Do not buy anything pre-made and cut your portions. Eggs are super cheap, substitute 2 fried eggs for a meal. That's like 20 cent for a meal. Sleep a lot, read a lot, just stop think about food (or me, stressed out studying for Electrical Engineering exams). Hot dogs are super cheap, just buy everything store brand. A single hot dog (1 bun and 1 sausage) if you buy the cheapest of everything is like ~ 30 cent, that's like 60 cent for two meals. Bananas are also very cheap (Walmart has them for like 60 cent a pound sometimes). Eat a banana for lunch instead, that's $.20 for a meal. Buy ayour own lettuce and make a lettuce only salad (lettuce and salad dressing). If you stretch it, a single lettuce can be 3 meals. Uncooked Chicken quarters are also super cheap, put some oil and salt on it, throw it in the oven. A single quarter per meal works out well and I think is less than 50 cent a meal. Frozen fruits, ration it out. One caveat is that I would be willing to eat out with people on some weekends when I did this in college, so might get some replenishment that you're not getting. Then again I did this for two years so I think toughing it out for 20 days should be nothing. And that's two meals and you come out ahead 10 cents. That's money you can splurge on a value meal Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy's on the weekends.
Good luck to ya. I don't know how strict you want to be, but if you're willing to bend the rule a bit, you can try making home made bread. It'll give you more calories/dollar than store bought bread. The catch is that it'll only be cheap if you buy everything in bulk, like 25 pounds of flour, 2 lbs of yeast etc. Since there's no way for you use up all of the material, you only count the % of cost that you actually consumed. This is a little sketchy, but I think this is still within the spirit of the challenge.
Well. I've tried to make homemade flour tortilla.. and I miserably failed. But oh well .. whatever the final product was, it was good http://twentydays.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/day-1/
Day #3 - I can already tell that I am getting skinnier. Maybe it's just a mental thing. I am getting really creative with the meals now. Thinking about picking up some beef bones to make large pot of soup. I really don't have much energy, but surviving. $20.09 for 20 Days
Day #4. Eating and getting full is not a problem right now. Carb is mad cheap and I can get 20 days worth of carb with less than $5 with no problem it seems. The biggest problem is getting fresh vegetables. I have about $9.00 left in my budget and have 16 days to go. I have enough carb right now, so I think I am going to invest some money in veges moving on. I did lil bit of workout just now.. and I should have not done that. i feel dizzy right now. http://twentydays.wordpress.com
Is it cheating to swing by Urban Harvest and volunteer for an hour of weeding in exchange for harvest? Or come by our house and pull up all those carrots that need to be eaten? You must have some friends who garden and can give you a good price on their tomatoes - something like 10 tomatoes for a penny Or visit your parents for dinner?
Dude I just saw your blog... Just play starcraft for 20 days. Come on you're korean. It has been done and all u need during those 20 days are 20 dollars worth of soda.
Day 5 I only slept couple hours because of the projects at work. Have not been eating since 7pm last night.. but i'm fine. stil alive.. and going. http://twentydays.wordpress.com/
In case.. just in case that anyone is wondering. I am still alive... but only got $6 left with 10 days to go. Down to 167lb started from 174lb http://twentydays.wordpress.com/
Seriously man, good job. And also, don't make the mistake of eating TOO much in your first meal once you're done with all this. You don't want to shock your system all at once, otherwise you're gonna end up getting really, really sick with vomiting, stomach cramps, and maybe even diarrhea. Take it slow, and after you've eaten a couple of well-rounded meals.....PIG OUT!!!
