Eating Vegan on $3/Day: Day 3

Day #3. I'm getting better at this. Came in at $2.63 today & got in 7 servings of fruits & vegetables (well, if you count a few sticks of celery as a serving) - not counting potatoes as a vegetable. Cut back on the beans today and had dal for lunch and extra soy milk today. Much easier on the digestive tract.

Although it's hard sometimes to resist stuff that won't fit into the budget, I'm actually enjoying this. I'm eating very healthy & very consciously. 

The hard part: voluntarily saying "no" to stuff that definitely is not going to fit into the budget. However, Aldi's had kiwis at $.99 for 6 in a package. Hot dog! I also bought a cantalope for $.99. I can get at least six servings out of that. In other news, I boiled some red potatoes tonight and of 14 oz., only 10 oz. was usable because of bad spots. Still, they were cheap and really good with a little olive oil drizzled on them. I cut back on the beans today and had dal for lunch. It was a little easier on my digestive tract. This evening I realized I was coming in way under budget so I had salad - 8 oz. of tomato + tung-ho, a green leafy vegetable I get at Jay's International. At $1.69/lb. it's not as cheap as the kale, which was marked down, but still a good deal.

When I go into groceries now it's weird. It feels like an alien place. Everything suddenly looks very expensive, even the good deals. I am always looking for inexpensive dark green vegetables. I am managing to include fresh fruits and vegetables but when it gets tight, they are the first to go.

If it looks like I snack a lot, it's because I actually had more like four small meals and two snacks so one of the meals just got put into the snacks category. As it turns out, I really like the soy milk and drank a glass straight. I've never been a milk drinker of any kind except when I lived with dairy animals (a cow and later goats) because it was so good.

I'm getting better at this. Today's meals added up to $2.63. Here's the menu and the nutritional analysis. You'll notice I'm still coming up short on calcium. This is not unusual when I am not eating dairy products.

Tuesday Day #3

Breakfast
Same as yesterday: $.30
(Bran flakes, soy milk, banana, tea)

Lunch
Dal & rice             .42
Kale 70 g.            .15
Tea                      .01
           Total        .58


Dinner
Black beans &rice:    $.39
Tomato 8 oz.             .35
Tung-ho                    .18
Olive oil 1 ½ tsp         .05
Cider vinegar 2tsp     .02
            Total             .99    
                 

Snacks
3/4 cup soy milk           .03
Kiwi                               .17
Smashed potatoes         .15
PB & Celery                    .19
Carrots 4 oz.                 .15
½ cup brown rice           .07
            Total                 .76 


Total for the day:  $2.63


Calories:  1719
Protein:       69 g.
Total fat:     55 g.
Carbs:       306 g.
Calcium:     44% RDA