I feel like a bit of a failure because I haven't been out and about pricing and comparing, nor utilizing the food services. Lunches out had been a big part of my week's plan, to source out what's available and what it feels like to have to use those services. Again it comes back to mobility...I don't want to walk to Knox or FC when I have food here, even though I recognize that it's part of the experience. So I haven't left the house since lunch at Lakeside on Thursday and that's been just fine with me, if not necessarily in the spirit of the challenge. The only home items I've used which weren't purchased, are the soup (mmm-good) seasonings. I rationalized my use of hotel shampoo (grrrr) and free toothpaste in my first post. How far into this maze of incidentals do we wander? Hand soap? Dish soap? Laundry soap? I'm still assuming that I bought those from LAST week's allowance and the food I've actually bought will last into next week easily. My laundry concession was that I did one load of mixed lights and darks, used cold water, least possible detergent and did it after 7pm. That should count for something. AND I may keep doing that after the challenge!

My daily challenge is "You have been offered a job. You have to find daycare for your 16-month-old child starting next week." That's a tough one. I'm 69 and I guarantee that none of my friends would step up to the plate for daycare! So I'll extrapolate that into something to which I can relate: Cat Care. Assuming that I'm actually going out of town suddenly next week, I have to find someone to look after Mocha. I think that's a reasonable switch. I got lucky. I found someone willing, if grudgingly so, to come in twice a day and tend to her needs. I found someone enthusiastic about coming over and spending time with her each day. Then I even found someone who would come and STAY with her for a week. Granted that's different than ongoing daycare for a job but I'm assuming that if it were the daily challenge job scenario I'd really be looking at an immediate, if stop-gap, arrangement which could be modified given more time to prepare.

Of course I've had to continue with My Cat's food and medication routine and have done so outside the challenge. She has had to make some sacrifices with me, since I've restricted her fireside time. I've kept my fireplace use to a minimum and then only during the evening when I've turned the furnace down even lower than normal. Cats may not be as demonstrative as dogs but she can certainly let me know when she'd like the fireplace on!

I wish I'd had Darci's challenge, to return alcohol bottles and pocket the change! I only drink wine but the bottles do accumulate and I don't return them often. If today were that day? Even paying the penalty for transportation I'd be golden! Then I had a bit of a 'hehe' when I looked at Brad's serious collection of specialty kahlua, vodka and wine bottles. If I WERE to return them for the sake of the challenge, I really think he'd approve!

Since the other participants are working and moving about out in the community, their challenges are quite different than mine. I haven't spent a cent other than initial grocery shopping and then my grocery supplement for milk, etc, Thursday night. AND I'm up two bucks from the Thursday challenge of borrowing a toonie from someone.

I realize, too, that the challenge is not a personal best, to see who can manage best on their limited funds, but to demonstrate how difficult it is to manage on those dollars. So it's definitely not in the spirit of competition that I'm reporting 15.85 remaining... just an illustration of different lifestyles and needs. I'm 69. I stay home. If anything I want to make a case for this being a difficult challenge and it surely is for those who are forced to live within these funds and still be out in the community.

Day 3, SAT, actual count of instalment: #7

If I don't commit to another single day of this project, a few of the messages I've received have made the whole adventure worthwhile. I included one comment in my post earlier today, from a friend who has 'come out the other side.' Now, someone very dear to me expressed her thoughts in an email and I have to share them with you. THIS IS WHAT WALK IN OTHER'S SHOES IS ALL ABOUT:

"But suffice it to say that your efforts are making a difference. I felt really inspired to work harder at staying informed. I would like to be involved with some agencies who help people on assistance.....we certainly support the food bank frequently. And to contribute some of the things that we don't always think about...shampoo, toothpaste, soap etc. On a personal level, I feel more motivated to stretch our grocery budget. To make an effort to learn more about low cost, nutritional cooking."

Life is good; this email literally made my day. Thank you!

