A Little Project for Fearlessly Frugal

I've been thinking about new projects to do for Fearlessly Frugal and this one has been nagging at me for about 6 months now. So this morning when I read this article asking people if they could live off $5 a day, I decided it's time to start my project.

I knew I could take on this challenge and live off $5 a day for a week. But after a week I'm sure that eating the same, cheap foods would wear on me. I don't think I could actually survive on food stamps without going nuts.

So here's my project: I want to find and/or create recipes that cost less than $5 to make. I mentioned this challenge to Brandon and he immediately found flaws in it. What if the recipe makes enough food for leftovers, would it still have to be $5? Is that $5 per person, $5 per recipe or $5 per meal? Needless to say he left me with a lot to think about.

So the details of this challenge would be as follows: The recipe must cost less than $5 per meal with a meal being enough food to feed two adults without needing any major side items. If you have a recipe that's less than $5 per meal WITH side items, even better. So a huge pot of chili that produces two meals could cost $10, if it produces 3 meals it could cost $15, etc. Seasonings don't count when factored into the cost because for me, seasonings last a LONG time in my house and the amount you use per meal adds up to mere pennies. Coupons cannot be factored into the cost of the recipe.

The point of the challenge for me and Brandon is to live off of these recipes for one full month. I haven't decided which month that will be yet, probably March or April. Right now I budget about $80 a week for groceries (including non-food items like laundry detergent and paper towels) but it seems that lately we've blown that budget out of the water with our dieting. I'm hoping that with this project I can find great new recipes to try as well as shave off about $40 a month from my budget.

Right now I'm in the gathering phase on my challenge and I want you all to contribute recipes that are less than $5 per meal. It's probably easiest to just email them to me at cvpis4me@yahoo.com. Please list the ingredients, the recipe, and how many meals you estimate it will make for one couple. I'll do the research and verify the cost before posting the recipes on here. In all fairness I won't use the commissary prices, I'll use my regular grocery store. I have a few recipes of my own but I have to price out the items first before I post them. If I happen to find coupons at the time of posting then I'll definitely link those as well.

Let the Fearlessly Frugal challenge begin!