I went shopping today and spent $113.53 which is a little high but I bought some extra meat because it was on special. Just goes to show that when you can, you do…

Oh well… we’ll work out where to next at some point.

Now that the challenge is finished (and I’ll say over as I won’t eat between now and midnight) I thought I would share some closing remarks. But first I’ll start with a photo of the food left over from my shopping through out the week.

Read on for the rest…

Understand this: I don’t really feel relieved to be finished. Living like this for a week, took a bit to get used to, but was not a hassle. And I feel that the diet was fairly acceptable from a RDI and volume perspective. (But I don’t have any form of qualifications that can give any credit to that statement; i.e. take it as just my opinion).

I have a few lessons learned through the week:

• Scales in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket won’t be calibrated like those at the checkouts. I got lucky the checkout was lighter. Give yourself at least a 10% margin either way though.
• Buying cheap brands requires a bit more concentration when cooking.
• Fruit doesn’t really last a week in the fridge. Buy a few days at a time if possible.
• Make sure you get a range of flavouring items early in the week. I should’ve had the onion and chilli’s from the start. Not for the weekend.
• Pasta bake is not good cold!
• Rice would be better than pasta. If you can afford it.
• Drinking only water get’s old. There is nothing that can be done about it so just get used to it.
• Regulating your meals makes you eat properly.
• Enjoy your food. No matter what it is.

Could I do another week? Yes. Will I do another week? No.

Proving you can live for a week on $30 has been achieved. Testing how many consecutive weeks you can live on $30 for is not the same. That is a mind game of how long ’til you break. You could easily buy the same goods over and over, with some variation in meat and fruit for price fluctuation, and never spend more than $30.

The fact I have left over food suggests you could eventually have some treats.

Could you go cheaper? Maybe. I shopped exclusively at one supermarket. Which I don’t normally do; nor is it likely to produce the cheapest results. Certain shops will be cheaper for certain goods. It just becomes a balance between cost of shopping around vs. price savings.

What was the point?
I have had many different reactions through the week. Most supportive. However the one common question has always been: why? what’s the point? In all honesty I think actually doing this had a lot to do with two things: 1) to see if it could be done; and 2) because I do strange things when challenged to.

Ignoring #2; Yes it can be done. What will that knowledge do for me, you, everyone? That is the $64 million question. While I, obviously, can’t answer for you or anyone else; for me I hope that it leads me to recognise and reduce how much I do waste. I know in the past I would have thrown out food that, this week, made 3+ meals.

When this all started I was amazed (Brad and Matthew probably would agree) at the sheer comparative luxury in which I live (remember we we’re in Egypt). I do not think this was a tough week. Not at all. And I know that there are people in western countries that would love to live like I have this week. But this week has reminded me of the thoughts that came out whilst in Iran and Egypt. This post is already too long without visiting on those, so to quote:

If you want milk, do you get a cow for your house?

The context was TOTALLY different. But it, strangely, highlights the point I want to make: We do things because our circumstances allow us to. I wanted to live off $30; so I did.

All I’ve shown is: I feel it’s easy to live on $30. Which, if you are someone that has to, probably looks really arrogant. So if you’re like me and don’t have to live on $30, sure I hope this helps people save some money, but please realise you’re doing it for yourself nothing more.

The week was a success. All goals were achieved. The outcomes interesting. To those who know the back story: we need to work out what the point is. If any. Before anything more can be said, than: it was an interesting experiment.

Ciao

Day seven has come, and almost gone, and was a full day of running around. I had my last two pears whilst out and about; they’re so portable, edible, and cheap at the moment. Even though today is the last day, I didn’t have anything special, except the jelly. But enough blather…

Breakfast

Muesli with milk.

Lunch

Left over spaghetti bolognese.

Dinner

Left over mince, onion and chilli with some eggs and veg. Oh and of course the all important jelly!!!

Notes

• Pears were eaten through the afternoon. They had started to get a little soft.
• I still had way too much spaghetti – it would’ve gone easily over two meals.

Comments
I think the jelly was quite a nice touch to finish up on but given that it’s all over it was a $0.39 expense that could have been spared. As I said before today was nothing special. But it is done.

I did some more shopping today, the photo is after the jump, so now I’m down to $0.95 remaining. Someone suggested I have 3 soft serve cones. No thanks.

Today was relatively active, relatively, we dug a hole at the beach. Moving around 7 cubic meters of sand. That was fairly exerting. And also rather enjoyable. I also got adventurous with the food prep for dinner. I still have a left over spaghetti bolognese from Day 4 – so I’d like to officially announce that the cat is in the bag. All that I need to do now is enjoy the experience until Monday morning.

