So Friday was our last day of this challenge.
And while I learned a lot from doing this, I am not unhappy to see the back of it. This is tough! While it's not as tough as when I did the Ration Challenge a few years ago, it was still harder than I thought it would be, which was an eye opener.
Before doing the challenge I knew that it would be tough having to say 'no' to things. I knew it would be tough going without even if I was hungry. What I only knew after doing it, and analysing my diet afterward was exactly how much nutrition I would miss out on. It's a lot more than I thought it would be. I can appreciate a little better the challenges faced living on so little - and there are an increasing number of them in these unstable economic times.
While pies are an affordable option at just over $1 per serve, they aren't exactly healthy..
Murray struggled with this - but he did get through. I asked him a few questions this morning on how he found it:
Hannah: What did you miss eating the most?
Murray: Pies*
Hannah: And what was it that you missed most over all?
Murray: Just being able to snack. Like, being able to get something from the pantry when I was hungry.
Hannah: How did eating this way impact you the most?
Murray: I was really tired.
Hannah: And what do you think the consequences would be of living like this long-term?
Murray: I don't imagine it would be very healthy. Missing out on fruit.
A man of few words.
Anyhow, this is my analysis of specifically how much would be needed to boost this to a livable level.
The second cheapest apples at Pak-n-Save
Firstly, fruit. I could afford one piece of the cheapest, in season, fruit for each of us a day. In order to boost this to what is required, I need to boost it by the cost of one piece of fruit per person - preferably different to the other piece of fruit. I have costed this by what is easily accessible to most - supermarket prices - and at a reliable per kg price. So I went with apples at $1.99 per kg (they are sometimes half this price, but not reliably so). To do this, we need to add another 38 cents per person per day to this budget.
Secondly - and this was the thing we missed out most on - we need to add extra for dairy or dairy equivalents. We were averaging about 1/4 of our daily requirement with what we had. One serving of milk costs about 44 cents, my usual cheap dairy alternative costs 67 cents per serve. The cheapest yoghurt costs a whopping 56 cents per serve, and cheese costs 55 cents per serve. So the very least we could increase this by to meet this need is 66 cents per day - but for variety and health this should be closer to 77 cents.
We managed to make our protein quota most days, but it wasn't always healthy. In an ideal world I would up this by about 21 cents - half the cost of a barn egg - per day. This could equally be spent on healthier chicken, fish or beef options if used in meals that can be frozen and spread across a few weeks, or on nuts or tofu for those who opt not to eat meat.
And fibre... On review I could have made better decisions regarding the fibre I chose to use. Brown rice is the same price as white rice, but takes longer to cook. As like many who are time poor, I sacrificed nutrition for time. Brown bread equally costs the same as white bread in the cheap bread stakes, and while we did eat brown bread, it was still cheap bread, full of sugar and other not ideal stuff. Ideally, you'd have enough to buy slightly healthier loaves. And ideally you'd have enough to indulge in different grains every now and again. Grains are not too expensive. I'd just add another 20 cents per day to make these more accessible.
I'm not adding anything for veges. We did manage to make this quota most days - apart from when we were being fussy. If you buy seasonally, and stick with the specials, this is achievable on this budget. But to do this, other areas are sacrificed. It's a hollow achievement when so much else is being missed out on.
Carrots and onions are not super exciting,
but they are reasonably priced.
Given that an unhealthy diet is the highest preventable risk for poor health in Aotearoa, no-one should knowingly have so little money that they cannot eat healthily. I mean, it's just straight up crazy. The cost to our health system at the other end surely outweighs the cost of basic foods. And this is not taking into account the cost poor health has on quality of life. And while the majority of us do not live like this, many of us still do. In fact, one in seven Kiwi households lives below the line. That's a lot of Kiwis who are not having their basic nutritional needs met through no fault of their own.
At a minimum I'd say you need an extra $1.45 per adult per day to make this food budget able to meet nutritional needs. This brings the total to $4.25 per day to get the nutrition needed - that's $29.75 per week per adult up just $9.80 on what is considered the current poverty line. Remember, an average family of four spends $290 on food per week - for an equivalent family, this is still less than 1/3 of that. It does not take much to lift a family from living without nutrition to just scraping by.
