Challenge Day One

Well here we are part way through Day 1 of the poverty challenge. Marion and I went grocery shopping after the “weigh in” this morning and as I packed our meagre supplies into bags at the grocery store, I was overwhelmed with a sense of failure, that I had let my partner down by not providing well enough for our needs. I have always been a good provider once I got out on my own and past the first two weeks of food deprivation.

We spent $49.97 on groceries and there isn’t a hint of meat in the bags. The closest to meat is two tins of canned tuna.

We sat in the car and ate a meatball sandwich that Marion had made from leftovers, so our challenge will not end until after lunch on Saturday. By 3:30 this afternoon, I was hungry and would normally have enjoyed some cheese and crackers. No cheese and crackers on the welfare allowance. I made a batch of pancakes using the flour, milk and an egg that we had purchased. Nothing on it, no baking powder to make it fluffy, but it took the edge off the hunger.

For dinner, we will be eating Spanish rice, made with rice, a can of tomatoes, an onion and garlic from our supplies. We may add some of the tuna in order to get some protein.

Other observations during our first day:

1. We would likely not be able to keep our beautiful loving dog Zoey if we were truly in this predicament. If we did, she would have to get used to a much tougher diet. Right now she eats $90 of food per month plus another $40 of supplements and then there are the vet bills. I do not want to think about giving up Zoey nor her eventual demise.
2. How could we afford large garbage bags? We could use bags from the grocery for the household baskets, but the large ones would be a challenge.
3. We did not purchase any personal nor household cleaners and soaps. Some of the groceries we purchased will make more than one week, such as the oatmeal. That would leave a little money for soap or even deodorant. We did purchase a tube of toothpaste.
4. It would be a real challenge to build up stock on laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo, hand soap, deodorant, shaving supplies, spices etc. as it would take time for things like a three week supply of oatmeal to leave room for other supplies. I am doubtful that we could ever get well supplied on the basics.
5. It was difficult to walk by all of the stuff that we usually buy without thinking and to be weighing produce to see if we could afford it.
6. Our original plan was to buy a chicken and cook it and then make stock from it for soup. The chickens cost $10 and we had to walk away.
7. Our challenge today was to go for lunch with a friend knowing that we would pay for our own lunch. Even if we had only a bowl of soup each, the bill would be about $10. Hey that is a whole chicken that we passed up. We made an excuse and did not go for lunch. Do that a few times and the friend will stop asking and drift away.
8. This exercise makes one keenly aware of not wasting anything. One of the pinto beans tried to escape while I was rinsing them before soaking. I sprang after it and captured it before it could reach the drain.
9. We have $28 left in our allowance, but we are not comfortable using it on groceries yet, because who knows what is around the corner.
10. I hope that the rice dish fills us at dinner. I had forgotten what it is like to feel hungry most of the time; not a place I wanted to go back to.
11. We are aware that we could go to one of the drop in places and get a meal, but that would be taking away from people who really need it. In addition, if we went to the shelter, we would have to allow $2éeach for each way, total of $8 and there is that chicken showing up again.

Day One has been a little depressing, but we are still on the green side of the grass.

So after dinner, I made flat bread, basic pizza dough recipe rolled out really thin. It takes the place of crackers for a little snack. We are getting a lot of mileage out of $3 worth of whole wheat flour and $2 worth of yeast.

We watched television during the evening and I don`t know if we could on Ontario Works. Internet, TV and cell phones cost us more than $200 per month. Maybe it is less in Kenora.

I have been on a weight reduction program and use Calorycount.com. It tracks everything and gives me a summary. I came up short on Vitamin A and on Calcium, but everything else was good. I feel full now and am way under on my calories today, so feeling a little more positive than earlier.

Marion had a suggestion earlier and that is that it is good to find other people in similar circumstances and then pool grocery purchases in order to get the better prices on the larger quantities. That could make a large difference.