Many have asked where we came up with the $13-a-day rate for our poverty level. I originally worked it out a month or so ago, so decided to revisit and document. I have to admit that I hope something comes out differently and we actually end up with more money, but, alas, I suppose we could end up with less. But, here goes.
I googled things like "federal poverty level," USDA poverty," "bay area poverty" and such. I always like to get to the history of these things, so was happy to find this article: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/papers/hptgssiv.htm. Back in 1963-64 a Social Secruty Administration employee named Mollie Orshansky developed the first poverty thresholds. Basically, starting with USDA data on what was described as an "economy food plan" she estimated that a family of 3 or more spent about 1/3 of their income on food, and so arrived at a factor of 3 to determine a total income poverty threshold based on the food budget.
Nowadays, the Census Bureau calculates poverty thresholds and other agencies translate those into eligibility criteria for various programs. The Department of Health and Human Services publishes Poverty Guidelines each year in the Federal Register. Here is the 2012 version: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12fedreg.shtml. This was not available when I did my original calculation.
One thing I had not realized is that the levels for Alaska and Hawaii are higher than for the rest of the country. There are no finer divisions to account for high cost of living in particular cities. That means, for example, that although the cost of living is very high here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have to use the guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The FR Notice includes interesting comments about how it's not clearly defined whether "income" means before or after taxes. Different programs apply different rules.
So, looking at the 2012 guidelines, the poverty level for a family of 2, based on annual income, is $15,130. Which is about $1260 per month; $290 per week. I haven't found a clear way to tease out food from that, so I went back to Mollie Orshansky's approach and divided the threshold by 3 to arrive at $97 per week, or about $14 per day! Hey, that's a dollar more than I got with the 2011 numbers. So, we'll go with that.
Today, I bought some Taster's Choice instant coffee, on sale at Walgreen's. With that, I can get coffee for about $.07 per cup vs. the nearly $4 per latte I usually spend. I suspect that in a few weeks I'll be weaned from coffee.....
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
What are we doing?
Finally set up a blog so I can post more about our plans and experiences during the upcoming Lent season. As some of you saw from a FB post, Warren and I are planning to eat only what we can afford with the amount of money the federal government considers poverty level for a family of two.
The US Department of Agriculture figures out the minimum nutritional requirements for families of various sizes and then calculates a food budget. They then multiply that minimum food cost by about 3 to come up with total poverty level income. They make some adjustments for families smaller than 4, realizing that housing and other fixed expenses take a bigger chunk out of budgets of smaller families. So, without going into all the details, that's how I came up with $95 per week, or about $13 per day for the two of us.
Mind you, this is a federal government poverty level. It does not take into account the high cost of living in the Bay Area. But there is no official Bay Area poverty level, so people who live here are deemed above or below poverty based on the national numbers. Seems unfair, given that, as a government employee, my salary is adjusted for the high cost of this area.
We've done other food-related Lenten devotions. We've given up alcohol. I went vegetarian one year. Warren did a Ramadan style fast. Basically, fairly simple things that take us out of our routines and make us think about how we're living our lives, which, I think, is at the heart of Lent. This year's plan will definitely be a change for us, and, since I wholeheartedly endorse the concept of doing something positive during Lent (i.e., not just giving up, but giving out), we will donate the money we save to local food programs .
Just telling people about our plans has been fascinating, and has generated a lot of conversation. Some are convinced we can't possibly eat a healthy diet, and could, in fact, eat every meal every day at a fast food restaurant and stay well within our budget. It has made people think about their food habits a bit. I hope others might join us, even if for only a short time.
I'm not worried. Warren is a miracle worker in the kitchen. The biggest challenge will be dealing with the lack of convenience, especially of being able to eat out pretty much whenever we want.
Topics I hope to find time to explore over the next 6 weeks include; what are the ground rules (can we take donations? can we use food that's already in the house?)?; how could we do this if either of us had special dietary needs?; what did we eat?; how did I manage without Peet's?
The US Department of Agriculture figures out the minimum nutritional requirements for families of various sizes and then calculates a food budget. They then multiply that minimum food cost by about 3 to come up with total poverty level income. They make some adjustments for families smaller than 4, realizing that housing and other fixed expenses take a bigger chunk out of budgets of smaller families. So, without going into all the details, that's how I came up with $95 per week, or about $13 per day for the two of us.
Mind you, this is a federal government poverty level. It does not take into account the high cost of living in the Bay Area. But there is no official Bay Area poverty level, so people who live here are deemed above or below poverty based on the national numbers. Seems unfair, given that, as a government employee, my salary is adjusted for the high cost of this area.
We've done other food-related Lenten devotions. We've given up alcohol. I went vegetarian one year. Warren did a Ramadan style fast. Basically, fairly simple things that take us out of our routines and make us think about how we're living our lives, which, I think, is at the heart of Lent. This year's plan will definitely be a change for us, and, since I wholeheartedly endorse the concept of doing something positive during Lent (i.e., not just giving up, but giving out), we will donate the money we save to local food programs .
Just telling people about our plans has been fascinating, and has generated a lot of conversation. Some are convinced we can't possibly eat a healthy diet, and could, in fact, eat every meal every day at a fast food restaurant and stay well within our budget. It has made people think about their food habits a bit. I hope others might join us, even if for only a short time.
I'm not worried. Warren is a miracle worker in the kitchen. The biggest challenge will be dealing with the lack of convenience, especially of being able to eat out pretty much whenever we want.
Topics I hope to find time to explore over the next 6 weeks include; what are the ground rules (can we take donations? can we use food that's already in the house?)?; how could we do this if either of us had special dietary needs?; what did we eat?; how did I manage without Peet's?
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