Extra Shopping

Jelly, Onion and 2 x Chilli’s.

Breakfast

Muesli with milk.

Lunch

Jam sandwhich’s and a pear and an orange.

Dinner

Self made rissoles with vegetable side.

Notes

• I’m almost out of milk. But the 1L is going strong.
• When digging big holes on the beach buy a good shovel, perhaps more than one, don’t set your sights too high: have a large slave labour force.

Dinner Recipe
Thaw mince, chop half an onion finely, chop chilli’s finely. Combine with your hands. Take one egg and extract the egg white: You can do this by carefully breaking the shell in half and pouring the contents back and forward until only the yolk is left. Mould the mix into meat balls and then BBQ like hamburger’s.

Serve with bread and vegetables.

Comments
I have jelly for tomorrow. Excellent.

End of the working week has arrived. And everyone goes woohoo. As I predicted last night I was over the “being over it” this morning. Also today I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the monthly work lunch. Which according to the rules is legit. But even if you didn’t have that as part of your week, as you will see from dinner, you could easily have done with out it.

We had BBQ at home tonight with people around so the challenge was to have something for dinner that was “barbequable” which was totally possible.

Breakfast

Muesli and milk again.

Lunch

Lunch of Indian take-away: Got unlucky really – they didn’t do veg.

Dinner

Toad(s) in a hole (with Pasta and Veg.) and cut-outs with jam.

Notes

• I also had a pear after dinner while writing this post.

Dinner Recipe
Four pieces of bread with middles cut out. Mix a little of your left over pasta with 3 eggs, some microwave defrosted veg and some herb. Place bread on BBQ and cook until lightly toasted. Pour your egg mix into the center of the bread and cook until egg seals with bread. Flip and cook other side.

Cook the cut-outs the same way. When done spread some jam and eat. As you can see I was into it before taking the photo.

Comments
Talking at work today over lunch about the fact that eating the food was ok; someone mentioned they spend $30 a week on chocolate. Which is a lot of chocolate (4+ family blocks). I don’t miss not having chocolate. What I’m finding that I miss is Juice. It’s nice to have a flavoured drink with breakfast. Or as the case is this evening after weeding the garden.

We are so close to the end now and I still have heaps of food (once I buy the onion and jelly); it’s almost a down hill walk to the end.

Before we start today I’d like to say: I am now passed the half way point! But I am still flying relatively blind as too what people think of meal size and RDI quantities. There is still some time left to adjust the amounts so please let the comments flow. But for now: On with the show…

Today has been the day of I’m over it; which was bound to happen; and will certainly pass by tomorrow. It is really just culinary boredom… but sometimes we have to stick at things we don’t totally love so I’ll just keep eating my way through the week.

Breakfast

Jam on toast and “friorja” – from last night.

Lunch

Mince and veg on toast and Orange.

Dinner

Left over Spaghetti Bolognese + Pear.

Notes

• I had too much food today. This exercise includes an amount of portion control which I totally flunked.

Friorja Recipe
Take a little Spaghetti, once cooked, mix with several eggs and cook like an omelette. If you have some spices or pepper it would go well – but I had mine plain. This is a fairly filling piece of food; mine was way too big for a single serve it should have been two serves. MAKE SURE YOU RATION PROPERLY.

Comments
I’ve realised that I will need to buy a few extra things for the weekend: Jelly, Onion and Chilli(s) are the short list at the moment. I also seem to have miscalculated on my Watermelon consumption and had 3 serves not the necessary 4 from the original chunk: so if I can also get an extra pear or something in the $1.60 I will. I don’t like my chances though.

It’s not the end of the world – but it continues to highlight the important theme of today: Portion your food properly.

Today was all about “the spirit of the challenge”. There were plenty of opportunities to deviate with out really breaking rules: e.g. I was in Wollongong last night and this morning; and in the spirit of the challenge I did not use the “work pays” excuse to get food – but instead took my own food.

Breakfast

Muesli with milk.

Lunch

Final left overs from Monday night. Finally!!!

Dinner

Was meant to be a Spaghetti Bolognese but the cans of tomato don’t really give the food a red colour; but more an orange. The last of the watermelon as a side.

Notes

• I have left overs again for Thursday / Friday from dinner.
• I also used some of the Spaghetti and 2 eggs to make a “friorja” (no idea how it’s really spelled). Which you’ll see tomorrow.
• Beginning to think of things I should have purchased: Jelly + Onion.

Dinner Recipe

• 500g of Spaghetti (really don’t need this much but it’s what I used).
• 1 can of Kidney beans.
• 1 can of Tomato.
• 200g of mince.
• 275g diced frozen veg (or equivalent).
• Herb of choice: Rosemary again (as it’s all I have that I can use).

