LBTL 2015: Day 5

The final day! I'm so glad it's here.

Again, I skipped breakfast and started eating in the late morning at work.

I have one raw portion of cabbage left. I tossed it with vinegar, oil, and salt for another cabbage slaw. I saved the dressing from the cabbage slaw I ate yesterday, so there was no additional cost to the seasonings. I had this as a snack for $0.13 flat.

Lentil salad. It was yummy!

I steamed up my last two portions of lentils ($0.22) to make into a lentil salad for lunch. I tossed the cooked lentils with two carrots ($0.14), the last 3 tomatoes ($0.21), 1/2 an onion ($0.05), 2 T oil ($0.12), 1 T vinegar ($0.02), and salt ($0.01). I also chopped up the final portion of roasted cabbage to add to the lentil salad ($0.16). That comes out to a whooping $0.93! But I ate some for lunch, and some for an early dinner.

I also had the last portion of potato "leek" soup from last night ($0.21).

When I got home, I added up the damage:
Cabbage slaw: $0.13
Lentil salad: $0.93
Potato leek soup: $0.21

I've got $0.23 left on my final night. I used that to whip up a final batch of potato leek soup. 2 portions of mashed potatoes ($0.12), 1 T oil ($0.06), 1/2 onion ($0.05)... and salt? Can I have some salt? I think I can. Many times this week, I charged myself a full penny for the addition of salt, but didn't use anywhere near the full teaspoon. In fact, I used less than 1/2 tsp on the lentil salad. I can use the other half to season my soup.

That means I'm ending day 5 at exactly $1.50.

The end couldn't have come soon enough. Even though I did very well this year and didn't go hungry like I did in prior years, this is tough. I find myself envious of things others are eating, almost resentful. I can't imagine what it must be like to live this way day in and day out. In fact, Live Below the Line is not a proxy of what it means to live in extreme poverty. Those who fall below the global poverty line must do everything for $1.50 a day - food, housing, transport, medical care, education... And no, $1.50 doesn't go a lot farther in their country. That figure of $1.50 is purchasing power parity - adjusted to reflect the value it would have in the U.S. That's why it's EXTREME poverty. It means having exceptionally little. Such a struggle.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me in this challenge. If you haven't already, please give to The Hunger Project and help empower those living below the line everyday.

LBTL 2015: Day 4

Remaining staples, without potatoes

When I got home from work, I calculated what I'd eaten during the day:

The final portion of shepherd's pie (still delicious, best thing I've made all week): $0.37
Roasted root veggies from last night: $0.28
Cabbage slaw: $0.15

Potato "leek" soup

That's a total of $0.80. $0.70 left for dinner. Deja vu. I'll need to think about lunch tomorrow as I make dinner tonight. I've finished all my leftovers - except the mountain of mashed potatoes I made on day 1. 5 portions of those remain. In fact, potatoes are the only ingredient that's not running low. I have 3.6lbs of potatoes still in the bag. And while I'm sick of them, it's the reason hunger hasn't hit this year. And even the rest of the ingredients aren't super scarce. They are certainly enough to get me through the finish line tomorrow night.

One portion of roasted cabbage. I ate three.

I decided to make something like a potato leek soup tonight. I put 3 portions of mashed potatoes ($0.18), 1 onion ($0.10), 2 T oil ($0.12) and 1 tsp of salt ($0.01) in a pot with water to boil. Of all the food I've made this week, the potato leek soup was a close second to the shepherd's pie, and far superior to the other soups I've made this week. I served out two portions at $0.21 each. I had one as an early dinner, and am looking forward to having the second at work tomorrow. $0.49 left in today's budget.

Next to the potatoes, cabbage is my most abundant resource right now. I cut 4 portions of cabbage ($0.52) into wedges and roasted with 2 T oil ($0.12) and salt ($0.01) in a 425 degree over for about 45 minutes. Each wedge comes out to about $0.16. I ate three of them as my second dinner, and saved the last for tomorrow. That brings today's total to $1.49. Barely under the line again!