Saturday, Day 3

Friday night dinner didn't turn out to be as dramatic (or traumatic) as I had expected, especially hearing that Nadine was going to the Keg for dinner! A good friend phoned and after we talked for three hours (on her dime) I was able to skip dinner and go straight to hot milk, a semi-hardcooked egg and bed. I watched tv for an hour, a program I wouldn't normally have bothered with but 10 channels doesn't leave a lot of choices, and I watched it live which in itself is more of a penalty for me that watching something I don't particularly enjoy. Bed early with a book with actual pages, not being read to me on an iPad.

My conversation with Linda was entertaining as always and distracting from my circumstance, but mostly it constantly reminded me of how we have lived. True to the goal of this poverty challenge, we frequently talked about what we have, the years we haven't had so much, and being aware of those who chronically have less. She is very committed to service in her community so it was like preaching to the choir. She confirmed what another BC friend had told me about an MLA who lived on the streets in Vancouver for a month. It was life-changing for him but the big payoff was that he was in a position to actually make changes. We may not be able to re-write legislation but hopefully we WILL make changes in our approach to those less fortunate and that we'll contribute more to alleviating the local problems.

An email from my newest good friend in Winnipeg confirmed my thought that most of us have struggled at some point in our lives and some have been fortunate to 'get out'. This quote from Liz: "I love your projects. This one sounds very interesting and well worth to spread poverty awareness. I was there a few years ago with my ex-husband and two little kids. Even though I made it out, I never forget the rough times of no food in the house. I buy baby food and formula for the food bank regularly. We give to all charities around the city all the time. It feels so good to help out. I even involve my participants when dropping off items."

I've always been aware of a number of our friends who do help in areas of need and while my goal in this project was to awaken us ALL to the needs around us, it's been so rewarding to hear of the many friends who go quietly about their giving, blessing those who don't necessarily even ask for help. I stated in my bio that I'm constantly amazed when I hear about another little pocket group of citizens who make one cause their personal project and do wonderful things for the fortunate recipients of their kindness. There are a lot of those small groups and I'd love to see a flow-chart of the pattern of giving that exists under the radar. Collectively, we ARE doing a lot to help and if we all develop some commitment to the issue, we 'can do yet greater things than these.'

Breakfast was a happier event for me, warming up the bland porridge (what a humble word, 'porridge'...elicits a picture of Tiny Tim in the London slums) or what I normally would choose to think of as oatmeal, cooked cereal. What I really wanted was Red River Cereal but at $7/box that was not gonna fly this week. So I heated up my "porridge" in milk sweetened with icing sugar, covered it with applesauce and sliced bananas. I've never been keen on fruit mixed in cereal but it wasn't bad and did dress up the base dish nicely. With a glass of OJ, this turned out to be a pretty decent and filling breakfast. One plus for me may be that I come through the other side of this project with a better eating plan!

My hands are dry, my hair is scary, daytime basic cable is iffy, I'd really like some chocolate...but my house sure smells fine! I sautéed all of the 3lb bag of onions except one. I have pea soup with pork hocks, carrots and onions simmering. By the time I finish my carrot soup I should have enough to TAKE to the soup kitchen.

I cancelled my reservation at Knox for lunch because I was tending my soups and didn't feel like walking to the church. I'll go next week. So lunch was a fried egg on a toasted english muffin and even without ketchup it was ok. Still don't like the taste of margarine and in retrospect I would have left out some other item and bought butter. At the time that just seemed like a crazy thing to do. Now? I also boiled three eggs for another meal or a snack. That made me smile, thinking of stretching my eggs out for a week. Brad often told me of their experiences when he and Pat lived in Chicago during Brad's internship at Michael Reese. One week all they had to eat...period...were eggs. A patient had brought him in a tray of eggs and they had nothing else. During that year he also donated plasma once a week because they paid him $15, gave him an hour's rest in a recliner and served him juice and cookies! Puts a new perspective on 'blood money.' We all have stories.

