Dumpster Diver Strikes Again....

This week, I have been to more events that had food I could not eat. It's been insane, as if the universe is freaking taunting me.

Tonight was another example - a DEAR friend and former boss is changing jobs and was having a champagne party at her house tonight. I've been to her house for shindigs before and the food is always good, so I was excited to see her but in an intimate setting with just a few people, was afraid I was going to slip up and forget and accidentally grab one of those cookies with jelly in the middle. (Man, they looked good, and I don't usually even like those cookies!)

But my friend told everyone there about my "challenge." I stayed to the bitter end (like to the almost impolite, everyone else is gone, why aren't you gone too point) and scored the veggies she was throwing out! At last - not bitter celery! And two little slices of some cheese - I don't even know what kind, but I know it's not that processed crap I have in the fridge.

So dinner was dumpster dived/dove and free. I'll have to go to bed in the next hour, though, because a few carrots, four sticks of celery, three cucumber slices and a few pieces of cheese won't hold me long.

Total spent on Friday, Day 5: 73 cents.

Grand total: $3.49 for 5 days.

Just Two Days Left....

Today was a bit different - as I am starving. Aaron's right - I didn't eat much yesterday because I knew I had a free meal coming. I could hold out because fried chicken thighs were dancing in my mind.

Today - no free meal. So I had to eat.

Breakfast - 1/2 serving of lentil soup. And maybe not even that much, but I had to put something on my stomach: 10 cents
Snack: A hard-boiled egg because seriously, I thought I was going to faint: 11 cents
Lunch: 1/3 can of pork and beans (16 cents - the beans are so tasteless, it's not funny) and two hotdogs (9 cents each) and 2 pieces of cornbread (this batch - I made a new one, yielded six muffins, so the cost per muffin went down to 9 cents): 52 cents
Dinner: TBA, but maybe just salad mix because I want to win.

Aside from the days I've gotten a free meal, I know I'm not eating even 1200 calories. And today, I hit the wall.... I really did feel dull, mentally, because I'm hungry. And I haven't been taking my usual multivitamin, because it's not part of the rules.

Just had a conversation with a friend about poverty and she was saying why a lot of poor people are overweight is because they eat a lot of bad carbs. Because carbs tend to be cheap AND they release serotonin in the brain, which makes you feel good. (This is ala poverty guru Ruby Payne, who was in town presenting today and my friend heard the presentation).

And it makes sense, because that cornbread made me quite happy. I was irritable, edgy, moody, even feeling depressed, but after I got that cornbread in me, I thought - I can go on. Pretty sad, eh?

Day 4 Roundup

Yesterday was a pretty boring day - all meals I've had before: oatmeal and banana, peanut butter sandwiches, and rice and peas. I keep reminding myself that there are folks out there that would love to a consistent 2000 calories, so I shouldn't complain. As of next Monday, I get to eat what I want.

My meal costs:

Oatmeal and banana - 21.5 cents

Peanut butter sandwiches - 27 and 1/3 cents

Rice and blackeyed peas - 43 cents

Day 4 total: 91 and 5/6 cents

Challenge total: $2.54 - it's close, but Wendi has one more free meal left. And she also seems to be eating about 40 calories per day outside of her free meals. Half a banana and a half a diet soda? Seriously? I simply can't do that. I have to get my 1600+ calories in or I won't function.

One particularly bright spot of the past few days... I think I've learned how to make rice! Last night's rice and blackeyed peas were actually really good. Threw some assorted seasonings in there, plus my trusty Soul Food salt, drained the water off of the beans (thanks Mom!) and it even looks better. Plate not so pukey. Wow, that sounded depressing.

There's a Free Meal A-Coming!

Happy happy, joy joy!

A girlfriend promised to feed me dinner tonight, and even though she's sick, she's sticking with her commitment. It's a good thing, otherwise I'd be so disappointed I'd recreate the Passion Play in her front yard, complete with me climbing up on a cross.

