It is hard to believe that I have reached the 100 day milestone. Even more surprising is that the eating well on $1 a day has gone so well that I don’t feel any desire to immediately change the way that I have been eating (or that my cooking didn’t result in mt poisoning myself in some way). It has become a routine and the fact that it has tells me that it is possible to do this long term if I had the desire. After thinking long and hard about all the comments that readers have made, I have decided to stop the current challenge at 100 days and focus instead on buying as much food as possible for food banks with the $1 a day. There are a number of reasons for this decision:
I Think I Succeeded: I think that even my sister will now admit that I was able to make meals that others would eat (at least from time to time) while staying under the $1 a day goal. I don’t need to do this another year to make the point that it can be done.
Change Of Focus: While the last 100 days have been focused on me and how I was able to do this, I would like to see future posts focused more how anyone that reads this blog can save a lot of money over what they are currently spending on food while still getting exactly what they want and also being able to give excess to their local food banks. I already know that I can do it — I am now interested in showing anyone that wants to learn that they can also do it.
I’m Not A Foodie: No matter how much I would like to be one, I am not a foodie. I still do not enjoy cooking much. Even though it has been a great experience and I have learned a lot (I would like to sincerely thank everyone that took the time to pass along suggestions and recipes), and my cooking skills have slowly but surely improved, I don’t think that I have much more to offer in this area. I would still be perfectly satisfied eating the same thing over and over again, but that certainly doesn’t make for very interesting reading.
So from now on I will be using the $1 a day (and the excess that I have accumulated from the first 100 days) to buy food for local food banks. In addition I will be detailing exactly how I approach couponing and what I have learned about it over these last 3 months. I’m hoping that this will help answer many of the questions that people have had about how I was able to do this and encourage them to do the same.
Yellow Cherry Plum Smoothie
I couldn’t begin the last day of this challenge with anything other than a morning smoothie. I gathered up the rest of the yellow cherry plums that I had:
added a frozen banana and a few cubes of ice to make another delicious start to the morning.
This is definitely one of the things that I will continue to do on a daily basis as it has really made the start of my days a lot easier and given me more energy and focus in the mornings.
The afternoon was busy as usual and I went with the usual afternoon sandwich.
Roasted Stuffed Peppers
I decided to use the last two halves of the green and red peppers I had to make stuffed roasted peppers. I took leftover brown long grain rice I had and mixed in salsa:
Then added shredded cheddar Monterrey Jack cheese mix as well:
To prepare the peppers, I boiled them for 5 minutes and placed a light coating of vegetable oil on the outside. I then filled them with the rice, salsa and cheese mixture:
I placed them in the oven and roasted them for about 40 minutes:
The green roasted pepper came out delicious:
I was planning to save the red roasted pepper, but I couldn’t resist and had it as well:
Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream
To celebrate, I thought that for a final treat, I would go out and buy myself a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream since I failed to get it when I completed the first month, but when I thought about it a bit more, I knew the perfect way to end the 100 days. I took the rest of the frozen bananas and began to blend them, then added a large spoonful of peanut butter:
And when I finished I had the perfect dessert, this is what it looked like:
Of course, I had to give my sister a taste of it and of course, she thought it was awful — I’m starting to think that she may be the one who is palate challenged since I find it hard to believe that anyone finds the peanut butter and banana combination anything but delicious.
I thank all of you that have followed along for the last 100 days and hope that you enjoyed reading about the experience as I had going through it (Time Magazine recently did an interview with me) and hope that the next phase focusing on how I was able to do it will be helpful and worth reading as well.
I would love to hear what all of you have thought about this adventure 🙂
Final Numbers
Goal: 100 days eating on $1 a day
Money Spent: $76.11
Retail Value of Everything Purchased: $1473.94
The Beginning – links to all 100 days of the challenge ::: Introduction to Lazy Couponing
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Congrats for making it 100 days. Quite an accomplishment.
I’ve read several other blogs that tried to do the dollar a day thing, but I got really tired of “listening” to the whining about lack of motivation and being tired and blahblahblah. So thank you for not being whiny, even when your evil sister was prodding you with her pitchfork. (Anyone who doesn’t like PB and bananas has to be evil. Heh.) (I really hope you know that I am only teasing.)
Thanks for the adventure, and I wish you luck in the future.
Julie of the Plastic Bag Omelet
.~*~*~. Congratulations! .~*~*~.
Congratulations! You definitely inspired me to rethink my shopping and I recently managed to go to CVS to stock up on diapers, cereal, and various toiletries to send to my husband and his roommates stationed in Afghanistan a total of 85 dollars worth of items for less than 7 dollars!