Can't wait until I finish out tomorrow. It feels like it's been so much longer than it has been.

I hope you will take a stand against extreme poverty with a donation.

LBTL 2015: Day 3

Potato cabbage soup, shepherd's pie and cabbage slaw for lunch

This challenge puts me in a scarcity mindset - always a fear or anxiety of "not enough."  I smelled cinnamon rolls from a bakery I passed on my way home from work and thought "Ooo maybe I'll make cinnamon rolls when I get home... oh, I can't." And yesterday I saw a billboard for ice cream. "Mmmm, I'll have a little bit of that strawberry ice cream I've got in the freezer tonight... oh, I can't." Everything is off limits. Out of reach. So it must be to live in poverty. "No" to so many things. And harsh judgement from society if you dare say "yes."

Yesterday I was operating with an abundance mindset, and things almost got away from me. Not today. I haven't been hungry (bless that 10lb bag of potatoes!), but I haven't been having fun like I was earlier. And before I settle in to make dinner, I need to take stock of what I've spent today:

Two serving of root veggies for roasting

Leftover potato and cabbage soup, plus an added tablespoon of oil: $0.26
Cabbage slaw: $0.15
Shepherd's pie: $0.37
"Tea" and sugar: $0.02

Tomato lentil soup and roasted root veggies for dinner

That brings me to $0.80. Not bad. I can have a decent dinner for $0.70 for sure. I haven't mentioned the cabbage slaw before. I prepared two portions last night, consisting of 1/8 head of cabbage ($0.13), 2 T oil ($0.12), 2 T vinegar ($0.04) and salt ($0.01). I'll have the second portion tomorrow. The "tea" and sugar is really just sugar in terms of cost. I reused yesterday's tea bag to the bitter end. I can't afford another $0.16 tea bag.

Dinner is roasted root veggies. 3 carrots ($0.21), 5 potatoes ($0.10), 1 onion ($0.10), 2 T oil ($0.12), 1 T vinegar ($0.02), salt ($0.01). $0.56 total ingredients, and it will make two portions at $0.28 each. I'll eat one tonight and take the second for lunch tomorrow. That leaves me with $0.42 for the rest of dinner. I also lentil tomato soup. 1/4 C lentils ($0.13), 3 tomatoes ($0.21), 1 T oil ($0.06). I didn't use a full tsp of salt on the roasted veggie, so the rest of the salt will go into the soup. The lentils got away from me and burned a bit. No choice but to eat them anyway. I actually didn't mind too much. It was nice to have a different smokey flavor. I miss variety!

I ended the day at $1.48. And only two days left in the challenge! I plan to make cinnamon rolls on Friday. I could use a treat. And I'm boycotting potatoes for a month.

Big thank you to everyone who has supported me with a donation to The Hunger Project! You've really kept my spirits high.

LBTL 2015: Day 2

As I learned in previous years, skipping breakfast is a good way for me to limit my food intake. I left for work shortly after 7am, and got in around 8:30am. Around 9:30, I ate a portion of shepherd's pie, which, by the way, is just as delicious cold as it is hot.

I've never had tea in prior years of LBTL. I always want tea in the morning, but get worried I'll use up too much of my budget and find myself hungry come dinner. But I had room in the budget yesterday, so I took the risk. Tea time! PG Tips with a bit of sugar. I made two cups with the same tea bag. I do that on a normal day - PG Tips is nice strong tea, and I usually make small cups.

Around 1pm I ate two of the left over cabbage rolls I made last night. I had the third around 5pm before wrapping up work and getting on the train. Really yummy the second day. So glad I made that little impromptu tomato sauce with these. It adds a nice tang to the mild cabbage and filing.

Throughout the day I munched on carrot sticks as a snack. I've learned that eating small portions every few hours is a great way to stretch small meals. But I have to say, I never felt like I was depriving myself. My portion sizes have been generous, the food was tasty, I had a nice cup of tea, and I wasn't hungry! LBTL isn't so hard, I'm getting good at this!

