The end of my work-week arrived and while I’m now 5/7ths of the way home the hardest part is yet to come.

Breakfast
I wasn’t particularly hungry this morning, which was just as well since I didn’t have all that much on hand to eat. I cracked open the jar of peanut butter (salmonella-free!) that I purchased on Monday and proceeded to make a peanut butter sandwich.

Peanut butter ~ $0.11 per tablespoon, I ate three tablespoon’s worth for $0.33
Two slices of bread for $0.10

With the food I drank coffee which is provided free of charge at my office.

Total cost = $0.43

Lunch
Leftover sausage, cabbage, onion, jalapeno pepper meal from the other night ($0.90) and one fourth of the rice that I made for lunch on Monday ($0.18) defined “lunch.” Just add microwave power and a splash of hot sauce from a packet found in my desk drawer and a meal is ready, it hardly gets simpler than that.

To keep costs down I drank water with my meal.

Total cost = $1.08

“Here It Is Again…”

Dinner
I have to admit, dinner was a huge challenge. My plan was to hang around the office and meet with a friend at Variety Playhouse for a concert. Not being very creative, I ate a peanut butter sandwich for dinner — ring up another $0.43. I was not done however.

At the show I drank a beer $4.50(!) and then consumed a couple of pieces of cooked bacon that I had in my refrigerator (because I guess a beer and peanut butter sandwich alone don’t constitute “dinner.”) The bacon purchased last weekend cost on the order of $4.00 for a package which yielded approximately twelve slices, therefore my post-dinner snack cost me $0.66

Total cost = $5.59 Ohh, look at me livin’ large

Tale Of The Tape
The day’s total cost = $7.10
The week’s total cost = $20.18

Make sure to check out the others who are taking the challenge

• Tami at Running With Tweezers [or Twitter @tamih]
• Molly at Disposable Income [or Twitter @GrabMoL]
• Mike at Eat On $30 [or Twitter @boutte]
• Tessa at Drive A Faster Car [or Twitter @tessa]
• Dave at Dave’s Extraface Blog [or Twitter @extraface]
• Alain, who I have no idea how to contact

Breakfast
When in doubt Read The F*cking Manual, or when it comes to Quick Grits Read The F*cking Canister. Today I actually followed the directions for microwaving Quick Grits as printed on the canister. Lo and behold, the grits came out and tasted much better.

The canister of grits I purchased from Kroger the other night cost $1.19. I’m guessing that the one-half cup of uncooked grits I used constituted approximately one-sixteenth of that canister, therefore costing me about $0.08. To “spice” up the grits I tossed in about a tablespoon of butter. Making the assumption that a pound of butter costs about $3.00/pound and that there are thirty-two tablespoons of butter in a pound, my butter penalty is $0.09.

With the food I drank coffee which is provided free of charge at my office.

Total cost = $0.17

Lunch
They say that the third time is a charm. I don’t believe this, at least not when it comes to boring cheap-meat sandwiches. Mind you I didn’t hate eating two bologna and salami sandwiches for the third day in a row, I just didn’t love it either.

The loaf of bread I purchased from Kroger was $1.00 and with it containing approximately twenty slices, this meant a slice of bread cost $0.05. Given that I planned to eat two sandwiches my bread cost was $0.20.

Today each sandwich was a bologna/salami combination. At Kroger I purchased the “Value” brand for $0.88 a package; each package consists of six slices of meat, and since I planned to use two slices of meat per sandwich my meat cost for both sandwiches was $0.60.

I found a community bottle of mustard in the office refrigerator. In the spirit of the competition I penalized myself $0.10 to compensate for the amount of mustard I applied to my sandwiches.

To keep costs down I drank water with my meal.

Total cost = $0.90

I’ve had sandwich love this week.

Dinner
Eggs for dinner? Sure why not. I decided to bake a few eggs with some frozen biscuits. The total cost for the two biscuits ($0.54) and eggs was ($0.24) was $0.78.

Later in the evening I joined some friends at Raging Burrito for Team Trivia. While there I ate some chips and salsa while drinking a Yeungling ($2.75). Because our team had won Bar Cash the previous week, the night at trivia wound up only costing me $2.00.

