I’ve started gathering up spa basket goodies for Mom’s Day! Pardon me while I get excited. I LOVE finding deals!!!

Last week, I went drugstore cherry picking. Take a look at what I got HERE - $120 worth for $28 and change!

Now in Week 2, I hit Dollar Tree and found hair bands, microfiber face cloths, facial brushes, eye masks, hair clips, body puffs, bows, and tissue. All things mom can enjoy, AND a dollar each!

Then… I couldn’t resist… I logged in to TheGroceryGame.com and chose 9 more treats for mom. Who doesn’t love candy and gum? And what mom doesn’t need magic energy pills? Especially when it’s all at 71% savings! Sweeeeeet!

Mom also gets a new bottle of clear eyes, because they were a green item, which means FREE! Ummm… How could I say no to FREE???

400 deals to choose from in the drugstores alone, but I was planning to be picky, because I’d already shopped last week.

You can shop any way you like, but here’s a video on how I use The Grocery Game for comparison shopping. Can you say, “cherry picking”?

Yep! 9 frivolous treats, over $40 worth for $11 and change. LOVE it!

The deals I chose for Rite Aid are only good through Thurs. May 2 in my area, and some Rite Aids in other parts of the country go thru Saturday. Hundreds of other deals at the other stores are good through Sat. May 6.

Grand finale to come! New deals start Sunday, and…

Next week’s cherry picking will be the BEST!!!

 www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

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I want to be accountable, and report what I’m doing. But instead of writing separate blogs each day, I’m going to add to this one each day…

DAY 1

So far, so good, but it’s still morning, and I usually don’t eat until after noon anyway. I ate a gigantic radish while weeding in my garden this morning. We’re on a well, which runs on our solar power, and it was planted from seed, so it cost me no more than 1 cent. And it was GOOD! I’m drinking my chia seed now (27 cents). Total so far today is 28 cents.

My lentils are sprouting. I made 2 jars for 50 cents. I’ll refrigerate and eat one fifth of them a day for 10 cents per serving. These were super easy to sprout, and they are a super food that’s super cheap.

Trouble on Day One! Of ALL things, I got invited to a Dodger game tonight where they have Dodger dogs that are about six bucks, caramel corn for a zillion dollars, and you can forget about beverages! So… I’ve got packages of hot dogs in my freezer that were 99 cents. I’ll bring one dog (10 cents) and a slice of bread, and my own mustard, and have my own Dodger dog for 29 cents. Greg will make some popcorn, and my serving will be 20 cents (no butter). And I’ll bring a carrot or two, depending on what I have for lunch. I’ll bring my water filtration bottle.

With all of that said… Most of those who live on $1.50 a day don’t have the resources I’ve mentioned here. So while it’s a sacrifice for me, it’s still much easier for me to face the challenge.

Day one… let the sacrifices begin. But isn’t that the point?

Day 2

I made it through the Dodger game last night on Day 1! The popcorn was awesome! And so was my hot dog! Greg got a Dodger dog, which he said wasn’t even good. So he offered half of it to me. SO mean! I said no, of course.

While we were eating our homemade popcorn, we heard someone say, “Hey, can’t you afford Dodger food?” Was an old friend we hadn’t seen in years. I explained Live Below The Line. I didn’t bring the carrots, so I ended up with 73 cents to spare on the day, so I took 3 and half sips of Greg’s beer! Yeah, I figured it was 20 cents a sip. Was that wrong? Hahaha! Imagine if I had 8 sips, I would have gone over my food allotment for the whole day.

So far today, I did my chia seed in the AM, and was so busy, at 3PM, I had that shaky “gotta eat” feeling. I thought about people who are without options, and how grateful I am that I could heat up a half a potato and scramble it with an egg = 19 cents.

So it’s 4PM, and I’m up to 46 cents for the day, with $1.04 left for dinner. I didn’t eat any of my sprouted lentils yesterday or today, so for dinner, I’m looking forward to some of those with my free lettuce, and one of my gigantic overgrown my 1 cent radishes sliced up in a salad. I’ll probably have some chicken, and some brown rice with my dinner, or one of my chicken rice soup portions for 35 cents. Haven’t made the lentil soup yet. Too busy, and I have plenty of other choices.

