7$ Challenge for 9 Meals from "Jan from NYC Saves Money"

This 7$ Challenge for 9 Meals is from a youtuber I follow:  Jan from NYC Saves Money

Click that link to watch the vid for more background if you like.   Or, forge ahead.

Here are prices from a local grocery store I can walk to..saving fuel costs.  The local store is on a reservation and does not charge the state sales tax of 6% (yes, even on basic food we pay state sales tax).

1 bulb garlic:    0.89

3 loose carrots:   0.89

3 d'anjou pears   1.13

1lb margarine    0.99

5lb whole wheat flour  1.99

1 doz med eggs  1.09

Total: $6.91

It might be a boring 9 meals...but it will work!  Jan assumes 3 meals per day so we will go with that.

And it will be floury.  Yes, a smaller amount of flour would make room for more veg or a bag of lentils, but 1lb isn't enough calories (and this is cheap calories) assuming1850cals per day which is about what I eat.   Also, the 5lbs for 1.99 is a short term deal.  The 1lb and 2lb bags of flour cost OVER 2$!!!

I went with eggs over dry beans or lentils.  Partly because the eggs allow me to make noodles and pancakes better than beans or lentils do.  More versatile.  But I am saving that 9cents left over, and there will be at least 1/2 the flour left.  The margarine comes up 1T short from what is required below so that day will be 70 calories down, but my average will be fine.  

Step 1: put 1/2c flour in a jar with some no-chlorine room temp water and put a cloth over the top.  Hope for some fermentation over the next couple of day.  Help it by putting it in a warm spot.  If it ferments by the 3rd day, use it for bread on the next round of 3 day cooking for more variety beyond the pancakes and tortillas below.

220 calories to be consumed eventually...

Breakfast every day: 1/2C flour, 1 egg with the white beaten up as leavening, the yolk just stirred into the flour with a bit of water.  Fold in the whites.  Fry up in margarine like bad pancakes.  Serve with 1/2 the pear sliced up and more margarine to make sure there are enough calories.  Tap water to drink.  4T marg total used.

220+63+210+48 = 541 calories

Lunch every day: 2 eggs fried or scrambled with 1/6 of the garlic in 3T margarine on a tortillas(made with 1/2 C flour and 2T melted margarine) with 1/2 the carrot shredded up.  Tap water.

126+220+350+14=710

Supper every day:  Make egg drop soup with 1T margarine, 1/2 carrot, 1/6 of the garlic, and an egg.  Make tortillas with 1/2C flour, 1T melted margarine and water.  Fry those up in a dry skillet and spread with 2T margarine to get the calories up. And the other half of the pear.  Tap water.

220+63+280+13+12+48 = 635

1886 calories X 2  = 3772

1816 for the 3rd day added to that is 5588total calories consumed.

That is an average of 1862.67 calories per day.  Very close to my needs.  

Yes, bit shy on vitamins, protein and flavor.  I will have used less than 1/3 of the flour.  Hopefully that sourdough started in step 1 worked. If I skipped the flour on the next trip, I would have $1.99 to spend on something other than flour.  And that 9cents left over would of course be saved in the grocery budget so $7.07 to spend.

Free things I can add to that to increase the vitamins include:

Pine needle or spruce needle tea from trees I know are not sprayed with chemicals.  Vitamin C is in that.  

Dandelion leaves, clover leaves, plantain leaves, and other wild edibles in areas I know are not sprayed with chemicals can be gathered.  These go in soup, scrambled eggs, or raw as a salad or added to the lunch wraps.   They can also be fried up with garlic as a side dish.

The next trip to the store, assuming the same sale flyer is in effect,  would add a pound of lentils, 1.09

Take out the 1.99 for the flour, and the total comes to $6.01

99cents savings!  Added to the 9cents from before, I have $1.08 for the next trip, and with lentils in my soup, or mashed as a spread on the tortillas, I have more protein and more options.  I would cut the added calories from the margarine amounts, saving some of that for the next round.  With the sour dough starter probably going, I can make bread/pancakes without adding oil to the batter/dough.  Of course the "waste" starter from cutting in half and refeeding would be fried up as pancakes or used to coat carrot slices as fritters, or some of those delicious wild greens mixed in for fritters (actually...that sounds good in general, might try it).

With an extra 1.08 the next 3 days would have $8.08 available to spend.  Buy the same again, because 1/3 of the flour is still there.  By the end of THOSE 3 days, would have $2.07 left (8.08-6.01).  I would get another 5lbs of flour as a stock up, and the usual list minus the margarine, leaving 99cents.  By now I would be super sick of the pears and carrots and garlic but what are you going to do?  They are reliably cheap and flour is cheaper than potatoes...the other super cheap veg.  Onions are an option but generally though you get more weight, the calorie content is low and the flavor/serving per $1 is less than a bulb of garlic.  

Once I had 3$, I would hit the discount bins and maybe get those bruised bananas or a bag of onions or if it was spring and I owned a bucket of dirt or more, a pack or two of radish seeds.  You can grow those in a couple of weeks to the point you can harvest greens.  3-6 weeks and you have radishes.  12 weeks and you have more seeds.  

Also...I look for carrots, even bagged and trimmed ones sometimes work...with a bit of top or full tops.  Carrot tops are basically parsley so can be used fresh as a green/herb and dried as an herb for later.  Nutritious!

And I save and toast, or plant, the seeds from squash and melons.    Don't forget that dry beans, peas, lentils can be sprouted as long as they are whole beans/peas/lentils not split.  

Finally, the lack of flavor here is difficult.  Another option for seeds is herbs.  Pretty easy to grow indoors and they are nutritious and make these meals less boring as well as being encouraging because you take control of a tiny bit of your life.

NOTES:

While playing this headgame with myself, I have noticed that I couldn't come up with a personally applicable scenario where I had only 7$ for food for 3 days, no stocked items, my chickens/eggs were gone/not available, no friend was offering help before I even asked, no family member would just make sure I had food, or all the catchable wildlife and edible plants on my property were gone.  HOLY PRIVILEGE BATMAN!!!!  Being middle aged, female, cysgender, white, educated, and connected to a community of people who trust me and give a crap, having living family I am in touch with, being reasonably healthy and having a job!   Jeez. Then there is owning land outright, which is due to the above,   My mind boggled at how much I have and how little others doe.