$25/$25 challenge - Back at It

It's not that I've had a short attention span for this project. It's because I had a tooth pulled and have been living on a diet of soup and bananas for a week. I didn't keep track because a) I was hurting and b) the dollar figures would be skewed.

But now I'm feeling better and back at it. I've changed my focus a bit .. I'm not trying to eat on $25 a week anymore .. $3.67 a day just isn't realistic. But what I am doing is tracking what I eat and deliberately trying to find bargains.

Which is what the picture above is about. It's a Tilapia, which I was served, head, tails and all in Honduras last year. It was coated with a breaded coating and baked in a wood oven. Wonderful.

All this as an intro to the latest bargain I found at the market. Tilapia with head and tails ... a fish the same size as the above was only $4. Good bargain. And now I know how to cook it.

I also discovered a fish called Basa, from Vietnam, for 3.99 a pound. I got two really good sized filet -- enough for two meals -- for $4. I did my research and discovered that it is similar to catfish, only much cheaper (catfish farmers in the States are a little worried about this fish).

So I'll cook them all up and let you know how I cooked it all and what it tasted like.

Tomorrow's post -- Hamilton's Good Food Box Program. Every community needs one.

$25 challenge - days 3, 4 and 5

I've gone off the rails. I stopped keeping lists about what I've been eating.

But I also stopped eating normally too due to a toothache. I didn't eat anything for about a day after the offending tooth was yanked out. (Ouch!) So my tally would have been off anyway.

I'm going to go back to it .. though I'm definitely going to revise my goal upwards to $35 a week. That would be $5 a day. Still very very difficult to do considering I've been averaging $7 so far. But not unattainable like $25 a week.

I did keep track of some things in the past couple of days. A couple of my discoveries:

I've been pricing items of fruit individually. A medium sized banana costs about .25 if bought at .59 a pound. A medium sized locally grown apple or pear at $1 a pound costs about .50.

A medium sized organic beet at 2.99 a pound is about .75 and worth every penny. Likewise for the organic turnip.

I'm trying not to focus on just the cost, but also what kind of experience I'm getting from the foods I eat. So no pasta and boring tomato sauce in a jar just to keep the costs down. If it doesn't taste good, I'm not eating it. Which is one of the reasons my goal of $25 a week is unrealistic.

So, this is turning into not so much a cost cutting exercise. It's really about looking at what I eat, what it costs and how much it makes my life better. It's about quality of life .. not just the bottom line.

Day Two on $25 a week

My menu yesterday was about the same as it was on Day 1 ... and just about as expensive, I think.

Breakfast - 2 cups of coffee (I didn`t make a full pot so I could halve the grounds. I don`t drink a whole pot anyway. Coffee was weak) - .25
1 banana - .25
20 grapes - .60
1 small glass of juice - .30

mid-morning - one more pot of coffee -- a friend came over - .40

lunch - borscht - the rest from last night .50
humus and pita (should have made my own instead of buying those small tubs in the store) - 3.00
glass of milk .40

Supper - pork loin (bought on sale) .75
with veggies (frozen) - .40
glass of milk - .40
(a bit of balsamic vinegar, antipasto, olives and parmesan cheese for variety - about .50

Grand total: 7.75

A pattern is emerging -- convenience foods are not my friend ...

Day One - $25/week Challenge

I just did the math. $25 a week is only $3.57 a day. I'm already over budget. Way over budget.

Before I give up this project, I am reminding myself that there are a few extenuating circumstances. First of all, I'm using up fresh food in the fridge that wasn't cheap (the gorgonzola cheese, pate and Ace bakery). By about week three, it will all be gone and I'll be working with a depleted fridge and cupboard.

Second of all, I've been using individual servings from the freezer and haven't been tracking how much it cost me to make the dish that I divided up into individual portions, so this is a guestimate.