Well, I’m sad to say goodbye to this blog, but happy and impressed that you made it. And I look forward to following your future projects. I’ve really enjoyed your daily musings and wouldn’t try to go into all the ways your challenge has changed my shopping and cooking outlook, expanded my buying power, and … basically just broadened my awareness – which I’m trying to pass on to my son, who of course has been most impressed with the freebies but, after some razzing, is also catching on to the couponing way of getting what we need and helping others. I’ll be taking our second modest donation of surplus cereal, granola bars, fruit gels, and toothpaste to the food bank next week – thanks to the insights from your blog – and now we carry a couple bags of canned food and granola bars to give to anyone we see who looks like they need food immediately. So, thank you Jeffrey, and good luck to you.
You have inspired me to start couponing! I am on my third week, and really enjoying the treasure hunt aspect as well saving money! Actually kind of fun! Thanks for sharing your story!
Awesome job and I am inspired to eat health AND save money even more.
Jeffery,
We will all miss your blogging. Your humor, wit and wisdom have made it fun. I wondered how long blogs stay up, because I am still telling people I meet who look like they could use it to go to your blog. What are your other blogs? Will you continue to tell others about the specials and coupons on your penny blog? I have limited income being a senior, but have still managed to add to the food pantry with your wise suggestions and appreciate your time and efforts to show others the way to do it. Luck to you and keep on with your writing. I think a book about this adventure would be fantastic.By the way, your pictures on the blog were wonderful. What were you using? I wish you would do a blog on free range finding edible plants with the help of an expert for safety sake. In the past, our people could go out and find greens and herbs and root vegetables. Japanese use hostas for greens I understand, and also Kudzu is entirely edible I have read in the Southern Living Magazine. The idea that people and especially children may be going hungry when there are edibles in the park for free to cook is sad. Your pictures are so good, that I thought they would be wonderful to display. Maybe you could find some in the university that would be willing to do a blog about it. It would make a wonderful adventure to add to what you have already done, keep you in exercise, and not killing yourself doing marathon running. Still trying to hook you into blogging, cause we are really going to miss you. Have a great life.
Congratulations on a job well done. It has been interesting reading about what you did, what you thought, and some of the funny things that happened along the way.
I applaud your desire to concentrate on helping the food bank. We see so many children in our schools who are hungry. I know some folks would point out there is free lunch and free breakfast, but if those are the main two meals, these kids are still starving.
Congratulations! I think it was an excellent project nobly completed. I’ve been paying more attention to coupons as a result (although I still haven’t found a database that appears to match up to the dates for the inserts in my area).
It is definitely inspiring. I look forward to the next great idea!
Sad to see it ending. You inspired me today when hungry for chocolate to see what was in the cupboards that would make-do. I ended up w/No-Bake Chocolate cookies.
I’m glad to see you taking the last of the money you were able to conserve while still eating well and stretching it out for the food banks. HIPHOORAYS on YOU!!!!!!!!
Great Job, Very Inspiring!
Wow! I’ve really enjoyed this – I hope you continue the blog about your purchases for the food bank, or something similar.
Although, I’ll miss it, I think you should be able to enjoy a beer or glass wine or something special that would definitely break the $1 a day budget.
Cheers!
Congratulations! i think taking the $1 a day for the food banks will serve your community a ton. Great idea and great work. Again – Congrats!
I have enjoyed your journey so very much. Thank you for sharing. Congratulations on your achievement.
Congratulations! I’ve been following this blog since about the 31st day (another blog that I follow linked to it at the end of the first month), and I have really enjoyed reading every one of your posts since then. You’ve inspired me to start couponing myself – I’m nowhere near as good at it as you are, but I still enjoy being able to save some money on things that I normally buy, try some new things for cheap, and even get some things for free every now and then.
I’m really glad to hear that you’ll now be using your skills to help others in need – I am sure a lot of people will be able to benefit from your generosity.
Very sad to see it end….Can you persuade your sister to write a post on her take, I hate to think of her so badly when she has such cute kids 🙂
Congratulations on finishing the challenge. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts and it definitely inspires people to take a good look at their grocery budgets and see how they could reduce their costs by changing the way they shop. I also love the focus on helping the food banks. I look forward to your future posts with a different focus. Keep up the great work and continue to inspire us all.
I’ve greatly enjoyed following your journey the past 100 days. I look forward to seeing what you do next.
for what its worth my daughter and I love to start the day with a banana and PB smoothie!