Joanne was first out of the gate with a dinner invitation although it's for tomorrow. My challenge for today "Allow a friend to buy you lunch or dinner" didn't specify that it HAD to be today. The invitation came in today so I'm going to count it.

A friend called today with some information about medical trips to Winnipeg. First of all he gets WAY better mileage than I do, but the point he was making was that because his gas is cheap, he can volunteer to drive someone to the city for the cost of the gas and maybe a stop at A&W. He also confirmed what I had heard, that there are those who drive folks to their medical appointment in the city in exchange for the travel grant cheque. As someone on here mentioned, the challenge there is that the cheque will surely be 6-8 weeks coming. I have a call in to Ontario Works to question the "third party" aspect of the travel grant application. I know there's a section that relates to an agency or social assistance and I'm sort of remembering that they would provide travel costs up front for clients of their office. I'll clarify that when I get a call back.

As I stated in my profile, I expected my biggest challenge would be mobility. I've revised that to mobility and boredom. There are many times when my car doesn't move for days, but that's my decision. At least I know that I CAN go somewhere, anywhere, and see anyone. I have a friend who's sort of housebound this week and I considered driving out for a visit. I would have run over to Safeway to buy a couple of STALKS of celery for my soup! What an irresponsible use of resources is that...driving .5 km for two stalks of celery. But I do that, or at least I used to.

I'm finding it interesting that I should feel bored. Even the times when I don't leave the house for several days, I seem to be busy. And that busyness is still here, inside this house, and I could be doing the same stuff I always do. But this project has put me in a different headspace. I look around at the things that would normally hold my attention and realize that in all likelihood those same options wouldn't exist for me if I were truly impoverished. Butterflies, particularly Monarchs are one of my interests/hobbies/passions. If I were actually on assistance I wouldn't have unlimited internet time to read and research them; wouldn't have a dozen books to refer to, wouldn't have the possibility of planning another summer of projects and seminars. As the M&N reporter noted, "there's more to being poor than being broke."

Friday, Day 2, instalment 1

As I expected, Tv was not as much fun for me last night. I used a Favourite Channel function on my receiver and programmed only the channels which would be available on basic cable. Complete with commercials. Having carrot sticks and 2 cups of hot milk sweetened with icing sugar DID not adequately replace either a pot of black current tea or a glass of wine with some Boursin and crackers! The milk and icing sugar resulted from a stop at Shoppers on my way home from Pinecrest. Since I shopped for groceries I felt I needed to count my van use as personal and debit myself $1 (I was originally going out only for a meeting and wasn't going to count that.) At Shoppers, as I learned at lunch yesterday, milk is indeed $4.29 for 4 L and even at that my hand shook when I had to pay for it. BUT, for some odd Shoppers reason, they had icing sugar on sale for $1, and cans of salmon for $1. Throw in (figuratively speaking) a dozen eggs for 2.29 and my bill was 9.11. Now that in itself doesn't sound like a very appetizing meal, (milk, icing sugar, salmon and eggs) but it will be the base for several good meals. It's also a huge chunk out of my dwindling funds. Hmmm, it's beginning to sound like a salmon casserole with pasta!

As an aside I did have to use my vehicle yesterday to drive Daniel to school, and stopped at RCWC to get gas. Just for symbolism I stopped the pump at $52 and the tank was still just past half full. Thinking of putting an entire week's grocery and incidental budget into the tank of my car was another glaring example of how many of us take our lifestyle for granted.

One thought that occurred to me today, is that having $52 to spend in a week is only marginally more reasonable than spending it at $7.30 a day...and dangerous in a way: assistance recipients would receive their whole month's 'allowance' at once. This has an upside in that the oatmeal I bought on Wednesday will actually last a month. I would have bought cheese because it would stretch past the week. The dozen eggs would cover two weeks, so I'd have much more latitude in grocery selection, projecting it over a month. The downside is that if the recipient didn't have or didn't utilize money-managing skills , the whole budget could be shot in a week, leaving nothing for daily needs.

