Day 14

I've been putting off opening my mail, and last night I finally looked over everything. My car insurance has gone up substantially since I registered my car in the state of California. I am looking at reducing my plan right now, but I owe $320.00 for the month of February (ouch!). It looks like the $1/day food budget will be continuing until April 1st as a way to cover the increase of my insurance fees.

It's getting easier to be creative on a small budget and I've started thinking of it as a game. The free oranges off the tree yesterday have inspired me to continue to look for free produce here in sunny Southern California. Also, I have a trip to the grocery store planned for later this week and I am excited about getting some new items like eggs. Simple, cheap protein.

This afternoon, I finally met up with one of the parties on neighborhoodfruit.com, and I scored a huge bag of yellow grapefruit! I was so excited, I cut into one right after I took the picture. They are delicious! Also, I scored flat of strawberries! My friend who took me to dinner last night gave me the strawberries as a gift. The strawberries are wonderful and juicy! The oranges I picked are also in the picture.

I'm sure that this week will be easier to stay on target. With the addition of free produce, my diet is looking pretty good and a lot healthier.

It's always fun to snack on the weekends, and I did just that. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, strawberries mid-morning, a slice of bread with peanut butter around noon. Later in the afternoon, I ate a half a package of ramen and a Valentines day cookie (a gift from a coworker on Friday). I had a grapefruit before dinner. Then for dinner, I had more ramen and a small portion of broccoli.

Here is what I spent on food today:

oatmeal- $.014

slice of bread with peanut butter- $0.12

ramen- $0.20

brocolli- $0.10

total- $0.56