9 REAL Ways To "Survive Poverty"

I came across a pin, which led to a blog post, which discussed 9 tricks that "Old Time" mothers used to stretch the family dollars. The suggestions for saving money included making children share a soda instead of having one of their own, watering down milk, and making tea when there's nothing to drink.

I mean, sure, some of the commenters mention hearing about their grandmothers doing these things, and I suppose sharing a soda was a way to help everyone feel "less poor," but the only actually practical pieces of advice on the list were to save jars for bringing water to drink while out and about, and to learn to mend clothing. I mend broken buttons, pant rips, and torn skirts all the time. It certainly saves on buying new. And we save jars for all kinds of uses. 

But....I just....make tea to survive poverty? Water down milk? I don't understand the connection. No one needs milk to live. Or soda. And if you have running water, there's no such thing as "nothing to drink." Maybe the problem wasn't low funds for food, it was "poverty mentality" coupled by needing to keep up certain appearances. 

NOTE: If you are suffering from real hunger and not just "I can't buy a donut" hunger, please contact your local food bank. Do not feel ashamed to use them. You should not have to jump through any hoops to qualify, and you typically get enough food to help your family get through a week. Please also consider overcoming the stigma associated with government food programs. Food Stamps can be used at farmers markets and to purchase fruit and vegetable seeds and starts for growing your own food. They help connect people to their local farmers, thus putting the funds back into the community. 

Visit FoodPantries.org for a directory of nationwide food banks and soup kitchens.

Here are 9 practical ways to stretch your food budget, and regain perspective on what it really means to "go without."

1. "Poverty mentality" is focusing on what you can't buy while ignoring what you can. The advice to have all the children share one soda reminds me of this. I don't see anything wrong with wanting your children to have a sugary treat every once in a while, but filing it under "surviving poverty" is a first world problem at best. There are populations around the world living primarily on grains and root vegetables. You are not "surviving poverty" when you struggle to drink something other than water. 

If you can obtain the necessary nutritious foods for your family for the month, and have money left over to buy snack foods, count your blessings.

2. Bake Bread. Flour is cheap, and while bread can also be had for cheap when bought second day, or with lots of preservatives for $1.00 a loaf at WalMart, homemade bread will also lack the additives and crap put into commercial breads. Throw in measured portions of ingredients like ground seeds or nuts, and you increase the nutrition without increasing much of the cost. 

Click Here for an article from Mother Earth News on how to have fresh bread every day without kneading and with very little time commitment.

3. Reduce Wasted Food. Have a meal plan for using the perishable food items in your refrigerator. "In developing countries, on average, 13-24 pounds of food (6-11 kg) are wasted per person each year. How about in industrialized countries? With our supersized portions come supersized amounts of waste. In North America and Europe, we annually waste 209-253 pounds of food (95-115 kg) per capita." (Source Link) That is depressing. 

I get very mad at myself when I find a forgotten cucumber or bowl of leftovers in the back of the fridge. Even though we have plenty to meet our dietary needs each month, I have gone through months when we didn't, and I feel very fortunate to be able to provide healthy and varied food for  my children. Food left to perish not only wastes money, it is also missed calories and nutrition for my family. 

Periodically check your fridge for stealthy ninja food sneaking around in the bins and behind the watered-down milk. Waste not, want not.

4. Make Your Own Things, And Repair The Broken Ones,Yourself. Not all of us are skilled enough to fix an electrical problem in a car, or piece together a functioning laptop from freecycled parts. Still, very simple furnishings can be made from reclaimed wood and basic tools, missing buttons are easily replaced, and simple home maintenance skills can be mastered with a few minutes of time and access to Youtube videos, or a book or two at your local library. 

I recently discovered a blog called Funky Junk Interiors. New homeowner Donna found that she could not buy the quality furnishings and decorative touches she wanted, and decided to pick up a drill and make them herself. Click on the link and check out her home tour - she made the following desk for only $3.00 by using reclaimed wood.

The less you spend each month on inedible things, the more you can spend on edible things.

5. Barter. I belong to a local group on Facebook where we can trade material goods and services. I have traded gently used toys for food items before. Some of the massage therapists will trade massages for things. If a local backyard chicken farmer is selling their excess eggs, they might be open to something you have, like extra fabric or yarn, children's clothes or shoes, or unused gift cards.

6. Use coupons. My sister started a blog where she hunts down the coupons we could all actually use - like organic salad mix or non-toxic household cleaners. She does the work for you, and you save. I'm new to couponing, but she swears she saves well over $100 each month on her food budget this way (Actually, she never swears. So, I swear extra to pick up the slack).

She doesn't have her own logo yet, so instead here's a picture of my daughter two years ago in one of her famous Salvador Dalí nap poses.

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7. Make frozen meals ahead of time, or heck, buy some, so that you'll have something easy on hand for nights when no one wants to cook. We've all wasted money on fast food just because we didn't feel like washing out a pot because the sink is full.

The easiest way to do this without being one of those "Cook 30 meals in one day" ladies, is to just cook twice as much as your family eats at any given meal and freeze the extra. PS - it's totally okay if you're one of those freezer meal marathon types. I'm just saying, I don't like spending that much time all at once in my kitchen.

8. Discover "Gleaning." If you live near any farms, you may have the opportunity to participate in gleaning, which means to go in after the harvest and pick whatever is left. Since American consumers usually want very uniform, blemish-free produce, a LOT gets left behind that is perfectly delicious and nutritious.

If you aren't interested in what your local farm offers, you can still put it to good use for bartering. Maybe you don't like apples very much, but you could can applesauce and trade it (though, really, applesauce can replace oil and butter in many baking recipes, so you should consider keeping it).

Photo from a free gleaning event at Laughing Dog Farm

9. Discover the edible plants growing wild near you. Dandelions are a lawn owner's nightmare, but they are actually very nutritious and have several medicinal uses. I like to put the greens in lasagna, egg rolls, and stir fries. Plantain (the green leafy weed, not the banana-looking fruit) makes an amazing balm for cuts, scrapes, and rashes. In fact, I'm steeping some in oil with local cottonwood buds, comfrey leaves, and calendula flowers as we speak.

One of the best parts about living in the Pacific Northwest is our endless supplies of wild blackberries every summer. Pies, pastries, jam, frozen for smoothies - we get pounds and pounds of it every year.

CAUTION: Watch out for plants growing where pesticides and herbicides are used, or near roads where lots of car traffic will pollute the plants.

10. BONUS: Grow. Packets of seeds always contain more than most backyard gardeners can use, and many would be willing to part with them for free. Spinach takes only 6 weeks from seed to sweet leaves, and it is a super food for smoothies, pasta, rice dishes, fresh salads, and almost any other meal you could imagine.

Grow Food, Not Lawns is a growing network dedicated to showing people how to grow food practically anywhere. Google "urban vegetable garden" and "vertical vegetable garden" for several good websites dealing with abundant harvests in limited space.