I know it’s only Day 2, but I think I planned so many easy ways to get by, that it’s not too hard. It’s taken some effort, planning and thought to come up with cheap healthy options, but…

I’m reminded that even with all the effort in the world, there are still 1.4 billion people who don’t have any options.

Day 3 and 4

Got too busy yesterday to post. Not that its’ very interesting to hear about me rationing spoonfuls of lentil sprouts, so I could eat corn on the cob, a twice baked potato and salad at my BBQ dinner party I cooked for my family last night! We had a great time, and I made it through another “day”.

I was weeding my vegetable garden on this morning with renewed vigor, driven by feeling blessed to even HAVE a vegetable garden. Weeding was easy while I prayed gratefulness for what I had and for those who don’t. What I’m doing with Live Below the Line is so small compared to the big picture. It’s embarrassing to even talk about it. But, I said I would, so I am. Though small and insignificant, I pray this exercise will make a difference. It’s difficult to even comprehend the daily battle of hunger experienced by 1.4 billion people around the globe.

Day 5

Wow, I thought this day would never come! Most days I stayed so busy, I just let myself work til dinner. Tonight, I’m going to make my chicken pot pie recipe Didn’t eat all day, so I’m using 3 of my 32 cent servings of my diced chicken for the whole pie, along with other ingredients listed on the recipe. The whole pie will cost $4.50, and cut into 6 slices, I could have two slices! SO exciting! Hahahaha

It’s been a challenging week, but I came away with these thoughts:

• I really appreciate the availability of food, and being able to buy what we like to eat.
• I can actually enjoy pulling weeds in my vegetable garden.
• I can get through 5 days of $1.50 a day pretty easily, and although I’m finished for now…
• There’s still 1.4 billion people who Live Below the Line 365 days a year.

www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve blogged, tweeted and Facebooked about Live Below the Line, which is 5 days, beginning Mon. April 29th.

So here’s my plan to feed myself on $1.50 a day…

I didn’t ask my family to participate, but I’ll still cook dinner for them, and figure the cost of whatever I eat. I already calculated the costs of some things I have planned to make it easier for me to keep track of. You know I buy on sale with coupons, etc., so my cost per unit is pretty low. I will NOT be eating all of this every day. This is just my “menu”, that I can choose from to tally up costs.

Breakfast – I usually drink several cups of coffee in the morning, but I’m pretty sure I’ll skip coffee in favor of saving up for food. Then, late morning, I usually drink a tablespoon of chia seed in a glass of water. I hope I decide to continue to take the chia seed, because it gives me sustained energy, even though it’s expensive at 27 cents a tablespoon. We’ll see. I went gluten free awhile back, but I found a sprouted grain bread, “Ezekiel 4:9”, that doesn’t react like wheat for me. So I’ll be eating that this week if I want a poached egg on toast, or open faced sandwich. Ezekiel is cheaper than buying gluten free bread, or making it in the bread machine, because gluten free flour is outrageous!

• Tablespoon Chia seed in water – 27 cents
• Eggs – 9 cents each
• Ezekiel Bread – 18 cents a slice
• Yogurt – 25 cents each
• Frozen Strawberries – 25 cents a half cup

Lunch – I usually eat breakfast OR lunch, rarely both. So for me it’s more of a brunch of either breakfast or lunch foods. I cooked a value pack of chicken breasts for $5, which is enough to make 16 sandwiches. I diced it up and it’s in the freezer in 4 packages that would make 4 sandwiches per package, bringing it to 32 cents per serving of chicken. I can make chicken salad, because my family likes that for lunch. But if I choose to  indulge myself in celery, onion and mayo, you can see what it will cost me. I’ll probably do an open faced sandwich, and save my money.

• Serving of diced Chicken – 32 cents
• Celery, onion and mayo per serving of chicken salad – 7 cents
• Ezekiel bread – 18 cents a slice

Snacks – A tablespoon of peanut butter can go a long way for me. I usually eat natural peanut butter, bought on sale of course. But…. This feels like cheating… Got free peanut butter at Walgreens this week! It’s the 12 oz. jar of their new Planter’s Nutrition. I got the “granola banana” one. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I bet I’ll love it when I’m hungry! And even though it’s free, I won’t abuse it. You can see the deal in my freebie finder on the right of this blog thru Sat. 04/27, as well as free romaine at Stater Bros, one of my local supermarkets. I like to spread peanut butter on lettuce and roll up like a taquito! Yum! I buy whole carrots in 2 pound bags for about 10 cents a carrot, but if I find a sale, they may be half that. Figuring full price for now.

