Last week's dollar a day thing

Okay, so Monday's total was $0.79, Tuesday I got sick and had a total of $2.11, Wednesday's total was $0.62 (because my mom bought me a sandwich), and Thursday's total was $0.63. Plus I twice ate popcorn for breakfast, which I have yet to figure out what that cost, and I had a bunch of crackers, which again I'm not sure how much that cost but I think it was twenty-five cents.

I did not make the rest of the quinoa, only the third of a pound that I have already listed (which I got on sale so only cost $0.34 for what I ate the two days). Friday and Saturday I ate spaghetti instead. I know that whole grains are supposed to be better for me, but I really like spaghetti.

On Friday, my brother gave me half of his hamburger for dinner. On Saturday I drank most of the remaining orange drink, and I had spaghetti twice.

Friday
(?) popcorn
.14 diet cola
.28 black bean soup
.04 orange breakfast drink
free half of hamburger
total
.46 (plus popcorn)

Saturday
.16 egg
.04 orange breakfast drink
.14 diet cola
.17 pasta
.17 pasta
free asparagus
.06 more orange drink
total
.74

Now, I can't really figure in the little bit of oil or the sprinkles of Parmesan cheese or the salt, so I'm just not going to count them. If I count twenty-five cents for the crackers and another twenty five cents for the popcorn, the total is $5.85, or just a bit under the six dollar goal. But if the popcorn turns out to be fifty cents, then the total would be $6.10, and I've gone just a bit over.

In either case it doesn't matter, as my husband came home sooner than expected, and we went to Burger King. Now, I had already eaten my spaghetti, so I didn't need to eat anything myself, but I did go with him (and steal some of his french fries) and I ordered a very small Coke, which was a dollar, so that puts me at either just under or just over seven dollars for the six days, and ten dollars for the whole week.

You'll notice that my husband was only home for two meals this week, and we ate out at both of them.

So while I don't really think that I could live on a dollar a day for more than a couple of weeks, I can do a lot with that amount of money, and I can really do a lot with about twice that amount of money. But I can't do anything social (except when other people buy me stuff, or when it is just bringing homemade foods), and I can't do it at all if we don't actually stay home and eat what is in the frig.

In the past experiments I have had homemade yogurt, which I did not make this time, partially because I didn't think there was enough money left to do it, partially because some of the things cost more now than they did last time I did the experiment, and partially because the area of the kitchen where I would make the yogurt is currently a big mess and I can't deal with it right now. Anyway, I've been bad and haven't been eating my yogurt anyway, so I didn't see that it was totally necessary to have that as part of the experiment this time. But if I were doing it for real, for a long period of time, the yogurt would have to be in.

I had no dairy to speak of this time. I had planned to eat six eggs this week, but with the upset stomach once I thought ramen noodles would be better, and two other times I ate popcorn instead. Not the best of choices. And except for the sprinkles of Parmesan I didn't have any milk or anything made from milk. As a woman, I am supposed to have three servings a day, and I think what I ate might count as half a serving a day. The price of milk has gone up, so I think a cup of milk would have cost at least nineteen cents, and the homemade yogurt would have cost at least twenty-five cents. If you have those three times a day, that takes up most of a dollar.

I did not spend the whole week wishing I could eat a lot of meat (maybe this has something to do with being given a sandwich on Wednesday and half of a hamburger on Friday), but I was surprised how bad I wanted a pickle. (There's a song about wanting a pickle, but we won't get into that.) And olives. I want olives. Things like pickles and olives would add up, and I didn't have any this week, except for those on my sandwich and half hamburger. That would get annoying, to either give up little things like that or else have to make them part of the budget and have to count every little pickle and olive and pepper and such.

And of course, there's very little stuff like chocolate. I bought some clearance Easter chocolate, but I didn't eat any of it, it is saved for next week. I almost went the whole week without any, except that I took some asparagus to my mom and she gave me half an ounce or so.

There would hardly be any snacks, except for popcorn, unless it was something that came out of the garden.

I'm sure that I am going to go someplace for lunch. But later I will eat something at home and eat pickles and olives, and later this week I expect to bake something, probably cookies. I have had no cookies for more than a week. That's a long time for me to go without cookies.

The week so far

Okay, Monday I got a lot of work done. Tuesday I felt a bit sick and really didn't do anything except run a couple of errands. Wednesday I got a bit of work done, but not as much as Monday, and then Mom called and said she wanted to buy me a sandwich. Thursday, about all I did was paint some boards, which is some work, but mostly is a lot of time waiting for stuff to dry. Still, at the end of the day I am quite worn out, so the painting is more physical work than I am aware of while I'm doing it.

Tuesday, I went to mail the tax returns. I almost put the thing in the mailbox without a stamp (the census forms did not need stamps). We had stamps in the house, but they turned out to be old, and I couldn't find any that were forty-four cents. So I had to go to the post office. The machines were taken out of the post office, because they were getting old and they didn't have replacement parts for them. So I had to stand in line a little bit to buy one stamp from a real person.

I had to pay sixty-four cents. Apparently the envelope provided for the tax returns counts as an over-sized envelope. So not only do we have to buy a stamp (when you think you wouldn't have to since the envelope is going to the federal government), then you get charged twenty cents extra cause the federal government selected a large envelope. But I guess that it was good that I had to talk to a real person, or else I would have bought a regular stamp and maybe had the thing returned to me for insufficient postage.

On Wednesday my mom called and asked if I wanted to got eat something with her. She had a buy one get one free sandwich coupon, so I could have a free sandwich. Sure, why not. And it actually was a pleasant meeting, and she did not try to guilt me into doing anything or discuss anything that I told her was off limits.

My husband has not called recently. He sent me an email saying that the phone didn't work. (Odd that there was no phone but at some point there was a computer.) Anyway, if you are reading this, someone called about camera equipment and craigslist. I wasn't really paying attention, and I'll have to listen to the message again.

Here's my latest attempt at the dollar a day thing.

I was going to start Sunday, but I didn't, cause we went to McDonald's. I suppose I could say that someone bought me stuff at McDonald's and not count it, but I don't think it is in the spirit of the thing if it's my husband doing the buying, as it is the same money that I would be spending if I were buying something myself. The rest of Sunday I ate leftovers. So the dollar a day thing was shortened at least to six days, which would then start on Monday instead of Sunday.

Monday
.04 orange breakfast drink
.16 egg
.14 diet cola
.28 black bean soup
.17 quinoa
free asparagus
total
.79

Tuesday
.04 orange breakfast drink
.15 ramen noodles
.14 diet cola
.28 black bean soup
1.00 chocolate milk
.50 half a package of mac and cheese
(?) popcorn (I will have to look this up later)
total
2.11 (plus popcorn)

Wednesday
.04 orange breakfast drink
.16 egg
.14 diet cola
.28 black bean soup
free sandwich and coke from Mom
total
.62

Thursday
.04 orange breakfast drink
(?) popcorn
.14 diet cola
.28 black bean soup
.17 quinoa
free asparagus
total
.63 (plus popcorn)

Plus I have eaten a bunch of crackers, which I'm not sure how much they cost, but I'm guessing about twenty-five cents. But you can see that at this rate I'll go a bit over six dollars, unless my mom gets me another free sandwich or something. And this is for feeling a bit sick and spending an extra two dollars, instead of getting what I really wanted that day--pecan sandies, ice cream, and Chinese takeout.