The Price of Money

So far in my project, I have been preoccupied with how much I am spending. It is one of the goals of this project to live off of a college budget for food. From some brief inquiry on Google, college students can average $100 to $300 a month on groceries. So far I have spent $271.49 on food (this does include starting with a bare kitchen). Of food I have consumed, I am averaging $4.67 per day. This means on average $32.70 per week or approximately $130 per month.

I think in this first month that it is possible to survive on organic whole non processed food while keeping a strict budget. The key word here is survive. In the next weeks, I am still going to tally everything I eat as detailed as ever, but I am going to start incorporating in more expensive items, such as meat (yes Jenny, I will eat meat). I need to focus on creating a balanced diet now, which requires more expensive fats, oils, and protein. This means my expenses will go up and I hope to still stay under $200 a month.

On a side note, here at Ball State, students in the resident halls have meal plans. They come in 10, 14, 18, or 21 meals a week. Consider a student that plans to eat all their meals on campus (21 meals). The breakfast swipe is worth $4.45 (note this is almost as much that I spend per day on average), lunch is worth $7.85, and dinner is worth $7.85. That means the student is spending at least $20.15 per day. I say at least, because as a former meal plan user I tended to go over my allotted swipe and would use my dining plus (extra money allotted by the meal plan) to pay for it. Back to calculations, the student spends $141.05 (how much I spend in a month) per week, and $564.20 per month. I am saving 75% on my food by making it myself. Given the example I gave was the extreme one, I would still be saving money compared to the 10 meal plan.

How do you save money when you cook?