Preparing

Did my shopping Friday night and spent $18.15. For what I hope will be most of my meals. There's some other stuff on hand for some variety (peanut butter, bread, lunch meat). Will have to break everything down for cost to be sure it comes out to $4 or less.

Had to get soy milk for morning cereal and got the cheapest cereal they had (that I would eat). Usually, I eat hot oatmeal but the weather is going to be hot next week - so cold cereal. My preferred cereal was something like $4.39 - and some of them were more than that. Christ, what a goldmine cereal must be.

The pesto sauce was expensive, but without the equipment to make it at home, needed to buy it. Hopefully, 1 lb. of pasta and 1 lb. of vegies and a diced up ham steak will get me through most of the week.

Shopping was frustrating - balancing the budget against wasting food. The fruit selection last night was pretty much nil, unless I wanted Fuji apples or pears at $2.39 a pound. Grapes were gone, bananas were green, and the apples weren't appealing. (Other things like a whole pineapple or melon would have probably ended up going bad before being eaten, so not bought.) Lemons or limes were a possibility, but I have a lemon tree (flavored water for me!).

The amount of "junk food" (outside of cold cereal) that would have fit in the budget kind of floored me. Soda, chips, cookies. All at good prices and a can of Pringles would probably last all week.

I should be able to add some fruit (and maybe some snack bars for sugar) and hopefully have a little cushion for an occasional treat.

Having done some "practice" eating, this will be tougher than it looks. I'm probably going to have to reduce portion size by 2-4 ounces. Some things (like coffee) bounce up the numbers pretty dramatically.

Good luck to everyone that participates. And thanks to everyone for their support.