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Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

grocerycouponguide.com

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Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#11

Post by paulgerhardt »

This is the most frustrating post because the majority of the text is telling you something is possible without telling you how to do it.

It reads like a timeshare brochure or coupon book sales pitch.

It's easy enough to live off $2 a meal though.

        Breakfast: Oatmeal with Bananas/Raisins/Cinnamon (no sugar though 
        - it will make you hungry sooner) and tea or coffee from whole beans
        bought at IKEA. Eggs.

        Lunch: Beans and Franks or Sandwiches with coldcuts from Costco or Pasta.

        Dinner: Pasta; Rice and Costco Dumplings; PG's Rice & Beans; or 
        homemade Pizza (cut large loaf of bread in half, add oil, sauce, cheese,
        misc. meat toppings, bake appropriately.) Homemade fries or mashed potatoes
        make for a decent side. Frozen stir-fry veggies. IKEA sells woks for $9.

        Snacks: Ramen, Costco Granola Bars, Chips.
This should give you a bit of leeway in case you want to go out once a week or buy a case of beer.

PG's Rice and Beans recipe here: http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html#f1n

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#13

Post by adrianwaj »

If you truly want to save money shopping, you need to learn how to create your meals from what you already have in your house and then buy the best deals each week to replenish what you have on hand. This allows you to purchase food at the best prices as opposed to what they happen to be when you go to get the ingredients for your menu. This simple change should instantly cut your grocery bill by 50% or more.

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#14

Post by kscaldef »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #11

This is the most frustrating post because the majority of the text is telling you something is possible without telling you how to do it. It reads like a timeshare brochure or coupon book sales pitch. It's easy enough to live off $2 a meal though. Breakfast: Oatmeal with Bananas/Raisins/Cinnamon (no sugar though - it will make you hungry sooner) and tea or coffee from whole beans bought at IKEA. Eggs. Lunch: Beans an…

I'm not some anti-carb fanatic by any means, but the near complete lack of fruits and vegetables in this diet can't be healthy.

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#16

Post by inmygarage »

what these sorts of schemes ignore is how much time it takes to clip, sort and strategize. how much is an hour of your time worth? if it's more than what you'd save by doing the extra work then to me the savings aren't really worth it (shortened version: opportunity cost matters).

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#17

Post by javanix »

inmygarage wrote: post #16

what these sorts of schemes ignore is how much time it takes to clip, sort and strategize. how much is an hour of your time worth? if it's more than what you'd save by doing the extra work then to me the savings aren't really worth it (shortened version: opportunity cost matters).

http://www.grocerycouponguide.com/articles/coupon-organizati...

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#19

Post by paulgerhardt »

kscaldef wrote: post #14
paulgerhardt wrote: post #11

This is the most frustrating post because the majority of the text is telling you something is possible without telling you how to do it. It reads like a timeshare brochure or coupon book sales pitch. It's easy enough to live off $2 a meal though. Breakfast: Oatmeal with Bananas/Raisins/Cinnamon (no sugar though - it will make you hungry sooner) and tea or coffee from whole beans bought at IKEA. Eggs. Lunch: Beans an…

I'm not some anti-carb fanatic by any means, but the near complete lack of fruits and vegetables in this diet can't be healthy.

I forgot to mention loads of apples, clementines, oranges, PB&J sandwiches and the occasional salad.

IANAD, but it did get me through a summer of bootstrapping. It certainly isn't the healthiest diet, but we were hard pressed to do any better without resorting to coupon scavanging or food co-ops.

Also if you don't exercise already, but decide to take it up - the health benefits will probably more then compensate for the poor diet...probably.

Re: Things I Learned Eating On $1 A Day For A Month

#20

Post by scotty79 »

jarek wrote: post #18
aw3c2 wrote: post #12

cashing in coupons is not eating for 1$ per day.

Yup, and neither is buying $16 worth of non-food items so that you can get $4 worth of food items for 'free'.

Are you sure that he was doing that?

I didn't read through whole thing day by day but on day 1 he uses his food money to purchase non food items because they give him coupons worth more than what he had to pay for them in cash: http://www.grocerycouponguide.com/articles/eating-well-on-1-...

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