I'm impressed with what you are doing but why are you at Safeway? You could have chosen Walmart, Superstore or Dollarama for much cheaper groceries. I'm sure you're against supporting Walmart blah blah blah but if you're on a limited budget they at least allow you to eat properly for a lower price.

@antielvis

Good question.

I was at the Safeway for a few reasons: It was the first day of the month and I needed to get food; it was the first Tuesday of the month and Safeway offers and additional 10 per cent off the total bill; it was -30C, getting late in the day, I hadn't eaten in 8 hours and it's four blocks from my apartment.

A subsequent grocery trip was indeed at Superstore where I did get more bang for my buck, if only because it has a better bulk food section. The bulk food selection at Safeway is quite lacking unless you can live on gummy bears, chocolate chips and trail mix.

Hello Trevor.

We just read your blog. We thought it would be a good idea to talk about how to have a good time on a low budget, please ask us about our dating guide and the Radical Love Tour by emailing us at actionhall@calgaryscope.org.

Your actions have proven we are not alone in the struggle. Last night we went to a talk about organizing about AISH. The talk was hosted by Public Interest Alberta. We are happy to report that we are organizing with service providers, community and government around the province for a poverty reduction strategy.

It is good to raise awareness about 1188 not being enough money. We are proud you did the challenge. We are glad you did the challenge. We don’t know many people in the City would actually do it, thank you for raising awareness. Come back to the Hall anytime, as you don’t need a disability to help us, just a big heart!

In solidarity,
Mary, Lee, Stephen, Murray and Colleen
actionhall.ca

Here's a thought. Outside of increasing funding for AISH, I really think the government should come up with some kind of program to ensure that education and funding for training are paid for if a person is born with a significant disability. Often insurance pays for those who experience injury, so I think this is one way people born with disabilities could get trained and educated while they'e young to make themselves more employable in whatever ways are possible.

Jon Bateman

I thank you for taking this challenge. Not many people would have the guts to actually follow through- the guts or the will power.
I myself am on AISH. I am fortunate enough to be able to work part time and still find it hard to live off the amount allotted to me. If it wasn't for very generous, caring and loving individuals in my life I would struggle being out in society. When you don't have the money to be social with your friends/family it is hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed.
Also I ask why the government isn't more proactive? I didn't see mentioned that for people who require special food for illness ie diabetes or heart disease they get more money. Not a lot but some more. The only way you can get that little extra is to be diagnosed though. Would it not be better for everyone to receive that extra amount before you get diagnosed? Stop yourself from needing more doctors appointments and medication? I am almost sure that if the 30$ given to people with that diagnosis was given to everyone in a preventative measure we would have healthier people with a disability. Although again 30$ extra for groceries so you might be able to buy some fresh food is not really a lot.

You talk about buying bulk foods as a (somewhat) cheaper way to go yet you buy quinoa? It is a select (health-conscious, knowledgeable and 'flush') foodie that will buy quinoa - or a Peruvian - not likely someone on AISH. Then, your picture shows over-priced, over-packaged and un-nourishing products like Sidekicks and Quaker individual servings. And, unless on sale - Safeway has less expensive eggs and canned tomatoes than you show. Orange peppers? You bought flour? Planning on baking?

Good idea, good challenge, good luck - but I'm having trouble taking you seriously. I hope your choices get better as the month moves along.

I think partly what's needed (for everyone!), in addition to more funding - is education in how/where to purchase basic healthy products (without all the packaging and how to cook nutritious meals.

Everyone has the right to live a good quality of life here in Alberta- including people with disabilities!

There are a lot of myths in regards to people being on AISH including:

1) "They are lazy/ retarded etc..": Most AISH reciepients are smart! Some recipients work. For example I am graduated with honors as a certified Health care professional at SAIT. When I applied for AISH I was working part time with children in the non for profit sector without any accomodations/ support. I am disabled and I recieve AISH. People on AISH who can't work aren't chosing not to work because they are lazy- they can't work because their disability prevents them from working a regular job.

