A slogan comes to mind: Stamping out hunger. I am only one day into the challenge but it seems to get a whole new meaning. I was hungry! I did have 3 good sized meals and a dessert to eat and I ate very slow at every meal to make them last as long as possible. The 80% full took care of itself. Breakfast was at 7:30am, lunch at 12:30pm, and dinner around 5:30pm. I was worried that the low quality of foods may not taste even half way decent, but you know when you are really hungry everything will taste just great. Even so I tried my best to make each meal as nutritious as possible without a ton of not so good for me carbs, it just cant fend off the hunger.

Black coffee sucks too, since I couldn’t afford any milk. My sweet little neighbor, whom I had told about this challenge came over with some milk for me. And I had to tell her, that’s not how it works, as most people in need wont have that sweet neighbor to help them out. So I had to refuse.

I am extending this challenge to 4 weeks and are currently working on my meal plans for the following weeks. Even so I have the budget of the items spelled out, I still vividly remember this clenching, panic like feeling while I was shopping at Aldi’s for my first week of groceries and at the checkout. I was ok and had over $1 to spare.

The sugar is giving me a heartburn. Gosh I haven’t had a sugary breakfast for quite a while. I think the oatmeal bake would work w/o sugar too, since I only used 1/3 cup instead of one whole cup of sugar. While my daily total just amounts to under $3, I do have quite a few items left in the pantry like peanut butter, eggs, oatmeal, potatoes and onions and could make a few more meals.  Biggest factor is probably the Aldi eggs with about $0.79/pack or 6.5 cents a piece, the average grocery store starts eggs at $1.69 for a dozen or 14 cents a piece.

Oatmeal Bake with pear compote and peanut butter per serving $1.20

Pork Ribs with cabbage and mashed potato per serving $1.22

Egg cups with carrots in butter per serving $0.30

Cake with pear per serving $0.10

Tomorrow I will analyze the nutritional values of each meal and and determine the caloric intake per day. One thing I noticed this evening while washing the dishes, they are a lot greasier than normal. I have also started a price list to compare stores. While Aldis is by far the cheapest and great for a family, for a single household it ties up valuable financial resources in fewer items.