Live Below The Line: Day 2

It's day 2 of the Live Below The Line $1.50/Day Challenge!

Yesterday I just barely squeaked in under the $1.50/day limit by eating normally around here.  Although the red beans and rice we ate last night is a very frugal meal, it happens to be a family favorite!

After examining our weekly budget, I find that I can't be spending much more than $2 per day per person on average, as that comes out to $56 for the 4 of us, just for food.  Now I certainly don't feel like we are living in poverty!  Because of coupons and stocking up on meat when I see great sales, we are able to eat well on that small amount!


Here's what I had today:

Breakfast:   Bowl of Cheerios  $0.083 cents  (I like mine dry, but I did add a little sugar, so we'll call it $0.09)
Cup of Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk    $0.16

Breakfast Total:  =  $0.25


Lunch:    Sandwich  (2 slices of bread = $0.074, 1 tsp mayo = .041, 1 slice ham (long slices i folded in half) =$0.28) =  $0.40

Half an apple, sliced =  $0.12

1 Serving Size of Cheese Puffs = $0.11  (Hey, they're made with real cheese! LOL  Not in the original plan but my daughter begged for a bag at Aldi, and for $0.99 I don't feel bad buying non-essentials here and there, and they have really good chips!)

Drank water

Lunch Total =  $0.63

*Note:  I would normally have 1 1/2 sandwiches  (or make myself 2 and end up not being able to finish the second--so wasteful!) with cheese on them and then be too full for fruit, so I made a small change that saved money and added nutrition.   I think those are the best kind! ;)


Dinner:  Chicken Noodle Soup (Homemade)  (half a chicken, broth that it boiled in, celery from freezer, 2 cans mixed veggies, green beans from freezer, 2 earns fresh corn cut off cob, 2 packs ABC noodles (its what was in the pantry!), seasoning, and homemade stewed tomatoes)  =  the whole big pot cost me $4.52 to make.    This will feed my family 4 times with a leftover lunch for my husband each time, so that comes out to be $0.23 per serving.  (Note that this is averaged evenly across 4 people, two adults and a 2 & 5 year old.  We obviously don't all eat the same amount, but for the sake of easy math, we do!)

10 buttered crackers (I like to dip these in my soup) =  $0.20  (almost as much as the soup! can you believe that!)

Drank Water


Dinner Total:  $0.43


Total For Day:  $1.31


I did have some coffee today as well, but I remembered that I had some instant Maxwell House that I had gotten for free with coupons. ;)

Are you taking the challenge?  Leave a link or a comment below!