Off meal plan (junior year roundup)

Out of 3 months' worth of posts on this blog, the most viewed post (I love the blogger stats feature!!) has been this one on the difference between Brown's meal plan and my being off meal plan. I fond that really interesting, because I thought that some of the other graphs were more interesting (at least, I had more fun making them). But I guess $$$ issues are always going to be taken seriously.

About a week ago meal plan ended - i.e. dining halls closed and everyone was left to fend for themselves. So now I had exact numbers to compare for meal plans vs. feeding myself for an equivalent amount of time. And then I waited around for a week waiting for research plans to be approved, etc - giving me time to graph them. I think this graph is a bit of an improvement over the last because it shows actual values, and puts the numbers in terms of things that are a bit more tangible, especially to students. Also, it has many colours! that I think (and hope) complement the numbers rather than distract.

Some of these things are probably more relevant to me (I bought my ticket to Quito, Ecuador a few weeks ago, and the rent/average grocery expenditure numbers are mine) but I think

Also, this doesn't even touch on what happens when you compare costs of living and focus just on basic needs...I pay $38 a month to feed and educate a little boy in Indonesia, and the $2174 would support him for 57.2 months = almost 5 years. He would be 12 years old before that money ran out.