thirty-one on one hundred

Day 32: Breaking habits

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:19:30 -0400

I made it. Which means I’m off to go spend 1/5th of what I spent on food this whole past month on one day’s brunch and coffeehouse niblets.

Wow, that makes me feel guilty.

Day 31: Conclusions

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:10:00 -0400

Okay, I wussed out on blogging this month. Consider it a reflection on me, rather than on the plan: I did in fact manage to finish out the month under $100. No, today’s not over yet, but I’ve got my final few meals planned and stocked. Unless I develop a sudden and uncontrollable need for a pint of Haagen-Dazs, I’ll end the month at $97 and change.

I should clarify that the reason I started this project was not doubt that a person could eat on $100 for a month; it was doubt whether I could go from the habit I’d developed of eating out for about two out of every three meals to cooking just about every one for a month. I’ve managed it, and could have done so on around $80 or less if necessary—several times I rewarded myself for a good day or, ridiculously, for having gone X long on Y amount of money.

The first couple weeks of the month, I focused fairly heavily on eating freely available, pickable food, and even considered going dumpster-diving. I haven’t done the latter, and have largely avoided the need for the former during the second half of the month. Turns out it’s entirely possible to eat from a small-town supermarket for $100 for a month, if you’re careful and get to know what they’ve got—and if you don’t mind a serious amount of repetition.

That’s my biggest complaint about this month: I have eaten more zucchini (brought to the office in large quantities by a coworker with an overflowing garden), potatoes (8 lb. bag for $1.69), sweet corn (six ears for $1.29), eggs (18 for $1.50), and more pasta (2 boxes for $3) than I’m entirely comfortable with. While I’m sure I will be eating out this month a fair amount out of sheer relief at being able to, I will also be putting some serious time, effort, and money into cooking some more complex and fun dishes—and buying stupid, simple things like peanut butter and grape jam that I couldn’t afford this month if I also wanted necessities like cooking oil and butter.

Missing mushrooms and tofu (with one exception each) from my diet for a full month was as frustrating as I expected. I managed to fit one pint of ice cream and a loaf of banana bread (well, the components thereof) into my budget over the course of the month, but I have no doubt I am slightly healthier—if unwillingly so—as a result of the dearth of sweets I’ve been suffering.

Getting my bike early this month made this whole experiment far more reasonable. Being able to bike out to the supermarket on the edge of town and back in just a few minutes made shopping much less of a chore; I will be much more likely to cook for myself in the future because acquiring components is less of a hassle. I suspect the fact that my weight hasn’t actually changed much hides a not-insignificant change in body mass from fat to muscle since I started riding more regularly. On a couple of occasions this month, I started a >4 mile circuit halfway through my lunch break and got back before it ended; while I complain about the flatness of Ohio sometimes, it has its benefits.

The tomato plant I bought hasn’t given me any tomatoes yet, but then I haven’t been as solicitous of it as I ought to have been. I plan to retrieve two tomato plants that I’ve spotted lurking around campus in flowerbeds where they don’t belong, and relocate them to provide the Nyagous with friends.

Several times this month, I’ve found myself planning a future veggie garden: the three sisters in one section, some heirloom tomatoes and peppers with purslane and dandelion companion crops, carrots, daylilies for the buds, perhaps some nasturtiums for salads, basil and other mints, thyme, and some other herbs… potentially a lot of work, but also very handy for cooking with and cultivating a more relaxed mind. Once I’m more certain about being in the same place for more than a year, I will probably find space and start laying it out.

All in all, this month has been a great learning experience but I am sure as hell ready to be able to ‘afford’ the occasional meal out or unplanned snack, not to mention some variation in my diet.

Project 31on100: Success.

P.S. - If you’re curious what I’m eating tonight, it will be a giant tofu, broccoli, pepper, purslane, dandelion leaf, and bamboo shoot stir fry over rice, possibly with some eggs for protein and texture. Never believe it’s not possible to eat healthily for one on a very low income; I haven’t gone a day without delicious, healthy vegetables in at least two weeks, not counting fast days, and protein hasn’t even been close to an issue.

P.P.S. - Far more even than variation in my food intake, I have missed the social aspect of food; not being able to invite friends out to brunch, lunch, or dinner put something of a crimp in my social life, particularly opportunities to interact with certain friends. I look forward with great enthusiasm to not having to respond to invitations to dinner with, “I’d really like to, but I ‘can’t afford’ to until the end of the month.”. It’s extraordinarily embarrassing even when I can go on to explain about 31on100; I sincerely hope to never again have to say it because it’s really true.

