Eating on two dollars a day is going to require some prep work. Here’s everything you need to get you in the “twoonie-a-day” mindset. 

1. Take away containers are your new best friend. 

The meals we will be making require you to have at least a couple different plastic take away containers so that you can cook ahead and have your meals in the fridge or freeze portions of food for the following week. If you don’t have any consider investing in a cheap set. There’s all sorts of debates about green options, and safe plastic or glass so choose something you feel comfortable with, but if you are just looking for cheap containers check out dollar stores, ikea, and xs cargo. 

2. Become acquainted with your student card and fliers

Seriously your student card is a pass to tons of savings, and fliers will show you how to maximize your twoonies! Independent and Loblaws stores have 10% off every tuesday for students. Bulk barn has 10% off for students every wednesday. 

3. Love your City!

The Ottawa Good Food Box (http://www.ottawagoodfoodbox.ca/?page_id=9&lang=en) and local farmers markets are great paces to get fresh and local produce at better prices than the grocery store. Its also pretty neat to meet the people who are growing your food. Trust me, by the end of this challenge you’ll have changed the way you think about food. Don’t believe me, check this out (http://hungryforamonth.blogspot.ca/2006_11_01_archive.html)

4. Old Mother Hubbard

Unlike mother hubbard chances are your cupboards aren’t completely bare. Although the official challenge is to eat three meals for an average of $2.00 a day you can save more money or eat more by looking through what you already have in the cupboard. Go through and find out what you have so you won’t need to buy it later or double purchase, and see how many meals you can come up with already from what’s in your cupboard. I’ll be blogging about staples you should always have in your cupboard later too!

5. Tell your friends

Ok so, I’m totally desperate for blog followers, but I promise that this serves a second purpose. Just like someone going on a diet to lose weight you should tell your friends so they can support you and avoid tempting you with going out for coffee/dinner etc. 

Cheaply yours, 

The StudentSpender

I didn’t lack for anything growing up, but my parents taught us how to manage a budget and that in order to get something we really wanted we would have to give up something else. My siblings and I used to commonly state that we wanted something “skim-milk much.” We would plead with our parents to buy us something and bargain for what we would give up or mortgage. Particularly we would bargain to save money on milk by drinking powdered skim milk, or “shaker milk” as I used to call it. 

I remember one year my brother and I really wanted this skeleton that lit up and made creepy sounds to decorate the house for halloween. We exchanged going out for fast food and buying chips and candy for two months for the skeleton. It was hard, but every time we would ask to buy cookies or not cook and go out my mom would remind us about the skeleton. 

As a student money and time is tight and its easy to get caught up in the routine of buying coffee and a bagel at Tim Hortons or Roosters every morning. I decided that I needed to stop spending money on things I didn’t really want “skim-milk much” and spend money on more tangible things like day trips out with friends, oh and tuition. 

So I’ve set myself a challenge of eating healthy on $60 a month! Yes, 15 dollars a week for 3 meals a day and snacks, which are ideally as nutritionally balanced as possible. I learned a lot about getting the most out of your grocery budget from my mom, and the infinite wisdom of internet blogs so hopefully that will come in handy!

Join me on my challenge to spend no more than 60 dollars on groceries for the month of July! I’ll be posting my grocery lists, recipes, and food and money saving tips as much as possible. 

Cheers, 

StudentSpender