Day 1: Getting Started

The Poverty Challenge was launched last night at our weekly YPN Trivia event and officially kicked off this morning.  I am behind the eight ball on this one and hadn't bought my groceries yet this morning.  If I hadn't already broken the rules and grabbed breakfast from the pantry I would've gone hungry today until I could find a way to the store.

In my usual life outside the challenge, my husband, Morgen, and I live in a four bedroom home in a nice neighborhood with our crazy, eight-month-old puppy.  As you can see from my bio, after several hundred years at university, I recently got my license to practice law and am working at a firm in Kenora.

I spent my lunch hour today carefully selecting groceries for the rest of the five days.  The tips sheet included in our Challenge packages suggested looking for store brands and cheaper items on the lower and upper shelves.  The name-brand products I would normally purchase were definitely out of reach on our $55 budget, and I ended up with a cart full of sale items and store-brand groceries (including an excellent deal on frozen perogies I got way too excited about).

Here is the haul I managed to get for $32.31.  My big ticket item was the brick of no-name cheese for $3.99.  Meat was not in the budget so this and the questionable peanut butter I bought will be some of my main sources of protein.