The million dollar question today is can you survive on 35 dollars for one week?
I have been chosen, along with 9 other FitFluential Ambassadors, to participate in this challenge, which is sponsored by Anytime Fitness. The challenge was inspired by Chuck Runyon and Dave Mortensen’s appearance on Secret Millionaire. (Did you see it?! We did, you know, because we are homeskillet Minnesota kids at heart out West!)
The challenge has provided me a total of $70 ($35 for me, $35 for Ryan) to eat 3 meals a day for the next 7 days.
The breakdown: 21 meals or 42 “plates,” with each plate costing about $1.67.
From the second I stepped into my first (of 4 – yes 4) grocery store, the hands were clammy and a sense of anxiety took over.
This food show I run around the Hoffman household doesn’t include boxed mac ‘n cheese, cookies, Ramen or Twinkies. It does include fro yo, but that’s only once a week, at a fro yo shop….and wow -> now I’m really getting off topic 🙂
Can You Survive on 35 Dollars for One Week
- Create 21 meals with the food I bought (all food pictured below)
- Photograph receipts, food, and meals
- Detail each day, RIGHT HERE, I’ll post the pictures and ingredients, directions, meal total cost and day total cost for you
Challengers will be judged by Anytime Fitness staffers based on budget, health, and taste. It also doesn’t hurt to get great feedback in the form of likes, shares, comments, etc.
- Share, like, comment, tweet or anything else your heart desires any of these posts/ideas. Use #Surviveon35
- Join in with me for the week if you feel inclined. It is an eye-opening experience, that’s for sure
- Come tweet with us during the culmination Twitter chat next Thursday, July 26th at 9 pm EST/8pm CST (Hashtag -> you guessed it: #SurviveOn35)
- The end. If you like what you see, just share it or join in
- Will you participate?
- Are you looking for health and on-a-budget ideas?
- Do you think you could do it?
- Ask me any questions!
You will heal. I will help.
I will definitely be following along to see how this goes! I’d actually like to try this (but I’m worried about my wine! :-))
Seriously, I’ll be very interested to see how this goes and to see the menus that you create. Good luck!
Thanks, Debbie! Ha…I’m worried about my wine, too!
Grab a bottle of $2 Buck Chuck! <3 Of course, one bottle won't last long… or at least it wouldn't for me!
Ha…thanks for the reco, Janine. I won’t be drinking this week:)
Wow! Good luck. I think this is an amazing and inspiring challenge.
Thanks, Carrie!
Love this idea. Is the food you have pictures of above for one person or two? Meaning $35 or $70. Looks like more than $35. Either way, it is a lot of great food for the money.
The fact that you had to go to 4 grocery stores shows how hard it is to find good, healthy food for low cost.
Thank you so much, Jason! The food pictures above total about $68 (I still have to show you all my receipts on here)! It’s $35/person, which is equivalent to food stamps.
Wow – impressed by your effort already.
I’ve recently switched to eating completely clean….no processed foods, no gluten (almost by accident – mostly as a result of eating no processed foods) and only whole grains. My grocery bill for myself hovers around $100. I’ve been trying to shave that down. Admittedly I end up throwing away some food at the end of the week because I just don’t get to it so there’s a management problem too. Will love to see how you do 🙂
Hey Kristy! Awesome for you:) Yes, it’s hard…very hard. Many times I’ll do things in bulk so I make sure I can cook it up and it stays good for awhile. I share that stuff this week, too! I can’t wait…hope you find some new stuff you love from what I make!
Wow! Love this idea and I have been hatching a similar plan with a group of friends and colleagues – however we were going to try for a specifically LOCAL slant on a budget…I eagerly await report on how this progresses and feel I’ll learn a lot from your experiences. Be well and Eat Inspired Today! Clea
Thank you, Clea! I LOVE the local aspect, too. I’ve actually been thinking about developing something like this for awhile now….tailored though to digestive + gluten free + on-a-budget. The wheels are spinning! Glad to have you follow along!
What is WinCo??
Ha ha…you guys don’t have one near you? We have one out here! It’s a grocery store. A cheaper one where I will get certain items every week. Plus, they have a GREAT bulk section!
You’re making a game out of something that millions of people have to actually live with? How many of you have actually gone without? This is disgusting.
I think the donation thing is great and all, but the idea behind this just strikes me as SO insensitive.
Hi Jacob,
I respect and appreciate your thoughts here. I have nothing to hide, and rather than “erase” your comment, I wanted to make sure I responded to it. You are 100% correct….I, personally, have never had to go without. I feel blessed, and I am thankful every single day of my life for the things I work hard for and the things I have been given.
