Congratulations, it’s the last day of the Challenge – you made it! Hopefully, this week has given you some things to think about and has sparked some good conversations. Any final thoughts to share?
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My kids, ages 11 and 13 decided that they wanted to take on this challenge on their own. Despite the fact that they would have qualified for free school lunches, they elected not to include that in their budgets.
ReplyDeleteOn Saturday afternoon we went shopping, and their choices have led to some great discussions. The 11 year old, a list-maker and planner, bought a bag of potatoes, ground beef, milk, cereal, a bag of apples, frozen veggies, bread, bologna, pudding, and microwave popcorn. She wants to see how long she can make that $38 stretch, and she's still got plenty of food. She even "splurged" and bought a school lunch on Friday (pizza day).
The 13 year old went for more processed food; frozen pizza rolls, ramen bowls, canned soup, Capri Sun, fruit roll-ups, Go-gurts, a chocolate orange...he also got milk, cereal, a bag of rice and a big can of baked beans. He made it longer than I thought he would, giving up on Friday when all he had left was some of his rice and beans.
Both agreed that planning made a big difference, and they had to spend time figuring out what they would eat for each meal, and snacks, for the week. Having them responsible for their own budget made them much more aware of sales, coupons, and trying to make good choices with the money that's available. Aside from their food choices, there's also quite a difference between the appetite of an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy! If we had done the challenge as a family, or even if the two of them had pooled their resources, I'm sure my son would have eaten all week! (Yes, I did feed him when he ran out of food)
It's been a fascinating experience. Thanks for offering the challenge.
Thankfully it is Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteStaying within the financial limitations while eating healthy and nutritious meals required a great deal of planning, careful shopping and lots of home cooking. We learned that pea soup can be made with water while lentil soup can require chicken or vegetable broth (more expensive). We saved all week so we could buy a piece of fish for Friday night. It never tasted better - even though we could only afford an 8oz portion.
This has been a great experience - actually trying to make it work has raised our awareness far more than reading something or hearing from someone else. Thank you for establishing the challenge and for encouraging us to participate.
Bob & Marianne McNamara
I'm happy this challenge is over. Although I eat on a fairly low budget anyway, to be restricted to a certain amount of money makes it very difficult. I found it fairly easy if you don't mind eating pasta and a lot of frozen vegetables. But, to be able to do this while eating fresh vegetables would be difficult, and I couldn't imagine being unable to have them when I want. This really is difficult and to feed a family on this budget must be extremely hard, because it is hard to have a variety of meals. I lived off of hummus for lunch, and chicken with frozen veggies and pasta. The one thing it did help with was limiting the serving size. Every day I was able to actually eat the proper servings. To help with my food cravings in between meals I resorted to a lot of green tea to fill me up. Without the tea, I wouldn't have lasted. The hardest part of this challenge was when I had to fly to Colorado from NY. It is so hard to eat well on the road because there are so many fast food restaurants, and living on that budget it's hard to keep up.
ReplyDeleteThis has been a great challenge and I'm glad I did it.
I felt spoiled because we cook and bake so much, and I know not everyone has the tools or the experience to bake all their own bread or make cookies for school lunches.
ReplyDeleteThings definitely got challenging toward the end of the week - pancakes for dinner, anyone?
Really glad we did this.
We took the challenge this past week. Remembering when we were poor in our youth, we avoided processed and packaged food as much as possible. Our staples were a bag of pinto beans and a bag of navy beans, a bag of rice, tortillas, a box of oatmeal, peanut butter, bread, eggs and cheese. These only added up to $20, so we had enough money to buy fresh broccoli, green beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, tomatoes and apples. We also had a little lunch meat and some yogurt and chocolate. For beverages we had tea, milk and cranberry flavored water (a spoonful of frozen juice in a glass). I already knew that beans were the food of the poor worldwide, but I learned that I should eat hot cereal more often - it's so much cheaper than cold cereal. And watch those snacks. Two small bags of chips and two cups of cocoa would cost as much as several full meals.
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