Saturday, May 2, 2009

Surprise, you're in poverty!

I have to admit I really didn't give a lot of thought to how I was going to eat on less than six dollars a day until I woke up this morning. Nor did I give a lot of thought to how I was going to buy gas, transmission fluid for my car (it leaks about a quart every two weeks), toothpaste, or shoes for my sister's upcoming wedding. Despite weeks of discussions, planning and press attention, I haven’t really prepared for my three weeks in poverty.

Lesson One: You can't wing living in poverty.

On a typical morning, I wake up, stumble to my kitchen and eat my usual yogurt, cereal and juice breakfast. Or, alternatively, if I haven't had the chance to go shopping, I will pick something up at the local bakery as I drive to work. As I reached in the fridge to grab my yogurt and juice this morning, I realized that the cost of my regular breakfast would probably be at least half of my daily allowance. I couldn't afford to eat what I had already purchased and I definitely couldn’t go to the bakery either.

As I jumped into my gas-guzzling, '94 Ford Explorer (aka "the Beast"), I realized that the gas gauge showed that the Beast was almost empty. So, I drove over to the gas station and exceeded my $6.42 daily allowance by pumping $10.00 worth of gas. At 15 miles to the gallon, I don’t think I will be able to afford to drive for very long.

Now that I have finally arrived at work, without breakfast and well-over my daily allowance, I think I will put some thought into what I will eat for the next three weeks and how I will get around.

Lesson Two: Living in poverty is very time-consuming.

The second thing that I have learned from these few hours in poverty is that everyday activities take a lot more time than before. For instance, to save money, I have decided to walk to the grocery store after work. The store is approximately two miles from my house…I figure it will take me at least 40 minutes to walk there. Hmm…I guess I shouldn’t make any plans for tonight. Also, I better start cooking meals because eating out or buying prepared foods is too expensive. By the end of the three weeks, I will probably have to start taking public transportation to work. Prior to starting this experiment, I hadn’t really thought about how living in poverty could require so much planning or be so time-consuming.

1 comment:

  1. It's true that living on a confined budget is time-consuming and hard work. Another thing to consider is the sad truth that most people ACTUALLY living in poverty are not as skilled as you are at planning and budgeting and strategizing (otherwise they would probably be in higher-paid positions at their jobs). This makes life for them even more difficult. To me (an accountant) a 3-week experiment like yours would be more of an exciting challenge, but to someone living it full-time, who has not learned how to budget and does not have an accounting mind, it must be a perpetual nightmare!

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