Still Alive

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:42:49 -0400

(This was a triumph.)

But seriously, with five days to go in the month, I’m not dead and I’m still under $100 (with plenty of food left). I’ll write more soon, but now I have to be busy working.

Catching Up

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:18:07 -0400

My elaborate plan to go for a 20-mile bikeride today has been put on hold by a sudden attack of not-wanting-to. Plus my body isn’t wildly pleased about the 18 miles I sprang on it out of nowhere the last three days. Perhaps I’ll try tomorrow.

Since I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here, on Thursday I picked up a bike after not riding one for the past several years. It feels fantastic to be back in the saddle, but as my body is reminding me today, I’m horribly out of shape.

In terms of food, on Thursday I treated myself to the cheapest dinner in town at a Mexican-inspired restaurant called Agave. They have super nachos and half nachos, and the half nachos are a full meal in themselves.

Unfortunately, they didn’t taste very good to me and I felt immediately guilty because this, the cheapest dish in town, cost SIX WHOLE DOLLARS. Given that I haven’t yet cooked anything for myself that cost even three, that feels like an awful lot of money to throw away. I won’t be doing that again until the end of the month.

After biking eight and a half miles on an empty stomach yesterday, I attended a friend’s lunch party. There was venison and gravy, green beans, applesauce, and corn on the cob, followed by vegan peach cobbler. I defied the purpose of the last by adding serious dollops of whipped cream to it. It was the most I’ve eaten at one sitting since I started this experiment, and it was delicious. I’ll have to see what I can do for my friend in exchange one this month is over.

Part of the eight-and-a-half-mile bike ride yesterday involved picking up this week’s groceries. I had to pick up some necessary items like cooking oil and so forth, putting me a little bit over my budget for the week. Between that and the Agave splurge, I’m currently at $55.29 of my $100 for the month. Mind you, if I’m careful, that should take me to the 20th, and next week I shouldn’t need to purchase many or any kitchen staples like cooking oil.

My prize find this week was either the six ears of sweet corn for $1.29 (guess what I’ll be having for dinner tonight and tomorrow) or the three yellow squashes for $2 that I picked up at the farmers’ market in town. Oh, and the salad dressing I picked up means plantain, dandelions, and portulaca can be eaten as a standalone salad if I’m feeling lazy or somehow manage to run out of all my other food.

Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk of food has made me hungry—it’s time for breakfast.

Day 7 | Dinner Backyard’n’Broccoli Stir Fry New ingredient of...

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:51:00 -0400

Day 7 | Dinner

Backyard’n’Broccoli Stir Fry

New ingredient of the day: purslane, or as I prefer, portulaca. I found a few plants on campus, and with the addition of a handful of dandelion and plantain leaves and daylily buds combined with some broccoli, it made a fantastic stir fry.

Total approximate cost: $0.55

I casually picked up the greens and buds on my way home from work without deviating from my usual path or making the slightest dent in the edible plant population of Oberlin. The sushi rice and teriyaki sauce were given to me—forced on me might be more accurate—by a friend a while back. The only item that cost me anything at all was the broccoli. A very healthy, filling meal for practically free; extremely pleased with this.

Day 5 & Day 6

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:56:11 -0400

Forgive my disappearance. Yesterday wasn’t terribly interesting: cereal and milk for breakfast/lunch and spaghetti and tomato sauce with steamed broccoli on the side for dinner. Today was even less so; the last of the cereal with milk and banana for breakfast—I woke up unusually early—scrambled eggs and two slices of bread for lunch, and a bowl of ramen noodles, I am sorry to say, for dinner. I had to get out of the house to meet a friend in a hurry, so it seemed like a good moment to use my easy meal.

As this week winds toward its end, I’m finding myself a little bit freer with my food than I was to begin with. My worry was that the $25 I spent on the first of the month wouldn’t stretch the long first ‘week’; I’m no longer worried about that, and I’ve begun to anticipate that if I’m careful, I can reasonably splurge on eating out once or twice at the end of the month.

Unless I have some particularly brilliant stroke of culinary genius, experiment with some new or unusual ingredient, or manage to cook something for an absurd price, I may not blog every single meal from here on out. If it’s getting boring for me, it must be incredibly boring for anyone reading.

