how it could be done unless breakfast and lunch were basically just extremely simple snacks and there was no fruit or veg at all. A single piece of fruit or an egg would cost at least a third of that budget. I went through a phase post university of being really poor and we just didn't eat or ate noodles and filled up on cups of tea so do I understand that people have to do it but I wouldn't want to give up better quality healthier food now to try it.

[gardening momma]

We live in $1.80 per person per meal. Produce and meat tend to be out of our price range.

That would double my grocery budget, and we buy meat & veggies, and lately very little starchy/sugary stuff.

[gardening momma]

There's a blog I used to read where the woman did a dollar a day project for 30 days (this was 3 years ago). She's the only one in her household, but it would be $1/person/day if there were more. It was a very interesting read. So she had $0.33/meal if she ate 3 meals per day. Here's the index of posts.

Edited September 25, 2012 by gardening momma
$0.30/meal...doh! I can't do math!

[lewelma]

I have set aside

 

35 cents for breakfast

55 cents for lunch

20 cents for snack

90 cents for dinner

 

to give you a feel of prices here:

 

1 egg costs 23 cents (I bought a 30-egg flat at the vegi market)

1 kiwi fruit costs 22 cents (the cheapest fruit right now)

 

So for lunch my kids are eating 1 rice ball, 1 kiwi fruit, and 1 egg. Not that much really. We are making egg drop soup with chicken broth and rice for lunch today.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Excelsior! Academy]

Why did she do the challenge by spending it in $1 increments? It seems to me she would have a better use of her money by spending in larger amounts. For example a whole chicken costs around $5-$8 in today's dollars and can feed my family of 11 for three meals. A single person would do much better. Cook in crockpot, pick bones, boil carcass and you would have loads of precooked chicken and lots of nourishing broth. With cheap vegetables like onion, celery or carrot and some beans, pasta, or rice you would have many meals. Redundant perhaps, but healthy and filling.

[lewelma]

That would double my grocery budget, and we buy meat & veggies, and lately very little starchy/sugary stuff.

 

1 onion = 15 cents

1 carrot = 15 cents

1 swiss chard plant is $1

All of this is at the vegi market which is usually 30% off from grocery prices.

 

No way possible to buy meat of any kind here on this budget. No way at all.

 

What is cheap is red lentils at the indian grocery store: $1.30 for a KILO (2.2 lbs). We could live on lentils, but then also in the bathroom I suppose. :tongue_smilie:

 

Ruth in NZ

[gardening momma]

Why did she do the challenge by spending it in $1 increments? It seems to me she would have a better use of her money by spending in larger amounts. For example a whole chicken costs around $5-$8 in today's dollars and can feed my family of 11 for three meals. A single person would do much better. Cook in crockpot, pick bones, boil carcass and you would have loads of precooked chicken and lots of nourishing broth. With cheap vegetables like onion, celery or carrot and some beans, pasta, or rice you would have many meals. Redundant perhaps, but healthy and filling.

Are you referring to the dollar a day project? I think she explains it in her blog, but I don't remember offhand the reason. In her "project rules" she says that she allowed herself to spend up to $2 the first day, and up to $1.15 each day after that, but still requiring that she stay within $30 total for the whole 30 days.

[lewelma]

I have put dandelion in quiche before, and it worked much like chard. My family liked it. Just be sure it hasn't been sprayed with any chemicals, and wash it well.

 

I was more worried about dog poo, since I would be collecting it from the town belt grassy area where the dogs play :ack2:.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Are you referring to the dollar a day project? I think she explains it in her blog, but I don't remember offhand the reason. In her "project rules" she says that she allowed herself to spend up to $2 the first day, and up to $1.15 each day after that, but still requiring that she stay within $30 total for the whole 30 days.

 

Yes. I read her rules. I guess I just don't understand the why behind it. Even if you were to get food stamps you wouldn't get them in daily increments. Why would she limit herself? It seems like it was more difficult than it needed to be.

[Annie G]

There's a blog I used to read where the woman did a dollar a day project for 30 days (this was 3 years ago). She's the only one in her household, but it would be $1/person/day if there were more. It was a very interesting read. So she had $0.30/meal if she ate 3 meals per day. Here's the index of posts.

 

That was a really good read- thanks for posting it!

[gardening momma]

Yes. I read her rules. I guess I just don't understand the why behind it. Even if you were to get food stamps you wouldn't get them in daily increments. Why would she limit herself? It seems like it was more difficult than it needed to be.

Here are some bits from another blog entry of hers (titled "More Clarification"):

 

My primary purpose was to see if I could meet the challenge issued by the One Dollar Diet Project people—“I challenge anyone in America to eat fresh food for a dollar a day.â€

 

I set up the project in the hardest way I could think of—starting with no food and only a dollar each day to work with (with anything I didn’t spend on prior days carrying over)—because:

 

(a) it was interesting to me because I wasn’t sure if I could do it (when I first thought of the idea it seemed impossible)

(b) it allowed me to do the project without having to calculate unit costs of food items

© it allowed me to adjust as I go, seeing how I feel and what I feel like I need, instead of having to plan everything up front and eating the same limited selection of food days after day.

Point C especially shows why she didn't buy a week or more supply up front.

 

When you’re only spending a dollar, each trip to the store is pretty quick, the cooking is simple, and my dishes are a breeze.

 

One important thing, though, is that when you go to the store more frequently, it goes a lot faster. You can just get what you need, you don’t have to try to think of everything you might possibly need, because you know you’ll be back in a few days.

 

Also everything is easier here than it is in DC because there are fewer people. So a quick stop at the store can be a quick stop at the store. As I recall from when I lived in DC, there was no such thing as a quick stop anywhere.

 

I recall from some of her day-to-day posts that she had a store where she could buy things like salt in bulk--the type of bulk where you can scoop a bit and just pay for that (as opposed to buying a huge bag-type of bulk).

[gardening momma]

Some more reasons...

The first thing I want to say is that while the project that inspired this one was about poverty (as are the projects I’ve linked under the Related Projects sidebar in the header) my project is in fact not about poverty.

My project is primarily about food.

 

I would like to show that healthy food can be very cheap—so cheap that you can make it even if you have only a dollar. And that there are ways of cooking cheaply that don’t involve buying things in large quantities or using coupons or planning your meals a month in advance. And that I think that people today make things too complicated—you can make a good simple meal with three ingredients. Don’t let the foodie police intimidate you.

 

The project is also about knowledge and creativity.

[Arcadia]

Hubby is nice enough to eat the same meals everyday.

 

Bread - 99 cents a loaf store brand

Chicken - $1.29/lb

Banana - 19 cents each

Vegetables - 79-99 cents per lb

Rice - $8 for a 20lb bag

Egg - 15 cents each

Margarine - $1/lb

 

one day's meal for him would cost about $2 per day.

 

We also buy closeout/"expire that day" items for 50-75% off. So a loaf of bread can end up being 25 cents. Onions at 25 cents for 2lbs. We also go to farmers market near closing time to get the "leftovers" at much reduced prices.

[Elizabeth in MN]

NM. I'm being too sensitive.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Elizabeth in MN

[nansk]

I found an Australian blog post that gives some simple recipes for $2 a day.