But this is the minimum. It does not leave room for price increases. It does not leave room for cooking mishaps. It does not leave room for days when you're too tired to cook, or are tired of eating rice or just feel like eating something more hearty. It doesn't leave room for socialising - for having a friend over for a meal or going out for a coffee** - let alone a meal. An extra $3 or $4 a week could change this. It would allow for a coffee once a fortnight with friends, or to buy an extra can of beans, or a pie for those days when you're just not feeling it. You could make an extra portion of a meal, or make a bigger meal to share with friends in potluck style. An extra $3 would add the ability to be a little more like other people. Which would make interacting with other people more comfortable. To not be having to have others pay all the time. To feel a little less trapped. If I had $35 a week to feed myself - I think I would be ok.
Yes, the permanent increase of $25 to the base benefit will help with this. Free school lunches will help with this. But other things need to occur for this to be helpful. Rent, food and power prices need to stabilise. Transport costs need to stop rising. Minimum wage should be a living wage. And while rental rates are frozen at the moment, and public transport costs lowered, these are not long term solutions. While $25 will make a significant difference to someone living on their own, it will be just a drop in the bucket for bigger families.
For those of us who are spending that average amount, for whom having so little is almost inconceivable, we are in a position to make a difference. Firstly, we can give. If we can survive on $10 less a week for food which given the example above, many of us can - we can give that to those who need it more. By donating food to places like the Salvation Army and St Vincent De Pauls, which you can do at most supermarkets these days. Or by making regular donations to KidsCan - you can start this from as little as $15 per month - this is achievable for many of us. Or we can just check in with our friends and whanau that have less than we do, and see if they're doing ok. Charity begins at home.
But the biggest thing we can do costs us nothing at all. We can vote. We can vote with those most in need at the heart of our vote. We can vote to raise these households to a livable standard. We can vote to fill hungry tummies, to lift the burdens from those single parents having to calculate every meal, every day, by themselves with no break ever in sight. If we lift these people up, think of the possibility of not only their futures, but our future as a country. These children could be our future academics, our sports heroes, our teachers, our changemakers. What are we missing out on when we do not give these one in seven households the same opportunities we have? We are missing something greater than tax breaks. We are missing our humanity. And we have the ability, every single one of us, to make a difference.
* While pies are an affordable option, on this diet, I was doing my best to meet our needs nutritionally, so I avoided them.
** You may not think of this as a necessity, but if you'd seen and spoken to the elderly folk that live around my work in the week following Lockdown you'd have some understanding of just how important this element of socialising is to many. There is a coffee shop directly outside of my work and for many folk that live in the residential apartments nearby, a coffee and a chinwag with mates is just a part of their weekly routine. One women in her 80's told me that she would not survive if she had to go into Lockdown again and she was dead serious. It was because she missed getting out and socialising. Socialising is a normal and important aspect of being human.
And while I learned a lot from doing this, I am not unhappy to see the back of it. This is tough! While it's not as tough as when I did the Ration Challenge a few years ago, it was still harder than I thought it would be, which was an eye opener.
Before doing the challenge I knew that it would be tough having to say 'no' to things. I knew it would be tough going without even if I was hungry. What I only knew after doing it, and analysing my diet afterward was exactly how much nutrition I would miss out on. It's a lot more than I thought it would be. I can appreciate a little better the challenges faced living on so little - and there are an increasing number of them in these unstable economic times.
While pies are an affordable option at just over $1 per serve, they aren't exactly healthy..
Murray struggled with this - but he did get through. I asked him a few questions this morning on how he found it:
Hannah: What did you miss eating the most?
Murray: Pies*
Hannah: And what was it that you missed most over all?
Murray: Just being able to snack. Like, being able to get something from the pantry when I was hungry.
Hannah: How did eating this way impact you the most?
Murray: I was really tired.
Hannah: And what do you think the consequences would be of living like this long-term?
Murray: I don't imagine it would be very healthy. Missing out on fruit.
A man of few words.
Anyhow, this is my analysis of specifically how much would be needed to boost this to a livable level.
