Living on a Dollar a Day in Malawi

Malawi is one of poorest countries in the world, and according to NPR.org, more than half of the population lives off less than £0.50/$1.00 per day. That’s 127 Malawian Kwacha.

A goon from The Something Awful Forums started a thread entitled Eating on a Dollar per Day, stating him and his room mate are going to live for a dollar a day for a month too taking advice from fellow goons on what to buy and what not to.

Because prices in Malawi are so low, and prices in the USA are lower than that of the UK, I kinda assumed it’s £1 a day in English exchange and tax prices and that got me thinking how we are so wasteful.

I think nothing of going into a shop and paying £1 for a pasty to “keep me going” until my evening meal. This is the entire daily budget for somebody living in Malawi or a poor part of the USA.

The Day’s Accounting
The daily balance sheet for the Phiri family:


Income
Cotton: $0.07/£0.04
Donations: $0.63/£0.32
Tomatoes: $0.01/£0.01
Bike taxi: $0.09/£0.05
Goats: $0.10/£0.05
Sugar cane: $0.04/£0.02
TOTAL: $0.94/£0.47
Expenses
Maize flour: $0.45/£0.23
Soap: $0.04/£0.02
Salt: $0.02/£0.01
School fees: $0.10/£0.05
Clothes: $0.08/£0.04
Paraffin (for lamps): $0.17/£0.09
Fertilizer: $0.04/£0.02
Fish: 35
TOTAL: $1.25/£0.63


How would you budget if you were given $30/£30 and told to make it last a month in your city?
I would get:



£1.00 Months supply of multi-vitamin
£2.00 2 x 3KG bags of pasta
£0.50 Salt
£1.00 Various spices
£5.00 Various budget chicken cuts
£2.00 Bananas and Apples
£3.00 3 x 1KB bags of brown rice
£1.00 Jar of peanut butter
£2.00 Cheap musli type cereal
£1.50 Plenty of powdered milk mix
£2.88 36 x Packets of ramen noodles
£6.00 Freakin’ huge sack of potatoes
£1.00 Few large cabbages
£0.30 Large bar of cheap chocolate
£0.80 A crapload of boullion for either
seasoning or making soup.



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