Hey y'all! These upcoming blogs will be about my journey living 30 days on $30. My friend Kirby Trapolino has done this multiple times, and each time he does it it has inspired me to be just as brave. So here I go!
The challenge: To only spend $30 on food for 30 days. This is how much a lot of our extreme impoverished countries can only live on for food. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as those living on less than $1.9/day using 2011 PPP conversion rates (don't ask me what that means). These countries include: South Asia, West Indies, East Asia and the Pacific; nearly half live in India and China alone. As much as we also try to help our local community here, it's unimaginable to not try to gain awareness and have deep sympathy for those in our extreme impoverished countries. This world was given to us to care for, not just our own country.
The rules: I will only be eating the food that I purchased, and cannot take free or subsidized (I think that's the right word) food from anyone. When I started talking about wanting to do this, one of the first questions was, "But you can take free food if it's given to you, right?" Technically yes, I would still be living on ~$1/day because I myself did not buy it, but that's not the point. I want to really experience what it's like to not be able to have the luxuries of free food, or feeling full at each meal, and perhaps having to give up some of my meal because my kids want a bite of my rationed food I've saved for the month. Raising awareness on how a lot of the world lives to gain understanding and transform how I use my money daily in my super blessed life here is what I'm trying to personally achieve.
The cost: Y'all...I don't even want to tell you how much I spend on food. It's quite embarrassing...so here it goes. I buy truffle oil (roughly $40 for 8oz), fresh Madagascar vanilla beans (about $8 for like 3 beans), Land o' Lakes cream ($7/qt), Nolan Ryan rib-eyes ($7/lb, which is like $13 for each steak). So that's just a glimpse of what I spend on the regular. Yes...regularly we eat steak about once sometimes twice a week. I love to bake, so I only buy top quality ingredients like fresh vanilla beans and top shelf cream. I drizzle that truffle oil on most of my cooking, and (almost) nightly popcorn at night. Whew...deep breath. No judgement please.
Fast forward, fast forward. Here is the picture I took of the groceries I bought that equals $28.82.
Subtract the $1.19 because cashier accidentally charged me for an extra dozen eggs, which I normally would have not even caught. Because I have to now watch each penny, I got my $1.19 refund - the cost of a whole day worth of food. Here's the picture of what all I bought:
The purpose: Paul and I have been ongoing sponsors for orphans at Peace Gospel, an organization that we have been a part of for quite some time. Why it's different? Rather than going into the impoverished countries and propping up programs with direct-aid, we work to empower the local people by teaching and creating jobs through the development of small business enterprise. Like teaching a widow how to sew, so she can have a job for herself. Or creating farms that feed our children, so they don't have to rely on outside sources. Or teaching women how to make candles, so they can start a business for themselves.
Currently we have 165 sponsors and are in need of 45 sponsors. The cost is $48/month or $11/week which includes all their meals per day, medical and dental care, place to live, and education all in a loving family environment. That's forty eight dollars y'all. This can easily be the cost of 1 luxury purchase (clothing, make-up, skincare, jewelry, etc.), 2 dinners with tip, or even just 2 drinks a week (coffee or cosmo :). My purpose is to gain awareness of our needs and inspire someone, ANY ONE to become a sponsor. In addition, I will be donating what I would normally spend on food to Peace Gospel at the end of my journey.
The goal: 7 sponsors. The number seven because it's connected to sacrifices and completeness in scripture. When reading animal sacrifices, it's usually always in the groups of 7: 7 bulls, 7 donkeys, 7 lambs...etc. Except Noah..wait, that wasn't sacrificing it was saving. Anyway, I'm sure you biblical theologians have more insight to this number, but I'm not a theologian ;), I just read it.
Here's a picture of one orphan that needs to be sponsored. She's the youngest and her name is Helen. Helen is 5 years old and is in Pre-K. She loves to sing and play football. Her favorite subjects in school are English and Myanmar - where she's from. Look at that smile y'all! And the life in her eyes and her small little hands...I just want to squeeze her, she's so beautiful! You can sponsor her here: http://www.peacegospel.org/detail/705/
So that's it folks. I will be blogging here and there - not sure if I'll be doing it daily since I seriously live one day at a time. So wherever it takes me, you will see!
"If you can't feed 100 people, feed just one." Mother Theresa
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