Thinking About a 30 Day Frugal Living Challenge

[james.hendrickson]

Guys,

My wife and I are thinking about a 30 day frugal eating challenge. Right now we're planning on seeing if we can feed a family of four people on $5 dollars a day for 30 days. We'll probably start in October and see how it goes.

Have any of you guys done this? How did it work out?

[bjl584]

I haven't done this directly, but having a garden this summer has reduced food expenses quite a bit. We haven't had to buy produce all summer.

[james.hendrickson]

The game plan will be to load up a bit on groceries before the month starts, get serious about meal planning, and most likely buy in bulk as well as go to farmers markets. I don't know that our family wants to eat on 5 bucks a day for the rest of our lives, but getting it going for 30 days will probably build up good frugal habits.

[rob62521]

As wonderful as that sounds...saving money by eating on $5 a day, wouldn't it be better to eat healthier and spend a little more? As fall approaches, buying produce and canning and freezing it would save a ton of money this winter and you know where the food came from.

[Coupon_Hen]

I'm the wife and actually, so far, we've eaten rather healthy meals. The trick is to buy things in their simplest form (less packaging, less cost) and to really shop the sales. We buy what's in season and use coupons when I can on sale items to score free stuff.

[james.hendrickson]

Rob - not at all. We're going to see if we can make fresh and healthy meals for about 5 bucks a day. If its heavy on the cheap carbs, thats okay for a two or three weeks.

[amastewa93]

We're going to see if we can make fresh and healthy meals for about 5 bucks a day. If its heavy on the cheap carbs, thats okay for a two or three weeks.

Is this starting today? Good luck! We are attempting to eat on $3/day this month and are working on stashing away a new emergency fund. However, we are way low carb with our diets so it does make it a little difficult to do on the cheap sometimes (we eat less than 30g of carbs most days). Costco and Aldi are where it's at for meal planning and saving money though!

[james.hendrickson]

So my wife (Coupon_hen) and are in the first week of the challenge. So far we're seeing the following:

1. Food expenses are way, way down. We spent no money on food at all this week.
2. We're eating better quality food - more vegetables and whole grains, much less processed food
3. As a result of the better food quality, we're also lost a bit of weight
4. We have less food waste - leftovers end up being lunch or future meals
5. On a personal note, our cooking skills and coupon scrounging skills have gotten better.

[Coupon_Hen]

The only negative is home-cooking does take some time and effort. I'm spending more time preparing meals but given the cost-savings, I don't mind. Also makes for a lot more dirty dishes.

[Jluke]

So my wife (Coupon_hen) and are in the first week of the challenge. So far we're seeing the following:

1. Food expenses are way, way down. We spent no money on food at all this week.

How is that possible?

did you stock up on food last week and not count what you spent?

[james.hendrickson]

Hey JLuke - sorry about that - I think I misspoke. We did a big shopping trip on Sunday, but haven't spent anything on Monday through Friday of this week.

[Coupon_Hen]

Here's what I bought for the first two weeks of the challenge: https://www.facebook.com/notes/coupo...3798888394353/