What an awesome journey! I have enjoyed reading all your post and loved seeing a man so willing to learn to do all that you have.
My kids are heading back to school and I will be keeping up with you and your donations. I will be searching for a local food bank to support.
Thanks again for all the great post.
Thanks for the journey!!!
Congratulations on finishing up the challenge! I have been following since some time around day 25 and I’ve enjoyed reading every post.
You’ve given me a new outlook on couponing. Thanks for the detailed explanations of how you’ve done it.
I think i’ts great that you’ll be concentrating on food banks from now on.
I’ve loved reading and watching your journey. I also appreciate how much effort you put into helping others. It really is a great source of inspiriation for us to all stop thinking about ourselves and try to help those around us like you have been doing all along. Great job on successfully completing the 100 days! I’ve actually learned a lot of different cooking ideas from you and your readers recipes. Its been fun.
Congrats! I detest bananas in any form but have thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experiences. I am lucky to live in San Diego where we have year round farmers markets so I don’t eat much processed food. My husband and sons eat lots of cereal and snack foods so with your tips I saved $21 with coupons at the grocery store yesterday, a savings of about 30 percent. Thanks so much! I admire your selflessness with your food bank efforts and you have inspired me to remember to give back whenever possible.
Uncork the champagne! Congratulations on reaching the 100 days.
Congrats and Thank you!!! 🙂
Congratulations on successfully completing your 100 days experiment. I have really enjoyed your posts and am looking forward to the upcoming coupon tips and tricks for the rest of us.
As I told you before, you are a true inspiration to us. Before this challenge, I didn’t even know where our local food bank is. I was happy to discover it was on one of my usual errand loops and have made several drop offs there. So, your incredible persistance and courage to do this experiment resulted in some hungry families in Loudoun County, Virginia having some food to eat. Thanks!
I’ve been motivated by your blog to get into the coupon game. I now shop at CVS. Had never been in one before. If I’ve figured correctly, this week’s trip to CVS should get me $70 worth of stuff for nothing. While I’m excited about savings in my family budget, I’m really excited about having more ways to share with the food bank. I’m now a volunteer at a small food pantry and intend to find another one to help.
I’m looking forward to more blogging from you regarding more deals you find for your food bank. Will it be a separate blog? And please let us know how you do on your marathon.
Is there a way for you to get some of us from other regions of the country together so we can share our local finds with one another? I’ve followed some of the links on the side of your blog and did not find any regional ones that have been kept up to date.
Thanks again for sharing your story. You have helped others by your sharing and now we are enjoying sharing more with others too.
Congratulations on reaching 100 days! It’s been an awesome experience.
You’ve been an inspiration to me, even though there are almost nothing to connect my interests to yours, except for the food aspect of your blog. Thank you for sharing a slice of your life to us, and for being an outstanding member of your community through food donations. You make me believe that there is still hope for the world.
Good luck on your next endeavors, and hopefully we could still follow your adventures somehow. 🙂
Congratulations on completing the 100 days – it has been a pleasure and educational reading it. I had recently started using coupons shortly before finding your blog in the first 30 days of the challenge. I have learned much and been inspired to learn enough so that I can help others by donating to the food bank. Thank-you for the experience and I will continue to follow your blogs!
bravo! i second the motion that your sister write a statement that you win and what she learned. looking forward to more food bank runs, hopefully with better stuff but something’s always better than nothing. perhaps ‘the urban forager’ is the next way to go. there is so much free food that gets mowed over every day and many folks are dumbed down to think food must come out of an expensive box. those pricey foraging dinners in sf are a joke! talk about missing the point! here in the mo. ozarks (and no doubt most other places) all kinds of crazy stuff pops out of the ground if you just stop mowing. grab a good book on ca. edible plants at the library and start eating more natural food for free, or even insects!(ok that will have to be my blog). encore!!!
Amazing job and it has been really fun reading about all your adventures. Best of luck and I hope you continue blogging about your projects in the future. You are truly inspirational!
Congratulations! And thank you! I enjoyed this so much much better than some of the others I have read. It’s nice to see someone provide for those in need and not be so in your face or self righteous. You are a good soul and I wish you well and God’s speed on the next leg of this journey! 🙂 I am going to join you in taking more to our food pantry!
Congrats! I’ve really enjoyed following your adventures and learning along with you. I look forward to seeing what you do next.
Congratulations of finishing in fine form. I sincerely hope this isn’t the end of this particular blog…just a different beginning. I will be checking in.
Congratulations on your accomplishments. Although the grocery prices in my area are higher than yours, I have learned much from you about the art of saving money. Best wishes!
