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In Switzerland, poverty has increased by 20% in recent years.One in twelve person is considered poor.But what can we feel by living a little tight in one of the richest countries in the world?Discover this experience.

I want to live for a month with the minimum vital.To start, I go to Bern's social assistance to ask to what extent I should decrease my life standard if I lived social assistance.

My rent still corresponds to the criteria."But you should probably limit your basic needs, that is to say in terms of food, clothing, personal hygiene, electricity, telephone and public transport," explains AlexandraHerren, Bernese social assistance.

If I calculate what social assistance would pay for my family of three people and that I compare this amount with my net income, I arrive at the conclusion that we have 2737 francs available in addition to the minimum vital.By taking into account the fact that I would no longer pay taxes as a full -time beneficiary of social assistance, this additional amount would then be 1800 francs.I did not take into account in this calculation of the costs that social assistance would pay on request as dentist, glasses, heating, daycare or car.

To live as if I were social assistance, I have to save 1800 francs.My next step is to call the external Consulting Budget.I learn that we cannot save anything, or in any case not much, for expenses related to rent, taxes, sickness funds, firefighters (yes, in some municipalities you have to pay a taxIf we are not part of the body of firefighters) and insurance.On the other hand, I can restrict myself or save myself in the food stations, cleaning products, entertainment and cleaning.

1.Entertainment, leisure and training

First, I terminate my subscriptions to Netflix and my online library.The holidays were also striking this summer program.Does it look boring?

This is not the case: thanks to digitization, it has never been so easy to access free entertainment and educational offers.

I read electronic books, I listen to audio books and music, I watch films and I refresh my knowledge with podcasts, documentary films and educational programs - all for free.

I am however very happy that our village festival took place before this month of testing.How could I have explained to my daughter that one could not go to the big wheel and the merry-go-round?I would probably not have gone there, because it is too stressful to have to refuse everything to a toddler.

2.Eat and drink

Among the main avoidable positions in my budget, there are meals in the canteen and my coffee consumption.I spend an average of 80 to 120 francs per month just for coffee.As for food from the canteen, it costs me about 256 francs per month.Expenditure on coffee and food at my workplace almost correspond to the total budget provided by social assistance for food, and without even eating in the evening.

During this month of testing, I make sandwiches and I drink instant coffee.These new habits allow me to save 60 francs for midday meals and 10 francs for coffee.

I quickly realize that I can save a lot on food, cleaning products, laundry and care products by systematically choosing the cheapest products during weekly races.In doing so, I notice that it takes discipline to use only cheap products - but the purchase is much faster and easy, because I do not need much breaking my head because of the lack ofof choice.Otherwise, let's be honest: I can find it in the middle of 47 kinds of yogurt.

3.Transport

Here it becomes difficult.Only for the subscription allowing me to go from my home to my work, I pay 159 francs per month.To this is added the external half-valve subscription and the price of tickets to go to friends and family members, who live in the four corners of Switzerland.

A simple round trip between my home, in the canton of Bern, and that of my parents, in Zurich, costs 59 francs with half the.

During this month of testing, I can buy degrifée tickets on the CFF application.It costs me between 7 and 28 francs per journey.However, these darkened tickets are binding: they must be bought well in advance, they are linked to a specific schedule and there are only offers at off -peak hours.So I inform my parents that I will visit them on Sunday at 11:30 am, in four weeks.I'm lucky;it suits them.

4.Medical bills

A molar has hurt me for several weeks.I'm afraid that it is a cavity.I postpone my visit to the dentist at the end of the trial month.Indeed, a plumber costs several hundred francs.

Regarding health insurance, I opted for the highest franchise and for the economic model with the cheapest insurance.Despite everything, I still have to pay nearly 250 bonuses per month.And because of my high franchise, I have to pay all the care myself up to 2,500 francs per year.As for dental care, glasses and ambulance transport, they are in any case at my expense.Fortunately, I remain healthy during the month of trial.

5.Habits and furniture

I order second -hand clothes on online auction platforms.It's much cheaper than new clothes.But it quickly becomes obvious that it is difficult to find suitable clothes without having the opportunity to try them.With such a tight budget, I can't afford to buy bad clothes.So I drop.

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I bought my furniture almost exclusively used via the internet, which has always worked well.But in the local flea market, I only find scrap, teats of all colors and shapes, embroidered covers and old radios.In short, nothing that people really need.

Being poor in Switzerland is exhausting

After two weeks, I end the experience.After two days of reporting, it's the weekend and I drive my daughter to a birthday party.It is then that I realize that I can no longer face this additional organizational.Being poor stressed me: using the agent wisely, debit the cheapest offers or give up an expensive diet requires knowledge and time.

Even for this short period, poverty was painful to me.My entourage immediately noticed that I had changed my lifestyle.I was also less pleasant, because I could not go to the restaurant with them or because I was not flexible in terms of schedules because of the tank tickets.

I understood why poverty makes you alone.The majority of the population in Switzerland has a high life standard.However, most community activities require money.People meet in cafes, restaurants or during events.Those who have no money are not in the.

Living in a country of cocagne and not having money is difficult to bear because of the constant temptations.Snacking a dry bun while my neighbor ate fries with hamburgers for lunch asked me a lot of will.

Nevertheless, I was able to draw something positive from this experience.Admittedly, I could not buy organic foods or ecological cleaning products, but my lifestyle was much more respectful of the environment and the climate than that of an average Swiss: no flights by plane, littleof mobility, no purchase frenzy, only the necessary clothes, no food waste, etc..As unattractive as this conclusion may seem, the best would be that we Swiss are a little less rich and work a little less, in order to organize a more modest lifestyle.

Advice to spend less in Switzerland

Poor in Switzerland - our approach

The article of our journalist Sibilla Bondolfi on the experimentation of poverty has aroused a vast debate among our readers.This article in the form of a blog was read by an exceptional number of readers and often shared on social networks, where there was also widely debated.

Although this blog was only one sub-element of another text, the most lively debate focused on this personal experience.Do we have the right, as a privileged person, to engage in such an experience?Isn't that ignorance of the misery in which many less privileged people are struggling?

The question was asked, sometimes in a very critical way, sometimes aggressively.

swissinfo.CH is disseminated in ten languages.So far, this text has been published in the three national languages, as well as in Spanish and in Portuguese.

Often, our readers around the world tell us that they are struggling to imagine poverty in a country where the median salary for a full -time position is 6,500 francs per month.They cannot believe that a single person living with 2,259 francs per month or a family of four people with 3,990 francs are considered poor.

And yet, Grégoire Barbey's point of view shows in a very impressive way that one of the richest countries in the world also knows poverty.And our article has proven by figures that a budget of 2,259 francs per month - which would already be raised in many countries - is very tight in Switzerland, where fixed costs and compulsory expenses are very high.Our approach was to demonstrate this.

But it is true that poverty is not only a matter of money available.It is also a feeling - the fact of feeling excluded, as written by Grégoire Barbey.

Compared to other countries, a poor in Switzerland still has a lot of money.In particular poor, because no one can really imagine poverty in Switzerland.

Balz Rigendinger, Swiss editorial manager.

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