Day Three - September 3rd 2013

I'm officially past the three day hump. It was also my first day doing this while at work, so I was fighting every craving I had to get the mac and cheese in the cafe downstairs. 

Today was the closest I came to five dollars and the most calories I have had so far. (People probably think I'm crazy for measuring each tablespoon I put on a PB and J) Also, I started a joke that if I get free food that is offered to everyone I can call it "equal opportunity food" (EOF).

Notes on pricing:

• If you're wondering why my T ride is only 50 cents, read post #1
• The taco meat was free because my roommate had taco night and offered it up before she threw the rest out (EOF)... don't mind if I do!

If you notice, I tried to fulfill all the  food groups - each day I am making my meals more and more balanced. Red flag that my most balanced day was my most expensive! More research to come on this.

Getting easier and easier!

Day Two - September 2nd 2013

Today was a bit easier than yesterday because I spent the day with my parents. This meant that I didn't have to charge myself for lunch because they would have given it to me for free anyways. 

I woke up late and missed breakfast (bad, I know!) but I was able to stop at Trader Joes and buy some much needed fruit, milk, and veggies - frozen veggies are the best because they wont go bad! As mentioned in my first post, I'll charge myself for the food as I eat it.

Caloric intake is still pretty low, my goal is to be at 1,600 tomorrow.

Also- new rule! I can't roll my money over to the next day. I'm looking for as few loopholes as possible.

Day One - September 1st 2013

Here is day one!
Clearly the biggest problem will be fruits and veggies, since that is the most expensive. Also, I am concerned about how few calories I ate today- definitely something I have to watch for!

A few notes:

• The protein bar and coffee were free because my mom gave it to me at home and that would have been free anyways.
• The jelly was free because of a coupon I used when I bought it! (Buy PB, get J free! Huzzah!!!)

I still have $3.36 for the day so we'll see how/if I add some late night calories. We'll see!

The Prep

Starting tomorrow I will be living off five dollars a day for until October 1st. This all started last month during reweave's indiegogo campaign. I pledged that if my friends donated $1000, I would live off of $5 a day for a month. So here it goes! My friends met the challenge, so now it's time to begin mine.

I like structure - and if I am going to do this right I need to set rules for myself. With the help of the reweave team I have created three. Every "sub"rule falls into one of these three rules:

1. I will not go into "debt" with friends (ie. having them pay for something and then I pay them back on October 1st).
2. If I accept something for free it either needs to be donated by an organization, offered for free to everyone, or it needs to something I would have received for free anyways prior to this experiment.
3. I will not eat ramen!

Now that I have set down the rules, here's how I'm going to do this.

I know my monthly t-pass is $43 and I use the mbta at least twice a day, five times a week. There are 20 work days in September (excludes Labor day), so I pay approximately 50 cents per bus/t ride. That leaves me with about $4 for food and such for the rest of the day. (If I walk home from work then I have $4.50!)

Food is a bit trickier. Eating at a restaurant is out of the question. So is Boloco... and Chipotle.. but I digress. 
I've been saving my receipts and found that if I "charge" myself per serving, I can keep track of how much I spend and how much I eat.

For example: If I buy a container of oatmeal for $4.99 and there are 15 cups, I know that each 1/2 a cup serving costs me 19 cents. That how much I will "charge" myself for breakfast.

I will spread the cost of my shampoo, conditioner, etc over the course of the month in a similar way.

When it comes to going out, transportation on the commuter rail, group dinners, etc- I have a plan for those too but I will write about those experiences as they arise!

Day one starts tomorrow! Bring it on.