2) "There is no way I am ever going to get AISH. I am not disabled": Not true. Some people are born with disabilities. However a lot of people become disabled through accidents, illnesses, and abuse. No one plans on becoming disabled and no one plans to be needing the assistance of the AISH program. It sometimes just happens.

3) "Disabled people can't do anything so why should we support them?"- again not true. Disabled people can do a lot of things just like you can do. They just do things sometimes in different ways. They can advocate for themselves and others in the community to make it better. For example take a look at the websites below.

www.actionhall.ca
www.pushtoopen.ca

Why should people with disabilities get support- it's because they belong in our society just like everyone else regardless of their income and disabilities. Just think of it- what would you like to see if your family member or love one became disabled, would you like them to get the support they need from yourself, the government, and society in general. Also as you may know AISH isn't the only gov't income suplement program out there that needs to be improved. By improving AISH maybe AISH can serve as example to other gov't of Alberta Income support programs (such as Alberta Works) so that the people who recieve those suppliments can see an increase in their income as well. By participating in the AISH challenge you can help everyone have a better future!

I am curious, Trevor, where did your "extra" money from March go? Are you really now returning to your normal life, or are you returning to a windfall - the money you chose not to spend is now available for you to feast like a king, buy your niece a belated gift, go out this month twice as often for beers with your friends and ice cream with your wife, and catch up on everything else you missed.

The first month is not so bad, really. But over time, all sorts of things wear out and need to be replaced or repaired. Did you buy TP or toothpaste or laundry detergent, or did you have plenty left over in your cupboard from February? How many things that you spend money on once a year or once a decade did you forget about, things you need to save up for? How many months would your friends still ask for your company when you could never go somewhere that required a financial input in order for you to be their equal?

Remember that AISH is not for someone who will be rehabilitated and able, after a painful period of poverty, return to a normal life. If that is your status, they will turn down your application. AISH is for people who have been delivered a life sentence: an incurable handicap and a life of poverty.

I wish you all the best in trying to convince the powers that be to bump up payments by $347. Or even by $1.

@Maraya

You make excellent points. I noticed the writer of this article purchased expensive eggs, brand name tomatoes in a can & expensive bread. A loaf of Safeway bread (where they shopped) is $1.29 at my store.

If you actually want to understand the life of someone on AISH, you need to embrace all the tough sides. That includes making a long bus ride on a -30C day. That's the reality for an AISH recip.

Actually that's not the worst of it. The worst is when they need a $500 car repair on your 22 year old vehicle (because of medical conditions that make it difficult for them to get from one place to another) and this reduces their monthly income dramatically for the rest of the year.

Monthly income is further reduced for the rest of the entire year for those who need to take a sick pet to the vet, or put it down. As it is, even the costs of cat food and litter are expensive for many of these people who would be very lonely without their pets. The worst part is when people become highly traumatized watching their beloved sick pets suffer and die slowly and torturously in some cases where they can't afford treatment.

Monthly income is further dropped for the rest of the year when people find themselves getting sicker and sicker (which is extremely common) so they try to buy special vitamins to try to get out of that sickness, and those can be very expensive.

Monthly income is further dropped for the rest of the year if someone finds a job opportunity and badly needs something nice to wear for a job so they splurge and buy themselves a $50 coat or pair of shoes once a year, or one blouse new. Most of their other clothes come from Value Village. They also "NEED" to buy a new piece of clothing just once in awhile anyway, so they can feel like a part of society.

When these people go to the food bank, they find themselves living off of spaghetti and tomato juice and more the next time and more the next time and more the next time and swear that if they ever get back on their feet those things will be banned from their lives forever. They have noodles coming out of their ears. They sleep noodles and have nightmares about noodles and tomato sauce.

It also means sorting out their food basket from the food bank and destroying the unmarked meat, which could be from a "mad" cow for all they know -- or maybe it's a dead cat, or bad meat from an unauthorized meat packer, the name of which is usually not on the package.

