The main frustration I am feeling at this point is the amount of time the project is taking. Set aside the blogging (if I weren't blogging this, I'd be blogging something else - it all nets out). I'm just talking about the planning and strategizing. Being able to grab a yogurt and a cereal bar - or a oatmeal pie and a coffee - is so much less stress.
This is one of the things I am starting to realize about being in a low SES condition: just getting through the day requires effort that middle class and higher SES people don't have to use. I'm only experiencing the limitation on resources for food and I am realizing it is taking far more time and energy to feed myself than what I normally expend.
I was talking with my boss about the project and we concurred that over time some of the strategies would become second nature, and part of my time sink right now is I don't have those strategies worked out. But I think part of the time commitment won't ever go away - the actual amount of food preparation I have to do in order to save money is signficant.
Generalizing that to a whole way of life - you could imagine a fairly high level of stress from trying to manage all of the strategies, some of which would no doubt conflict.
Imagine not having reliable access to a car for example. That would require developing additional strategies probably coping mechanisms that would also require allowing for more time. You could walk if the places you needed to go were close enough - more time. You could take public transportation if it went where you are trying to go - more time. If you needed a car, you would have to coordinate with one or more other people who did, making mutually beneficial arrangements that are agreeable to both of you. That might involve some sort of non-market exchange like maybe you babysit the car owner's kids, or do some other service for them. It would be exhausting.
There would be little time for blogging. Nor would there be much time for self-improvement, even if self-improvement were free.
The problem is a lack of specialization. Instead of buying prepared foods - even baked bread - I am engaging in household production at every level. This is a thing economists have known for centuries: if you engage in specialized production of things you have a comparative advantage in, you can trade for other things. I eat out because I specialize in teaching, not food preparation. I have a comparative advantage in teaching, not food preparation. I like to cook (which is making this experiment work), but I do it mostly for entertainment. I can afford to pay someone to cook for me much of the time (including prepacked cereal bars and yogurt cups and bread off the shelf), so I am able to spend more time on my specialized function. With the level of household production I am describing, I am losing out on potential gains from trade. I am producing without the benefit of specialization.
I think if the rest of the household were participating in the experiment, I would have some potential gains from trade within my family. My kids would have to do some of the chores (my kids don't do much of anything to support the household, other than look cute). And they don't have to normally because my labor is valuable enough in the market that I can buy what they don't do. To be fair to my kids, what they are supposed to be doing with the time they are not dedicating to chores is developing their human capital, so that when they leave my home, their labor will also be valuable and they won't have to live on a $3 diet.
It's fascinating to experience this frustration directly. It's one thing to talk about the challenges of internalizing production to the household, it's entirely different to actually try to do it. With time I would develop more effective coping mechanisms, but at this early stage of the game, it is a time sink.
This is one of the things I am starting to realize about being in a low SES condition: just getting through the day requires effort that middle class and higher SES people don't have to use. I'm only experiencing the limitation on resources for food and I am realizing it is taking far more time and energy to feed myself than what I normally expend.
I was talking with my boss about the project and we concurred that over time some of the strategies would become second nature, and part of my time sink right now is I don't have those strategies worked out. But I think part of the time commitment won't ever go away - the actual amount of food preparation I have to do in order to save money is signficant.
Generalizing that to a whole way of life - you could imagine a fairly high level of stress from trying to manage all of the strategies, some of which would no doubt conflict.
Imagine not having reliable access to a car for example. That would require developing additional strategies probably coping mechanisms that would also require allowing for more time. You could walk if the places you needed to go were close enough - more time. You could take public transportation if it went where you are trying to go - more time. If you needed a car, you would have to coordinate with one or more other people who did, making mutually beneficial arrangements that are agreeable to both of you. That might involve some sort of non-market exchange like maybe you babysit the car owner's kids, or do some other service for them. It would be exhausting.
There would be little time for blogging. Nor would there be much time for self-improvement, even if self-improvement were free.
The problem is a lack of specialization. Instead of buying prepared foods - even baked bread - I am engaging in household production at every level. This is a thing economists have known for centuries: if you engage in specialized production of things you have a comparative advantage in, you can trade for other things. I eat out because I specialize in teaching, not food preparation. I have a comparative advantage in teaching, not food preparation. I like to cook (which is making this experiment work), but I do it mostly for entertainment. I can afford to pay someone to cook for me much of the time (including prepacked cereal bars and yogurt cups and bread off the shelf), so I am able to spend more time on my specialized function. With the level of household production I am describing, I am losing out on potential gains from trade. I am producing without the benefit of specialization.
I think if the rest of the household were participating in the experiment, I would have some potential gains from trade within my family. My kids would have to do some of the chores (my kids don't do much of anything to support the household, other than look cute). And they don't have to normally because my labor is valuable enough in the market that I can buy what they don't do. To be fair to my kids, what they are supposed to be doing with the time they are not dedicating to chores is developing their human capital, so that when they leave my home, their labor will also be valuable and they won't have to live on a $3 diet.
It's fascinating to experience this frustration directly. It's one thing to talk about the challenges of internalizing production to the household, it's entirely different to actually try to do it. With time I would develop more effective coping mechanisms, but at this early stage of the game, it is a time sink.
I'm glad you're looking at this as more than a matter of simple expense. The time it takes to cook. The time and effort to shop if you can't afford a car. The kids and what they do. When you're broke, everything in life is not just a simple matter of what you can't afford. It's also a matter of time and effort. Getting and preparing that food cuts into the time and energy you have for everything else, including the things we think of as just being human: the time for the photography (if you can afford it), the energy and time to write a blog. No wonder people collapse in exhaustion at the end of the day. It's not just money. It's the relentless work of it all.
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