Where did the money go
At the beginning of the month I had $100 HBD come into the account and I fully expected to split that 5 ways ($20 HBD each) to support the community and GLD coin in different ways. However, things changed a little bit.
@monica-ene was going to get $20 HBD to purchase food. Half to keep and have to give away. She said that honor should go to @rare-gem as she was previously the top GLD holder and would have been chosen if not for falling into second place by a purchase made by @monica-ene. She also mentioned possibly meeting up in person together. The idea of a community meet up was an awesome idea and I also know that @jjmusa2004 lives in the town. How cool would it be if the three of them could collaborate. $20HBD split 3 ways gets to be way too small though.
Result: I tripled the budget to $60HBD so that it would be a three way mission with a simple goal: Purchase food for themselves and purchase some to give away to others.
I'm pleased to say that $60 HBD has been converted to Naira to continue the mission.
Pretty good rate!
When I check the exchange rate online saying I should only get $86717 Naira I'm very pleased that they got such a good rate.
Too much and too little at the same time
Now I've received questions for @monica-ene asking the best way to spend the money. From what I've read N90,000 is more than some people make in a month so it isn't a small amount of cash for some people. Then again, it can vanish into nothing very quickly and isn't enough to buy large sacks of beans or rice.
Which means it is too little to buy in bulk and too much to waste!
Which has left @monica-ene (and the rest) in a tough spot.
Buying a large sack of rice online would eat up every Naira I sent plus some more for shipping, phone calls, and so on. If there runs into a problem with the delivery or if the seller is a scam then the money vanishes without a trace (very sad)
They have also decided on purchasing rice but after reading my article on the prices of grains I didn't really look favorably on rice as there are less expensive ways to get calories and give more nutrition to people.
At this point I think @monica-ene (hereafter referred to as Monica) is trying to figure out what is best. Buy rice and get food people enjoy or buy other foodstuffs which people could learn to use and get more nutrition from. Buy a large size online and hope it arrives knowing everyone will be disappointed if it doesn't. Or buy a smaller quantity in person at the market being certain that there will be something to share.
So, I promised her I would write here for some guidance! Also, if any members here have ideas please chime in as it should be a group conversation after all!
My end goal
First let me say that I have a few "End Goals" for this community. The ones that I think of first is:
- Research on prices for daily necessities
- Finding a way to reduce daily expenses
- Teaching others how to save money on daily living expenses
- Helping those with little income make some money on Hive...and survive until they start bringing in some cash.
I make no guarantees that I'll be able to do any of that but those are my main focuses. Well, plus one more, Have fun!
Now I will say that once I hit the send money I no longer counted those HBD as mine. They were sent and what happens after that is solely in the recipients hands. If the decision is to buy rice in the local market that is fine. If they decide to purchase something online that is fine. If they choose to give it away as raw product that is fine. If they choose to make dinners from it and invite over people to chat about Hive and share stories online again still fine.
I am Canadian and do not know the intricacies of life in Nigeria. I wouldn't even know where to start. I'd like to learn but I trust people who are there to make wise decisions. I also understand that even the best laid out plan and the wisest decisions can still end poorly. There are enough schemers and thieves out there that everything I donate could be lost and all my ideas turn to naught.
Whatever the outcome if they work in good faith and write about it in the community I would be happy with the outcome!
If I was there what would I do?
Well, the first thing is that I would be useless and overwhelmed. I wouldn't even know where to start on such a task. I do know that I would likely turn to the internet and to home shipping simply because I wouldn't feel safe in the market,
As for what need would I try to fill and what would I purchase? Again, I don't know what resources are available. Could I find people who would appreciate a gift without risking my safety? Would people accept the gift if it was a food product they didn't know? Would they even be able to cook it? Could I find a cook who could make the food for myself and others and share prepared foods? There are so many things that I don't know....which is why I defer to Monica to make the decision according to what she thinks is best.
But I do know what would make me the happiest.
Companies and/or Games
If I got to choose any outcome or way to approach the task I'd look at doing something that was either fun or where I got stories.
Possible outcome : Game night.
With 90K Naira there it might be fun to find 3 people who wanted to pit their shopping and cooking skills against each other. Imagine giving 3 people 20K Naira each. The rule: They had to go into town and purchase 20K worth of ingredient and make a meal good for 4 people. Is that possible? Could be hard and portion sizes could be small but I think its possible.
Now assuming 6 people (3 contestants and a 3 Hive member). Every Friday one person gets N20K and has to make a meal for all six people. After dinner each person rates how well they did on such a tight budget. After three weeks of non-hive members cooking on the 4th week the Hive members would cook a meal based on the cheapest price per ingredient as found in @terganftp food blog.
At this time it would mean buying some flour, oil, beans and rice. Make a tortilla from four and oil. Make refried beans from the beans and oil. Make some rice and put it all together in a burrito like food.
After 4 weeks at 20K/week the person who came up with the best food gets the remaining N9K as a prize.
From that I'd get weekly reports (horray!). I'd get prices on what people are actually buying (horray!). I'd get to see how well received my idea of beans, flour and rice would go over...enjoyed or yuck. Plus people would have to get together and share some stories and memories. No-one loses as everyone gets some free meals 😎
Another possible option : Dinner with a friend / family.
Another option I certainly wouldn't mind (depending on our Hive members cooking skills) would be to use the N89K to purchase a small list of groceries. Probably flour, sugar, salt, oil, beans, and rice. Those ingredients to be split between the three Hive members equally. Their goal: Make a meal out of the ingredients and then invite someone over to share a meal with them.
As long as you have someone to share the meal with the mission is a success. The Hive members got some food and someone else got a free meal. In the report I also get to find out how expensive (or cheap) some basic foodstuffs are. In addition I get to see how creative my fellow Hive members are at cooking with such meager staple ingredients.
More realistic outcome.
In reality either of those two options requires an awful lot of work and planning. As much fun as I think they would be I believe that Monica and the crew came up with a great idea on just buying a sack of rice and spitting it amongst themselves and others.
Buying one item saves on time and keeps things simple.
Buying something like rice means that most of the people there know how to cook it.
I only get the price of one ingredient...but that's OK, I can work on finding out the price of other ingredients at another time.
In the end its all about fun and community
At the end of the day it is all about having some fun and making a nice post. So, whatever happens I'll learn what I can from it and come up with a more focused post next time. Hopefully after learning what works and what doesn't over the coming months (and hopefully years) we can make things more and more interesting over time. Who knows, maybe even make a new member or two for the community as well.
If not...well, I hope people get to enjoy some free food!
Good Luck on your mission.
And as this is a group effort, please send feedback on what you think good ideas (and bad ideas) are for this mission and future ones also.
Thanks for reading,!