Day 4 | Dinner: All-American Sweet Corn In honor of...

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:37:00 -0400

Day 4 | Dinner: All-American Sweet Corn

In honor of Independence Day, six ears of sweet corn, buttered to perfection as the founders intended—using over-buttered bread. Obviously, you eat the bread once you’re done.

Approximate total cost: $2.35

The corn accounted for $2 of that cost; if I hadn’t allowed myself some Fourth of July gluttony, this meal could have cost under $2 and I could have saved some corn for use in a later meal.

Day 4 | Breakfast/Lunch

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:14:04 -0400

Cereal. Milk. Banana. Still inexpensive. Still tasty.

Sweet realisations.

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:30:00 -0400

I just posted this to Twitter:

I can’t decide whether the most frustrating thing about 31on100 is portion control or lack of sweets. Either way, it’s probably good for me.

About a minute later, I realised I have a box of gingerbread mix, as well as milk, sugar, cocoa, flour, eggs, and other items required for baking sweet things. I don’t plan on baking anything tonight—might as well save that for the holiday—but this is another reminder of a) how much food I didn’t even realise I had and b) how lazy I’ve been about cooking for myself.

If you have nothing more to eat.

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:20:29 -0400

idroppedcalculus:

Edible Flowers are flowers that can be eaten. Edible flowers may be preserved for future use using techniques such as drying, freezing or steeping in oil. They can be used in drinks, jellies, salads, soups, syrups and main dishes. Flower-flavoured oils and vinegars are made by steeping edible flower petals in these liquids. Candied flowers are crystallized using egg white and sugar (as a preservative).

Common Edible Flowers:

Artichoke (flower bud)

Broccoli (flower buds)

Cauliflower (flower buds)

Chamomile (for tea)

Chives (flowers or buds)

Chrysanthemum (flower)

Citrus blossoms (lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit)

Clover Daisies (Bellis perennis quills)

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale leaves, roots, flowers, petals, buds)

Daylilies (Hemerocallis buds, flowers, petals)

Elderflower (blossoms for drink)

Hibiscus Honeysuckle Jasmine (for tea)

Lilac (salads)

Moringa oleifera Nasturtium (blossoms and seeds)

Osmanthus fragrans (flower)

Pansies (Viola x Wittrockiana flowers, petals)

Pot Marigolds (Calendula officinalis petals with white heel removed)

Roses (Rosa petals with white heel removed, rose hips)

Sesbania grandiflora (flower)

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus buds, petals, seeds)

Violet (‘leaf and flowers in salads, candied flowers for pastry decoration’)

Zucchini blossoms (blossoms)

Source

I’m skeptical about lilacs, but brief research indicates the chrysanthemum tip is legit. A useful way to extend edible flower season into the autumn if you don’t mind making yourself unpopular with the neighbours.

Day 3 | Dinner: Cosmopolitan vegetable spaghetti Well, perhaps...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:11:00 -0400

Day 3 | Dinner: Cosmopolitan vegetable spaghetti

Well, perhaps not as cosmopolitan as I thought at first; broccoli, daylilies, and olives are all native to areas around the Mediterranean. But add some oregano, black pepper, seasoned salt, and creole for a little bit of a kick, and it tasted worldly enough. A little romano cheese didn’t hurt, either.

Total approximate cost: $1.06

It may have become apparent by now that I rarely cook to a recipe. That’s coming in especially handy at the moment, when I don’t necessarily have ingredients to make any particular meal. Whatever seems like it will taste good goes into a stir fry and gets supplemented by pasta or rice—even the pack of ramen I found at the back of a cabinet is as likely to be used as a carb supplement as it is to be eaten some evening when I’m feeling especially lazy. Simpler meals including only packaged goods (like spaghetti with tomato sauce) can be reserved for later in the week when I’ve run through the store-bought veggies; packaged goods won’t spoil if they go unused for a few days. My willingness to eat backyard greens also means I’m unlikely to go without veggies unless I’m too lazy to go out and pick them.

I’m pleased to report that a day later, I’ve experienced no ill effects from any of the green vegetables I harvested from around town. Perhaps I’ll pick up some salad dressing during my next shopping trip so I can do some proper backyard salads. Better still—does anyone know of a salad dressing that’s easy to make from ingredients commonly found in the kitchen? Let me know!