It also means throwing out useless things in their food cart such as black hair dye when their hair is blonde and they would never use that, a half kit of tooth whitener which is no good without the other half, dough kit for a breadmaker with no instructions on it as to how to use it when they don't have a breadmaker, food cans that have aged way past the expiry date, and so on.

From there, they are left with plenty of last year's Halloween candy plus bread and other starchy and sweet foods to ensure that their minds and bodies remain in the worst shape possible and that they will put on plenty of weight and/or become diabetic. Even a skinny frame can put on weight with little but candy and starch.

Even so, they are glad they have something to fill themselves with even knowing it is designed to kill them and keep them sick with so much sugar and so little protein.

In each food bank pickup they are given six eggs to last for the month, so eggs are limited to one every four days, and milk about the same. There are many things that won't be in that bag that they will have to go out and buy.

Those who don't use food banks often live off of plenty of wieners, hamburger, sausages, bread, potatoes, noodles and starches as well, all the types of food that are not only cheap but are designed to keep them both ill and fat forever.

Those on AISH will often be scoffed at, ridiculed, and even disowned by their relatives who will label them as lazy bums. Many times they will say, "Oh, if only I could live the live of luxury you do, by never having to work," to which the AISH patient will reply, "Well why don't you spend all of your money, become sick and take upon the challenge?" But somehow none of them ever do.

Most AISH people won't tell their friends or relatives WHY they are on AISH (even though they are incredibly sick), because they feel their families wouldn't give a darn anyway. It's none of their business anyway, and in most cases it would just make their families happier to know they are suffering even more.

Their families and outsiders often therefore see them as being well when there is blood running from both ends of their bodies every day. It's a pity it wasn't running from their eyes instead so that people would understand.

But hey, if that happened to you, would you want to tell the rest of the world about it? These things are terrifying to a lot of people and a lot would run. And they're not exactly the type of thing AISH people like to share with others. AISH people do have pride too, you know, and don't want the whole world to know about many of these humiliating and personal things. So often they will even tell other people that they are on AISH for other things -- but rarely ever the whole truth.

Many of these people are dying from cancer and don't want anyone to know. They know the rest of the world wouldn't care anyway. So like animals, they keep their pain to themselves and pretend all is well, while suffering badly.

Most AISH patients put on a brave and tough face for everyone, to try to give the impression that "yes," they can get along without the help of any of those condemning people they know and will encounter in the future, and no they don't need any help from the cold outside world who really wouldn't give a darn about their conditions if they knew anyway.

Others come from abusive homes where they were hypnotized from the age of 5 to believe that they were useless members of society who could never hope to find any place in this world. Their scars like that are so burnt in they will never lose that belief.

Others try to drink or drug their pain away. Others, especially schizophrenics, tend to smoke it away because they are on drugs that alter their body chemicals so badly that they often cause physical pain, so their instincts tell them to smoke to counter that alteration, although they may not necessarily know why they are smoking.

Most people also don't realize that these drugs can asl make these people very fat. Many anti-psychotic drugs can cause people to gain as much as 100 pounds in just one year! Just try to take that off after that, when you can't afford a gymn, and when often you are so depressed anyway that you can barely muster up enough energy to get up in the morning let alone walk anywhere outside in that cold grey world where the sun never shines.

Most of these individuals will have to tolerate living under the wrath of the rest of the world, pretending they don't see the snickers and hateful comments about them, not only on the street, but especially in the media, even though such comments do destroy their opinions of themselves even more and ensure they retreat to their dark surroundings even more.

How happy those hate promoters are that society allows as much hatred as possible to be dished out toward poor and for fat people, simply because such people aren't allowed protection like other groups under the human rights laws. After all, why should they be given government protection? Doesn't government itself enjoy fostering more of their torture? It does seem that way sometimes.

Those who attempt to try to live for one month off of the amount an AISH person gets are to be commended, but I don't think even they will ever understand the real poverty of an AISH patient that results from unexpected and necessary expenses that come up out of the blue sometimes, and it's these expenses that reduce their wages to about $900 a month versus the $1180.

