A dollar a day challenge

californiansun

Hi,
My class has decided to embark on the "dollar a day challenge" to become more educated on food insecurity. It's a month long challenge. So 30 dollars for one month.

The rules are:
Eat three meals a day (maybe 2 snacks too) on 1 dollar a day
No going out to eat
No asking or begging for food
No dumpster diving
No stealing packets of condiments from fast food places
No accepting food from family or friends
Try to make it as healthy (all the food groups) and less processed as possible. Some processed is ok.
No going to food banks or soup kitchens

Does anyone have any good ideas of what to buy and/or make?

Thanks!

cmriverside

Ask about manager's specials in the grocery store. I recently bought meat and fresh produce that were marked down to below half-price.

Dried beans and rice with rendered fat from your own cooking. Eggs. Milk. Cabbage. Potatoes.

queenliz99

Can you raid your pantry?

californiansun

No raiding of pantry. Have to start from scratch. I don't have anything in there anyways besides oil.

californiansun

cmriverside wrote: »

Ask about manager's specials in the grocery store. I recently bought meat and fresh produce that were marked down to below half-price.

Dried beans and rice with rendered fat from your own cooking. Eggs. Milk. Cabbage. Potatoes.

Thank you. Never thought about asking about that!

cmriverside

californiansun wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

Ask about manager's specials in the grocery store. I recently bought meat and fresh produce that were marked down to below half-price.

Dried beans and rice with rendered fat from your own cooking. Eggs. Milk. Cabbage. Potatoes.

Thank you. Never thought about asking about that!

There are quite a lot of nutrients in bone broth, too. If you can pick up some large raw bones, you can cook them down into a delicious, nutritious broth. Bones are super cheap. The marrow provides fats, too. Oil and fat are pretty expensive, so look for butter on sale.

How long is this challenge?

queenliz99

How long is this challenge?

californiansun

Oh shoot I forgot to say! But it's a month long.

cmriverside

Plan your meals by calorie-need. Don't eat more than you need.

californiansun

Exactly. I was thinking of making a lot of soup (by using the broth you suggested), lots of beans and rice, oatmeal, a whole chicken (for bones and meat), etc.

queenliz99

cmriverside wrote: »

Plan your meals by calorie-need. Don't eat more than you need.

Yes. Good point. Make every calorie count.

Lounmoun

californiansun wrote: »

Hi,
My class has decided to embark on the "dollar a day challenge" to become more educated on food insecurity.

The rules are:
Eat three meals a day (maybe 2 snacks too) on 1 dollar a day
No going out to eat
No asking or begging for food
No dumpster diving
No stealing packets of condiments from fast food places
No accepting food from family or friends
Try to make it as healthy (all the food groups) and less processed as possible. Some processed is ok.
No going to food banks or soup kitchens

Does anyone have any good ideas of what to buy and/or make?

Thanks!

http://www.budgetbytes.com
Beans and rice is a cheap meal. You can get a lot of meals with the meat from 1 chicken.
Soup is a good dollar stretcher. Bean or lentil soup might be a good choice.
Bread, peanut butter, oatmeal, dry beans or lentils, rice pasta, eggs, tuna, whole chicken or chicken thighs, potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, flour, canned tomato, milk, frozen fruits or vegetables can fit a low budget.
Buy store/generic brands of things. Have soups, stews, casseroles or stir fries. Check store ads. Eat more meatless meals. Buy fresh produce that is in season. Compare prices per serving. Popcorn or hummus are cheap snacks.

californiansun

Thank you! I have used budge bytes in the past. Some of her stuff is hit or miss for me, but a good resource! Thank you.

cmriverside

If you have Dollar Stores where you live, use them for spices, sugar, tea, maybe breads or rolls. Especially spices, though. (Except salt, which is cheaper at the grocery.) I'd buy a thing of dried onion for a $1 instead of buying fresh. Do you have Costco, Aldi's or Winco? Buy day-old bread and freeze it. Ask at the stores. I know I have a day-old store near me.

There are usually racks of clearance foods, ask about that.

Try to pre-plan your month by calories and buy as much as you can in bulk. Bulk items are much cheaper.

MimiOfTheFraserValley

Look for imperfect produce that's still perfectly good. It's usually stuff that doesn't look all that great but is still good to eat & isn't bad at all. It's usually lower in price and a good deal.

What an interesting challenge this is! Thanks to you, Lounmoun, for mentioning Budget Bytes. I'm going to check them out, too, since I'm not exactly rolling in dough these days.

californiansun

We have Costco but I don't have a membership, no Aldis and we do have a Winco! I'll check out the dollar store, I've heard that can be a good place for stuff! Thank you! I already meal plan as is, so it's definitely something I'll do.

DearestWinter

I'm really curious what your meal plan ends up being and how you stretch $30 to last a month! Please keep us posted.

californiansun

I definitely will! I find this super interesting. It's really eye opening how much I took for granted! I used to be super broke, and could only spend 20 a week on groceries. 30 bucks for an entire month is rough!

cmriverside

I really want to play along with you, except I don't. Hey, if you're in CA you could hit up the farmers markets and ask them for ideas on stuff that doesn't sell, too. I bet they have waste.

NaturalNancy

Dry beans, bag of potatoes, tofu, onions, and bread... The slow cooker crock pot will be your good friend ;-)

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Just an idea, and this sounds crazy, but... start with bone broth soup, add whatever veggies you can pick up for cheap - these days, a lot of stores just throw out bad veggies, but as someone suggested, you can ask the produce manager if they have some that are edible and you just need to cut a piece out of and they are throwing out so even 10 or 20 cents is better than nothing for the store... even ask them to start setting aside in a box instead of setting aside and make a deal with them. As you eat the soup, keep adding more water, whatever vegetables, and maybe even meat or bones. The soup will taste different throughout the month as you add different things - carrots one day, onion another, celery, spinach, broccoli, etc.

If you buy some fruit that can be saved, you might not put it in the soup, but eat half an apple or whatever as your snack or to mix it up for a bit. Also, a decent sized bag of rice to supplement for variety is good and you could boil some noodles right in the soup if you want - just keep in mind that a box of noodles will be more expensive so you won't add a box every day.

Again, making a stock soup and just adding with cheap ingredients is what came to mind. It sounds crazy, but it could work financially.