• Tablespoon Peanut Butter – FREE
• Medium Banana – 20 cents
• 1 whole carrot – 10 cents
• Romaine Lettuce – FREE

Dinner – Last night, I made a pot of pinto beans, mashed and froze them in one big package. The cost per serving is 10 cents, and each serving is huge, so I won’t always need a whole 10 cent serving. I’ll thaw it out Sunday night, and eat on that package all week. I also made some of my Busy Mom’s Gluten Free Chicken and Rice Soup. That recipe says it serves 8, but they’re very generous servings. So I divided the batch into 10 servings, and I will eat a half serving at a time. I’ll make a pound of brown rice on Monday and my Lentil Soup  to help me through the week. On Sunday, I’ll log in and see what fresh produce goes on sale, otherwise, I’ll stick to my 12 oz. bags of frozen vegetables I got on sale for $1. So with that said…

• 1 serving of Beans – 10 cents
• 1 Corn Tortilla – 2 cents
• ½ serving Chicken Rice soup – 35 cents
• ½ Baked potato – 10 cents
• ½ cup cooked Brown Rice – 10 cents
• 1 serving lentil soup – 50 cents
• 3 oz. frozen vegetables (1/4 of the bag) – 25 cents

Whenever I choose to eat something not already calculated as on this “menu” of my current options, I’ll have to figure the cost as I go.

Honestly, doesn’t look easy, but maybe I’ll lose a few pounds!

You can sponsor me in the challenge, or you’re welcome to join me, or… just enjoy watching me suffer! hahaha!

www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

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I just logged in to www.TheGroceryGame.com and found lots of lovely treats that I would love to have for Mother’s Day!

From almost 400 deals, I chose these 10 treats at 76% savings!

I got L’Oreal Revitalift skin treatments, and lots of other lotions and potions good for all those beauty regimens that moms need and want.

The Revitalift Moisturizer is SO good, and regularly $24, only $14, and you get the two Facial packets for 16 cents each by stacking the deals: sales, rebates, coupons!

In the end, I got over $120 worth for $28 and change!

Most of this week’s deals are good through Sat. 04/27. You can log in to www.TheGroceryGame.com, check off the things you like, and The Grocery Game tells you how to stack the deals and round up the savings for the items you’ve selected.

You could put all of mom’s treats in a pretty basket with a bow, or… I’m working on something a little different.

We’ve got 2 more weeks to gather up the “best of the best” for the best Mom!

I’ll be posting my hauls each week!

 www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

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In the last two weeks, we introduced a challenge to Live Below the Line on a $1.50 a day for food April 29-May 3. A little easy cooking with the most inexpensive basics can save you the most money. The cheapest basics are: Bag of Potatoes, Bag of Rice, and a Bag of Beans.

POTATOES

Always good baked, boiled, mashed, or try my Killer Potato Salad.

BEANS

Make this Easy Peasy Split Pea Soup, and freeze in portions.

Make your own super cheap super food by sprouting some legumes. You can cook them or even better, eat them raw. Lentils are the easiest to sprout. Here’s a good step by step on SproutPeople.org . Sprout mung beans, peas or other beans: How to Sprout Mung Beans  Depending on what you sprout, start your sprouts 2-3 days before your 5 day challenge, and refrigerate.

RICE or PASTA

Add any frozen veggies on sale, like a half pound of frozen peas for as little as 50 cents on a good sale to make my Basta Pesto Pasta Salad.

Make Chicken Soup and freeze in portions –  Look for chicken breasts on sale at about $5 for a value pack and make a 10 serving pot.  Add Carrots, potatoes, rice or pasta, salt and pepper. Simple and cheap. Any other produce needs to be what’s on sale on the front page of your supermarket’s sales circular, or like I did with frozen veggies on sale for my Busy Mom’s Gluten Free Chicken & Rice Soup

When feeding each person for $1.50 a day, consider donating the savings to the Live Below the Line Challenge in support of the Global Poverty Project. You can sponsor me in the challenge, or you can register to be a participant, or both.

Let’s make a difference!

www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

MORE

 www.TheGroceryGame.com – 4 week FREE trial
Average savings Family of four – $514 a month

MORE