Absolutely, positively, you succeeded. You did what you set out to do (far exceeding your $1/day goal), and you greatly improved your cooking skills as a bonus. More importantly, you taught countless blog readers how to play the coupon game, save lots of $$, and even get things for free! You have succeeded in a grand way, sir.
For me, the biggest takeaway was – just because I don’t need it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t buy it. If they will pay me to take it out of the store, then I should do that, and buy something I do need with the “free money.” Wow, what a concept. I’ve been a frugal shopper for years, but your specific examples were priceless in expanding my thinking. I’ve made a small donation of various things to the women’s shelter, and expect to do more in the future.
Congratulations on a successful run. I’ll miss the daily blog, and look forward to following your adventures with your new focus. Thanks for sharing with us.
p.s. oh, the other big takeaway was your genius peanut butter / banana “ice cream.” 🙂
Congratulations on a journey well done!!! I’m going to miss reading your blog every morning. It made me laugh and realize what each of us should do in our own communities. Thanks for your time and patience, because without it your blog would be mundane. You have become family to me even though you are hundreds of miles away in California where I am in upstate NY. Please let us know what your future blogs will be so we can follow your next journey. Thanks again for being a wonderful person who likes peanut butter and banana sandwiches….:)
I just finished reading all 100 days from the beginning and am in awe of all that you accomplished.
A few thoughts:
-Congratulations on a job well done!
-Your sister is mean.
-I wish I lived someplace with as many fruit trees as you do. The fruit you foraged looks delicious!
-Squirrels are the enemy.
-You’ve inspired me to donate more to the food bank. We have donated in the past but sadly we often forget about it. This has been a great reminder and has inspired me to pursue coupon deals for items I won’t use, just for the purpose of donating them. I’ve never done that before and I’m ashamed to admit that because it would have been so easy. So I am now devoting part of my grocery budget every week to purchasing items for the food bank. And taking my garden overruns there as well!
Thank you for being a great motivator to myself and many others!
CONGRATS!!! on making your 100th day.
I have enjoyed this blog very much and will miss it.
Thank you for the great ideas.
(A few days late, but the sentiment is there)
Congratulations on making in 100 days. There are many points where you questioned whether you should continue, but I’m glad you decided to stick it out.
The people who use your local food bank are probably glad, too, because you’ve also made such great contributions during your challenge.
Well done.
I am amazed at how well you did with this challenge. Some of your meals really looked great and gave me some ideas. (I don’t cook either and when I do it is very plain, even though I like things mixed together.) You also got me motivated to do more for the food bank. Tuesday evening I bought a bunch of Cheerios for less than $1 a box which I will donate. With practice hopefully, I will get better with couponing. Thanks for the blog and good luck with your future projects.
You did an amazing job! So glad to see you pulled it off. For the record, peanutt butter and bananna sandwiches are a staple in our house! I’ll give you another smoothie idea – make your peanut butter and bananna smoothie and add half a package of hot chocolate! I’m a mom of 4 – 6 in our family. It’s hard to do $6 a day, but we do live on about $200 a month thanks to coupons! hmmm….i guess that is just about $1 lol – didn’t even realize it!
Congratulation! Thank you for sharing, like the other readers I’ve enjoyed your posts. I wish you all the best with the other projects ^_^
10,000 snuggly bearhugs to you!
Awesome!!!! Read your whole blog in one night. Congrats, on completing the challenge. Still am trying to grasp the concept and see if I can work it to my advantage. Your witty commentary made it so enjoyable to read. Keep up the good work. What a fun read…
I am reading your blog and are up to
day 30.I had a couple of questions
that may be answered when I read the
rest of the blog.I noticed you house
sit, is that what you for a living?
Also does your CVS have the green bag tag program? That extra buck could have helped you a lot! I think
you did a amazing job!
First off, congratulations for your accomplishment.
Second off, I read your entire post/blogs for 100 days in one sitting. Very entertaining. You should make them into a book. The proceeds could help out the food bank some more.
Third, thanks for making my personal couponing adventure not seem nearly as crazy as some people think it is:)
Fourth, I have had similar problems/tests with the digestive system as you have, and I am curious if you have gotten a definitive diagnosis and/or if your newer “healthier” diet has helped with your digestive problems?
Valerie
@Valerie
Glad you enjoyed the read. Still no definitive diagnosis on the digestive issues, but it hasn’t been an issue except when I decided to run a half marathon.
i was wondering how you use multiple coupons on one transaction… don’t coupons usually say something like “one coupon per customer”?