Spending Only One Dollar a Day for Food

Could you survive if you only have $1 a day for food? That's what Christopher Greenslate, 28, and Kerri Leonard, 29, wanted to find out. So the couple, both high school social studies teachers, did a month-long dollar-a-day diet experiment:

When we first started talking about doing this, we didn’t really have an agenda, or any developed sense of why we wanted to do it. It just seemed like an interesting challenge; one that would force us to see things differently.

We are interested in many of the strands related to this experiment; food choices, consumerism, waste, poverty, social psychology, etc., and this experience may provide insights that could help us better understand and teach about a variety of concerns (we both teach Social Justice in a public high school).

Here are the rules:

1. All food consumed each day must total $1 for each of us.

2. We cannot accept free food or “donated” food unless it is available for everyone in our area. (i.e. foraging, samples in stores, dumpster diving)

3. Any food we plant, we pay for.

4. We will do our best to cook a variety of meals; ramen noodles can only be prepared if there is no other way to stay under one dollar. (We have six packages and will buy no more)

5. Should we decide to have guests over for dinner they must eat from our share; meaning they don’t get to eat their own dollar’s worth of food.

The couple recorded their experience in their blog: Link | Their first day - Thanks Geekazoid!


This is a BS experiment as they bought in bulk quantities that nobody actually living in poverty could afford, nor would probably have space to store.

It's just another blog by a couple of attention seeking, condescending self important douches saying "look at us doing something meaningful" when in actuality what they're doing is damaging the cause of those living in genuine poverty by seemingly highlighting how you can eat properly on a dollar a day, when in actual fact you need to spend a huge chunk of cash in advance to so, cash that people living in poverty naturally wouldn't have. But of course pointing out up front how utterly pointless your experiment is means a lot less hits to your blog.

If they ever do it PROPERLY and don't cheat, and genuinely live like those living on a very limited income are forced too, that being living hand to mouth and only being able to buy small quantities of food, instead of the 5 pound packages of yeast, 25 pounds of rice etc... they bought this time, then go right ahead and blog about it, because reading and watching two self aggrandizing egotists starve to death would actually be worth following and would highlight what is facing those living in real poverty and, you know, serve an actual purpose rather than their current exercise in self congratulatory masturbation.

"I said "Pretend you've got no money"
But she just laughed
And said "oh you're so funny".
I said "yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here"

Pulp - "Common People"
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It's not the main article that puzzles me, so much as one small detail. What the heck kind of a class is "Social Justice"?! Whatever happened to the classic "Readin' Writin', and 'Rithmetic"?! Just not "Post-Modern" enough?!

Sheesh, I must be getting old...

--TwoDragons
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This lady does it for 4-6 on $40/month. She's probably eat like a king with 2 people for $30/month.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

Food isn't expensive in this country. If you want to eat healthily but are poor you can do so, it just takes some thought and preparation.
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I think this would be interesting if they were trying to teach you how to eat on a dollar a day. But it's kind of hollow when they talk about the other luxurys they have!
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Yes Two Dragons, you must be getting old. There is much more to school than “Readin’ Writin’, and ‘Rithmetic". Schools need to start moving forward and changing, we can not continue to teach the same we have for the past 150 years. Times are changing!! Social Justice is a fantastic course,and it teaches skills that many people say that students today don't have. From the BC curriculum these are the general learning outcomes. There is of course a lot more to the course.

-acquire knowledge that allows them to recognize
and understand the causes of injustice
-apply critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills
to a variety of social justice issues
-develop an understanding of what it means to act in
a socially just manner
-become responsible agents of change, making
positive contributions toward a socially just world.
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Woogie says it well. This story reminds me of the guy who decided to not spend any money for a week.

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1844394,00.html

He just had all his friends and family pay for his stuff.
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These two again? Talk about attention whores! This is the third place I've seen them now this week without even trying to find them. First I saw them on "Fox & Friends" for a video interview, then I saw them featured on the main page of Yahoo.com, and now here. Good God, is this really enough of a news story to get these two all of this attention?
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-acquire knowledge that allows them to recognize
and understand the causes of injustice
-apply critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills
to a variety of social justice issues
-develop an understanding of what it means to act in
a socially just manner
-become responsible agents of change, making
positive contributions toward a socially just world.


Sounds like a load of BS.
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A load of b.s.?

Hardly.

It's incredibly valuable to have future journalists, lawyers, judges, teachers, business people, etc., aware of and thinking about issues of social justice.

People who claim that "reading, writing, and arithmetic" once led to some sort of golden age of education are unfamiliar with the history of education and of our country.
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What I find interesting, having actually read much of the blog instead of just commenting on the excerpt presented here at Neatorama, is that they DO comment on what other luxuries they have, and they DO comment on how their menu isn't really healthy, and they DO express amazement that some people can do it and still hold labor-intensive jobs. They did it as a personal experiment and blogged about it for our benefit. They also raised over $1500 for their local community.

