Living on $2 a Day

[Dhanesvara Das]

After reading my article “Becoming Wealthy on $2 a Day” in Back to
Godhead Magazine, my good friend Prabhupada Das wrote to me saying
that I was throwing down the challenge that the benchmark for simple
living should be at $2 a day. He then asked when Gitagrad will reach
that target of spending.

Here’s my reply:

Well actually we are already at that goal, albeit prematurely, because
we could sure use more income at the present. We take in about 600
hrn. (Hrivna, the Ukrainian currency) per month from selling paneer at
the Sunday feast. This pays for some vegetables, grains and spices for
the week, for phone expense (which we reduce by all using the same
carrier, for which calls are free), and other miscellaneous items. One
of our Partners-for-Life, Bhakta Jenya, takes care of the electricity
bill each month. The other big need right now is firewood, but the men
scavenge that from the nearby forests.

We reduce our food bill by purchasing no processed foods, and of
course by eating what has been grown in our garden. Despite the fact
that we lost most of the crops, we still produced quite a bit, and are
now harvesting cabbages, beets, pumpkins, sunflower seeds, and green
tomatoes. Right now, aside from food, we have very few expenses. 600
hrn. is about $75, for 5 people, for the month, which is about 50¢ a
day, each, so we are way below the Millennium Development Goal target.
For 5 people, at $2 a day, for 30 days = $300 for a month. It would be
nice to have such income to develop our community. If we had more we
would undoubtedly increase the standard of our Deity worship. And
increased income would go to capital expenditure in the form of
buildings, tools, greenhouses, animals, etc. So as long as we are
below budget we can take this credit to offset other expenses, as they
come up later, such as seeds, tools, etc.

How do we get to such a low level of expenditure? For one thing we eat
quite simply. We have some dairy but not much. Only several times a
week do we use butter, and once in a week or two will we will have
paneer ourselves. The only person taking milk on a daily basis is
Sakhi Vrinda, the 5 year-old daughter of Ekanatha Bhakti and
Rasamanjari. And the only sweets we have is halavah, about once in a
week. Typically we have kasha (grain cereal of some sort) for
breakfast, and kitari or soup, gretchka (buckwheat) or rice, and a
subji of cabbage or potatoes or both. For salads there is cabbage
salad, or potato salad, or beet salad. And because we have a paneer
business, for drinks we typically have sweetened whey, or else apple
compote from our trees, or water.

I believe that not having a refrigerator also keeps the food bill
lower, because we simply bypass the entire dairy section of the store.
In the winter months we can keep things cold on the porch. Dairy is
fresh the day we use it from the cows next door. We make our own sour
cream and butter as by products of the paneer business.

(Speaking of dairy, of our cow Kartika turns out to have reproductive
problems. We have been trying to get her in a family way
unsuccessfully for almost a year. The vet said that she was raised for
slaughter which means that they fed her a diet high in grains and this
somehow affects the development of the reproductive organs. He said
there is a 50-50 chance she could conceive if given vitamin therapy,
so we are giving her vitamin injections once a week. If that fails
then we will purchase another cow this spring).

In our Gitagrad Charter, which is the written ideology of our
community, I explain that those who come to live here must bring
sufficient clothing for 3 years. They should not expect that we have
funds to buy clothing. So the members either bring what they need,
acquire it by donation, or by some other exchange. For example, the
devotee who does the paneer trade is also an astrologer. Typically, as
this is a brahminical activity, he does not charge any set fee for
consultations, but accepts donations. Recently because he needed
winter shoes he did astrological readings for several days to acquire
the necessary funds. We do not include such income and expense in the
community budget, since it is a private expenditure. But such
purchases are rare. Our members will also purchase from the used
clothing store to keep spending at a minimum.

Unusual for a yatra, the Kharkov yatra has three dentists who are
devotees, and who joyously donate our tooth care. Another devotee in
Lithuania who is an optometrist provides my eye care and contact
lenses as a donation. When devotees come to visit they often make a
donation of supplies.

Not having a motor vehicle keeps our expenses way down. Gasoline is
expensive at US $1/liter. Another thing that keeps expenses down is
not having a store in our village. Thus there is no running off to the
store to get some item that we may have run out of. Instead we just do
without. The closest store in the nearest larger village about 10 km
away, and the bus only makes that trip 3 times a day, so a visit to
town for anything means a half-day adventure. Therefore we don’t have
many of those. One trip to the store on the way back from the Sunday
Feast is typically all the shopping we do. We spend time instead of
money to go around, by taking busses. Also, sometimes visitors come by
car and we arrange for them to bring the heavier or bulkier things
that are difficult to transport by bus.

At this point we have no funds set aside for health care, and
fortunately everybody is mostly healthy. In the past I have
contributed money for health care for my translator Jaya Mangala and
his wife. Medicines are also less expensive here than Europe or
America, and typically packaged in small amounts to be affordable.

I should point out that we target the $2 a day threshold for ongoing
maintenance, not for development or infrastructure. Infrastructure has
so far come from gifts from our Partners-for-Life, such as the houses
we live in, the wood saws that we use (a table saw recently purchased
for sawing firewood ($80) was donated), the well pump, etc. We need
more housing though. There are more devotees who want to join us here
but we have no housing for them. Next year we would like to raise
$30,000 to build 3 houses, and repair the existing ones. We also need
to build a craft building for a weaving loom, clay products, etc. And
of course as the community grows will need to build a temple.

While we are talking about reaching the Millennium Development Goals,
we should mention water. The EU has mandated that in just several
years they are going to impose heavy fines for Europeans using more
than 60 gallons of water each, per day. Where are we at there? In my
house here are two large water containers that we fill every other
day. One holds 80 liters, the other 50, which is the equivalent of 34
US gallons. For my bath I use a 12 liter bucket, twice a day. That’s
24 liters, with the rest of it being used for cooking for the
community of 6, washing dishes, and cleaning the floors, etc.
Everybody here bathes with a bucket since there is no running water,
so for 6 people that is 144 liters per day for bathing, which is 38
gallons. All the cooking is done in my house, so other water use is
minimal, except for Kartika who consumes about 20-30 liters a day. So
that comes to about 85 gallons every two days for 6 people and a cow.
Of course all of this water comes directly from the earth, costing
nothing either for delivery or for discharge.

Now, one may say that if we factored in all of the donations we
receive that this would bring our daily expenses above $2. Possibly it
would. But that is not how we do our accounting. Sri Krishna, Who is
the owner of everything arranges the care for His devotees. He has
many ways at his disposal for dealing with that. We consider donations
as gifts from Him, and we happily reciprocate by worshipping Him with
love every day.

It seems we can give a good example to the EU how to live in a
sustainable way, and be happy in Krishna Consciousness. Living simply
by reducing the unnecessary demands of the body reduces stress and
demands on time. It is pleasing, satisfying, and easier to be Krishna
conscious because there are less artificial demands on the body, mind
and ego.

[Malya Butenas]

Hare Krishna! He has tried to register himself in the group, he writes: "This time I got a message saying an email had been sent to me and to follow the link to get on the site. I didn't get any email however. What should I do?" Yes, what is wrong? Your servant Malyahari-kunda dasi

[Dhanesvara Das]

This has something to do with living on $2 a day? Private email is
better for such things.