Ben Affleck takes poverty vow: Eat on $1.50 a day

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/04/24/ben-a ... -the-line/

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

A few years ago, Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance had a symposium on The Great Depression. One of the events was a replication of an 8-cent menu served at a Relief Banquet in 1938. Eight cents in 1938 had a calculated value relative to inflation in 2011 of $1.20. However the cost of ingredients in 2011 came to $1.79 per portion.


Image by Rene G

Anyone up to the challenge of dining on $1.50 worth of ingredients per day for five days?

Regards,

Had to eat this way a few times in college when $ ran low. Ate mac n cheese (off brand box bought on sale), canned soups and a loaf of 29 cent bread with peanut butter. Learned to make grilled pbj sandwiches. Not a fresh veggie or fruit in sight. Did not have the cup o noodles/insant ramen crap available now but if so probably would have availed self of these.

Depends on what you’re willing to eat. $1.50 is a good amount of beans or 2 meals of 1 ramen and 1 baloney sandwich if you call a cup of black coffee breakfast and make it at home.

I think we’ve probably all done something similar at one point for a few days. A lifetime? Now that’s a horse of a different color entirely.

Think I'd go mostly with beans, rice, cheapest veg available, peanut butter, tea, and eggs. I think I heard once that eggs are the least expensive way to get the protein you need on an austere budget.