Ben Affleck to eat on $1.50 a day.

He is apparently taking a poverty vow. As some other celebrities have done in the past.

LINK

The Oscar-winning director recently signed on to participate in the Global Poverty Project’s Live Below the Line, a campaign that challenges average (and above-average) people to live on just $1.50 a day for five days. The initiative is meant to simulate what it’s like for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty. Getting by on that pittance every day would actually mean spending just $547.5 per year —

Upon reading this I wondered if I could do something that so many people are forced to do.
I tried to think of what I could eat for the little amount of money...even if for only 5 days.

Stories like this tend to put my troubles into perspective.

Curious as to what others in this forum would/could eat for such a small amount of money.

On $1.50 a day, you could eat a couple/few slices of toast in the morning for breakfast, then a couple packages of ramen noodles with a couple slices of toast for dinner.

reply to post by DIDtm


Is this going to be like Cind Sheehan's Jamba Juice smoothy hunger strike?

good luck bro.. you might be able to do it for 5 days but not long term not if you plan to live in any way normal unless you get to have free things like donated food I really dont see how you could possibly live on that little money, even most homeless get more then that to live on by begging. Is he going to get to live in his mansion or he has to sleeps on the streets for those 5 days?

I like that he's taking the challenge but it would be quite different when a person has the end day in sight.

5 days on 1.50 many could do. Many have to do it as they have no choice...completely different if there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

When you can visualize steak and lobster on the 6th day it's not quite the same.

Peace

Originally posted by _BoneZ_
On $1.50 a day, you could eat a couple/few slices of toast in the morning for breakfast, then a couple packages of ramen noodles with a couple slices of toast for dinner.

edit on 24-4-2013 by _BoneZ_ because: (no reason given)

I could maybe do that for 5 days. Voluntarily of course.
But if I had to do that for a lengthy amount of time...not sure I could handle it.

Heck..That wouldnt even pay for my daily Monster Rehab. Im addicted to those things.

5 days? What's the point? You could just not eat for 5 days, it won't hurt you any provided you are relatively healthy.

These things annoy me. Like people who spend a night in a cardboard box so they can "know what it's like to be homeless". It's total b.s. Knowing that after the night is over, or the five days is up, you get to go back home, have a nice meal, and sleep in your bed does NOT compare in any way to sleeping outside, eating scraps and having no idea when, or if, your situation will change.

reply to post by DIDtm
Not so difficult if you put your 5 days worth of money into one shopping trip:

5 lb. bag of rice...$1.89
Bag of dried red beans...$0.79
12 oz. pack John Morrell sausage.....$1.50
5 packs Ramen noodle....$1.00
1 loaf cheap store brand bread...$0.99
1 box w/4 sticks of margarine...$0.89
Total...$7.06 out of $7.50

Might not be gourmet dining, but a full tummy with 3 meals a day for one person- it can be done!

reply to post by DIDtm


Realistically, for $1.50 a day you could eat the following (prices from Costco and USDA averages):

Breakfast: one bowl of oatmeal with 2 eggs and a ruby red grapefruit. That would be about $.35 and provide about 450 calories.

Lunch: one pack of Ramen, and 2 oz of peanuts. That would cost about $.38 and be about 630 calories

Dinner: Fava beans and rice (1 lb beans, 1/3rd lb rice, salt, hot sauce and pepper). Cost about $.70 and has about 975 calories in it.

A bit light on the calories, but not bad overall.

sure you COULD live on $1.50 a day for FOOD but I wouldn't call it living I would call it surviving... and that all good and well that you can not die from starvation. What about shelter, that $1.50 aint going to help to much when its snowing outside and you are living in a cardboard box like in real life.

reply to post by kalunom

Originally posted by kalunom
5 days? What's the point? You could just not eat for 5 days, it won't hurt you any provided you are relatively healthy.

These things annoy me. Like people who spend a night in a cardboard box so they can "know what it's like to be homeless". It's total b.s. Knowing that after the night is over, or the five days is up, you get to go back home, have a nice meal, and sleep in your bed does NOT compare in any way to sleeping outside, eating scraps and having no idea when, or if, your situation will change.

Not so much bs all the time. Lee Halpin's situation changed overnight.

An up-and-coming filmmaker who had decided to live on the streets for a week to document the plight of the local homeless population was found dead inside a boarded-up hostel just three days after his experiment began.

Though an official cause of death has yet to be released, friends of 26-year-old Lee Halpin believe he froze to death after overnight temperatures in Newcastle (UK) dipped well below zero degrees Celsius (32F).

Halpin, who had an MA in creative writing and was the founder of a magazine on North East culture, intended to use the week-long documentary to apply for a spot in Channel 4's highly competitive Investigative Journalism Program.

"I am about to go and spend a week being homeless in the West End of Newcastle," he said in a video detailing his plans. "I will sleep rough, scrounge for my food, access all the services that other homeless individuals in the West End use. I will interact with as many homeless people as possible and immerse myself in that lifestyle as deeply as I can."

gawker.com...

reply to post by DIDtm


It will never work.

first, ben and his friends would first need to get out of their homes. Most with that kind of income in the world and even those who make $10 a day don't own homes. So they need to squat some were and build a little house out of scrap metal, pieces of ply board and throw aways of others.

second, Seeing the money is very little they will buy one of two kinds of food. rice or beans that is what is.

third, many don't own a pair of shoes and may have two pairs of pants and a few t-shirts.

Of course you can't go into a supermarket or corner store and buy anything for $1.50 to eat three meals on so everyone who does it will say, Oh my how do they do it. Most of the countries rice and beans are cheaper than in the US and Europe.

This is all just a publicity stunt and nothing more.

This I can testify too. I have seen people make $4 a day and live and survive. In those countries their dumps aren't filled with usable items only true waste. In those countries they do with what they can and enjoy life. It is a slower and easy going life. The way it used to be here in the US.

In comparison our poorest people are richer than those in the third world nations. It is one of the reasons people want to come here free food, free money, free phones and free housing at Taxpayer expense.