I didn't watch my budget closely today because I was a total rock start yesterday. Time to figure out how much money I have left for dinner. Here's my budget breakdown pre-dinner:

The tea that stole my dinner

Tea + sugar: $0.18
Shepherd's pie: $0.37
3 cabbage rolls: $0.54
Carrot sticks: $0.21

Oh no, I've spent $1.30. Is that right?! That can't be right!! Ugh, that is right. Only two dimes to rub together for dinner. I'm sort of regretting that cup of tea... No! I regret nothing! I can do this.

Ok, so I'm going to make a soup. Potato soup. Because I can afford that. I'll make a double portion so I have one to take to work with me tomorrow. That gives me $0.40 to work with in the pot. That's not so bad. Right?

It took me 30 minutes to figure out the exact combination of ingredients I would use. I wanted an onion - $0.10. And some cabbage - $0.13. I need enough oil to keep me full. 2 T - $0.12. That leaves $0.05. 2 potatoes and 1 tsp of salt. That's what $0.05 will buy. I dug through the bag of potatoes, trying to find the biggest ones. They are all so small!! 2 potatoes would make a meager single portion. No way I could stretch that into tomorrow. Should I ditch the cabbage? Then the soup would only be potato and onion. That didn't sound too exciting. Plus, I've got 7 portions of cabbage left, and don't want to find myself eating only cabbage on day 5.

Simple potato cabbage soup

I poured 1 T of oil into the pot and added the onions. Then added 2 chopped potatoes to see how much food that really was. If it was enough, I could add more oil. It wasn't. I decided to skip the extra tablespoon of oil I wanted in the recipe. That saved me $0.06 and bought 3 more potatoes. I'm not happy about the trade off. But I really shouldn't complain. I've eaten well today.

I didn't peel any of the potatoes tonight. They went into the pot, green and all! (I googled it. I'll be fine). After sautéing the onions and potatoes with oil and salt, I added water and brought to a boil. Once the potatoes were soft, I added the chopped cabbage and boiled another 5 minutes.  This made two nice sized portions - one for tonight, one for tomorrow. It was a bit bland. Could have done with more salt, and of course more fat. But this wasn't in the budget tonight. I'll pump up the seasoning in tomorrow's portion.

So I'm off to bed full but sort of unsatisfied. I got ahead of myself today. Not bad, but I'll need to be more cautious tomorrow.

And please consider giving to those who have to live every day below the line - and stretch $1.50 to include food, housing, transport, and health care. Make a gift to The Hunger Project.

LBTL 2015: Day 1

Since I'm starting LBTL on a Sunday, I'm using today to get some cooking out of the way and have quick meals ready during the week.

Potatoes are my main food, so I want to make sure they are easily accessible when hunger strikes. I peeled and boiled 18 potatoes with 2 tsp salt to make mashed potatoes. Many of the potatoes were green under the skin, so I was glad to have enough food to get away with peeling them (peels are food too)! I drained the water (which I saved for later), added 4 T oil, and mashed. I'll use there as a base for other things. The total came to $0.62 as follows:

4lbs of mashed potatoes

18 potatoes: $0.36
2 tsp salt: $0.02
4 T oil: $0.24

I'll expect 10 portions from this, or about $0.06 each.

Then I prepped what I'm called "shepherd's pie." I used the salted potato water to boil up 3 helpings of lentils. In another pan, I sautéed onions, carrots, and tomatoes with salt and oil, and added the cooked lentils. I'll top this with potatoes for an easy lunch dish during the week. I made four servings of shepherd's pie filling:

3/4 C lentils: $0.33
3 servings onion: $0.30

Prepping shepherd's pie portions for the week - $0.37 each

3 carrots: $0.21
3 tomatoes: $0.21
3 T oil: $0.18
1 tsp salt: $0.01

Which comes to $0.31 per serving + $0.06 of mashed potato on top.

