Dollar a day food challenges

I just finished watching this DVD, "Food Stamped" and am almost through reading this book, "On A Dollar A Day". If you are at all curious about how we spend money on our food, then I highly recommend both of these.

The DVD was not only informative, but also entertaining. {I confess to skipping through some of the statistical parts} I found this movie while browsing through my library. I was curious and checked it out. I'm glad that I did. The filmmakers took part in an experiment to see if they could live on what the government gives folks, in food stamp benefits, to live on for a week. They did not want to buy the cheap convenience foods, but wanted to continue to live on an organic healthy diet.

The book is similar. It is a another couple wanting to see if they could live on just $1.00 per person a day for food. {The movie had the couple living on $1.00 per meal.} The couple in the book are really struggling with hunger and exhaustion. So far, they are making it work. They also have a blog, but I haven't searched for it yet.

I do not plan to try either of these experiments, but it is eye opening. It made me take stock of how much was in my kitchen, that was considered non healthy convenience foods. I will confess to buying what some would call "crap". My family requests most of it, and I find coupons for it. I do plan on finding healthy, homemade alternatives. Watching the DVD did give me some great ideas as to ways to make cheap healthy meals.

I'm starting today. I plan to make chips from kale, snack bars from dates {similar to Larabars} and cookies and bread made from bananas. I am also planning to go through my recipe file and purge any non healthy recipes. I owe that much to my family. Some recipes and foods may be cheap, but the health of my family is more important. And I need to do this while staying under budget. Good luck me!