How does he do it? Among other things, he forages for lemons and blackberries on public lands, gets lucky by finding the occasional unopened beer (of four) left behind by underage drinkers, and he—yes he—buys tampons in order to snag some free peanut butter.
The blogger known as Jeffrey began his experiment on May 1 over at GroceryCouponGuide.com. He isn’t the first blogger to eat on $1 a day, but his posts are awesome and enlightening, with documentation of all of his purchases and photos of receipts, groceries, and the meals he prepared. At first he challenged himself to live on the budget for a month, but apparently he’s still at it, finding a jackpot of free beer on Day 36 and picking blackberries in the neighborhood on Day 38. The most interesting posts reveal the coupon tricks—and they’re actually pretty straightforward, not tricky at all—involved in getting free or nearly free food. Like the day he stacked coupons for free turkey hot dogs, and of course, the day he bought some tampons in order to bring home free peanut butter.
And what has he learned from living on such an extreme food budget? After a month of eating on $1 a day, he posted 10 things he’d learned, including:
You Can Eat More Than Junk Food On $1 A Day: Most people that I told I was going to be trying this challenge assumed that I was going to be eating a lot of macaroni & cheese and instant ramen. I actually was able to get fruit and vegetables into my diet on a daily basis. I only ate 100% whole wheat bread the entire month….
Drug Stores Can Be A Great Place To Get Free Food: Most people don’t think of their local drug store as a place to get free food, but if you have any of the three big national chains near you (CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid), they are a great place to get free food. These drug stores often have deals where you can purchase things for free and when combined with frequent offers of a certain dollar amount off when you buy a qualifying amount, it can mean free food…
You Don’t Know How To Shop: If you are like most people, you decide what you want to eat and then go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients you need to make that meal. If this is the way that you shop, you have already lost the game and will pay much more than you need to be paying.
And perhaps most amazing of all:
It’s Possible To Donate A Lot of Food While Only Eating On $1 A Day: One of the things that I am most proud of in this challenge was that beyond not going hungry, I was actually able to donate quite a bit of food to my local food bank during the month.
Related posts:
How to Eat on a Dollar a Day
How to Eat on a Dollar a Day, Part II