Dollar A day eating

[SuicideBlonde]

http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/

"
About

Two Social Justice teachers have decided to start eating on one dollar a day."

[swimsweetie401]

Yeah, I saw this on the news. I think in some ways it's a good idea, but in other ways not so much. They said that they couldn't afford to buy fruits or veggies, and what they were showed eating was had very little nutritional value. But it definitley shows that you don't have to spend a fortune on food...but it also shows that you may have to spend more than a dollar to live a healthy lifestyle.

[SuicideBlonde]

It was an interesting idea. I just liked some of the resipies and pantry list. It looks all vegan to me. I do think more fresh fruit should be added but its a decent base.

[rainforests1]

I can't get the article to pop up. I can understand people spending less, but I don't believe you can live off of that little food so I wouldn't advise it.

[cstadt]

There's a picture of them and it looks like they've mostly got grains in big tubs..

[jenni-anti-fur]

saw this in the newspaper...cool idea:rockon:

peace luv and happiness

jenn:beatnik:

[synergy]

This is a really interesting blog. I'm definitely going to read through the whole thing. Good for them for raising awareness like this :up:

[DgyJff]

Rachel Ray has a show on The Food Network called "$40 Dollars a Day" and I always think it's ridiculous that she's parading around so happily for spending only 40 bucks. Let's try $40 a week...for two people. Now one dollar a day would be pretty tough I think.

[cstadt]

well the 40$ a day deal is about eating out, specifically vacationing.
So 40$ is good, really. Eating out's expensive. She doesn't tip well though.

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

It's possible. You are limited on fresh produce, especially fruit, but it can be done.

The actual amount I spent just on groceries last month was about 125$.
For a family of four.
That works out to just about a dollar-a-day per person.
I do have some bulk beans, rice and seasonings in my pantry though, so that figure doesn't include EVERYthing we ate.

[jenni-anti-fur]

Rachel Ray has a show on The Food Network called "$40 Dollars a Day" and I always think it's ridiculous that she's parading around so happily for spending only 40 bucks. Let's try $40 a week...for two people. Now one dollar a day would be pretty tough I think.

Thats How I feel about it too...when I casually watch the show I always think I could do better..hehe:) and I agree about the tipping come on I am embarressed for her and she should know better after working in her parents and others restaurants people survive on Tips.

Peace Love and Happiness

Jenn:pibo:

[Gnarly]

I think they key to doing this stuff healthily is getting free food. I would not restrict myself to "Free food that is available to everyone". If my mother has 9 spare zucchinis, I'll take the 9 spare zucchinis and then we'll eat zucchini curry, stay zucchini, zucchini stew, fried zucchini and fried rice with zucchini until they all run out. Actually, I just described the last 4 days worth of meals at my house. :D

And just today I got like $15 worth of free fruit from my DH's boss's rubbish bin. It was good fruit! Mostly.... wasteful weirdos. There were even cherries... man I love cherries...I digress.

I am reading the blog. It is interesting, and it makes me want to do a costing of our meals and blog it, but I know I'm not organised enough. If our main meals cost over 50c a serve though, I consider myself to be far too extravagant. Course, it help to actually have no money.

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

If our main meals cost over 50c a serve though, I consider myself to be far too extravagant.

That's my standard "allowance" too. If a meal for the four of us is going to cost more than 2$ it's too much. Once in a while I splurge, but other meals we eat for far less, so it evens out.

(And yes, we make great use of free produce when our garden and our parents and neighbors gardens are going strong - which isn't the case at this time of year...)

[*AHIMSA*]

I'm amazed at how little I am spending now. I still buy organic as much as possible for certain things, but I buy what I can where and how I can for the most part now. We eat less and use all we buy, more than ever.

[Jinga]

Is there a good detailed budget vegan blog out there? With Bambino on the way (and all those added expenses), I have to start paying way more attention to the food budget. It just seems like whatever I cook costs way more than the amounts talked about here.