I also prepped some carrot sticks for snacks at work.

So what did I actually eat today?

Breakfast:

Shortly after finishing two boiled potatoes, I ate a quick salad of 1 carrot, 1 tomato, a sliver of onion, salt and vinegar. These tomatoes are super sweet. It was crisp and bright. Very delicious! Used up a total of $0.20 this morning.

2 potatoes: $0.04
1 carrot: $0.07
1 tomato: $0.07
Vinegar: $0.02

I used so little onion, I'm not even counting it in the calculation.

Lunch:

Shepherd's pie for lunch - $0.37

One portion of the "shepherd's pie" for $0.37. This was quite tasty and satisfying (my partner wanted to eat some but resisted)! I'm up to $0.57 for the day, leaving a huge $0.93 for dinner!

Dinner:
I decided on stuffed cabbage rolls. It's something I've never made, but figured it wouldn't be too tough. I peeled off 5 large leaves from the head of cabbage and boiled for a few minutes in salt water. I cooked one onion in a tablespoon of oil with a dash of salt until crispy. Then added one portion of mashed potatoes and another tablespoon of oil. I cooked 1/2 cup dry lentils. When the lentils were soft, I added those too. This became my stuffing for the cabbage leaves. I was worried that some of the cabbage leaves were pretty torn up when I took them off the head. But this didn't seem to matter when it came to stuffing. Everything wrapped up nice and tidy.

Stuffing the cabbage leaves. The torn leaves worked just fine!

Traditionally, stuffed cabbage is cooked with tomato sauce. I quartered 4 tomatoes and cooked them in a pan with oil, salt, and vinegar (these are sweet tomatoes, so I wanted to add some acid). I layered the stuffed cabbages on top and covered. Many of the recipes I found online say to cook for another 40-90 minutes. I think those recipes have raw meat in them. I certainly don't want to cook my cabbage that long! I gave it about 15.

I had so much money left for dinner that I didn't pay close attention to how much I was spending. Let's see how I came out:

Pretty! Cooking stuffed cabbage with tomatoes - $0.18 each

1/8 cabbage: $0.13
1/2 cup lentils: $0.22
1 portion mashed potatoes: $0.06
1 onion: $0.10
4 tomatoes: $0.28
3 T oil: $0.18
1 T vinegar: $0.02
2 tsp salt: $0.02

Whoa, I cut that close. $0.91 or about $0.18 per roll. Bringing the day's total to $1.48, or so I thought. Those cabbage rolls were big! And even though I was really hungry, I only ate two (including the biggest one). I'm saving the other three for a future meal or snacks. So really, dinner was $0.37. That makes my total food for the day $0.94.

You know what that means!? Room for tea!! At $0.16/tea bag, I've never had room for tea in the past. And I'll even have a spoonful of sugar, which the internet tells me is $0.02. Ending the day at $1.12. I'm not hungry - thanks to that lucky 10lb bag of potatoes. I am already getting tired of potato though, and we're on day one! But so far, I'm in good spirits and feeling like I can take out the next four days without a problem.

Don't forget that this is a fundraiser to fight against extreme poverty and hunger, and I'd love to have your support. Consider making a donation to The Hunger Project.

What the world eats

Check out these images of a weeks worth of groceries for families in various countries. Fascinating. I assume that when the image shows a family of four, the groceries are for four people. And when the image shows a family of eight, the groceries are for eight people. Not sure if that's the case or not, but interesting to see anyway. Pay attention to the food available for the African countries. Easy to guess who is living below the global poverty line.


-Selfish Blogger

Day two: Moving day

The most delicious peas in the world

Two movers arrived almost 20 minutes early. There was no time for breakfast, but I woke up without hunger and didn't want to make the same mistake I had made on day one by jump-starting my metabolism with a few bites of food.