This is essentially meant to be a Spaghetti Bolognese – i.e. it’s not really that hard: Cook the pasta in a large saucepan. Brown the mince in a pan then add the beans, tomato, veg and rosemary. Cook well and simmer until consistency (i.e. how thick) is to your liking.

Serve as you see fit. A large bowl works well or a plate as the case is.

Comments
I had much more discussion about the idea today than the rest of the week. At work and at the meeting. It is most definitely and interesting idea. Not unimaginable. And if you were doing this on an ongoing basis – which may be required to actually fully test the idea – you would buy things differently. For example: the Jam will not need replacing for at least a month. The bread probably every two weeks at the current rate of consumption. This amortised expense leaves capital for diversification of the diet. Rice. Cheese. Bulk meat packs. Different condiments.

On the topic of condiments: If you are budgeting like this for a long time then get yourself a herb garden going!!! Seriously a good 3% of the total expense will go on buying herbs which you can grow for a lot less.

In terms of how I’m coping: I was hungry at dinner time today. It had been 7 hours since lunch. But I was hungry which is a first. If I continue to get hungry for meals then the weekend will be a challenge. I’ll just have to set myself things to do so I’m away from the house.

As day 2 comes to a close I have another update and some more photos:

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs on toast.

Lunch

Left overs from dinner last night. Yes that’s the same photo too… camera was in the car.

Dinner

More left overs but with an orange.

Notes

• Today was largely based on left overs from Monday night.

Comments
Today was fairly routine, bordering on mundane, having pre-prepared meals that are carry on from yesterday didn’t help. So in other words I’m a little bored. Hunger wise I’m fine. Meal sizes are basically the same as previous weeks. I was driving through Sydney today and I saw a certain fast food restaurant waving boards saying “buy one burger, get one free” which I thought was quite amusing given what I’m trying to do.

I’m writing this at the end of a very successful first day to the $30 challenge. As an aside, given the current economy, I’m going to share the recipes each day. But on with the show

Breakfast

Muesli with milk.

Lunch

Egg roll, 2 x Jam roll, and a Pear. You might notice that I have rolls here. They were collected for free on Sunday. If you didn’t have roles, bread would have been fine.

Dinner


Pasta bake with Watermelon.

Notes

• I cooked dinner large enough to do 2 x Lunch (w/ fruit or bread) + 2 x Dinner (w/ Fruit).
• 2 serves of fruit through the day; plus a bowl of diced veg (roughly 275g).
• 200g of meat for over 48 hours.
• Extra protein from egg.
• Sugars and dairy from the jam and milk with muesli.
• Loads of cereals, breads, and pasta.
• I might be a little low on the dairy. But no less than my normal diet.

Dinner Recipe

• 250-300g of Penne (or other pasta that will work for this sort of dish).
• 80% of a can of whole peeled tomatoes. Need to conserve a bit for later.
• 1 x 400g can of Chick Peas.
• 275g diced frozen veg (or equivalent).
• 200g of mince.
• Herb of choice: mine was Rosemary.

Pre-heat oven to 190(C). Cook the pasta. Fry the mince, veg, chick peas and 75% of the 80% can of tomatoes. Add Rosemary, while frying, to taste. Strain pasta and stir through remaining tomato and garnish with a little Rosemary. Layer mince and veg in baking dish. Layer pasta on top and bake for 20 minutes at 190(C) (turn around after 10 minutes for an even bake).

Serve as you see fit. But I broke mine into 30%, 30%, 20%, and 20% lots for the 4 meals.

Comments
It is far too early to know the results of the week; however each meal I had today was of comparable size to any other week. The contents were perhaps a little plain; but they are definitely functional. What is perhaps more interesting is the reaction of other people: they just don’t believe it’s possible. Given the success of today’s meals though I’m more than willing to continue and speculate the whole week will be a success.

We’ll know Sunday night. Bring on Tuesday.

About 9 months ago Brad, Matthew and I were sitting on a balcony in Alexandria having a fairly long discussion. One of the topics we discussed was trying to live off $30 for a week, the general consensus was it would be possible. Somehow, today, I got challenged to actually try and do it. I went shopping today and it’s on… Oh and I spent $28.39!!!

Basically the plan is to document each meal and see how the week goes.

There are a few rules:

• I can’t use food that was in the cupboard; which is easy there was basically none.
• I can’t deliberately get invited out for dinner.
• Any free food I get, such as work lunches (which work pays for), are fine.
• I should try and eat properly: 2 fruit + 5 veg daily, RDI amounts, etc…

And that’s about it… See you all tomorrow for Day 1′s write up!