Quit being so cynical and give people the benefit of the doubt.
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Wow - I cannot believe the comments here. What a nasty bunch of whining pricks! It's like I've stumbled on the website for whining pricks. What is your problem? It's an experiment, it's interesting, and they raised cash.
What are you guys doing? - sitting around your computers talking about it. Nice one. Go out and get lives.
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Why? They're attention seeking publicity whores. Yes, if you dig through you can see they completely cheated and bought in bulk beforehand, and read their pseudo social commentary, but most people don't dig for details. They'll see this, skim it and say "I don't know why poor people complain" and bring it up as a talking point whenever they talk about poverty to their friends. Friends like you Ashley who have fallen for their nonsense hook, line and sinker.

They did not blog about it for OUR benefit. Like all bloggers, they did it because they're self important blowhards looking to have their egos stroked and get their Andy Warhol approved 15 minutes.

Someone should start a new site. "Beat a self righteous blogger to death every day for 30 days". God knows there's enough out there.
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Bunch of grouchy old righty losers reading Neat these days. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you or your impotent rage.

There there. *pats angry babies on head*
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I like the "lets pretend we don't have money it'll be so fun!" and the "well, we did it, so poor people don't have it that bad!" aspect of this.

Sure, doing something like this for yourself may be an exploration in apprciating what you have by seeing the other side - just like bringing little Timmy down to the homeless shelter on Christmas eve. and that's good - almost anything that expands your mind/perceptions are.

but the blog aspect of it does seem to change their motivation from self-growth to smugness and attention-wanting. In my opinion at least.
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To Sad Tomato and Dr. So and So...

Ah, yes. I see your point. It's so nice to recognize social injustices. It's an absolute necessity to spend the rest of your life raising the public awareness of various causes, while having noone of the educational capacity to actually DO anything about them.

Then when you go out to shout about whatever fad cause you have been spoon fed this week by the media because of your complete lack of capacity to reason on your own, you can just ask your homeschooled friends to proofread your picket signs for you.

I'll stick to teaching my children the good old tried-and-true basics in education, thanks. It gives them a nice, stable foundation to base their logic and reasoning skills upon than a diet of ephemeral feel-good fluff courses.

--TwoDragons
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Sounds like a loaf or death situation!

Just kidding. What The heck is this about! They dicide to eat on a dollar a day, but spend much more than that on some. Eating in bulk but just a little bit at a time. Who could afford that if you lived on a dollar a day! There just crazy people seeking attention and pretending to be modest. " I don't want this atention!" Blah!
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Two Dragons, This is the whole reason to have a Social Justice class! Right now the kids that we are turning out into the world have exactly what you say: a "complete lack of capacity to reason on your own"
I'm not saying there is no need for the reading, writing and 'rithmatic, but why should students be limited to that? Why not have the basic tools and the skills to make change? Why is this bad?
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Tomato, I understand the need for many of the classes you have espoused. Yes they *are* necessary. On paper, they look great, IF they are augmented with the scholastic basics. But there are some nasty flaws that have crept into the system that have left me less than pleased with the current educational model in public schools.

For one, courses such as "Social Justice" and "Gender Issues" have become the PRIMARY aspect of schooling, and classic subjects have taken a back seat. I work with a large group of youth ranging from Kindergarten-age (including my son) to graduation-age. It's amazing how many of these otherwise highly intelligent and reasonable kids are also lacking in basic skills. They show an exceptional awareness of the course of the nation and the world around them...but are almost illiterate, or need a calculator to do anything beyond basic math.

Secondly, there is a highly unfortunate tendency for the educators of such courses to turn their classrooms into their personal soapboxes, and their students into their army of supporters. There is little to no impartiality in these venues. In many cases they become a breeding-ground not for youth capable of reasonable thought, but for vapid, rabid, hype-fed packs of professional picketers.

These are kids whose lack of solid basic education leaves them vulnerable to media spin and unable to fact-check the data they are given. They see nothing wrong with being spoon-fed whatever the teacher serves them--or worse, are afraid to debate the teacher for fear of failing the course--because they have no capacity for the same "reasonable, logical" thought that such classes were originally intended to generate.

We have created a generation of vulnerable, gullible children whose primary source of world information is from thirty-second blurbs on CNN or Fox, can spell only in text-messaging shorthand, and have all the attention span of a lobotomized goldfish. They chase whatever cause catches their eye, then drop it for something more trendy. They don't know how to truly change the world, they only know how to scream at everyone else to do it.

As for the couple in the post, they provide a fine example of exactly what I am talking about. Would you trust your kids to those two...? I certainly wouldn't.

--TwoDragons
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Social Justice class means to be partial.
Every society redistributes wealth. It's just a matter of how much you turn the dial. I doubt there would be a teacher in this world who can provide clear and clean facts about that. Look at the bickering on social issues everywhere.... including on Neatorama comments, regularly.
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Have to agree with Two Dragons on the class stuff. It's kinda like sex education. Shouldn't kids be learning how to be socially responsible and ethical at home?

Typical lefty mind control attitude: if you agree with me, then you obviously have the capacity to reason. If you don't agree with me, then you obviously lack the capacity to reason.

