Can We Stretch It Part 2

Colin and I are now three full weeks into our $2.00 a day and we do not have a need to go buy any groceries! I thought that I would tell you how we have been able to keep everything under our daily budget. At first we were going to set the limit to $2.00 per person with a total of $4.00 per day, but I soon found out that I could do it for $1.00 per person with a total of just $2.00 per day. So that in itself has left us with more than enough to make it through the 30 days.

In cooking all our meals, I used the exact serving sizes that are on the back of every item you buy. I was able to keep track of how many servings went into the meal, found out how much each serving cost (divided the total price by the number of servings and came out with the cost of each serving) and then added all the cost of the servings for a total price of the meal. For example, for breakfast Colin might have one egg that cost $0.05, one serving of grits which cost $0.10 per serving, and a slice of homemade bread which only cost me about $0.10 to make the whole thing. So his entire breakfast only cost maybe $0.16! That's a far cry from any drive-thru, and it is way better for you too!

For our first big meal that I made I used the following:

• 1 Cup (4 servings) of white rice
• 1/2 of a carrot
• 1 small potato
• 1 skinless boneless chicken breast cut up into small bit size pieces
• 1/4 onion

(I use all the spices and seasoning that I already have, but I don't add that into the total cost.)

I mixed it all together once everything was cooked and seasoned the way I wanted, and we had dinner that night, lunch the next day and then dinner again. 3 meals for just under $2.00. I also made bread as well and that still fell under the $2.00 a day. We also eat a lot more bread than we used to but we are not hungry a few hours after we eat either!

Colin made the next meal and it was a soup. He used the following:

• 1/2 Cup white rice

• 1 carrot

• 1 small potato

• 1 onion

• 1 cup of frozen corn

• 1/4 lbs of ground meat

He seasoned it with what we had on our shelves and what was growing in our herd garden and the whole thing only cost about $2.54. We went over but we had three full days of lunch and dinner out of what he had made.

I made spaghetti with the leftover ground meat ($1.04 for 1/4 lbs) and one can of tomato sauce ($0.59 per can). The spaghetti comes out to be just $0.10 per serving and Colin and I had two meals out of it with leftover sauce. Then I used the leftover sauce (I added water to it to make it last longer but not mess with the taste) when my mom came in and we all had one bowl and there were still noddles and sauce leftover for one more person to have it! So for all of that plus bread it cost us about $3.00!

This whole experiment has really opened our eyes to just how much we really use, and how much we waste. Also, it has opened up some money so that we can give more! We had already talked about the money that we would be saving would not go into a savings account, but given away, and God has already given us places and people that need it more than we do. Through Him blessing us, we are able to be a blessing to others. Very exciting for both Colin and myself.

We are radically changing our lives and we are both excited about where this will lead us and who we will meet in the process.