Living on a Dollar a Day in Malawi
May 7th, 2007 by Shaun
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:
|
|
Opinions? Responses? Opinions?
Please donate to Malawi via Unicef by clicking the “Donate Now” button on the following URL:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/malawi.html
Fatal error: Call to undefined function pri_print_browser() in /home/thebutte/public_html/sites/sh4un.co.uk/wp-content/themes/mistylook-101/comments.php on line 35