I'm finding a lot of little but irritating voids in my supplies...hand lotion, conditioner (apparently I brought home 2 shampoos from the hotel and no conditioner!) kleenex and lypsil! Yes, they're little things, but conspicuous by their absence.

Another Cat Cost that I hadn't considered yesterday was my allergy medication I take every day because I'm allergic to her!! $15/month for Allertin. Fay suggested that I research aid for vet expenses for OW clients and I'll do that today. Or Mocha would have to find a new home and she's way too old for that. And I'm still too fragile to part with her...

I'm off today to complete some pre-scheduled errands for "butterfly supplies" for the summer but even though it was scheduled before the challenge, I am asking for a ride. And someone else is paying for the stuff.

For the record, it takes a lot more than applesauce and icing sugar to make this NN brand oatmeal taste much like Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal packages. When this challenge is over I guess I'll make date squares with the remainder. I do think that I'll certainly have enough groceries to make it through the week, especially with lunches out most days. It's the 'incidentals' that will be the problem. Oh yeah, and my challenge today is "allow a friend to buy you lunch or dinner." Since lunch is at Knox, I'm available for dinner...

A few friends have commented on having difficulty leaving comments. I'll try and sort that out with the other participants and Fay today.

DAY 1, instalment #2

Lunch was great! I could certainly have brought left-overs home with me but that didn't seem fair. It was a varied, nutritious, delicious lunch and will certainly take the stress out of how to create dinner from my meagre pantry.

Re last night's grocery shopping and my developing meal plan for the week: for 1.98 I bought a large jar of sweetened applesauce. I chose this to be my sweetener on the 1.97 bag of rolled oats I bought. The smallest bag of sugar was way outside my price range and sweetener was out of the question. So applesauce it is. It was also my mid-morning snack.

“Pasta” choice was cheap (1.97) elbow macaroni (the shape that only kids eat) and a can of NN pasta sauce. I carried around a package of ground beef for a bit before putting it back on the shelf. I'll make do with onions as seasoning in this sure-to-be-bland sauce.

My only meat purchase ended up being a small package of pork hocks (3.16) for the base of my pea soup (1.59...seems several of us opted for split peas). To the soup I'll add onion and some of the 2 lb bag of carrots. I'm assuming that it's fair to use pantry seasonings because even for the sake of the challenge it wouldn't make sense to spend $4 on bay leaves or oregano. I'll caramelize most of the 3 lb bag of onions (1.99) for added seasoning, for a 2-serving soup, and to add to my carrot soup. Lucky for me, soup-making is therapeutic.

I still have no real meat. But I have a .83 kg sweet potato (1.81) that would do for about four meals if I had meat to serve it with! I'll probably shop for a smaller, cheaper package of ground beef that will provide a couple of cooked hamburger patties and leave some for my pasta sauce. A can of herbed, diced tomatoes (1.19) can fill in anywhere, anytime: I can use them in the pasta sauce, make a 2-serving soup or have them cold as a vegetable or snack...love them in anything.

Five bananas (1.36) and a 4-pack of bathroom tissue (1.29) rounded up my food total to the previously-stated $26.04. Five bananas will be enough for the week since it'll be two days before they'll be speckled enough to eat. I picked up a couple of good tips at lunch today on where to buy what and will source out some cheaper milk. A friend told me that 4 L of milk at Shoppers is the best buy. Since I have hot milk in the evening, that will be a nice treat.

My challenge today was to convince someone to lend me $2, assuming that I won't be able to pay them back. Not much of a challenge at a church lunch...everyone was reaching for their purses. Obviously, in the true spirit of the challenge I should have been asking a casual acquaintance, in a different setting, but I took the toonie and ran. Thanks, Bev! As is the intention of the project, we had a lot of lunchtime conversation about local poverty and the challenges of shopping smart. I was really interested in how many people there already knew how to shop smart. I will certainly be more aware of those values and bargains when this week is over and I hope it will carry over to my "real life."