I corralled my angry, angry cat into her harness and carrier. I pulled all my carefully measured "challenge food" together. We packed up odds and ends, directed the movers, and helped load things up. I don't think I could have done it on my own. My brain was too foggy and I was distracted by the cries of my cat. Even though I wasn't hungry, I was noticeably weak. Boxes I had packed myself and carted from room to room a few days prior were too heavy for me to lift. My boyfriend was invaluable. He jumped in and took charge. An hour later we were on the road. Saturday morning traffic in Los Angeles was very kind, and I made it to my new place in only 35 minutes, with my cat howling and crying the entire car ride. Eating so little has brought my emotions very close to the surface. Listening to my cat cry made me cry, twice. Hunger started to kick in at the end of the car ride.

Another hour and a half, and our stuff was in the new place. At 10:45am I sat on the floor of my new bedroom, with my (now quiet) cat hiding under the bed, and I ate: one portion of peas cooked with salt and oil. The portion is 1 cup and costs $0.38. I planned to eat the whole thing, but felt sated halfway through. I saved the second half and ate it a few hours later. This is clearly the hunger talking, but these are the most delicious peas I have ever eaten! I planned to heat them up with carrot, onion, and water for a soup, but I was so hungry and tired, that I ate them cold on their own. And they were DELICIOUS! Someone try this recipe and tell me if I'm crazy:

2 C dried green split peas

1 Tbs salt

1 Tbs canola oil

water for cooking

Cook until peas are tender but not mushy, about 2 hours.

Because I've only eaten one portion of peas for $0.38, I've got $1.12 available for the rest of the day. I think my stomach shrunk, because I'm handling today much better than yesterday.

No internet at my new place though, so I'll have to post when I can!

I hope the next time I log in, I find I've reach my goal of raising $1,000 to help lift women out of extreme poverty. If you haven't already, I hope you'll help my get there by forking over some cash: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/claire

-Selfish Blogger

End of day one

Here's I how I ended my first day of the Live Below the Line challenge:

I finished the second half of my lunch (brown rice and tofu vegetable soup) around 6:30pm. I felt energized, ready to take on the world. Though not full, I wasn't hungry, and It was a glorious feeling. But I knew it wouldn't last. The last of my food for the day was gone, and I had a Dodger game and night of packing ahead of me.

When we got to the stadium, my boyfriend suggested we take the escalator instead of the stairs so I could conserve my energy. I agreed. Once we met up with our friends and found our seats, I declined offers of food and used the opportunity to talk about the challenge - many of them had already read my blog. My best friend took the challenge earlier this month. The hardest thing for her was the monotony - eating the same food over and over. It made her feel nauseous, and at some meals she chose to eat more-expensive variety and experience hunger, rather than eat the same beans again. We talked about the comfort of knowing that the lack of proper nutrition will only last for five days, and how unfair that is. What if you had no end date?

Dodger tickets are $5, but this meal cost $17.50

My boyfriend bought a veggie dog, pretzel, and bottle of water for the totally reasonable price of $17.50. I would have loved to indulge with him, but I refrained.

$17.50. 35 meals.

Midway through the game I started to feel hunger creep back in. By 10:30pm my stomach was growling and I was feeling weak. Once we got home, it was time to pack. By the time we went to bed after 1:00am, I was passed hunger - in that place where I had been so hungry for so long that the physical feeling of wanting to eat wasn't there. The movers would arrive first thing in the morning. A day of hard work and hunger ahead…

I think the only thing that kept me going today was my sponsors. Friends and family have all chipped in to move me toward my fundraising goal - and almost half the money I've raised so far came in today - on day one of the challenge. I couldn't have imagined how much inner strength I'd need to get through this, and the support of friends and family has made the difference.

Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for helping end extreme poverty in our generation. And thank you to everyone who will join us: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/claire


-Selfish Blogger

Preparing to Live Below the Line

Next month, I'll be taking the Live Below the Line challenge (which I blogged about earlier this month). It means feeding myself on the global poverty line of $1.50 per day for 5 days.

