Let the Frugal Adventure Begin!

So here we are! 

When I wrote the last post of Food Tweaked a Bit, life was very different for me. I am now a single-again woman living in the Austin area in a tiny but lovely apartment. Life is neither better nor worse but it is different. Adjustments happen as they come up. 

Apparently, I am just weird enough to think outside of the box in advance of needing to live outside the box. While still at Hacienda, I decided to see if I could live in one room, make my footprint smaller, see just how much I could downsize...I moved microwave, counter-top oven, TV and the other necessities (coffee pot!) into the back bedroom. I ate, slept, worked, cooked and was entertained in the one room. It IS do-able. It's amazing just how little you actually NEED rather than that you think you need. I basically was in training for my baby apt! My apt isn't one room but it is small and I love it. 

Another past outside the box experiment of mine was to live on a food budget of $5 a day. It, too, is do-able. Takes a lot of creativity, self-discipline and a complete change of mindset but once you get geared to the mentality, it isn't so bad at all. Did I mention self-discipline? Eating habits are just that ...habits. For me, portion control has always been the problem. I eat well, mostly healthy and yet I am about 20 pounds over where I want to be and should be for my height and bone structure. Stinkin' portion control issues!! LOL 

This being the case, I must also adjust my mentality to eating normal portion sizes rather than what we consider to be normal. If I am going to be doing the $5 a day food budget, I might as well use the same opportunities to get more healthy by losing the weight I need to shed at the same time! 

Today I went to the grocery store to prepare. My past experience in meal planning on $5 a day was most beneficial because I have enough knowledge base to stock my pantry and fridge for this first run. I spent $42.00 today. Now, it isn't as simple as saying you divide the 42 dollars by 5 and say you have 8 days worth of food. 

For example, if I'm a good girl and stick to normal portion sizes, the $1.36 I spent on a box of Old Fashioned Oatmeal will produce 13 servings at 11 cents each. The $6.44 for the bag of fish fillets will give me 5 different fish meals @ $1.29 each. You just have to do the math and plan ahead. It's not hard.

Sample Menu.....

Oatmeal....... 11 cents
Toast............12.5 cents
coffee...........72 cents a pot, bye-bye Starbucks!

Fettuccine.........16 cents
Alfredo Sauce ...22 cents
Fish fillet.........$1.29
Roasted Yellow Squash....52 cents
Glass cold water...Free

Apple/Ginger/Carrot Soup....75 cents
Garlic Toast......................12.5 cents
Sliced vine ripened tomato...56 cents
Glass cold water...Free

Raw Almonds snack.....44 cents

Total Food Cost for day....$4.92

All these costs are based on standard servings for one person. This is where the disciple comes in. ONLY eating a single portion size of whatever to maintain the cost and the impact on my weight. Also, for me, I have found that cooking only a single serving size helps. If I cook more, it is tempting to eat more. Fill your plate and walk out of the kitchen. I use my nice dishes, cloth napkins and cut crystal glasses every day. It makes the meal nicer to me. I may eat alone most of the time but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be enjoyable.

That's it, the intro to my $5 a day journey. Stay tuned and let me hear form you!