[Veggily]

This was really interesting! It bothered me that they seemed often hungry. Also, I wondered whether all the bulk buying would be feasible for people who don't have the money to invest in the first place. It was quite interesting, in any case, reading about their menus, adventures in figuring out what they would eat and how they felt about the project as it progressed. Thanks for posting about it.

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

Re: Bulk buying... it's VERY hard to get into the cycle at first, but once I stocked up, I'm better set to keep doing it. I set a little money aside each grocery trip and when I have enough saved, it's about time to stock up on one of my bulk items; I rotate what I buy bulk so I always have 4 or 5 bulk bags of options: rice, beans, lenitls, quinoa, chick peas and flour...

The story bugged me too, you actually do NOT have to be hungry on a food budget that small!! I think it was mainly psychological, sometimes when I have made an extremely frugal meal I think "Am I getting enough to eat? Maybe I'm still hungry." but it's silly because we almost ALWAYS have leftovers and everyone is full and satisfied - maybe it's because they missed those huge portions of meat the average American is used to having?

[Irizary]

It's possible. You are limited on fresh produce, especially fruit, but it can be done.

The actual amount I spent just on groceries last month was about 125$.
For a family of four.
That works out to just about a dollar-a-day per person.

That's excellent. It would be interesting to see your menus for a month. How far in advance do you plan?

[rainforests1]

I figured out recently that I eat around $60 of food per week. I'd also be curious to see how something like this can be done.

[Indieorganicveg]

It was an interesting idea. I just liked some of the resipies and pantry list. It looks all vegan to me. I do think more fresh fruit should be added but its a decent base.

It should all be vegan, they are vegan!

[otomik]

I like how oatmeal featured big. some form of gruel is universal. oatmeal, grits, polenta, congee/rice gruel. everyone was poor a hundred years ago, makes me feel in touch with my dirt poor irish ancestors.

in mandarin there are different concepts of food
fan 饭 narrowly defined as cooked rice but more generally sources of starch (noodles, potatos, corn, grains of all types)
cai 采 sauces, the more cultural part of cooking

i like chinese food
wo xihuan zhongguo cai
我喜欢中国采

it's appropriate to use "cai" because that's about flavor and culture. the fan/cai thing is a very economical concept. i'm not sure if it has exact western equivalents, the role of bread used to be much larger.


Within medieval Europe bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. In the standard table setting of the day the trencher, a piece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15 cm by 10 cm), served as an absorbent plate. At the completion of a meal the trencher could then be eaten, given to the poor, or fed to the dogs. It was not until the fifteenth century that trenchers made of wood started to replace the bread variety.[6]

[Veggily]

The story bugged me too, you actually do NOT have to be hungry on a food budget that small!! I think it was mainly psychological
They mentioned in the blog that they are vegan, but it makes sense that they may have felt more psychologically hungry than physically hungry, since they seemed to be used to eating freely up until that month. Also, lacking experience in making economical meals, it was probably more difficult for them to put satisfying meals together. That probably comes with time and necessity. And since they were doing the experiment, they were thinking about food a lot, which tends to induce hunger!

[Veggily]

in mandarin there are different concepts of food
fan 饭 narrowly defined as cooked rice but more generally sources of starch (noodles, potatos, corn, grains of all types)
cai 采 sauces, the more cultural part of cooking

i like chinese food
wo xihuan zhongguo cai
我喜欢中国采

it's appropriate to use "cai" because that's about flavor and culture. the fan/cai thing is a very economical concept. i'm not sure if it has exact western equivalents, the role of bread used to be much larger.
Quite interesting. Japanese is sort of similar. "Gohan" can mean a meal, or it can mean cooked rice. (There is a different word for raw rice, "kome.") The word for food is "tabemono," (thing(s) (to) eat). I wonder if the Japanese "gohan" is similar to the British "tea."

[das_nut]

With $1/day eating, it's possible to get calories by going with cheap bulk carbs (rice, for example) and protein (dried beans).

I'd worry more about a source of fresh produce. Greens are good.

Although I guess by current USDA guidelines, popping a vitamin pill is okay. :o

[rainforests1]

I consume 3 avocado's per week generally, and that alone costs $6-7. Which fruits would you be eating on a dollar a day?