Total cost = $2.78

Tale Of The Tape
The day’s total cost = $3.85
The week’s total cost = $13.08

Make sure to check out the others who are taking the challenge

• Tami at Running With Tweezers [or Twitter @tamih]
• Molly at Disposable Income [or Twitter @GrabMoL]
• Mike at Eat On $30 [or Twitter @boutte]
• Tessa at Drive A Faster Car [or Twitter @tessa]
• Dave at Dave’s Extraface Blog [or Twitter @extraface]
• Alain, who I have no idea how to contact

Breakfast
I finally experienced my first failure of the week. In recent months I’ve become a fan of quick grits, which I’ve learned to cook rather easily at home on the stove top. Because of this I thought that it would be possible for me to use the boiling water from the electric water kettle I have at the office to prepare a morning’s worth of grits. I was so wrong. I may have been able to save the grits by microwaving them, but decided to suck it up and eat them as is. The canister of grits I purchased from Kroger the other night cost $1.19. I’m guessing that the one cup of uncooked grits I used constituted approximately one-eighth of that canister, therefore costing me about $0.15.

In order to “improve” my outlook on the morning’s breakfast I ate a slice of bread ($0.05) in addition to the grits.

With the food I drank coffee which is provided free of charge at my office.

Total cost = $0.20

Lunch
I liked yesterday’s lunch so much I decided to do it again — two sandwiches instead of one!

The loaf of bread I purchased from Kroger was $1.00 and with it containing approximately twenty slices, this meant a slice of bread cost $0.05. Given that I planned to eat two sandwiches my bread cost was $0.20.

Each sandwich was going to be different, one bologna, one salami. At Kroger I purchased the “Value” brand for $0.88 a package; each package consists of six slices of meat, and since I planned to use two slices of meat per sandwich my meat cost for both sandwiches was $0.60.

I found a community bottle of mustard in the office refrigerator. In the spirit of the competition I penalized myself $0.10 to compensate for the amount of mustard I applied to my sandwiches.

To keep costs down I drank water with my meal.

Total cost = $0.90

Hey Man, what’s for dinner?

Dinner
Dictionary.com defines “luxury” in the following way:

luxâ‹…uâ‹…ry
Spelled Pronunciation [luhk-shuh-ree, luhg-zhuh-]
-noun, plural -ries, adjective

1. a material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity: Gold cufflinks were a luxury not allowed for in his budget.

When living on $30 per week “luxury” takes on a new meaning — like using an egg to create a coating instead of to eat it, or to have alcohol with dinner instead of water. Tonight I did both.

I started out steaming frozen green beans until they were cooked, and at the same time baking a frozen biscuit in a toaster oven which had been preheated to 400ËšF.

As those two items cooked I prepared and cooked the chicken breast…

I decided I was going to make my version of a chicken cutlet with one of the chicken breasts that I had purchased the other night at Kroger. I butterflied the breast so that it was thin, made an egg wash with an egg and some water, and made up a mixture of flour, paprika and salt. I dipped the chicken breast into the flour mixture, shook off the excess, dredged it into the egg wash, and then back into the flour mixture. Once again shaking off the excess flour I placed the chicken breast into a preheated cast iron skillet and cooked until the chicken breast was cooked throughout.

Chicken – one breast from the package containing three which cost $3, therefore $1.00
Egg – one egg from the dozen which cost $1.40, therefore around $0.12
Flour, Paprika, Salt – pantry items used in such minor proportion that I am counting them as free
Biscuit – one biscuit from the package of twelve which cost $$3.19, therefore $0.27
Green Beans – half of a package which cost $1.00, therefore $0.50
Beer – one beer from a six pack of Miller High Life which I will venture to guess costs $6.00, therefore $1.00

Total cost = $2.89

Tale Of The Tape
The day’s total cost = $3.98
The week’s total cost = $9.23

Make sure to check out the others who are taking the challenge

• Tami at Running With Tweezers [or Twitter @tamih]
• Molly at Disposable Income [or Twitter @GrabMoL]
• Mike at Eat On $30 [or Twitter @boutte]
• Tessa at Drive A Faster Car [or Twitter @tessa]
• Dave at Dave’s Extraface Blog [or Twitter @extraface]
• Alain, who I have no idea how to contact

With a trip to Kroger complete there was no reason not to be ready for this challenge. The biggest challenge for the day was that it was Fat Tuesday and the office was celebrating with a shared-food luncheon in which I could not participate. There was nothing that I would be willing to share that could be made with the measly $4.29 allocated for the day’s budget.

Breakfast
Breakfast consisted of one Nature Valley Trail Mix Fruit and Nut Bar, purchased for $0.30 from a co-worker. In addition to that I drank coffee that is provided for free by my employer.

Total cost = $0.30

Lunch
Since I skimped on breakfast I felt the desire to “splurge” at lunch — I would eat two sandwiches instead of one!

The loaf of bread I purchased from Kroger was $1 and with it containing approximately twenty slices, this meant a slice of bread cost $0.05. Given that I planned to eat two sandwiches my bread cost was $0.20.

