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The $20 Challenge
Topic Started: Jul 12 2011, 05:57 PM (598 Views)
Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Rules

1. Your food budget for one month is twenty dollars a week.
2. You cannot grow a garden or your own meat.
3. You cannot forage in the wild.
4. You have access to a small freezer (2 cubic feet).
5. You have a small stove and oven, a few canning jars and a pressure cooker.
6. You must eat as healthy a diet as possible.


Can you do it?

The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Copper
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Shortstop

Define food.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
Hell for one month I could mooch good meals off friends.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Copper
Jul 12 2011, 06:01 PM
Define food.
I hear you can find it in grocery stores...
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
Sure. I'd stock up on quinoa, dried beans, lentils. Onions, hot peppers. Tofu.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
For one person? Sure.

1 lb pasta - $1
1 28 oz cans of tomatoes $1.50
1 lb oatmeal $2
1 lb pinto beans $2
Seasoning meat $3
vegetable oil $1.50
2 lb bananas $1
3 12 oz bags frozen vegetables $3
1 head garlic $.50
2 onions $2
Powdered milk $2 (?)
Frozen or fresh fruit $3

$20
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
Rice and beans and send $10/week back to Mexico.
Wag more
Bark less
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
Rice and beans alone, doth not a decent diet make.

Something else to consider...until you've been at this awhile, you don't realize how much up-front money is involved. Sure, it's always cheaper to cook, but you have to have basic stuff to cook with...things like salt, pepper, cooking oil, etc. That really works your budget over in the first week or two.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Gotta have flavor.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
Jolly
Jul 12 2011, 07:22 PM
Rice and beans alone, doth not a decent diet make.

It's true.

On the other hand a lot of people live on pretty much those two things for years.

Maybe an onion or two.

And some beer.
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Bark less
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
I'd buy my supplies from an Asian grocery store in Chinatown.

For $20 a week I could eat like a prince.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Such as?
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
All fresh, not frozen.

Gai-lan: green leafy veg, also called Chinese broccoli. $3.50
Fresh soft tofu. $4
Rice $0.50
Eggs $1.50
Turnip cake $2.00
King mushrooms $2.50
Scallions $.40
Bananas $1.50
Milk $2.19

Remainder for condiments (soy sauce, oyster sauce, bonito flakes).

I'm actually intrigued enough to consider giving it a try.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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Klaus
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HOLY CARP!!!
A 100lb bag of dog food will keep you alive for a whole month, and it presumably costs less than $20. You can even sell the freezer, oven etc. and even _make_ rather than spend money.
Trifonov Fleisher Klaus Sokolov Zimmerman
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
That little freezer is messing you up. The electricity to run it for a month is likely to cost the same as your weekly food budget.

Beans, rice, corn tortillas. Greens - collard, kale, spinach. Grease of some sort - probably pork fat for calories. In season fruit, mostly citrus 'cuz its cheap. A couple of really hot chilies so you don't need very many. Potatoes.

Better balanced than what most people eat and well under $20 per week so you can still buy beer. :thumb:
Edited by Steve Miller, Jul 13 2011, 06:30 AM.
Wag more
Bark less
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
Steve Miller
Jul 13 2011, 06:28 AM
well under $20 per week so you can still buy beer
I like your priorities!
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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Free Rider
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Fulla-Carp
Jolly
Jul 12 2011, 05:57 PM
Rules

1. Your food budget for one month is twenty dollars a week.
2. You cannot grow a garden or your own meat.
3. You cannot forage in the wild.
4. You have access to a small freezer (2 cubic feet).
5. You have a small stove and oven, a few canning jars and a pressure cooker.
6. You must eat as healthy a diet as possible.


Can you do it?

I've had to exist on $20 a week for food before, but it wasn't easy or fun. The hard times in my early 20's provided me with motivation to get my sh!t together. There were days that I had a can of chili with some rice...that was it for the whole day. Being poor sucks.

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VPG
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Pisa-Carp
You cannot forage in the wild


O.K, a stranger walks past your front door, can you trap and eat him / her?
Protein.
I'M NOT YELLING.........I'M ITALIAN...........THAT'S HOW WE TALK!


"People say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural, 1971

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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
Or the neighborhood pets start disappearing.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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The 89th Key
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$20? Sure.

Pasta, rice, bananas, milk, bread, eggs, canned veggies, etc.
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
Red Rice
Jul 12 2011, 08:25 PM
I'd buy my supplies from an Asian grocery store in Chinatown.

That, and I was thinking Indian. $20 would go a long way. Chick peas, lentils, rice, spices, peppers and whatever fresh fruit/veg is in season/affordable. Lots of cilantro and parsley.

Fresh chilies would be essential. Gotta have flavour, and I do believe they pack a good punch of vit c. And they're dirt cheap, even here in high end grocery stores.
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
sue
Jul 13 2011, 06:54 AM
That, and I was thinking Indian. $20 would go a long way. Chick peas, lentils, rice, spices, peppers and whatever fresh fruit/veg is in season/affordable. Lots of cilantro and parsley.

Fresh chilies would be essential. Gotta have flavour, and I do believe they pack a good punch of vit c. And they're dirt cheap, even here in high end grocery stores.
Indian would be good. I could even be lazy and just buy homemade veggie samosas from my local Indian grocery store. 50 cents each, and a single one is big enough for a meal.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
Jolly
Jul 12 2011, 07:22 PM
Something else to consider...until you've been at this awhile, you don't realize how much up-front money is involved. Sure, it's always cheaper to cook, but you have to have basic stuff to cook with...things like salt, pepper, cooking oil, etc. That really works your budget over in the first week or two.
You're assuming that you are all by yourself and have no friends to share that stuff with. The people I know who live with budgets like that generally pool their resources with others to make their budgets stretch farther.

The cooking oil thing is interesting too. On a strict budget you don't buy it - there will be plenty of grease left from the super-cheap cuts of meat you buy for flavor.

Raman noodles, also.
Wag more
Bark less
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
Tamarind. That would be a good thing to have. One brick of that (paste is nicer, but at $5, might be too pricey). Lots of nutrients, and gives you the citrus zing for cheap. For those of us not living on the citrus belt. :smile:
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apple
one of the angels
there are many weeks on which I survived with a pound of cheese, 5 pounds of rice, a bag of oranges, carrots and celery. no problemo.. it still should be under 20 bucks in 2011. .. maybe bread and peanut butter.

i did lose a little weight tho in those 'lean' times..
it behooves me to behold
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