Day 2: reality bites.

Today's news had the shocking statistic: 1 in 10 Americans is on food stamps ("SNAP"). The average benefit per person turns out to be $112.82 per month. So I might have to revise my budget to $4/day. Things are looking grim...

Yesterday was the start of my experiment. For breakfast I had a packet of instant granola (blueberry) from Trader Joe's. A box of 8 packets costs $3.49, so that's $0.43 for breakfast. Lunch consisted of 3 leftover apples. Dinner was some more leftover food. Yes, it can be considered cheating if I'm eating leftover food; but it would be even worse to throw it away just because of some silly experiment. Cost for the day: $0.43 .  After dinner, I cooked some quinoa with sauteed onions, leftover bell peppers, broccoli and vegan italian sausage. The cost for the lot: onions $0.17 (Alemany Farmers Market); bell peppers I'm not sure, since they were leftovers from 3 weeks ago; quinoa was about 1/3 pound, and about $0.60 ($1.79/lb at Safeway); broccoli was a part of a big head I got at the Alemany Market, about $0.20; sausage was supposed to expire in January, but when you're on food stamps, you can't throw it away; so I put 1 sausage into the pot. Since I'm still alive, it was OK. I think I got it for about $4 for 4 sausages, so that's $1. Total for the dinner: $1.97 (excluding bell peppers). This is enough to last me 3 dinners.

Today, breakfast was another instant granola packet. I forgot that you add half a cup of water, and not 1 cup. Oops: the granola was more like soup. But, I had to eat it. Lunch was some of the quinoa (above), and a small salad. Dinner was still some more salad ($1.35 for the salad in all at Golden Produce) and some quinoa.

I've been trying to make sure I get enough proteins and vitamins. Also, I'm juicing everything up with flax seed ($1.19/lb at the Safeway, though I think it was a price mistake; it should've been $1.79), to get some good Omega-3s.