a peek inside the fishbowl

1 | Alexa Clark

April 29th, 2013 at 6:56 pm

OMG, just an egg for lunch! WOW I’m impressed you made it through the day!

1 down!

2 | Vivian

April 29th, 2013 at 7:06 pm

Caffeine withdrawal on this challenge would be killer! I don’t envy you, but congrats on making it through the first day :)

3 | coffeewithjulie

April 29th, 2013 at 10:10 pm

Yes, the caffeine withdrawal would really hit me hard (and the rest of the family … LOL!). So, to clarify, are you eating a separate dinner from the rest of the family? Are you cooking them something yummy, drooling over it, and then feeding yourself from your $1.75 budget?

4 | Annie @ PhD in Parenting

April 29th, 2013 at 10:12 pm

I look forward to following your week.

I find it interesting that so many people are going it alone on the challenge rather than doing it as a group or a family. I do think it would be much harder to eat for one person on $8.75 per week than it would be to eat for 4 people for $35.

Things like a dozen eggs, a red pepper, a pound of ground beef, a can of beans, a loaf of bread, etc. would be reasonable purchases if you are splitting it among four people, but would be hard to justify in the budget for one person.

5 | Katy

April 30th, 2013 at 8:54 am

Wow – this is a real eye opener.

Keep going!

6 | Javamom

April 30th, 2013 at 10:04 am

Shaky afternoon would hit me, too. Although kudos on the egg for lunch – protein is good, better than carbs. Your dinner looked fine.

How did the family react? Do the girls have any commentary?

7 | andrea tomkins

April 30th, 2013 at 10:17 am

Julie – I am eating separately from my family. Thankfully Mark is stepping up and making their dinners this week. The dinner pictured above was eaten before my family ate theirs (which was tacos BTW). I might try to time it differently tonight so we can eat together, but I think it’d be tough for me as my dinner is super plain.

Annie – it is much harder to go it alone. A budget of $8.75 doesn’t take you very far. The people who are doing it as a couple or a group definitely have more variety in their diets this week. FWIW I didn’t want to make my family do this with me. Mark has started biking to work again (it’s 10K each way) and the girls are growing. I couldn’t imagine what their lunches would look like.

Javamom – the girls have been pretty quiet about it so far and I don’t know what’s going on in their heads. Most of my food is laid out on the kitchen island. They know what I’m eating. I expect we’ll talk more about it as the week goes on.

I would like to do something similar with the family at a later point, but bring up the budget so we’d be getting more nutrients. The stuff I’m eating this week is not the healthiest… although it was the cheapest.

8 | Stefania

April 30th, 2013 at 2:48 pm

You raised a very good point, “The stuff I’m eating this week is not the healthiest…although it was the cheapest.” There’s a scene in a food documentary (can’t remember which one) where a family eats fastfood every day for lunch ($1 burgers, etc). They spend about $10, which is what they would have spent (maybe even less because it’s the U.S.) on a pot of chili that would have served a family of four for one or two meals.
I agree with Annie that doing this as a family would be easier as your dollar is stretched. I’d be interested in a future project where you plan and budget and see how far it takes you as a family.

9 | andrea tomkins

April 30th, 2013 at 3:56 pm

When I first started I thought I’d be smart and buy brown rice and multigrain pastas and loads of beans, but when I was comparing prices I quickly learned that they cost way more than regular white rice and regular pasta.

It is cheaper to cook your own meals at home for sure, but at the same time I think it’s safe to say that those meals probably don’t contain very many premium ingredients. Take cheese for example. The good stuff doesn’t come cheap. A brick of good Parmesan runs around 10 or 12 dollars. I use some at least once a week. This ingredient probably isn’t used in low-income cooking very often. And apples seem so expensive nowadays. I paid eight bucks for a bag of apples the other day. It’s crazy. And obviously I need to plant an apple tree! :)

10 | Stacey K

April 30th, 2013 at 7:55 pm

Drinking lots and lots and lots of water (free) will help reduce the caffeine headache.