This comment isn't coming from someone who is drastically overweight, but it is coming from someone who is both proud and very very sick, although the rest of the world doesn't know it. And it is coming from someone who has met other AISH patients and understands the terrible things so many AISH patients are dealing with.

It is also coming from someone who understands that the privacy of AISH patients is also severely compromised in many ways due to the fact that they must give every Tom, Dick, and Harry (private organization) access to their medical records to receive any kind of medical supplies. There is no indication on the forms that state just "what kinds of information may be accessed" or for how long that access is allowed. There are also no definite laws to ensure that this information is destroyed and won't be used to harm the AISH individuals later.

So for anyone who thinks AISH patients live an enjoyable life, think again. Most of these people are truly in a state they would rather not be in, and would do anything to get out of! If you offered them a job tomorrow that would meet their health conditions, they would grab it with glee in one second.

There's no point telling them to just get off of their lazy butts to go out and find a job. Believe it or not, these people know their limitations, whether it's bleeding, tumours, cancers, severe depression, severe post traumatic stress disorder, or whatever, and most of them are fully well aware that their opportunities for jobs are very limited due to the pain or even often craziness caused by these things, craziness you may not even notice, but craziness which nevertheless manifests itself to their employers when they are under considerable stress.

Telling these people to get off of their butts to go out and find a job is foolish. As it is, many healthy people can't find jobs, so you can't expect that employers will excitedly looking for people with so many serious problems to take on instead.

Again, those who take measures to try to understand what these people are going through are really fantastic individuals, but they will never know the real cost until they have lived off of the system for a couple of years as well as suffered from much of the sickness and pain that often accompanies these so-called "happy looking" individuals.

Well I've been on AISH for over 3 years now. I'm living.. How I do it, you ask?
When I get ..paid, or what you want to call it, this is the order I do things in :

- RECIEVE MONEY $1188 + $300 from housing agency
*** $1488

- Pay rent $725 (one bdrm apt)

- Pay all bills
*power: $35
*telus home/internet/tv: $107
*cell: $65
*2 mastercards: $100 (some mths it's $200)
*bank fee: $10.95

***Total bills = $317.95 ($417.95)

(you can't erase debt you had before you came on AISH you are still expected to pay it)

Total spent so far is $1488-rent-bills= $445.05 or some months $345.05

With the remaining $445.05 I get:
- $200 in groceries
- $74 carton of cigarrates
- $60 household items
- $62 bus pass
*** total = $396.00

Leftover for me....$49.05 sometimes less depends how much I put on certain debt.

I've done it for over 3 years, I wish it was more. I made more financially before I was diagnosed. I'm surviving and just grateful I have learned to budget. Some months are easier than others. But it's hard. Thanks to those who have given it an honest chance to try and live like me and others on AISH. I was one of you at one point and would give anything to be there again.

PS: I am recieving rental supplement from a housing agency that helps with my rent and works alongside AISH. With AISH they help me financially in other areas. Lifewise, and to help with my bills and debt and day to day living.

For "Just Another Case": In part of 1992-3, I had a rough patch and lived a frugal existence. As ways to save you a few $, I suggest:

1. Dump the cellular telephone. My telephone bill is about $25/month. That saves you $40/month, or $480/ yr. That equals free telephone for more than 7 months at your current rate.

2. Quite smoking. That saves $74/month AND has a long-term health benefit. The $888/year is more than a month of rent.

These two changes save $114/month. Your "disposable" monthly income becomes $163, an increase of 333%. In a year, you gain $1368. That is nearly 2 months of rent.

3. Contact your Mastercard suppliers. They often have cards with lower rates. E.g.; I have a Canadian Tire M.C. at 19.99%. I keep it for "credit room." It has no balance on it. I have a Capital One M.C. at 5.99%
Also, C.I.B.C. takes over M.C. accounts from Citibank this summer. They may offer a better rate than you now have.
Also, try to get a VISA card. VISA usually has a lower interest rate. You may be able to lower your expenses this way.

I wish you good luck, because I have some experience with your situation. An unexpected expense can be devastating. It sucks that some people must live like this while others use $100 bills as toilet paper.