Eating Well On $1 A Day: Day 14 – Two Weeks Down Summary

Two weeks down and just over two weeks to go! It certainly has been an interesting two weeks and I have discovered a number of interesting things about myself and buying food while doing this.

When I announced to family and friends that I was going to attempt this, their main worry was that I wouldn't have enough food to eat. They assumed I was going to live on only beans and rice with little else. While I have made beans and rice part of my menu, they have definitely not been all that I have been eating. I have had plenty to eat including fresh fruits and vegetables. If I weren't limited by the rules of only being able to use 2 computers to print coupons and 2 Sunday coupon newspaper inserts, I would probably already be set for food for the entire month.

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This is part of a month long challenge to eat well while spending an average of only $1 a day on food. You can find the beginning and the rules of this challenge here

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The fact is that I am actually eating a lot healthier than I was before I started this. This is because I actually have to think about what I am going to eat instead of going to the cupboard and grabbing whatever is convenient. I have cut out a huge amount of junk food that I had been eating. I could certainly add a bunch if I wanted to at little cost, but have been kept in line since the challenge is to eat well.

I have lost weight (about 5 lbs) these first 2 weeks although I don't feel like I am eating less than I was before I started this. One thing that I told myself is that if I was going to survive the entire month, I could not be hungry because when I am, my productivity plummets. Looking at how my eating has changed, the weight loss has come from cutting out the snacking on junk food I had been doing before.

I am eating a lot better in the morning. Having a cup of oatmeal with fruit in the morning to start the day and then a full breakfast a couple hours later my be a routine that I keep even after I am through taking my antibiotics. I have also found that i am keeping myself more physically active in the late afternoon so that I am not thinking about snacking which is another lifestyle change that I think I will try to continue even after this is all over.

That being said, I do miss my snacking. It's tough watching others grab a granola bar or a bowl of fruit to snack on and not be able to do the same. I also miss the convenience of not having to think about what I am going to make for each meal and if I have the ingredients necessary to make a meal happen.

The most difficult part of this project has the time involved. As I have mentioned before, I really don't like shopping and it is the same with cooking. It has taken far more time planning what I am going to eat and making the meals than I thought it would (I thought getting the food would be the main time consuming aspect to this, but that was totally wrong).

This is what I currently have in stock at the end of Day 14:

1 mystery purchase (not pictured)
3.5 tomatoes on vine
0.5 broccoli crowns
0.75 loaf of bread
1.75 jars of Classico pasta sauce
1.5 Safeway brand pasta (1 spaghetti and 0.5 rotini)
0.5 celery stalk
0.75 bag tortilla chips
2 cans tuna
1 bottle Welch's grape & peach 100% juice
1 bottle V8 Fusion fruit / vegetable drink
0.5 bottle V8 spicy vegetable drink
1.5 boxes of Caprisun fruit drinks (16 drinks all together)
0.25 jar of salsa
0.25 bag of black beans (half cooked, half not)
2.5 boxes of cereal
1 dozen eggs
2.33 bananas
1 box of Quaker Instant oatmeal
11.5 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
0.25 package of Knudsen Light sour cream
1 lbs of carrots
0.25 bag of long grain brown rice
2 100% whole wheat tortillas

If I had to, I could probably live the next two weeks on just what I have now, although, that wouldn't be much fun. I think now that I have a small base of food, the next two weeks should be a lot easier. I did buy another dozen eggs today (I am also going to need to get some more milk and peanut butter) because I used the last one I had at breakfast in the morning. The dozen eggs cost me $0.99:

Breakfast

I started off the day with my usual cup of oatmeal with part of a banana to give it flavor. Today was the last day that I needed to take antibiotics, so I don't need to do this anymore if I don't want to (I had been doing it due to the food restrictions that came with taking the antibiotics). A couple hours later, I had a bowl of Corn Flakes with banana on top, a couple slices of whole what toast with an egg and a spoonful of salsa:

Lunch

It was a good thing that I had a fairly large breakfast. It was the last day of the cereal deal at Safeway and I had a goal to try and get another 100 or so boxes of cereal for local food banks. I ended up getting well over that for free, but in the process of driving from store to store, I missed lunch.

Dinner

By the time I came home in the early evening, I was more than a little hungry. I usually have a fairly late dinner (after 7 pm), but was ready to chow down at 5:00 since I had missed lunch. I opted for the leftover mash-up taking the rest of the cooked rice, adding a portion of the cooked black beans and the rest of the 1/3 lb of ground beef I had saved and heating it up with salsa mixed in. I put about a third of it into a whole wheat tortilla and added sour cream. I put the rest on the side with sour cream to eat with a bowl of chips. I also steamed up 3 carrots and the other head of broccoli I had:

I also decided to add a couple of the CapriSun juice packs to an ice-tray and freeze them and using these ice cubes to flavor the water i have been drinking a bit:

It is OK, but I think I will try it with the apple peach juice I have tomorrow…

This is the current list of what I have purchased:

Money Spent $14.59
Money left to spend: 16.41
Retail Value of everything bought: $457.88

1 mystery purchase
1/3 lb ground beef
4 tomatoes on vine
2 broccoli crowns
1 loaf of bread
2 jars of Classico pasta sauce
2 Safeway brand pasta (spaghetti and rotini)
1 celery stalk
2 bags tortilla chips
3 cans tuna
1 bottle Welch's grape & peach 100% juice
1 bottle V8 Fusion fruit / vegetable drink
1 bottle V8 spicy vegetable drink
2 boxes of Caprisun fruit drinks (10 packs)
1 jar of salsa
1 bag of black beans
1 half gallon of milk
36 boxes of cereal
2 dozen eggs
2 avocados
11 bananas
2 boxes of Quaker Instant oatmeal
55 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
1 package of Knudsen Light sour cream
10 apples
2 lbs of carrots
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 jar of Skippy All Natural peanut butter
2 cans of pork and beans
1 bag of long grain brown rice
2 packages of Mission 100% whole wheat tortillas (10 count each)

Donated Food to Food Bank that was purchased with my $1 a day

2 sticks of deodorant
4 bottles Windex multi-surface cleaner
1 can of Pork & Beans
32 boxes of cereal
50 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner refill

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The Beginning ::: Day 15: Tampons & Pantiliners

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