Dee - Day Three and Four -

Okay so I'm still working on getting a camera to record a video for next week and I am going to the doctor tomorrow for a full on physical with my GP. I've also been posted onto a nutritionists forum by a trusted health concious friend and I will post up their predictions and recommendations to help me eat as best as I can given my restraints.

Day Three - It was so hot out and I didn't really feel like eating because of the heat so for breakfast i ate one egg and 1/2 cup of oats. For lunch I had my noodle tofu sprouts mix but spread across a few hours in between my classes. By the time dinner hour came I was starving and decided to go to the shop and use the rest of my allowance for the week. I bought bbq pork marked down, a can of corn, chicken soup base, a bag of apples and snow pea snaps.

For dinner I had to eat the rest of my tofu because it started to go sour so i just tossed it in a pan with my snow peas and a little bit of pork. It wasn't half bad, just a little bit of a sour after taste. Well it was better than throwing it out! Now I know that if you keep fresh tofu, make sure you change the water its soaking in, everyday instead of pouring it out!

Here's the money situation after tonight's groceries.

Allowance $436
Spent $54 (includes yesterday's shop)
Left $382 (I have $7 left for any emergencies before Monday)


Day 4

Of course I had to jinks myself. Today I forgot that we were having a family gathering at a house for dinner and I didn't pack my dinner, only my lunch. SO, I spent my last $7 on a cup noodle from 7-11 for lunch with my apple and I will eat my Oatmeal, corn, bbq pork mix for dinner.

I'm feeling really tired today and don't feel like swimming but I will be doing Yoga tonight and definitely swimming tomorrow morning.

I promise a cantonese video blog soon and a cantonese blog in the coming week too!

Dee - Day Two -

Today I had the most delicious breakfast of one egg with ketchup!

For lunch I packed an orange and an apple and a small container of oatmeal from yesterday and never ate it... I think I'll save it for tomorrow!

After work I went to the market again to gather a few more eggs and plantain. I put the noodles in to show you all as well what they look like, shrimp noodles or scallop noodles are a much better option than instant noodles because they've got less preservatives in them and they're just dried, not fried!

So for tonight's dinner, noodles, tomatoes and sprouts. I had to cook the rest of my sprouts because they were going off so tomorrow's lunch is noodles, tofu and sprouts.

THE CHALLENGE RULES

Here are the rules regarding the one month challenge

1. Lasts for one month.
2.

a. $300/30 days→$10 a day. (or $500/30 days→$17/day). Could be one person (Danielle) on $300, one (Dee) on $500.

b. Unlimited water allowed.

c. Meals taken, if at all, without cooking, and in as short a time as possible, assuming full work load of a helper with no time/chance to cook own food for saving money, and no time for eating other than very quickly between chores

d. Can spend more or less on some days, but incrementally only get $10/day.

e. Record video at least once a month with some regularity.

3. Start the month with:

a. Check vital stats: weight, height, energy level (?), health check if possible. Also do again at end of 30 days on this ‘$10/day diet’

b. Show you know what a ‘healthy meal’ is (3-2-1 veggie-carb-meat?). Each day record of what was eaten, also can ‘compare’ to the healthy benchmark.

Dee - Day One -

So I woke up wondering what to eat since I didn't do my wet market shop yet and all I did have was Oatmeal and my cheap fruit of apples and oranges. So for breakfast I ate one cup of oatmeal with a spoonful of condensed milk.

Almost two thirds finished my bowl of yummy oats I couldn't eat all the oatmeal because I didn't add enough water and I was running late so just for fun, I wanted to see if the cat I'm sitting would like it... after one lick she got up and left.

I ventured the wet market near to closing time for the best deals. Located in Causeway Bay just under the bridge by Times Square where the hustle and bustle of locals trying to sell their fish, noodles, shrimps, eggs, fruits, flowers, meat, everything fresh you can think of! Think of it as walking through a jam packed supermarket, Wellcome, Park and Shop, Loblaws, Zhers and having every single person in there shouting at you the price of every single item in there. That's what it's like in the wet market. It's an amazing experience that can sometimes be overwhelming if you don't have a list or if you're pressed for time!

After the madness I left with sprouts, two eggs, tomatoes, tofu, noodles, two oranges, two apples and an onion. All at a whopping grand total of $44 for the first day!

I should probably tell you now that I didn't eat the second helping of Oatmeal I packed for my lunch and only ate my apple. So for dinner I made noodles with half a tomato, tofu and sprouts.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be since part of the challenge is to cook as little as possible so I just threw everything into hot water for a few minutes! The tofu is bland but it's good for you when you can't have meat but the tomatoes tasted like they'd been pickled in muddy water but I still downed the little pieces to get the nutrients and not the flavour.

Day one a success!

Monthly Allowance $500

Spent - $64 (41 from wet market + 20 for the oats)

Left over $436

Unhealthy Domestics

Under the domestic worker employee- employer contract agreement under the Hong Kong Government laws, a domestic worker is entitled to a minimum food allowance of $300 HKD PER MONTH. This seems like an alright deal since they get to eat food in the house with the families right? WRONG! It's not always the case, in the most extreme cases, employers are allowed, LEGALLY to deny any food for a live in caregiver.

Let's look at numbers. In Hong Kong the minimum cost for a caregiver is $3, 580 plus a minimum food allowance of $300 PER MONTH. Now let's look at Canada, it costs on average about $11,000 HKD per month just for a live in caregiver to work ONLY 40 hours a week. This cost is almost three times what it costs in Hong Kong. How can that be???

So are you still wondering what I'm doing here? Well, my friend Danielle told me about this challenge of living off $300-$500 HKD for a whole month just for food, just like all our domestic workers. I immediately text her to say, I want to do it too and here we are! It may be a small step but it's a step nonetheless.

In my initial interviews, I asked random people from all over, "Could you live off $500 for a whole month just on food?" ALL responded with, "Pardon!?" Like I was joking and ALL responded with, "NO!"

So I ask you, why should the domestic workers of Hong Kong?

-Dee

Hong Kong Labour Employment Rights and benefits