I want to see if it's possible to eat healthy for one dollar a day for a full week
I've shared my plans to do this with a few people and I always get the reaction
Why so here's a very quick explanation and I'll go more in depth a little bit later on in this video
There are a few reasons one. I'm very inspired by the resourcefulness of
Mexicans and their creativity with such limited resources - it's a common stoic practice
to experiment with less and to remind yourself how little you really needed to be happy in life and
3 I've noticed a little bit of lifestyle creep. I seem to be spending more money every single month and
that's a kind of alarming idea because
The way I see things I'm not happier now than I was say six months ago and yet I'm spending more money
So what's going on here? What does that say?
I've seen a few videos that have a similar concept
but what I always see is people going for freebies and trying to eat for free and
For me that completely defeats the purpose like I am not accepting any freebies
And I want to see what seven dollars can do
So yeah this morning I went with my seven dollars to see what I could find. Let's do this thing
Easy easy. I
just did the
Calculation for how much seven dollars equals in pesos and today as of me recording this. It's
133 pesos and 51 cents. So that's what I have to work with this week.
Well, here's the deal I usually shop and do like all my groceries at a local soup Adama
It's like a local supermarket chain that exists here
But I think that there are better prices in this other market where I see locals kind of go to shop
So that is where I'm gonna attempt to make these purchases
The spot I decided to hit up. There's known as Mercado Medellín.
It's pretty cool, they've got pretty much everything you've need there and the atmosphere is really quite unique
To give myself a fighting chance of really making this happen and like being successful with this if this is even possible
I'm allowing myself to use the $7.00. However, I want now I don't recommend you do this. This might be a very stupid idea
We're just gonna have to see but my idea really is not to starve myself and to make this this whole like torturous experience
I want to see what I can do with limited resources
When it comes but a terminal for the competency the best
So the rules are have seven dollars to work with for all food and drink this week
With the exception of water potable water actually does cost money here in Mexico
But like I said, I'm gonna make that my one exception but beyond that
Anything that costs any money is going to have to count against my seven dollar budget
So that includes even things like gum coffee juice anything
I'm also not allowing myself to use anything that I previously owned including salt oil
Or anything else that I might need to cook I spent weeks thinking this over and trying to plan things out
But I ultimately realized for this to happen. I just have to go for it and figure things out as I go
I've tried chatting with the locals to get better deals
All right, I just snagged and a whole kilo of
Oats for 22 pesos feeling good of the winner right there.
Personally find that I'm more creative when I impose limitations on myself. I
Was particularly targeting staple foods stuff that I know that the government subsidizes stuff
That is very cheap. But like look, we're not gonna have ramen
Okay, ramen is not gonna be a part of this that is in my opinion
Not a super healthy thing to consume especially like the instant ramen that you can buy in supermarkets. Oh no, no to that
Okay
I'm not gonna lie that went better than I was expecting
What remains after my grocery shopping this morning is 49 pesos and one cent
Which is about two and a half dollars
So we got to see kind of how things go
But that's sort of like my emergency fund in case things get real. My original idea was to ration everything out
So I have the same exact thing to eat each day, but I think my current plan now is just to eat
conservatively and
See how things go
Oh my God, what am I doing? All right, I
Am really hungry I had oatmeal a few hours ago now it is
4 o'clock 4:15, and so what I thought I'd do is prepare the beans in the rice that I bought
Got to be clever here if I buy eggs or anything else for that matter
That requires
Any kind of oil I'll take the oil that's in
The can here with the beans and save it just in case because I might need it
I'm not gonna do all the rice at once because that would be a lot of rice
But maybe like half of it so
A lot. I think that's a lot of stuff
So this juice is what I was talking about gotta save it that's gonna be useful
Okay, so
Here's the thing. I mean this this really is not that
I just found it interesting
While I was preparing this thinking about all the different ways that I embellish
things
Mmm really none that
Okay, stay to update things are going a lot better than I was expecting I hope that isn't misplaced
Optimism but yeah, I had oatmeal again this morning and I'm not even close to running out
So I am feeling good about that. There's also an absolute surplus of rice. So those were good purchases
however, I finished the can of beans that I bought and
Of all the food that I have bought so far this week
I think beans are like my favorites. So I might buy another can we're just gonna have to see how things go probably tonight
what I'm gonna have is just
rice rice and tortillas one thing that did dawn on me that I didn't even realize would be a consideration for
This challenge was the fact that I can't have coffee now. I'm not like addicted to coffee
I don't drink it all the time, but it's really nice
especially
like as a pick-me-up in the afternoon and I spent a lot of time working in coffee shops when I'm sick of being in my
Apartment that's kind of a bummer. But I mean talk about first world problems, right? So
anyway
God but one of the side let's say benefits of all this that I also was not
Expecting is the fact that I'm not wasting any energy thinking about what I'm gonna eat
It's already sort of decided for me, you know
And I tend to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it is. I want to eat and where it is
I want to go on top of the money that you spend and all those resources Mike
Time energy and money that I usually spend on those sorts of things
I'm able to save now for other projects and other things that I'm doing right now for this week. At least I
Snagged two eggs for two pieces of pop and tried cooking them with my super clever oil from the can of beans technique
So
This did not quite work
perfectly, but
It's alright. Hey better than nothing this could use seasoning
So the tip I realized is that if you can't add salt that's using burn your food a little bit it tastes better
I'm not kidding
All right, so, it's Wednesday my dudes. Yeah day three basically of this experiment and I gotta say
Eating oatmeal with absolutely nothing just oatmeal and water
It's not exactly like the most exciting fun breakfast to have I don't want to use the word nasty
but it's
Bland in the extreme and so I'll second you know
Is there any way I could add sugar or flavor of any kind to this?