I have a Palliative Care Training session tonight for which I'll use my van because I don't want to ask anyone to drive me. Many friends have offered to give me rides this week, but again, in the spirit of the challenge, would I likely have that many generous, mobile friends to call on if I truly were impoverished. So I'll drive and either pay $1 or slide it into the category of“transportation for work, family commitments or other non-personal reasons will be allowed without penalty.” I'm voting for door #2.

My biggest personal challenge today will be tv. I checked what channels are covered under basic cable, $29.95/month. I'm not sure if this should be factored into my $52 budget or if I'd assume it was part of my rent+utilities. But it's going to be way less convenient than my complete satellite menu. For the sake of the challenge I'm going to assume that I don't have a recorder and can only watch the available channels and only in real-time. It's going to be a long evening...

I'm struggling with computer time. I'll assume that someone 'gave' me one of the several old laptops I have in my electronics graveyard, and that one of them worked well enough to get me online. Basic dial-up internet is $8.95/month for 10 hours of air time. That's half an hour a day! I'll consider 'blog time' and responding to challenge-related emails outside that range. That isn't going to allow much YouTube surfing or internet look-ups.

I've made a reservation for tomorrow at Knox Church Agape Table for 11:30, table for one. Actually, I'm hoping to have some conversation with the patrons as well as the volunteers in the kitchen there. Now off to make some soups.

Day 1

My first hit of reality for the start of my day is quite startling, but silly: shower products. I've taken Bradley's collection of hotel soaps, shower gels, shampoos and conditioners to the Fellowship Centre over the last couple of years. Just by coincidence I happen to have similar items from a recent trip...they were in a bag for me to take to the FC last week so for the sake of the challenge I'm going to assume that I went and asked for a couple back! Same with toothpaste. Dental companies are still sending us boxes of trial size toothpastes which I also take to the FC. I happen to have one at home and will try to stretch it as far as possible. Years ago we bought 'disposable' (read: cheap) toothbrushes at a flea market, in a strip of 12 brushes for $1!! And guess what...I still have a few of those. Maybe I should debit my challenge allowance $ for that?

But back to the reality of these shower items. While I'm using a hotel shampoo I'm looking at my array of products on the shelf. I don't fuss with my hair but I use good quality products: shampoo, conditioner and a curl creator. That curl creator costs two-days'-worth of my budget! And shower gel. So before I get dressed I have typically used products which initially cost me $50! Granted they last a couple of months but when I consider that it would use up almost a week's allowance to buy them, that doesn't leave a lot left over for food. I haven't even gotten to the face cream, body moisturizer and deodorant, cologne and even my limited cosmetics...

Then there's My Cat. As I'm doling out her arthritis medication hidden in her Fancy Feast treat and adding her protein supplement to her dry food, I'm realizing that if I were really on assistance none of this would be possible. Add in daily hairball remover, dry cat treats, flushable litter plus vet visits and it would price my feline friend right out of my life! I've lived alone for three years and Mocha has been an incredible comfort to me and there's no doubt that I'm healthier for having shared two of those years with this fat old cat. If I were on assistance I would think the same Cat Comfort would apply because of my limited outings and entertainment, yet I would have to forfeit that comfort because of cost. How do true “Cat Ladies” manage??

I told you that my first hit of reality was silly things: shower items and My Cat. But all very important to me. And I haven't even had breakfast. I settled for half an english muffin with margarine (yuk) and a glass of OJ. It helps that I'm counting on a really good lunch. This is the monthly Seniors' lunch at Lakeside and it's potluck. I rsvp'd that I'd be there but I need a ride and won't be bringing food! And they'll still make me welcome...