And where have I chosen to have dinner? Piccadilly's. Like my brother, I'm a creature of habit, and once I get started on something, there's no stopping. I cannot WAIT to eat. (This will make three P's outings in less than a week - which is like more than I did all of last year.)

When my girlfriend said she was sick, I was like, oh, no, I'm going to have to eat lentil soup for dinner again! And it made me think - what about people who truly didn't have anything to eat and someone breaks a promise to feed them?

All that's got me through this day is knowing I had a free meal coming at dinner time. And if that meal fell through, well, I did have a back-up, but all he was going to be good for was an extra value meal from McD's. And I want real food, real meat, real seasoned veggies, all that.

So far, I've had breakfast - a banana at 16 cents.

And I'm about to eat a salad, 10 cents worth.

Total for today, Thursday, will be 36 cents, for a grand running total of $2.76 for FOUR DAYS.

A Discovery...

When I don't like what there is to eat and I don't have any other options, I'd just rather not eat. I can honestly say that I'm not hungry, but I can also honestly say that facing all the reasons I eat that nothing to do with hunger has been eye-opening.

So it was a CHALLENGE to force myself to eat today, because my options (that I can afford and stay in contention and win) were few and none really appealed to me.

Breakfast: 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a serving of diet soda: 8 cents plus 3.5 cents= 11.5
Lunch: a grilled cheese sandwich (man, that processed cheese is starting to taste nasty): 28.5 cents
Dinner: 10 cents worth of salad and soup and cornbread: 4=55 cents

Total for Wednesday, Day 3: 95 cents

Running total for all three days (with only one free meal spent): $2.40 and 1/2 cent

I can't believe I've only eaten $2.40 worth of food - well, yes I can, because I am already tired of looking at all those servings of lentil soup taunting me in my fridge. The salad mix ain't bad, though.

Day 3 update

Breakfast and Lunch were the same today. 21.5 cent oatmeal and banana for breakfast, and 27 and 1/3 cents for peanut butter sandwiches (no time to hit the drive thru today). You know what they look like by now, no photos necessary.

For dinner I had my 3rd and final free meal of the week - sushi! Sushi is a particular love of mine, but it is also normally pretty expensive, so it was cool that I got to get some free sushi this week. And this wasn't some totally unrealistic invitation-only sushi dinner that someone poor would never be able to get. This was a totally free happy hour that this restaurant around the corner from me throws every Wednesday night. I knew I was going to hit this up before this challenge even began. The crowd looked to be the regular happy hour crowd - thirty-somethings drinking fruity drinks at the bar, stopping by the free sushi only once so as not to look as budget as they probably were, and skully-wearing shameless Georgia Tech students returning to the back of the line as soon as they got their plate, cueing up for round 2. I didn't exactly fit the mold of either crowd. I was still wearing my suit and tie from the office, but firmly entrenched in the sushi table turnstile.

I was playing cute at first. My first plate (the first pic), I just got 8 pieces of sushi, seeing as how there were several people behind me and I wanted to be polite. But as I was pouring out some soy sauce, I looked up to see this 4'11 girl behind me carefully balancing her plate so her mountain of tuna and avocado didn't go cascading across the stained concrete. Everyone behind her seemed to be following suit. You see what I did for round 2 (2nd pic above).

I had this meal at around 6pm, so I'm hoping it holds me over until the morning. But bottom line - it was free.

Tally at the end of three days: $1.62 (and 1/6 cent - nyah!)

Aaron's Pukey Plate

I thought I'd get the characterization out there at the beginning since I know it's coming.

I may have underestimated how important this "cooking" thing would be to this challenge. Rice and blackeyed peas should be an easy enough task to accomplish, right? I mean, all food comes with instructions on the label, yes?