Discardian Musings

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:09:44 -0400

I’m not at all sure whether it’s directly related to 31on100, but so far today I’ve paid all my bills for this month, built two chairs that have been sitting in their boxes ever since Ikea delivered them, and am now in the middle of finally cleaning out my closet so I can build my dresser. This means throwing out a bunch of old clothes, possibly some books, and probably the CD player/tape deck I’ve been hanging onto since middle school.

Conveniently, I’m smack in the middle of the four-times-a-year holy ~week Discardia. Long story short, Discardia is a celebration of getting rid of things and thoughts you no longer need. It’s celebrated from each solstice and equinox to the following new moon. That means some instances of Discardia are three weeks long, and some are three days. This particular one ends a week from tomorrow, if you’re interested in joining me in celebration.

In addition to cleaning the closet (and desk, and sink, and pretty much everything else), I’ve found myself listening to Brother, a band that has always felt uniquely mine but which I hadn’t listened too much in the last year, burning Red Crystal incense, and generally harking back to an older version of myself—a version I’ve missed. I wonder how much of this is due to 31on100 (probably not much, given that I’m only three days into the project), how much is due to the beautiful summer weather, and how much to the fact that it usually takes me about a year to really adapt to any new life pattern (high school, college, the real world). I suspect a synthesis of the three, with the last item providing the most impetus—I’ve finally started adapting to my non-student status and the opportunities it provides me to pursue interesting projects.

In honour of Discardia, I ought to obey Strunk and White’s best-known exhortation: ‘Omit needless words.’ To that end, I’m done writing for the moment.

Day 3 | Breakfast

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:51:00 -0400

Nothing exciting, just a bowl of cereal and milk. I usually skip breakfast on weekday mornings because I tend to run late.

Approximate total cost: $0.73

I woke up with a list of things to do, many of them involving paying bills, and I’ve already burned through those. The last financial task was taking my snailmail checks to the post office, and it turned out the Oberlin Farmers’ Market across the street was still open. I snooped around since I hadn’t ever visited before—I know, I’m a terrible Obie—and came across a stand that had a pair of young tomato plants for $2 each.

I’ve been meaning to purchase a tomato plant, and since neither of these was bearing fruit yet—read, didn’t count against the $100—I decided to pick one up. The choice was between Nyagous and Amish Paste, both heirloom varieties. I’m not planning to make any tomato sauce, but I would definitely enjoy slices of a good meaty heirloom tomato, so I took a chance on the Nyagous. From what I’m reading, that was a good choice. Now I just have to figure out where to plant it, because I don’t think it can spend its whole life in my little apartment.

Once I’m a little more confident about spending a few years in one place, I’m definitely planning to keep a vegetable garden including things like tomatoes, basil and other herbs, perhaps some daylilies, and goosefoot, beans, squash, and other native crops—maybe even some corn if I have a decent-sized space. If planned and planted well, it could look pretty good and provide some real, fresh variety for the table.

Day 2 | Dinner

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:58:00 -0400

Backyard Lasagna/Quiche

No photo, I’m afraid, because it just wasn’t that pretty. Composed of some lasagna noodles given to me by a friend a couple of weeks ago (and forgotten about until now), two eggs, some cheddar cheese I had from before I started this project, yellow daylily buds, and plantain and dandelion leaves.

Approximate total cost (excluding cheese): $0.12

Twelve cents. Seriously. I’ve had worse meals at major restaurant chains, and I don’t mean McDonald’s. The only downside to this meal were some of the older plantain leaves, which were frankly gross—not because of their flavour, which was mostly fine, but because of their texture, which was incredibly tough and chewy. If you ever cook with plantain, make sure to get only young leaves.

The rest of the meal was very tasty. It’s hard to go wrong with eggs and cheese, and the young plantain and dandelion leaves tasted like slightly bland spinach, while the daylily buds contributed a more green-bean-like flavour and a mushroom-y texture. There was one absolutely delicious mouthful that I think must have contained the two dandelion buds I managed to find—dandelion buds are often used in stir fries due to being more flavourful than the rest of the plant. Some people even claim they taste like mushrooms. I’ll have to find some more to try.

As the month goes on, I’ll run out of the butter and cheese I had previously bought (and eventually the daylily buds as well, as the season winds on). Nevertheless, these first two days have made it clear to me that a determined person could eat at least two solid meals a day in an Ohio summer on much less than $100/month.

Disclaimer: If you can’t identify a plant with 100% certainty, you have absolutely no business eating any part of it. Unless you have extensive experience with plant identification, I don’t advocate scavenging your own food.

