50 Cents a Day Diet: I haven't started, and Im already regretting this....

One upping random people on the internet.

I'll get right to it. I was greatly inspired by Evan's Hungry For a Month blog. Just to recap his journey, Evan restricted his food budget to $30 for the month of November, averaging out to a dollar a day for food. He did not consume any free food that may have been available to him at his job which made it more of a challenge. He did not include items such as coffee, sugar, salt, pepper (the type of stuff easily jackable from your local fast food joint). I feel it was a great undertaking and it taught him a lesson or two. I'm going to one-up Evan. My food budget for the month of February will be $15, averaging to out 50 cents a day. Being a caffeine-aholic I'm going to keep coffee in the mix just like Evan did. I'll also keep the salt, pepper and ketchup as items available for free (not that I eat much of those things anyways). Any free food available to me at my job is also off-limits. This may be a problem. Working at a refinery, there is an exorbitant amount of free food. We have lunch meetings, product vendors bring free food, and there is almost always food left over from other people's lunch meetings. But I also feel that I have an edge in this whole issue. Being a Muslim, I am required to undergo fasting in the month of Ramadaan. lasting for about 30 days, these fasts require that I do not eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk. Ramadaan was in October 2006, and I feel I did pretty good. It was a challenge, but I managed. I am going to show that a 50 cent a day diet is very much possible, and even comfortable. Evan wrote in his blog that he did not really plan out his meals nor do any prior research. That's where I will also do things differently. I've already started to evaluate what foods are most cost effective. One-upping Evan is not my only motivation. This experiment will also be conducted to show that using a proper budget and planning, even low income people can live comfortably. I will try my best to provide as much information as I can. Lets see how this goes. Note: Read the Days from the bottom of the page to the top.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

I haven't started, and Im already regretting this....

During my initial research phase I considered tuna as my main protein source. While I was checking out tuna at the grocery store I ran across a Chicken of the Sea can of Mackerel. The mackerel and tuna cost the same per unit weight so I decided to buy it to see if I could eat that instead of tuna. Little did I know what it looked like inside:

Keeping an open mind, I decided to give it a try. Turns out it tastes just as good as it looks... I eventually dropped tuna altogether and replaced it with the incredible edible egg. For 50 cents I could buy a can of tuna, or 5 eggs. The choice was clear.

Well the time to commence this experiment is fast approaching. After rigorous revisions of my food list I have finalized what I'll be eating for the next month:

I've left around a buck as contingency money. I've already bought the items above to get the ball rolling. However, it turns out I can't cook worth a crap. I was preparing rice for tommorow's lunch and what I ended up with was a paste like substance. Didn't taste great either. Due to limited supplies I will be enjoying the rice paste with tomato sauce tommorow for lunch. We'll see how that goes.

Another major hassle is that I drive to another city and stay there for the weekend. Therefore I'm going to have to haul the food back and forth every weekend.

I havent even started this experiment yet and Im already regretting it.