That said, here's what I ate today:

Breakfast - 2 cups of coffee - cheap (not my usual standard) .40 for the pot. .10 for the cream. Total .50
1 banana - about 5 ounces - bought at .59 (which isn't a bad price) about .25
1 small glass of orange juice - from concentrate - .30
1 muesli bagel - .60

lunch - 2 pieces frozen pizza bought on sale - $1.50
1 small glass milk - about .40


snack - 1 pear, 10 grapes, baguette with pate and gorgonzola cheese - about $2

supper - 1 bowl of borscht with yogurt - about .50
salad greens (about .29) with cherry tomatoes and cucumber (about .40) and half an avocado - .65 (a splurge which will not happen often ... 1.25 for an organic avocado is a little pricey)

Total for the day: 7.39

I'm shocked. At this rate, I'll spend almost $50 this week. And this substandard coffee is a drag.

Maybe I'm estimating high ... hope so.

The Big $25 a Week Challenge

Okay, so further to my last post ...

The challenge to eat well on $25 a week begins. Updates on this site regularly.

The objective is to do it while balancing quality of life. This is not about deprivation. This is about enhancing quality of life. It's not about beans for the sake of saving money. It's about "What am I missing because I don't know this kind of food very well?"

It's also about redistributing my money so I'm not spending so much money on food. So I can spend my money on other things.

And, of course, it's about living with less because that's good for the planet. And that enhances my quality of life to know I'm putting my money where my mouth is in terms of living sustainably.

I may find out that $25 a month means poverty. I may find out that it's not enough to satisfy basic nutritional requirements. The formula may end up being wrong. But at least I'll know. And at the end of this, I'll have a whole bunch of new information which will be useful.

Whatever the outcome, I'll share the results (and the recipes). Stay tuned.

Here, on day 1 ... I'm feeling like this will be a fun.

Why Observe Lent in this Secular Age?

Many of my friends think I'm crazy for being Catholic. Especially for turning Catholic.

And sometimes I think I'm crazy too. Especially these day, with all the sex scandals and the election of a regressive pope who is trying to return us to pre-Reformation Catholicism

It's about the music, I tell them. And largely it is. Regardless of one's belief in a Christian God or not, there is something truly truly transcendent about the music, espeically of the High Renaissance. Especially when I sing it, which I do every week with the wonderful St. Joseph's Choir here in Hamilton.

As far as my belief in all the rest of it -- no, I don't believe that Christ was necessarily THE son of god to the exclusion of all others. And I fail to see why The Virgin Birth matters from a spiritual perspective (though I do understand why it matters on the socio political level)

Despite all of my misgivings, I do observe the season of Lent. The reasons are both practical and spiritual. From a practical perspective, it's a good time to practise the discipline of exploring what is really essential. It's grounding and makes me very aware of the things which sustain my life at the basic level, and what is not strictly necessarily.

It's also healthy -- I don't need a bottle of wine a week. It's easier on the budget to cut back, and it's also healthier. Ditto for that expensive Spanish Manchego cheese. And chocolate.

It's also good for my relationship to the rest of the planet. I'm consuming less. I'm not cutting out everything that's fun, but I'm buying less. I don't buy much to begin with, but recently I've let myself go just a bit ... I am very aware of what I don't need because of the pile of stuff in the dining room set to go out the door to Value Village.

And all of this is good for the spirit. My travels to South Asia, Kenya and Central America showed me how little a lot of people live on. And by their example, I know I can live on a lot less too. And maybe, if more people cut back on their consumption, there might be more left for them.

So I'm "depriving" myself of some of the extras. But I'm not going to cut out all of the really good things in my life. With all the time I'm saving not going to movies, or eating out, I'm going to sing -- I'm going to connect with those spirits out there, whatever they are. And I'm going to play my piano. And write. And read (Library books).

And it's only temporary. Come Easter Sunday - wine, chocolate (good chocolate) and one big exotic cheese platter.

Life is good. Even during Lent.