Day 36- $1 a day

What I didn’t mention at the beginning of this $1 a day experiment is that in 2008 I did the same thing--only I lived on $1.50 a day. So I had $60 to work with for the 40 days of the experiment. I’ve been surprised by the big differences between my experience last year and this year.

Last year my focus was on figuring out what I could eat and how my lifestyle was affected by being limited to spending $1.50 per day. The experiment felt like a big sacrifice. The food I ate seemed limited and bland. I felt hungry much of the time. The limits on my social life bummed me out. I was very concerned about other people being adversely affected by my experiment (e.g. not being able to go out for a friend’s birthday dinner). In short, the lessons were almost entirely about me, me, me.

This year my focus--whether it was reflected in my blog entries or not, this is what has been going on in my mind--has been more on scrutinizing my lifestyle to determine how I can keep the plight of the poor and hungry front and center in my life. The experiment hasn’t seemed like a sacrifice. I’ve been pleased with the healthy, delicious food I have been eating. I’ve embraced the extra time I’ve had home alone or walking around the beach and park. I’ve invited other people into their own version of my experiment. In short, the lessons have had a bigger vision outside of myself.

After two years of this experiment I see a progression. I wrote in a previous post that I consider year one to be a 5K race, perhaps this year was a 10K, and I look forward to training my way to a marathon in regards to how I can be used to wipe out poverty on our planet.