How low can you go?

http://caloriecount.about.com/low-ft149396

The challenge is to see how cheaply you can eat for a week, preferrably healthy foods.  Starting Monday, 8/24/09 through Sunday, 8/30/09.

I was out of town yesterday but I can start today and just prorate the week, if that's cool...or count the breakfast/ dinner as free because my boyfriend paid for those groceries and only count my (kind of expensive) lunch and snack that I bought myself, that's probably fair. I am just starting and probably already behind! But, I will kick butt for the next three days I am home....my mom gave me some tomatoes and beans from her garden. Free! And I will go pick more blackberries. Free! Now if I can just avoid the evil Starbucks....

Cool.

I have an evil Starbuck's gift card = gift...I can't decide how we should handle gifts...probably just note that so no one gets a completely free ride.

I think a gift card is just that, a free gift, enjoy! Same as if someone bought me a coffee with no expectation of reciprocation. But yeah, meals or anything bought with future reciprocation expected still has to be counted...the challenge is to lower your own budget, not How Much Can You Mooch This Week lol

I am discovering it's extremely labour-intensive to record the $ value of everything I eat. Turns out I eat a lot of different things! I had a breakfast cookie the other day that had like 10 ingredients in it, and calculating the cost of 1 tbsp of peanutbutter from a large pail that I have no clue how much I paid for is pretty iffy business. Most stuff I have in my pantry and freezer I bought on sale, so checking the current grocery store price of everything would not help (not to mention would be really unfun).

And....even with lame-o estimates...I am doing pretty badly. I caved and went to SB yesterday for a latte AND a treat. Sigh. Add that to the lunch out on Monday and I am so far averaging about $10 per day for the first 3 days. LAME.

Sara, I like your challenge. It is defintely what I need these days 

but I think it also depends on where you live. I tend to spend anything between $80 to $100 a week on grocery shopping. I will have to learn how to economise. 

Oh and the evil starbucks card gift. I got one a few weeks ago and it was evil.:)

Victoriagirl, I agree. starbucks is an evil. 

so is this a weekly challenge? or what? 

Yep, let's try this every week.  Sometimes we'll do it right and other times we won't.  I'm just more interested in in keeping the two thoughts of both calories and price in mind.

I didn't record this week, but I think I did reasonably well.  I only bought food twice, one donut for 85 cents and one chicken quesadilla for $10, so economically I didn't do badly.  I did eat rice and beans for one meal each day and hard boiled eggs and bananas, plus some frozen lasagna and burritos from Trader Joe's and my Luna bars.  I could've done better, but I typically do a lot worse I think.

So I started out the week trying to calculate and estimate everything I ate and cooked. Needless to say, after a day and a half of calculating over an hour or two...I sort of gave up.

It's not that I didn't want to do the challenge or that I didn't take it seriously, I just found it hard to figure out the amount of money for every meal and snack, every day of the week. I'm the kind of person that needs a little variety from day-to-day. I can eat dinner leftovers for lunch...but not seven days in a row.

Talking with you all about this really did make me look twice at how much of certain items I was using. Such as, if large jars of all-natural peanut butter are on sale for a least $1 or more off, I am stocking up. I use that stuff all the time. Same with pasta, bread, yogurt and other staples. I also noticed that there are some items I didn't really even touch during the week (certain sauces and condiments were big ones) so I think I am going to try to find a way to cut back on how many we have open and in use while trying to also make some at home.

Overall, gave me a new look at the things we eat and buy in out home. So I think, even though I didn't keep my daily spending info, I learned a lot this week. So thanks! :)