Jen and I were literally just talking about this in the break room as we heated up our pathetic lunches. How much do we eat in a day? Money wise. So lets take a look at today, which is basically the norm:
Breakfast: Hy-Vee (Iowa grocery store) brand instant oatmeal. $2.09 for a box of ten packets. I eat one for breakfast so that equals about 21 cents per packet.
Lunch: Spaghetti. AKA rotini noodles with marinara sauce. I will err on the side of caution and say I can get 4 meals out of it. Box of pasta $2. Marinara sauce $1. What we're poor remember? so each serving is 75 cents.
Dinner: I keep my dinners light usually like a PB&J Sandwich with a yogurt. Yogurt isn't as cheap as I'd like it to be. Usually around 65 cents a piece. Loaf of bread is $2.50. I can get like 10 sandwiches out of that so that is 25 cents in bread per sandwich. Jelly ( or preserves in my case, no sugar added of course) is $3.50 a jar. I can easily get 20 sandwiches with a jar. That's only 18 cents per sandwich. We'll assume the same for peanut butter too. So for one PB&J Sandwich it's 61 cents.
Lets recap shall we?
Breakfast: $.21
Lunch: $.75
Dinner: $1.26
Total: $2.22
That's it. Really puts things into perspective. Before I was buying frozen meals at $2 a piece because they were pre-made and convenient. However now after doing the math, I don't think I'll go back. Lean Cuisines will now be considered a treat. We get paid tomorrow (Woooo!!!!) and I know I won't be going grocery shopping with my usual list. Give it a try and figure out how much (money) you eat in a day.
Cheers
Marisa