Each sandwich was going to be different, one bologna, one salami. At Kroger I purchased the “Value” brand for $0.88 a package; each package consists of six slices of meat, and since I planned to use two slices of meat per sandwich my meat cost for both sandwiches was $0.60.

I found a community bottle of mustard in the office refrigerator. In the spirit of the competition I penalized myself $0.10 to compensate for the amount of mustard I applied to my sandwiches.

To keep costs down I drank water with my meal.

Total cost = $0.90

What can $30 worth of food look like?

This actually cost $28.79 (taxes included). It could provide me with a week’s worth of food, but also notice that the only thing I’d be drinking is water.

Dinner
If necessity is the mother of invention then surviving on $30 per week is the mother-in-law. Last night I decided to “whip up” something using the ingredients that I have purchased over the past few days. Last night’s dinner could best be described as smoked chicken/pork sausage with braised cabbage, onion, and jalapeño pepper. For the meal, of which I consumed half, I used two sausages from the $2 package that contained five (therefore the dish used $0.40 worth), one half of a head of cabbage which cost $1.37 (therefore the dish used $0.69 worth), one onion which cost $0.60, one jalapeño pepper which cost $0.10, some salt and some bacon fat (yes!) which I saved from making bacon this past weekend (both of which I claim for free). Adding up the meal the entire thing cost $1.79 and since I ate half my meal cost $0.90.

Total cost = $0.90

Tale Of The Tape
The day’s total cost = $2.10
The week’s total cost = $5.25

Make sure to check out the others who are taking the challenge

• Tami at Running With Tweezers [or Twitter @tamih]
• Molly at Disposable Income [or Twitter @GrabMoL]
• Mike at Eat On $30 [or Twitter @boutte]
• Tessa at Drive A Faster Car [or Twitter @tessa]
• Dave at Dave’s Extraface Blog [or Twitter @extraface]
• Alain, who I have no idea how to contact

I admit I wasn’t ready for the beginning of this Seven Day Project. I had no recipes planned and no food purchased. I was going to have to rely on the kindness of what I had on hand.

Breakfast
Breakfast consisted of two Nature Valley Trail Mix Fruit and Nut Bars, purchased for $0.30 each from a co-worker. In addition to that I drank coffee that is provided for free by my employer.

Total cost = $0.60

Lunch
Lunch was another scrounge-and-eat affair. I usually keep a bag of white rice and some canned goods in my office for days on which I don’t want to go out and eat. I calculated the cost of a cup of dried white rice as $0.35, cooked up two cups, and then ate half of the cooked rice with a can of black beans which cost $0.70.

With my meal I drank water.

Total cost = $1.05

I made a stop at Kroger on my way home from the office.

Regardless, I went ahead and ate some of the food I had left over from the weekend, calculating the cost of the serving consumed based on the purchase price.

Dinner
I ate a cheese sandwich for dinner. The sandwich consisted of one-fourth of a loaf of bread I had purchased for $2 along with one-sixth of a wheel of brie I had purchased for $6.

With my meal I drank water.

Total cost = $1.50

Tale Of The Tape
The day’s total cost = $3.15
The week’s total cost = $3.15

Make sure to check out the others who are taking the challenge

• Tami at Running With Tweezers [or Twitter @tamih]
• Molly at Disposable Income [or Twitter @GrabMoL]
• Mike at Eat On $30 [or Twitter @boutte]
• Tessa at Drive A Faster Car [or Twitter @tessa]
• Dave at Dave’s Extraface Blog [or Twitter @extraface]
• Alain, who I have no idea how to contact

I like to think of myself as a “foodie.” I like the finer things in life, but have to admit have been considering cutting back on the excesses given the World’s current economic status.

When Tami, writer of the incredible food blog Running With Tweezers, mentioned at an event with both attended that she was going to try and spend no more than $30 for an entire week’s food and drink budget I was intrigued. (btw- according to whose statistics you see the average American on Federal assistance receives about $23 per person per week for food and beverage purchases.)

As it turns out I was not the only one intrigued. Joining with me in this game are Molly, Dave, Mike, Tessa, and Alain.

Game On!

You may be wondering what “Seven Day Project” is all about. Consider it to be one-fourth of Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days in which I will undertake a lifestyle change for seven days (or more if I like it). Each Monday I will start a new endeavor and blog about it here as the week progresses.

Unfortunately SevenDays.com, 7Days.com, OneWeek.com, and 1Week.com were already taken, that’s how I ended up with SevenDayProject.com.

Cheers!
Paulie