As for this couple and their silly experiment - yes, they are attention whores.
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TwoDragons, I am assuming you are in US, not sure if this is correct. I am in Canada and what you describe is not at all the situation here, at least not in BC. I have found that our kids are also lacking some basic skills but these kids are not the ones taking things like Social Justice. The kids who lack basic reading, writing and math skills take things like 'cafeteria' and weight training' which have devolved into fluff courses at my school and many around the province. Social Justice is not a 'fluff' course. It's actually pretty hard and requires students to be highly motivated and hard working.

Most of the unusual courses offered in our province are not fluff courses because it takes a lot of work to get them off the ground and running.

It's unfortunate that you see teachers using courses like this to push their own agendas. I see it too sometimes but for the most part teachers are really teaching kids in a fair and balanced way. Most of my colleagues encourage the students to ask questions and disagree. We spend a lot of our professional development time working on how to deliver a curriculum in the best way, reaching all learning styles.

Of course having said all that, I am lucky enough to be at a school with a fairly young and progressive staff. So even though my school is designated "inner city" (low socio-economic area) I don't always see the same problems as the other local schools.
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Woogie, I think you pretty accurately summed it up. I read through the first weeks journal and wound up going wtf, what a couple of overindulged wannabe's. Try being poor for real; I have been, and believe me, it wasn't about creating vegan burritos.
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In the end, children should be learning the skills they need to go out in the world and make something of themselves, rather than having to live on a dollar a day. Morality and how to use all that money that they have the potential to make is not the business of the school, but of the parent who raises them. No one needs some hippie teacher pushing an agenda that essentially breeds a sense of guilt for wanting or having a comfortable lifestyle, especially when those same hippies are cheating when they attempt to prove a point, as this smug, attention seeking pair have done.
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sadtomato:

Define social justice.

Given the common definitions of the first word of the phrase, it would seem to indicate a type of justice which is determined by 'society' at large. That is to say, it is "common justice" or "popular justice." In practice, that is exactly what the students learn in social justice classes: they learn a type of justice that is politically correct, common, and popular. That is merely another form of baseless morality. What is good and moral? Why, whatever the masses agree upon at the given moment. The position is untenable. The social justice teachers take no time and expend no effort in determining the ultimate source of all justice. Indeed, one must logically make certain assumptions about what is good and what is evil before engaging in any ration discourse over 'justice.' What actually happens is the students merely learn to enforce a set of beliefs and morals fed to them, without considering the Source of those teachings. It breaks the minds of those students by convincing them that they are in fact "just" without even defining the term.

One MUST consider apriori positions in any field which touches upon the way a man OUGHT to behave.
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Tomato: You guessed correctly! Apparently things are very different in Canada. Unfortunately the system here has gone rapidly downhill, as you can tell from other comments.

Parents who attempt to supplement their children's education at home--or worse, homeschool them outright--are either viewed as antiquated freaks, or potentially dangerous radicals. Most parents just throw their kids into the public school system and expect the teachers to raise them. Unfortunately, the average American school has become a soapbox for various political causes that honestly have no place in such a venue, and shouldn't be pushed on kids who don't yet have the maturity or comprehensive skills to make an informed decision.

Political causes have their place. They are what make a nation vibrant and encourage growth. But when they are introduced into the classroom, they take on the flavor of indoctrination.

--TwoDragons
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Glad others are having the same reaction I did. I'm sorry, but you ate a tablespoon of peanut butter that you estimated cost 12 cents? And the $5 jar is... ... ?

Not only that, but I've been a vegetarian for 15 years and that has included a lot of vegan food too; these people don't seem like very good vegans to me. Bean burritos can only sustain you for so long and tortillas are pricey given a target of $1 per day (and not very nutritional).

Despite being teachers, common sense would dictate you would say $14 for two people for a week instead of budgeting daily. That's a pot of vegan chilli from canned beans right there with lots left over for other meals. (And look, the chilli makes great burrito filling... *jab*)
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Woogie is so right on target. Blogging is for losers who never have to face the music of their words. As for these two, just look at their faces. Smug.
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If I buy a can of green beans at the store and the can costs 50 cents, and I eat the whole can as a meal, that means I only have 50 more cents to spend for the rest of the day. 3 meals?
Can you buy a years worth of food for $365 if you bought it all in bulk? shouldn't that include water? or for that matter the energy costs to cook/store the food?
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Scooter: The problem is, they had a bag of rice, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of marinara sauce, etc. and were only taking several pennies' worth of a portion out of each. It's unrealistic/misleading to say a dollar a day because the containers still had to be purchased.

I could eat 33 cents of caviar a day but if the tin cost $250 and I was only eating a single egg... ...
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woogie was right on the money with that comment LOL! couldn't have put it better. those teachers would be more entertaining if they shoved their daily dollars up their ***
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Woogie is bang on!
It is a wonderful idea living on a dollar a day, but you obviously need the advanced forsight or income to buy in bulk and to stock a pantry with all the basics. Now, if the government helped all the poor by giving them vouchers for the staple products...
In saying that...it is very possible to live and eat well on far less than most of us are spending. We need to go back to basics in this economy and live like our grandparents and their parents lived! They all managed to eat well and be merry on considerably less!

So stock those pantries on staple products and find frugal minded recipes...bon appetit!
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