LBTL 2014: Day 3

Small foods from the dollar store

I've finally passed the halfway point in the challenge. Thank goodness! It's meant so much to me to have the support of my friends, family, and co-workers. It's kept me going strong. I'm more than 1/3 of the way to my fundraising goal of $1,500, and my team made it into the top 10 LBTL fundraisers today.

Breakfast was pretty much the same as Monday and Tuesday. Two fried potatoes, but with half an onion instead of tomato. I'm down to my final three tomatoes, and I wanted to stretch them. Breakfast came to $0.23.

Roasted potatoes for dinner

Lunch was a repeat of Monday night's dinner, but a bit larger: a bed of cabbage with tomato, garbanzo beans, and onion on top. I kept up the same system of eating my lunch in small portions throughout the day. Lunch cost $0.60.

Dinner was five roasted potatoes and a roasted onion. Ok, it wasn't very balanced, but I was tired and didn't want to think of something clever to make out of the same six ingredients I've been eating the last three days. Not to mention, I'm running low on beans, but I've got lots of potatoes left.

Five potatoes may sound like a lot to eat at one meal, but these dollar store potatoes are quite small for russets (the label says B size). In fact, the onions and tomatoes are quite small too. This has made my calculations much simpler. I was able to count the number of items in each package and assign a standard price per item, without having to measure and divide up portions.

5lb bag of potatoes contained 25 potatoes = $0.04 per potato

2lb bag of onions contained 10 onions = $0.10 per onion

1lb package of tomatoes contained 8 tomatoes = $0.13 per tomato

My tea cup of warm water

Anyway, dinner of five potatoes ($0.20), one onion ($0.10), two tablespoons of oil ($0.10), salt to taste ($0.01) came to $0.41.

Total for the day: $1.24.

Man, I could have had a cup of tea, but I never know until the end of the day! It's just not worth the risk. Besides, the warm water in my tea cup has become pretty good (I might be losing it). I planned to make something for lunch tomorrow, but I didn't have time. I suppose I'll make the same salad I had today. And I still have a serving of the navy bean and cabbage soup left.