And then I was like, well, what's fruit for I haven't even touched the fruit that I bought so far
And so I just cut some orange. The citric scent of oranges is now filling my nostrils and
This is good. This is a huge boost to morale. I'm gonna eat the oatmeal with the orange
I think I do even going to be so adventurous as to add a banana into the mix good why not bananas?
I'm sweet man. Look at me
Mm-hmm. One thing at a time one meal at a time eating rice with tortillas
Which is what I did last night is not super fun
So I'm gonna have to take a moment today and get a little bit more creative about that as well
I need to get some beans and maybe a maybe a vegetable our show that would be good. Right? Hey, how's it going?
so I'm gonna go back to Matt Galland managing to buy a couple more cans of beans and
Maybe a potato the reason being I'm gonna have to stay up until 3:30 a.m
Tonight for a project that I'm working on and I know I'm gonna get hungry so I might as well be prepared. I
Think this is an appropriate time to dip into my savings. We're going all out. I
Ultimately bought two cans of beans and a potato for 39 and a half missiles
this challenge is
More difficult than I thought. I think the thing that's hitting me right now is that
Okay, I'm doing this for like a week, right but there are people
That live like this, you know, I'll give an example. I am now having to sort of ration out my tortillas
I've got about 16 left. Today is day four
And so I have about four left for each day
And the idea of rationing things out so tightly is something kind of foreign to me
Like I've never had to do that before I don't think I have an unhealthy relationship with food
But it's something that I just get so much joy
I just love eating good food. I just love it. I'm down to one banana left
I was feeling really quite demoralized yesterday. I know it's silly to say that but I
cannot imagine
living like this
I just wanted to kind of assess where things are at
I've still got oats a fair amount of rice a potato a month to my last banana
My last can of beans and 12 40s. I have four left to eat today
Plus this toil juicing which I don't know. This technique is really working to be honest with you. I
Just miss you tasty food and
drinking coffee and you know little pleasures like that the last couple of days have been a
Lot more difficult than the beginning of this week
I'm feeling more tired than I usually do and I
Have no idea if it has anything to do with the food that I'm eating and it might totally be a nocebo effect
I'm totally willing to recognize that part of me is getting a little bit obsessive about rationing things out because I really want
This to be successful
I want to make it through the week and I also
Think I have a little bit of a fear of running out. Like I think I'm taking this a little bit too seriously
I'm noticing just how much I rely on it for kind of like daily pleasures
There's no more fruit fruit is gone
and I totally recognize that I have not included practically or any honestly vegetables in this entire week and
Of course. I'm trying to eat as healthy as I can. But I just I feel like I can't afford it
He doesn't fit into a dollar a day. I
Decided it was time to see what I could get with my last pesos
at a mini supermarket
I got an onion for eight pesos and convinced them to give me an egg for my last base or and a half even though
usually they sell them for two I
Know you're thinking. Why are we in the negative Nathaniel? What is this and believe me? I share your frustration
Okay, it was only an editing that I realized that I forgot to take into account the two eggs that I bought on day two
I was under the impression that I still had my two half pesos
And I thought I did things to perfection. But what we are seeing right now is poor math skills on full display
Anyway, I appreciate that you've stuck around for this long. Might as well, see how this all ends, right
At 7:00 p.m. On Sunday, which means we are almost there. I am so ready for this to be done
All the food is gone except for a potato and half an onion
And so that's what I'm preparing right now. It's just in the oven my plan at this point
Honestly is to go to bed very early, so that things can just be done and tomorrow morning
I'm gonna eat like a king check out the system that I've got here since I don't have aluminum foil
And I feel like buying some would be cheating. I came up with a makeshift solution
So the potato is within that makeshift contraption you'll see that right there
So a few weeks have gone by and I've gotten the chance to reflect on things
Let me just say that I already knew that it brings me a lot of joy in life
I just always like to think about where the food comes from and what took place
For it to arrive in the plate in front of me
I wasn't originally planning on doing this but thinking about being restricted on what I can eat for a longer period of time
Was a really depressing thought I feel very lucky that I always had enough while I was growing up
and unfortunately
We still live in a world where there are many people including children that do not I have
Regularly asked for your support on my patreon. But today I'm going to do something a little bit different
I've set up a GoFundMe campaign where you can donate money to action against hunger, which is a humanitarian organization
That is making a huge effort to fight hunger around the world. I like that
They put a focus on helping women and children instead of giving me money
I'm going to ask that you send your money over there
If you feel that this is an important cause so that we're not starting from zero
I've gone ahead and done the first thousand dollars, which is about what I made on patreon last month
So thank you to all my patrons. And yeah, I'm gonna be posting updates on my Instagram
So thank you for watching this video and I'll see you soon