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Okay, a bit of seriousness here. What do you folks think about the $1.50 a day challenge? The $1.50 a day is supposed to be the U.S. equivalent of the extreme poverty line - the amount an individual living in extreme poverty is allowed to spend on food each day. The challenge is to spend five days living on $1.50 to spend on food each day.
Could you do it without relying on your current stock, available garden veggies, or animals on-hand?
What types of meals could you prepare and what diet deficiencies would you encounter?
A family can pool the money and you can purchase the week's worth of food up-front.
I am asking this without any political motivation or bias for or against this "challenge." It just piqued my curiosity.
Living in Hawaii, there's no way I could get by on $1.50 a day for food. No chance in hell! It wouldn't pay for one can of dog food. Hawaii is one of the most expensive places to live in America.
BTW - this challenge isn't something I came up with, it has been widely publicized on the internet.
As kaimuki pointed-out it certainly seems it would depend on where you live and local food costs. $1.50 in the rural south is much different than $1.50 in NYC (or Hawaii).
I could do it easily as long as I could prepare ahead of the time to do it. I'd eat potatoes that I'd grow along with homemade cheese and homebrew beer. That was once the diet of the poor in Great Britain and Ireland; they didn't die. In fact, city dwellers bought those things rather than prepare them themelves.
This would, of course, be a daily diet with little or no variation. I might, however, eat asparagus, dandelions, etc. in season. For example, asparagus grows wild in many places. A short trip down the alley can provide more than enough for dinner. Additionally, the wise householder can can it for the off season.
I'd be eating a lot of potatoes. And hard-boild egg sandwiches. I'd probably hit the soup kitchens and free cheese/food cupboard lines. But fruits and veggies? Forget it!
I know that several mayors took up the food stamp challenge, living on $30/food/week.
Just found this article: Ben Affleck takes up the $1.50 challenge -- NOW it will get a lot of publicity.
I could do it easily as long as I could prepare ahead of the time to do it. I'd eat potatoes that I'd grow along with homemade cheese and homebrew beer. That was once the diet of the poor in Great Britain and Ireland; they didn't die. In fact, city dwellers bought those things rather than prepare them themelves.
This would, of course, be a daily diet with little or no variation. I might, however, eat asparagus, dandelions, etc. in season. For example, asparagus grows wild in many places. A short trip down the alley can provide more than enough for dinner. Additionally, the wise householder can can it for the off season.
I forgot to mention that the potatoes need to be undercooked so they won't lose their Vitamin C. That was common in the old days.Many an Irishman poured some salt on a plate next to his half cooked potatoes and dipped them in the salt as he ate them with his hands.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blinx
I know that several mayors took up the food stamp challenge, living on $30/food/week.
Just found this article: Ben Affleck takes up the $1.50 challenge -- NOW it will get a lot of publicity.
Five days , I thought you meant for life. You should have posted on the SS&P forum; then you'd get meaningful responses from more than one poster.
That's a starvation diet. Most men need a minimum of 3000 calories plus more for physical work. Serious mountaineers can burn up to 10000 calories in a day; few can eat that much.
...Five days , I thought you meant for life. You should have posted on the SS&P forum; then you'd get meaningful responses from more than one poster. ...
I posted here because I wanted to avoid the obvious SS&P responses. I was curious to see how "foodies" would approach such a low-cost menu. Most of the things I come up with for $1.50 per day tend to be carbs (bread, potatoes, rice, Ramen, etc), low-quality meat soups, and eggs.
BTW - the potato is what saved Western civilization from starvation by providing a steady food source.
Most of the folks having to eat on $1.50 a day will eat carbs to fill them up.
I'd buy a bag of beans, few potatoes, eggs and rice not much nutrients but the point is to stay alive right? Water to drink so if it were city water I'd at least get fluoride right?
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, I thought you meant for life. You should have posted on the SS&P forum; then you'd get meaningful responses from more than one poster. 
