The Challenge Explained

What's the Challenge? Starting this morning, I will not spend more than $25 on any food or drinks for the next 25 days.

The Rules: Food or drink purchased anywhere counts against the $25.
If someone gifts me food or offers to take me out, this doesn't count. However, I can't ask someone to buy anything for me. That's just not fair.
I will post what I eat and drink every day to keep myself accountable.
If I come up with any delicious creations, I'll post the recipes.

The Stakes: If I go over my $25 limit I will not eat anything but plain, unbuttered toast on Christmas day. Given how much I love food, and given that the food on Christmas will likely be a broad array of deliciousness, I think this will be a fitting punishment and incentive.

Why the Challenge?: I went to bed last night feeling thankful and guilty. This is because I've realized recently how easy it would be to become homeless and hungry without the support of loving friends and family. Happily for me, I have an abundance of amazing people near and not-so-far, so in spite of my low paying job, the student loans I have in repayment, and my credit card debt, I have a roof over my head and food in my cupboard. In fact, I have lots of food. Perhaps too much food.

I've realized that I tend to overbuy food and hoard it slightly, for reasons that I'll address in a later blog. Anyhow, it's occurred to me that this is clearly a waste of money that I don't have. I have things that I bought months ago and still haven't used, so it's also a waste of potential food adventures.

For all of these reasons, and because I like setting challenges for myself, I have decided that until Christmas I will not spend more than $25 dollars on food. This will be a challenge of my will power, but I won't be challenged to stay fed -- I am confident I will not run out of food.

Why the blog?: I like to be held accountable, and that's where this blog comes in. If I didn't make my goal public, I would likely give up rather than follow through. I can recognize that at times this blog will be boring, like perhaps this post, but nevertheless just putting it out there makes me feel a greater sense of responsibility to go through with it.