To prepare, I've been tracking my food spending for the last month or two. The last time I tracked my food spending closely was in 2005 and 2006, when I was fresh out of college and making about $18,000 a year. Back then I was spending about $25 a week on food. There was hardly a packaged item in my house. The freezer was empty, except for portions of soup that I'd make from scratch in large batches. Meals were based around lentils, beans, dried peas, potatoes, rices, and pastas. The fresh vegetables I could afford were primarily cabbage, carrots, and onions.

Today, I'm spending two or three times as much on food: $50-75 a week. I admit, I was a little surprised my spending was that high. But it is easy to look around my kitchen and see why. My freezer is stocked full of cheese-less pizza, Gardein chickin' fingers, veggie potstickers, and coconut ice-cream. My pantry contains not just modest dried goods that cost $0.99/lb, but fancy french lentils, heirloom beans, and a rare Italian grain called farro that sell for $4.50/lb at Whole Foods. Raw nuts and dried fruits at $7-10/lb are in stock, and at least three different kinds of non-dairy milk. I see a few avocados, which cost $0.50 each on a good day, but up to $2 a piece if you aren't paying attention.  I see chips and crackers and chocolate bars. Those were $2-4 a package. Add in a $10 restaurant lunch during the work week... yup $50-75 makes sense. But how unnecessary.

I don't remember feeling deprived when I was eating on $25 a week. I'm not exactly sure why I drifted from that life-style, except that I was living without cable or internet back then, and I hadn't established a group of friends in the area. All that free time meant I was happy to prep lots of food from scratch - it's not like I had anything better to do. If I avoided Hulu and Facebook, I bet I could pull it off again. But I'm lazy and I have the extra cash. So I've been making the selfish choice to spend far more on food than I need.

But even at $25 a week, I was still way above the global poverty line. The money I use to spend on food for the day will need to stretch to cover 10 meals during the challenge.

I've got some planning to do...


-Selfish Blogger

P.S. You can donate through my Live Below the Line page here.

What happens when you see the problem?

I've taken the Live Below the Line challenge, which has given me a great opportunity to speak about extreme poverty to friends and colleagues. These conversations have not gone the way I anticipated: most of the people I've spoken to don't see the problem. And they push back when I start talking about the reality facing 1/3 of the world's population living off $1.25 a day. Here are some of the ways the people I've spoken to imagine extreme poverty:

- Not being able to afford organic food.

- Buying large quantities of rice in bulk, which is "much cheaper than those little bags you get at Trader Joe's" and eating small portions of vegetables and meat.

- Delighting in fresh fruits straight from the forest, the luxury of which we could imagine here.

- Hunting wild game on the Savannah.

- Living in tribal societies without the distractions of technology.

They don't see the problem. In fact, some sound almost envious of the simple, pollution free life these "impoverished" societies enjoy. Of course, the situations they are imagining are not extreme poverty, but they seem unable to imagine something much, much worse.

Here is how those living in extreme poverty have described what it means to them (from thelifeyoucansave.com):

- You are short of food for all or part of the year, often eating only one meal per day, sometimes having to choose between stilling your child’s hunger or your own, and sometimes being able to do neither.

- You can’t save money. If a family member falls ill and you need money to see a doctor, or if the crop fails and you have nothing to eat, you have to borrow from a local moneylender and he will charge you so much interest that the debt continues to mount and you may never be free of it.

- You can’t afford to send your children to school, or if they do start school, you have to take them out again if the harvest is poor.

- You live in an unstable house, made with mud or thatch that you need to rebuild every two or three years, or after severe weather.

- You have no close source of safe drinking water. You have to carry it a long way, and even then, it can make you ill unless you boil it.

Really think about what these words mean. Imagine how hungry you would feel after a full day of work, with no lunch, and how unsatisfied you would feel with a small bowl of grain at days end. Think of the physical weakness, the mood swings, the lack of concentration that comes from being really hungry, and imagine feeling that way every day. Think of the last big storm you sat through, safely in your home. Now imagine that you weren't safe in your home, because your home was falling apart around you. How terribly frightening! What would happen to your things? Imagine the emotional trauma of having your house destroyed, and imagine using what little money you have to rebuild a weak house that you know will be destroyed again.

