January 1, 2009...the experiment begins!

First off, happy New Years everyone! Here is hoping 2009 is much better than 2008! Starting today I am going to blog about everything I eat (and how much it cost) for the next 30 days. I REALLY hope I don't have any huge hunger spells! LOL

The responses to my request for coupons are starting to come in. Little Debbie said that they don't send coupons. Dannon said they don't usually send coupons but sent me a "courtesy" envie with a free coupon (for yogurt or drinkables) and a $.25/1 coupon. If Homeland has Dannon yogurt on sale this month, that $.25/1 coupon will equal a free yogurt. I also got a free product coupon for Hostess/Wonder (can use for bread or sweets). I also got some coupons from Land O Lakes which I can combine with with sales (hopefully).

Once I get off the computer I am going to have the following breakfast:

• Special K w/ strawberries (1 serving, 8 servings in box)
• 6 oz cup of yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 oz juice

The price breakdown is as follows:

• Special K: $.005 (as I mentioned yesterday, I got 2 boxes and half a gallon of milk for $.08. I'll call the milk free and assess $.04 to each box of cereal. 1/8 of $.04 = $.005 or half a cent)
• Yogurt: FREE with coupon
• Milk: FREE with coupon
• Juice: 1/16 of the bottle @ $.50 bottle = $.03125
• Total Breakfast OOP: $.03625 (i.e. less than $.04!)

Lunch:

• Corn beef and cheese tortilla wrap
• Sugar Free Koolaid

The price breakdown is as follows:

• Tortilla. $2.82 -$1.99 coupon = $.83 / 8 tortillas = $.10375
• Corned Beef. $.56 - $.56 free product coupon = $0.00
• Cheese. $2.00 bag - $1/2 coupon = $1.00/bag divided by 8 servings = $.125
• Koolaid. $2.00 - $1/1 coupon = FREE
• Total Lunch OOP: $0.22875
• Current Total OOP for Day: $0.265. That leaves me with $1.235 for dinner.

Well day 1 is now complete (wooo hooo! 1 down, 29 to go! LOL) Dinner was tasty, healthy and cheap!

• Cheeseburger on toast w/ sugar free koolaid. The burger was made from the 96% lean hamburger I bought last week. It was $3.56 for a package and I used a $3 off meat WT which brought it down to $.56 for the package. I used a quarter of the package for a price of $.14. The cheese was free from the buy 3 koolaid get cheese free coupons (those were great coupons!) The bread was free using a hostess/wonder coupon that expired 12/31/08.
• Total Dinner Price: $.14
• Total for the Day OOP: $0.405 (40 and a half cents) Pretty good start if I say so myself!