One Hundred Dollars a Month

Yesterday I woke up around 5 am {that’s sleeping in for me} and made a cup of tea. No sugar, no milk. By the third cup {I re-used my tea bag} I had pretty much decided tea without sugar or milk is AWFUL. I was left wondering if I will still be drinking tea at the end of this 30 day challenge.

For breakfast I had three options to choose from: Strawberry Cream of Wheat, Strawberry Oatmeal and Multi Grain Cereal. I started with the Strawberry Cream of Wheat because of the simple fact the bag has 20 servings. With only 3 choices for breakfast, I know I’m going to need to rotate what I can eat as much as possible.

Breakfast – Strawberry Cream of Wheat {220 Calories}

It was really good! I am a big fan of Cream of Wheat anyways and I love the fact that there is a wee bit of sugar and some strawberry juice powder in the mix for a little added sweetness.

During the morning hours I drank 3 cups of hot tea and 2 bottles of water.

Lunch and Dinner – Pasta Primavera {760 calories – 380 calories per serving}

Throughout  the rest of the day I drank 5 bottles of water.

I was surprised at how good the pasta primavera actually was. In real life, I probably would have eaten a double serving at both lunch and dinner. But I realize part of being in an emergency situation is rationing out your food. And the {mental} adjustment period that comes along with that is probably the hardest part.

The bag said 5 servings… so to make life a little easier, I went ahead and made the whole bag at once and divided up the portions.

I guess it looks like I’ll be eating pasta primavera for lunch and dinner on Tuesday and for lunch on Wednesday as well. Luckily, this stuff was pretty tasty, and if the zombies were not outside my door clamoring to get in, I would probably venture outside and harvest some sugar snap peas or other fresh vegetables to accompany the pasta.

Total Calories Consumed on Day 1 –  980 calories

Total Beverages Consumed on Day 1 – 3 cups of tea 7 bottles of water {I’m using this to drink out of}

The hardest part about day one?

Having to stop myself from getting something to snack on from the goodie drawer in the kitchen. Spirits are high and I feel like I can totally do this.

Something to think about:

The Value Kit {85 servings, which is what I am testing out} has everything you need to get started for a 1 month food supply kit and is based on 2 things:

1. Price point so that people can start their food storage in some way.

2. You are supplementing the kit with beans, rice and other items you are already storing.

If I would have thought this through and actually planned this experiment out a little better, I would have requested the Premium Kit because it comes with 205 servings and was especially designed to feed 1 person for an entire month {and it even comes with pancake mix!!!} Or, I would have set aside some beans and rice to supplement my Value Kit.

In fact, after my surprise blog post yesterday about my crazy experiment, James, co-founder of Valley Food Storage offered to send me the Premium Kit. Wasn’t that sweet! But I’m still thinking about it. Because really, I would hate to go back on my initial plan. I was seriously so excited when my box of emergency rations came so like practically everything I do, I jumped in feet first without thinking too much about it.

I guess what I’m saying is… I really want to try this. I really want to see if I can do what I set out to do {even if I forgot the beans and rice}. Yes, I’m sure at some point it will be uncomfortable, but what if this was my only option. What if I really only had this one box of food to last me for 30 days. Maybe it’s more about will power. Or maybe I’m just crazy.

Who knows.

~Mavis