The expected privilege rage has surfaced.

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:23:35 -0400

I’m just going to get this out of the way: in my first two days of eating frugally, I’ve discovered that an absurd number of common weed and backyard species are edible. If I can cook and eat acorns and plantain and dandelions and violets and on and on and on, why the hell is anyone going hungry?

Someone is fucking things up. No one should be dying of starvation in a world this bountiful.

"Native Americans called the plant “white man’s footprint” or..."

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:56:45 -0400

“Native Americans called the plant “white man’s footprint” or “Englishman’s foot” because it appeared wherever white men went.”

- Plantago major - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conveniently, it also has a taste like that of “very bitter salad greens with a lingering aftertaste not unlike spinach”. At least in theory. Part of dinner tonight will be a plantain and dandelion salad (or possibly an omelette variant), so I’ll post again after I’ve tried it.

The upshot of the fact that dandelion and plantain leaves are edible is that one could probably live for a summer entirely off the backyard bounty of a two-block radius in Oberlin, if one were willing to swallow his pride and a very repetitive diet of plantain, violet, and dandelion salad and stir-fried yellow daylily buds. I’m not sure where this one would get his protein in that case, though.

Please pardon that last paragraph; I’ll try not to let it happen again.

Day 2 | Lunch Generic Honey Bunches of Oats—the generic cost...

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:15:00 -0400

Day 2 | Lunch

Generic Honey Bunches of Oats—the generic cost less than half of what the brand name cost—and a banana, with milk. I also ate a small chunk of cheese I had purchased before deciding to undertake this project, although I didn’t need it and regretted doing so almost immediately.

Approximate total cost (excluding cheese): $0.82

This project is making me realise just how much extraneous food I eat. If I had gone out to eat anywhere in this town, I would have spent at least six times as much (assuming I had lunch to go and didn’t tip) and probably eaten twice as much food, all of it rather less healthy.

In other news, I guess I’ve received my banana equivalent dose of radiation for today.

Day 1 | Dinner

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:37:00 -0400

A chunk of French bread (I acquired a giant loaf for $1.99 while shopping and stuck the rest in the freezer) and a (heaping) handful of sunflower seeds with a couple of leaves of basil—I have a basil plant and a growing urge to sacrifice it for one really excellent batch of sunflower-seed pesto. I intended for those to be individual snacks rather than dinner, but it’s gotten late so into the dinner category they go.

I’ll give a fuller accounting of my first shopping trip tomorrow.

"When newly opened, Viola flowers may be used to decorate salads or in stuffings for poultry or fish...."

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:04:55 -0400

“When newly opened, Viola flowers may be used to decorate salads or in stuffings for poultry or fish. Soufflés, cream and similar desserts can be flavoured with essence of Viola flowers. The young leaves are edible raw or cooked as a somewhat bland leaf vegetable. The flowers and leaves of the cultivar ‘Rebecca’, one of the Violetta violets, has a distinct vanilla flavor with hints of wintergreen, however, that is quite delicious in salads.”

- Viola (plant) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I’m aware of a number of edible plants, but this use of violets is news to me. Good news, since I’m about to go out and see what I can pick to supplement the food I purchased earlier.

The Rules

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:43:00 -0400

1. I am allowed to spend only $100 on food for myself this month. That money may be split across the month in any way and spent on any foodstuff or meal.

2. If a friend owes me lunch or dinner and offers to make good during this period, I am allowed to accept. I will accept such an offer no more than four times over the course of the month, although that shouldn’t be an issue since I can’t think of four people who owe me meals.

3. I am allowed to use any coupons or deals I can find or haggle. A major point of this exercise is to learn frugality.

4. I am allowed to dive for food if the mood (and an experienced friend) should take me. See previous re: frugality. Besides, I live in Oberlin—diving is something I always meant to try as a student and never got around to.

5. I am allowed to use the food already present in my home. Besides some useful spices, oils, and tea, this currently equates to a half-bag of sushi rice, a few lousy apples, about a pound of butter, and some cheese. Oh, and a partial bottle of white wine. Hopefully I can find creative ways to use them.

While not on the official list of rules, I will also be acquiring a bike in the next week or two and attempting to reduce my carb intake substantially. Losing some weight and getting back into decent shape are secondary but very desirable outcomes of this experiment.

If you’ve got any questions or suggestions, please let me know!