I figured out the whole 1 cup of water to 1/2 cup of rice thing - cool. Little bit of oil - done. Didn't have any regular salt, but I threw something from my cabinet called "Soul Food Salt" into the pot. Dunno whether it made a difference or not. I let it boil and then covered it. After that, how do you know rice is done? Loud hiss? Semi-angry hiss? Smoke? Anyway, the rice that was not stuck to the bottom of the pot tasted OK. Heated up the blackeyed peas and added a healthy dose of hot sauce - the culinary girdle on my out-of-shape cooking.

Despite what the plate looks like, it was edible. I mean, my stomach hurt and all, but I'm not sure if that was because I scarfed down 400 calories worth of blackeyed peas in about 4 minutes or if it had anything to do with my inability to cook them.

The first bite was actually not half bad. I decided to eat it as quickly as possible, so as not to give myself the chance to start disliking it as the law of diminishing returns set in. After all, that was all I had to eat for the evening, and it was over 8 hours since my peanut butter lunch. 12 hours later, I'm happy to report that everything stayed down and I've lived to blog the tale.

Tha dirty: 1/2 cup of rice was 1/5 of an 89 cent package, or 18 cents. Blackeyed peas were a solid quarter. Meal: 43 cents. Challenge to date: $1.13 and 1/3 cent.

Day 2 - free pizza!

Confession: Those who know me well know I'm a night owl. Regularly up until 2 or 3 a.m., working and doing some of my best writing, but then, not out of the bed until like 10. Or 11. Or later. 

So my breakfast this morning was free - and came directly to my door from a dear friend who lives out of town and ordered me a pizza. Yes, she took pity on me and sent me a medium pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms. That was like the best pizza ever.

Lunch - which was much later - was salad mix. Honestly, that's all I had an appetite for.

Dinner, which I'll probably eat before midnight to keep the days separate, will be lentil soup.

So total for today: 12 cents for the salad mix, 21.5 cents for the soup equals: 33.5 cents for today. (If I eat more at dinner, I'll update in the am.)

Went to a fancy event with a carving station and free wine and all sort of buffet food - but I was working, and I don't like to eat the food when I'm working. But I really could have had a slice of that roast beef. I drank water instead. 

Ran into Susan Sanford, president of the MidSouth Food Bank at this event (Tennessee premier of Oscar-nominated documentary "The Witness") and she talked about some programs they're working on to give those in Memphis who want to help those who are hungry. Stay tuned for more info on that. 

Total to date: $1.45 and a half cent

Day 2 - details to come soon

Today has been busy - workwise, but I'll update my progress tonight. I'll share this - got my first free meal in a very unexpected way. And taking a page from my brother, I ate like a bear headed for hibernation.

Not sure what I think about "pretending" to have just come through a drive-through to score some jelly.... Is that cheating or being creative?

Old Faithful

Peanut butter, that is. Growing up, I ate a peanut butter sandwich pretty much every day, until my mother stopped making my lunch (junior high?). My sisters liked to mix it up - different cold cuts some days, maybe a PB&J every now and then, but not me. Those who knew me in elementary school knew I was a young man of routine. Part on the left side of my afro, blue windbreaker, peanut butter sandwich, and let's keep it moving.

The jelly I would normally put on this sandwich is a luxury I can't afford, so these sandwiches are literally peanut butter and bread. I do have a plan to fix it up, however - I am going to try running into a nearby fast food joint and pretending like I just came through the drive thru to see if I can score a few jelly packets. I'll keep you updated.

Now, the raw data: I got a loaf of bread with 26 slices (yes, I did stand in the store and count the slices in different brands' loaves to see who had the most slices) for $1.29. That's about 5 cents a slice. The peanut butter was 1.32 for the jar, 18 2-tablespoon servings worth. I use just one tablespoon of PB per sandwich, for a whopping 7 and 1/3 cents of PB in my lunch. 27 and 1/3 cents for lunch today. What.

Running total after lunch today: 70 (and 1/3) cents.