The second cheapest apples at Pak-n-Save
Firstly, fruit. I could afford one piece of the cheapest, in season, fruit for each of us a day. In order to boost this to what is required, I need to boost it by the cost of one piece of fruit per person - preferably different to the other piece of fruit. I have costed this by what is easily accessible to most - supermarket prices - and at a reliable per kg price. So I went with apples at $1.99 per kg (they are sometimes half this price, but not reliably so). To do this, we need to add another 38 cents per person per day to this budget.
Cheapest dairy available
We managed to make our protein quota most days, but it wasn't always healthy. In an ideal world I would up this by about 21 cents - half the cost of a barn egg - per day. This could equally be spent on healthier chicken, fish or beef options if used in meals that can be frozen and spread across a few weeks, or on nuts or tofu for those who opt not to eat meat.
And fibre... On review I could have made better decisions regarding the fibre I chose to use. Brown rice is the same price as white rice, but takes longer to cook. As like many who are time poor, I sacrificed nutrition for time. Brown bread equally costs the same as white bread in the cheap bread stakes, and while we did eat brown bread, it was still cheap bread, full of sugar and other not ideal stuff. Ideally, you'd have enough to buy slightly healthier loaves. And ideally you'd have enough to indulge in different grains every now and again. Grains are not too expensive. I'd just add another 20 cents per day to make these more accessible.
I'm not adding anything for veges. We did manage to make this quota most days - apart from when we were being fussy. If you buy seasonally, and stick with the specials, this is achievable on this budget. But to do this, other areas are sacrificed. It's a hollow achievement when so much else is being missed out on.
Carrots and onions are not super exciting,
but they are reasonably priced.
At a minimum I'd say you need an extra $1.45 per adult per day to make this food budget able to meet nutritional needs. This brings the total to $4.25 per day to get the nutrition needed - that's $29.75 per week per adult up just $9.80 on what is considered the current poverty line. Remember, an average family of four spends $290 on food per week - for an equivalent family, this is still less than 1/3 of that. It does not take much to lift a family from living without nutrition to just scraping by.
Going out for a coffee is a very important thing for some folk
Yes, the permanent increase of $25 to the base benefit will help with this. Free school lunches will help with this. But other things need to occur for this to be helpful. Rent, food and power prices need to stabilise. Transport costs need to stop rising. Minimum wage should be a living wage. And while rental rates are frozen at the moment, and public transport costs lowered, these are not long term solutions. While $25 will make a significant difference to someone living on their own, it will be just a drop in the bucket for bigger families.
For those of us who are spending that average amount, for whom having so little is almost inconceivable, we are in a position to make a difference. Firstly, we can give. If we can survive on $10 less a week for food which given the example above, many of us can - we can give that to those who need it more. By donating food to places like the Salvation Army and St Vincent De Pauls, which you can do at most supermarkets these days. Or by making regular donations to KidsCan - you can start this from as little as $15 per month - this is achievable for many of us. Or we can just check in with our friends and whanau that have less than we do, and see if they're doing ok. Charity begins at home.
But the biggest thing we can do costs us nothing at all. We can vote. We can vote with those most in need at the heart of our vote. We can vote to raise these households to a livable standard. We can vote to fill hungry tummies, to lift the burdens from those single parents having to calculate every meal, every day, by themselves with no break ever in sight. If we lift these people up, think of the possibility of not only their futures, but our future as a country. These children could be our future academics, our sports heroes, our teachers, our changemakers. What are we missing out on when we do not give these one in seven households the same opportunities we have? We are missing something greater than tax breaks. We are missing our humanity. And we have the ability, every single one of us, to make a difference.
* While pies are an affordable option, on this diet, I was doing my best to meet our needs nutritionally, so I avoided them.
** You may not think of this as a necessity, but if you'd seen and spoken to the elderly folk that live around my work in the week following Lockdown you'd have some understanding of just how important this element of socialising is to many. There is a coffee shop directly outside of my work and for many folk that live in the residential apartments nearby, a coffee and a chinwag with mates is just a part of their weekly routine. One women in her 80's told me that she would not survive if she had to go into Lockdown again and she was dead serious. It was because she missed getting out and socialising. Socialising is a normal and important aspect of being human.
