I understand that to make this challenge appealing and possible for most people, the creators had to make it seem like it was going to be difficult. It is not.
If this were a true poverty challenge, you would have to source and secure the food one day before the challenge starts, and you have to do it on foot. Oh, and $3.50 would go to rent for the hovel you live in on the equator, so you'd have $4 instead of $7.50.
Our ability to search sales flyers and drive to multiple locations to get our groceries for this challenge have made it, quite frankly, too easy.
I did a few substitutions on the menu; last night I had to take my dinner with me so I swapped the baked potato out for some potato salad. This cascaded into my not wanting potato salad for lunch today, so I instead had macaroni salad. This will not leave me enough macaroni salad for tomorrow, but I have more potato salad left.
More importantly, I did not eat lunch today. I was out at a site taking cabinets apart and didn't get back until 6PM. Having missed lunch I had double food for dinner! I immediately ate the rest of the mac salad and the hard boiled egg when I got back. Next I fried up the bologna that was supposed to be on my lunch sandwich, made 2 pieces of garlic bread instead of 1, and had a nice salad of dandelion greens and wild onions. Add to that the pasta and creamed corn and I am absolutely stuffed! I actually have probably half a pound of pasta left, and I simply can't eat any more.
Do I crave things? A little. No more than anyone who goes on a regimented diet for any period of time. I am certainly not hungry though, nor am I dissatisfied with my culinary variety.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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I was thinking about the very same thing. Scanning the sale ads and driving to get the best deal is probably not an option for living below the line. If the challenge was later in the summer, it might have been a lot easier to supplement from the garden. I don't think that I'll have any food left at the end of the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI had further musings on this subject today - despite the fact that this challenge is easy for me, it nonetheless succeeds in its goal of increasing awareness about living as an impoverished person. Not only is our blog discussing it, but hundreds of other people are embarking on a similar task.
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