Menu Plan - Pantry Challenge Week 19

This week's menu will be a little different.  I am joining with others around the world to raise awareness of the world hunger situation by being a part of the Live Below the Line campaign. 

1.4 billion people worldwide fall below the poverty line and feed themselves for $1.50 or less per day.   From May 7th - 11th, the Moppins family will be too.

I am going to try and feed our family of 3 on $4.50 per day.  Total.

I have not mentioned this to the other members of Team Moppins yet but as I fix breakfasts, pack lunches, and make suppers, I'm not sure they have much choice.  ;)  *Update:  I have now mentioned this to family members and they are on board...so far.

Because of some prior commitments this week, I will have to carefully work around our $1.50 per person per day allotment.

Each day, I'll update what we ate and how much it costs.  Below is what I think we will be eating and my estimates of the cost but they are subject to change.


Breakfasts - Oatmeal or Crepes or Biscuits with Fig or Pear Preserves

Lunches - Leftovers, Pickled Radishes, Carrots Sticks, Raw Veggies from our garden

Snacks - Pearsauce or Popsicles

What we will be having for dinner this week:

Sunday - Pizza (including free pizza from Domino's)

Monday (Challenge Begins) - Breakfast consisted of instantish oatmeal made with 1/2 milk and 1/2 water which came in at $.54 for all three of us. 
We each drank a cup of milk (Diva actually had 2 cups) which came out to be $1.24. 
Our lunches were all free today:  Engineer took leftovers and ate office fruit, Diva's class had a pizza party that her class had won, and I ate leftovers. 
Snacks were an apple and popsicle for Diva, almonds that were free in the mail for Engineer, and a pear for me which totaled $.44.
Dinner was a potluck at a charity book signing function.  Our dish fell under the guidelines of our budget - rice salad ($.10 rice, $.50 mandarin oranges, onions free from our garden, $.90 vinegar and tamari sauce, and $.25 radishes for a total of $1.75.) 
Our total for today was $3.97 out of our $4.50 budget. 
That does not include my coffee so once tht has been factored in, we are probably right at our budget.  We had exceptional circumstances in having a potluck dinner and a pizza party as well as having leftovers in the fridge.  I'm not sure that will always be the case.

Tuesday - Breakfast consisted of oatmeal again $.54 for all three of us.
We each drank a cup of milk for a total of $.93.
Our lunches were all free again today: Engineer had a "Lunch & Learn", Diva took leftovers, and I ate leftovers at home. 
Snacks were a popsicle for Diva, office fruit for Engineer, and an apple for me which totaled $.27.
For dinner we had jalapeno & cheddar venison sausages that a friend gave us (nice surprise) and a big salad ($2.50.)
So again, the generosity of others and our previous excesses gave us full bellies and we came in at $4.24.

Wednesday - Breakfast was a little different in that Engineer had leftover banana bread that was lurking around and Diva & I had a mango smoothie ($.47.)  Everyone had a cup of milk ($.93.)  For lunch, we all had leftovers and snacks were an apple, free chocolate covered almonds from a promotion in the mail, and a popsicle ($.27.)  For dinner, we had baked potatoes, cauliflower cheese, and carrots ($4.98.)   It's a good thing that we have come in under budget the other days because today we were grossly OVERBUDGET at a whopping $6.65!  Almost all of that was form the cauliflower cheese.  The thing about this challenge though is that it is to make people aware of how difficult it is to stay within that meager budget, not to waste food that I already have in my fridge.  And, if there is any consolation at all, we now have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.  Which is wonderful since we ran out of leftovers today.  :)

Thursday - Oatmeal for breakfast as per our usual Thursday tradition ($.54).  Engineer's Dad took him out to lunch and Diva & I ate leftovers.  We had bananas and popsicles as snacks ($.68).  For supper we had squash from the garden, roasted potatoes, and a big salad ($3.36.)  We eeked over our daily budget at $4.58 but again, we have leftovers for tomorrow.  It may have been a better idea for us to have a weekly budget with the understanding that it should aim for $4.50 a day.  That way, we could take the daily average since so many items spill over into the next day.

Friday (Challenge Ends) - Totally blew it.  Breakfast was okay with biscuits and pear butter all around ($.37.)  We had a banana and an apple ($.46) and 4 cups of milk ($1.24.)  I had peanut butter and crackers for lunch and Engineer had leftovers but it was Diva who pushed us way out of the ballpark.  She was on a field trip and they ate at a restaurant ($8.32).  Engineer and I have date night tonight and will most likely be taking advantage of some Burger King coupons since I am getting ready for my Ladies wot Brunch in the morning and don't want to cook dinner while I am making food for tomorrow.  With the prospective Burger King run, I am estimating a total of $17.94 today.  Good grief, and the week started out so well!

Saturday - Crawfish Boil with Friends

I am hopeful that we can make it through but it will be difficult.  I may have to be a little flexible as well since I have not factored in milk, tea, or coffee consumption.  We may have to eat beans and rice everyday so I can have my coffee.  And if you think it would be difficult to live with beans and rice everyday, you obviously have not lived with a Momma who has been denied her coffee.


This is part of Menu Plan Monday.