-----

Today, I had a long phone conversation with one of my board members who just returned from vacation in Africa. He has been changed. The need he saw was so great, and so heart-wrenching, that he was sickened by the excess of his own life. He wants to go back. He wants to help. He wants to leave his job and commit his life to helping the people he met in the villages where he stayed. The experience was so far removed from the suffering he has witnessed to this point, that he was at a loss for words to even describe it. He doesn't know what to do, and he doesn't know who to talk to, because how could anyone who hasn't seem what he's seen understand it?


-Selfish Blogger

Accident of birth

We have no control over where we are born, but it makes all the difference to our chances in life. Explore what it means to be born poor in the USA, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia in Welcome to the World by Why Poverty?. This one hour video, and others by Why Poverty? are available free on their website and on PBS.


-Selfish Blogger

Why you should talk about giving

I just listened to a BBC radio interview with Toby Ord, philosopher and founder of Giving What We Can - a charity that encourages people to give away 10% of their income or more. Toby has pledged to give away a little over 50% of his.

Toby, and others from Giving What We Can, talked about the moral argument for donating much of their income. He earns close to £40,000 per annum but lives on only £18,000, including saving for retirement and his mortgage.

Most of those who called in to BBC radio during the interview were quite hostile. Callers said Giving What We Can does nothing but make people feel guilty, and that giving should only be done privately. Some accused Toby and his colleagues of coming on the radio to brag, and insisted they were lying about what they give or how much money they actually have. No one can live on £18,000 a year, one caller insisted.

I'd like to reframe this conversation.

First, the issue of guilt. Your money belongs to you. You can choose to spend your money in whatever way you see fit. Everyday, you are influenced about how to spend your money: from advertisers (buy this new flavor of coffee), from associating with peers (ooo, I like Carrie's new sweater...), and from cultural expectations (it's important to own a three bedroom house in a safe neighborhood). You can spend money according to those influences. You can also spend your money to improve the lives of others. Giving What We Can, like this blog, is hoping to influence you to do just that. Giving What We Can is just one more suggestion in a sea of suggestions about what to do with your money.

So why the hostility? Toby isn't just suggesting a way for you to spend your money. He's asking you to help solve a problem. He is asking you to save lives. If you ignore a commercial advertiser's spending suggestions, you forgo a new item. If you ignore Toby's, someone dies. Someone your money could have saved.

If that makes you feel guilty, congratulations! You have a conscience. You are not a sociopath. And if you want that guilty feeling to go away: donate a little bit of money to a highly effective charity. You'll even feel good about yourself. But don't shoot the messenger. Extreme poverty exists, whether you choose to admit it or not, and you can alleviate suffering by giving to charity, whether you choose to admit it or not.

Next, the issue of bragging. Why go on the radio to publicly state you are giving money away, if not to impress others and toot your own horn? Why, to influence peers and change cultural expectations around giving, of course! Most people do what their friends and family do, and they adopt the traditions of their community. It's why most of us wear clothes similar to our friends. It's why most engagement rings are (still) diamond. It's why most Americans (still) delight over the corpse of a bird on Thanksgiving. We are a social species. We follow the rules of our tribe. And if everyone in your peer group was talking about extreme poverty and giving money to Deworm the World, wouldn't you look into doing the same? If every leader in your community was publicly supporting Mama Hope, do you think others would follow?

There is a growing movement of compassionate people who believe giving money is only the first step to a solution: we have to encourage others to give too. And the best way to do that is to engage in conversation. Simply share information about your own giving, and how you came to the decision to support the charities you support.

I hope to join Giving What We Can by pledging 10% of my income to highly effective charities. Until then, I'm happy to be part of The Life You Can Save where I have publicly pledged 1% of my income. Take a look at all the others who have pledged. I'm in good company.


-Selfish Blogger