I am sorry you feel that this is “disgusting.” If you knew me personally or even took 5 minutes to look around my blog, you would see that I give – give – give, and truthfully, there is nothing “disgusting” about how I live my life and the passion I have for humankind.
It is my hopes that #Surviveon35 helps people who are trying to be healthy while living on a budget, but that it also brings light to the fact that this is very hard to do for those who struggle, much less those who truly have to go without. There is nothing sexy or awesome about it.
I’m not taking away or saying you don’t appreciate the things you have. It would be a terrible thing for me to infer.
I’m sure you do “give, give, give,” again, I’m not attacking you as a person. I’m sure you are a wonderful woman. But it is disgusting. I can understand wanting to be able to eat healthy on a budget, so do that. There’s no need to “Live like you’re on welfare.” It makes me cringe just thinking about it. but I feel like the majority of the people taking part in this are completely missing the point. If you have a passion for human kind, instead of pretending to be poor for one week, maybe this week spend volunteering for a week at a food pantry, shelter, or kitchen. But hey, you might do that already, I don’t know.
For every one of you, there are 20 people who are just doing this to feel good about themselves. The idea that after this is done they can now say “Boy, that was hard, good thing I’m not poor! Im going to go back to living an awesome life!” What did they learn? Nothing. I think its a good intention, but a horribly insulting, bad idea.
There is no need to pretend for a week that you’re poor. Because you’re not. Its insulting. If you cant understand why anyone would even begin to be upset by this, than you are the wrong person to be taking this challenge. If you want to donate, donate. Don’t make a show of yourself. How many of these people are going to take the REAL approach? Walking to the local market where there are no real healthy food choices. Having to put water in their cereal because milk just wasn’t affordable. Eating maybe 2 meals a day? Again, good intention, bad idea.
And I don’t mean YOU when I say it, its all encompassing. I’m not attacking you in anyway. But when I became aware of this challenge, I didn’t believe it. I thought there was no way in hell people could see this as a good idea. I guess I was wrong. Its self serving. Its a way to make people feel good about themselves. I’m sure a very small fraction of the people participating will walk away with anything short of “Glad I’m not poor!” And if they do, great. But the reality is, people that you’re targeting to hope they learn, probably will never see this, they’re too busy trying to wonder how they can afford their electric bill to worry health challenges.
#surviveon35 should have had a lot more thought put into its approach and message
Again, I respect your thoughts, Jacob. It broke my heart to read some of your words.
Sarah,
I think this is a great way for people to learn how to eat well and live within their means, without spending a fortune on food. Its an exercise of planning, dedication, wellness and discipline. It’s shedding light on how hard it may be for lesser fortunate people to make ends meet. Perhaps it may inspire them to give more as a result and to understand how hard it may be. I think this is awesome and I’m glad you are sharing it.
Thanks, Jeanine! Hope you’re finding some info here that you can take an apply to your life! xo
I’m so excited to read and share this website. It’s awesome for me and cuts my excuses in half 🙂 Also, I have a friend at work that eats gluten free. I told her about this and she is so excited that I’ll be bringing her some good recipes this week (she doesn’t use internet much). thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It’s like Super Size me but backwards and better! haha
Yeah!!! You are welcome, Lori! Also for reference, if you go here -> (http://agutsygirl.com/tag/gluten-free/) you’ll find all the “gluten free” posts! 🙂
What a great challenge to be a part of! So needed and will certainly help a lot of people! xoxo
Thanks, Marissa!
I don’t even know where to start with all the things that are wrong with this! First of all, the “survive on food stamps” game is ridiculous – poverty is a sad reality for a lot of people and I can’t imagine this will go over well. I think it’s kind of degrading, actually. And people on food stamps don’t all eat twinkies and kraft dinner! You make it sound like some “Real Housewives” adventure where you venture off to the wrong side of the tracks go slumming for an adventure. I think this whole thing is terribly disrespectful.
I’m proud of the fact that I will even “approve” your comment. Again, as I’ve already mentioned, I have nothing to hide. There is not a bad, negative or degrading and disrespectful bone in my body. I’m far from a “Real Housewives” project and the people who actually read my blog from time-to-time vs. to attack me on something that had zero ill-will behind it would attest to this as well. Poverty is a sad reality. I don’t pretend to empathize; I can sympathize, but I have never once said that my goal with this project was to solve the world’s poverty problems single-handedly. This campaign was to bring light to the issue and to open our eyes as to what $35/week really is.
Wow Sarah! What a challenge. (But if anyone can do it, you certainly can!) I can’t wait to follow this week and see some of your recipes. (And who knows, even try one or two!) You go girl!
Enjoy!!!