What could YOU do with $2 each month?

What could you do with $2 per month?

I carried out extensive research into this question (well…I asked a few friends on Facebook) and here’s my results.

For $2 per month you could:

• possibly get a cheap lipstick or concealer (would apparently probably have to be on sale – I don’t have personal experience of this);
• buy a bar of KitKat; 
• buy half a pint of lager;
• shove it in a jar and save it (that’s hardly actually using it though);
• buy a loaf of bread, a pack of rice, some sweets (not sure whether that’s an either/or option or if the person who wrote that shops in an amazing shop);
• buy a bottle of Ribena and a pack of Fruitella (I have some strange friends…);
• buy baby wipes, bottle of pre-made baby formula or some socks (this was a new mother);
• buy half a bag of dog treats (in America – this person complained you really can’t do a lot with $2, which is kinda the point of this post);
• buy a little packet of powdered milk to use to make delicious cha (this from a dear friend in Bangladesh whose sister makes cha to die for);
• buy a pack of green bean or maybe a small tub of cream cheese (though this friend did admit that you couldn’t then afford anything to go with said cream cheese);
• buy 5-6 pieces of apple (from a friend in the Philippines);
• buy 160 penny sweets (in British money $2 is about £1.60 hence the exactly figure from a sweet-toothed friend here);
• drink a single gin and tonic (in a bowling club not far from where I live in the UK – clearly a special place at that price);
• put it towards housekeeping (this friend is Scottish – what else can I say?);
• buy an ice cream cone (an American friend);
• buy a ball of yarn and knit a scarf;
• buy some chocolate, crisps and fresh orange juice – or maybe just several bars of chocolate (from a female friend, obviously);
• buy some paint and paint sheep skulls interesting colours (I kid you not, and this friend proceeded to show me an example of one she’d done – I said I had some strange friends…);
• buy a skull balaclava and then rob a bank (very strange friends…).

OR

You could instead for $2 per month get all this:

• support a writer (this one, specifically) as he writes his novel;
• receive a chapter of said novel every month as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes posts and video posts about the book;
• be part of a team of sponsors who can give feedback on the novel and so help to write the final version;
• help support on-going charity work in Bangladesh;
• help train teachers in poor areas to teach children in Bangladesh who desperately need education;
• help with a number of other health and education development projects around Bangladesh.

But, of course, you can sponsor yours truly for even more than $2 a month and get additional goodies like your name in the acknowledgements of the book, exclusive short stories and even signed copies of published and future books!

 

Welcome to my latest book project, hosted by Patreon. This is a crowdfunding site aimed at the needs of artists to create a win-win environment where, for incredibly low cost, sponsors can read a (good?) book and help those in need and this artist can plan ahead with reasonably secure income. By making it low investment, the idea is that lots of people will sign up which means lots of people reading my book (please, take the hint)!

The novel is called The Pukur and tells the story of a young British girl, Sophie, who finds herself stranded in Bangladesh, trying to deal with a culture and people completely alien to her own. Long-term readers will recall that this was my first ever book project from long ago and now is the time to get it out to readers. Aimed partially at the Young Adult audience, it is appropriate for teenagers through to retired friends. There are some elements of the story which might be difficult for pre-teen readers however.

You can sign up at the bottom $2 per month tier but raise and lower that as you like. Sponsors will get to know about trips to Bangladesh and may, for instance, wish to raise their support for the month coming up to that trip and then lower it again afterwards. And, of course, you’re free to stop sponsoring at any time. The book will take around two years to complete.

Even if you’d rather read the book in its entirety when completely finished (though I’d love to have your feedback each month instead), that’s fine – each month you’ll receive the entire book up to the most recent chapter, complete with latest revisions. So you could ignore them all until the final last chapter is written and then read the most up-to-date version in one go! And in the meantime, your small donation is working for kids in poverty every single month. Please note though that if you sign up in six months time you will still only start at chapter one for your first month, two for your second and so on.

Click on any of the highlighted links (or HERE if you can’t see them) to go to my Patreon site, read what it’s all about there and even watch my video!

I truly hope you’ll join me (and Sophie) on this journey together.

Much love to you peeps

Ken (D K Powell)

Writer and journalist D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. Ken has two new books coming out over summer – don’t miss them! 

Sign up for Ken’s new writing project – ‘The Pukur’ – at Patreon.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com