Off to a Bad Start

Today, I spent $1.30 on a cup of coffee.  But it was very good.  I would have had a caffeine headache otherwise.  So I went out to eat with friends.  $4.01 on a small chef's salad.  That's the only time I'm eating out this month.
Afterward, $.65 on an icecream cone at McDonald's.  I'll have to let everyone know I can't eat this way all the time!  I've spent $5.96 of my food budget on the first day alone.

I am eating food I already have at home.  In some ways that's cheating, but I will probably buy more than I can eat at the end of next July--so it evens out.

Tomorrow, I will only drink the coffee.

Goodbye Caffeine!

Tip number 1 for eating frugally:  Drink only water.

Filtered water is best.  For just $20 you can buy a new cartridge for your water purification pitcher.  That will last two months.  The pitchers themselves come to anywhere between $40 and $50.  It sure beats buying the bottled kind!
If you must buy other drinks, drink frozen orange juice or homemade lemonade.  Reconstituted nonfat dry milk is best though.  It provides calcium and other nutrients without the fat and has more bang per buck than any other drink than water.
Giving up caffeine will be hard for me.  Starting tomorrow, I will only drink water and sometimes a little nonfat dry milk on my oatmeal.

Less than 48 hours....

Starting August 1st, 2011, I plan on seeing if I can eat no more than $800 worth of food in a year.  I get more than that in foodstamps.  (If I am successful, they will probably take away some of my foodstamps when they read this website.)

I've already worked a menu out.  It would even allow me to eat out once or twice a month at certain restaurants.  I live alone and don't have a family to feed, so this shouldn't be as difficult as it would be for some people.