Welcome back after the holiday season!

Sorry for the short break, we have been so busy planning out our first few months of this blog.

We will be touching on a few different "Fad" diets in the coming months. We shall be eating on each of those fad diets for one month at a time and still be within the $20 limit.

Januray: Low fat, healthy
Feb: Low Carb, 2 weeks of Ketogenic
March: Healthy (Low Fat)
April: Healthy (Low Fat)
May: Vegetarian
June: Vegan
July: Gerson Diet plan
August: Gerson Diet plan (Requires 2 months to work normally)
September: Healthy (Low Fat)
October: Low Carb
November: Low Carb
December: Healthy (Low Fat)

Cant wait for the new year to start! Everyone has to begin to clip coupons around now for this diet to work. And print out a diet planner, such as this:
http://www.vertex42.com/Files/weekly-meal-planner_portrait.pdf

I love this meal planner, it also allows me to budget for each item I am buying.
For example, I will put "Carrots-$1". Which means the maximum amount I can spend is $1.

Later today I will post an example.

How to eat cheap on mall trips

Nick and I have been doing a lot of shopping recently. Also, we have been working our butts off trying to get promoted, get our degrees finished, and finalize our house purchase (Short sales=No fun for the buyer!).

Needless to say, we needed a bit of a release! After window shopping for around a hour (Okay...Maybe I got a dress and a sweater....And a big union jack trunk...) we were hungry and thirsty.

Because I am frugal, I always carry around a power bar in my bag. Also I carry round a reusable coffee cup (for car rides...Saves the $10 trip to Dunkin), and a bottle of water.

Nick was really REALLY hungry and decided he wanted some Chinese food. At $7 for a plate, its kinda pricey I think! So instead of both getting one $7 meal, we split it. It was very easy to do and the staff at the establishment did not mind one bit. It saved us from having to both buy a plate and a drink. We shared my water and were pretty full after. I think chewing the food slowly, and drinking water between each bite really helped us stay full.


Another piece of news yesterday... I got Tonsilitus...AGAIN! I get this around 5 times a year and the ENT doctors still wont remove them. It drives me insane, but I guess they are there for a reason.
After a panicked call to my sister in law, we got a antibiotic script called in to our local grocery store.
Now, this grocery store has a deal where some Prescription Antibiotics are FREE. You heard that, FREE!
I got a 14 day supply and it made me feel great not having to spend more money.

However, today we have blown the budget. We just brought some storage trunks to keep our stuff in before we move. They are pricey but so useful... We managed to get up to 50% off each one by shopping around. I am still tempted to go back and get the BIGGEST one there. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be stored...

Well that's my random entry for today. I feel kinda worn out being sick, so this article is kinda all over the place.

A thought for Vegans

This week Nick brought me home some rather odd looking sushi. Normally when I ask for my "Avocado Roll" I get a sushi roll topped by avocado. This time I sent Nick and actually got something completely different. It was some rice paper with avocado, cucumber and carrots inside. It came with a sweet red chilli dressing and it was very good.

The amount of calories in this dish was perfect. A round 200 calories and I was full for a very long time. However it did cost $6 when buying it from the store.

I found a way to buy the rice wraps online and save myself $4. And if I grew the vegetables at home, my cost would me minimal. I love avocado and cucumber. Its refreshing and very healthy.

So after all this research and thinking, it came to my attention that Vegans must have a really great immune system. As well as a cheaper shopping trip.
One week next year we will keep to the $20 budget, and eat completely vegan. I think we will loose a lot of weight. But I am also worried about loosing some muscle mass. Its definitely food for thought.

We are still here!

Very very busy setting up for the new year :) Nick will be doing a post on Thursday evening about some items we are getting for Christmas to help us with our journey in the New Year.

Happy Leftover Day!

It also happens to be "Black Friday" but since the blog is about food, I thought this subject was more apt.

I work at an electronics store, and today was HUGE for us, so we were working solid for about eight hours helping customers. We opened at 5:00 am, had people working at 2:00 am. Since it was so busy, the company bought us breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was coffee (desperately needed) and bagels with cream cheese. Lunch was ham sandwiches from the Honeybaked Ham Store, with chips and soda's and bottled water. Definitely beats the pants off of pizza, and way healthier.

Dinner was, of course, lots of leftovers. Turkey, stuffing, broccoli and potatoes (sweet and whipped). There was also blueberry and apple pies which were amazing yesterday, but the leftovers proved to be too filling. I might sneak out for a midnight slice, but the tryptophan in the turkey will probably freeze me in place for the night.

The dog also had thanksgiving leftovers... If Katie didn't mention it before, we found a can of wet dog food that was basically the doggie version of thanksgiving dinner including turkey, potatoes and other treats. He's a tiny little guy so he didn't eat it all, so the leftovers were chilled and he had them today.

The meal was originally pretty costly as far as dinners go with turkey and stuffing and several sides, but it was all put together by my mother and didn't actually cost us anything as far as I can recall.

Total cost for the day: $0.00

Happy Thanksgiving.

Getting ready to take the blog world by storm, coming up with a few more posting ideas. :)

A lot of people have expressed interest in this blog, and we seem to have a lot of non believers!

Today we are having a feast, and running it off later. Yesterday I (K) ran 4 miles and did 30 mins on the elliptical...As well as some free weights. 900kcal total, just to get ready for today. Hopefully tonight I can get in some Plyometrics and cross training.

The key to this $20 a week journey is planning. At the start of the week we will show you what we are buying, what our plan was, and our food shopping trip. We will do a blog, youtube video, and a podcast. So every week you can follow along. Its going to be fun, and a great way to save money.

People are wondering what exactly we are going to do with the money, firstly, we are going to put some in to a 401K. Secondly, we are going to be improving the house we are hopefully buying, and working on our goal to have it paid in 9 years.

Eventually, I would like to get health insurance too. As a sufferer from Crohn's disease, it would be great to eventually be insured.

We are very lucky to have family and friends supporting us through this journey, and people have to realize we cannot eat out anymore. We are going to be the most annoying people for the entire year! But hey! We got a point to prove in todays economy.

What else was there..... This is a very unplanned blog post!

Oh yes! We are kicking the soda habbit. Only teas and water for a year. :) I wonder how that will feel... Another thing is that we will be working on 3 books on eating cheap and cooking. There are so many cookbooks, but none address the cost factor.

So this weeks goal for my reader:
Get your spice cabinet organized. Spices are the key to "Spicing it up!" Haha! They are essential to making food interesting.

Ask for a slow cooker for Christmas, and also some food storage containers.

Think of 10 goals you would like to accomplish next year. Write them down, and stick to them. Put them on the mirror. Put them on the fridge, and put them on your door!

Find your local farmers marker too. This is essential to eating cheap.
We will also start planing vegetables once we are in the new house.

That's it for now!

What are we doing for fitness in the New Year?

Since I am a PT, our fitness will consist mainly of marathon training. Burning around 500-600kcal a day.

We have tried body building and figure diets before, but to be honest....Its so expensive!
We spent around $200 a WEEK on good quality protein. Not to mention, the 3 protein shakes a day that we made. Until I can figure out a way to get a high amount of protein cheaply, I don't think this is a good option for us.

Running has always been my weakness, if I am honest, I hate it. But I know often, its the things we hate that get us the best results. I will be averaging around 20 miles total a week, with some cross training thrown in there. I will be also training my clients on a daily basis, and often joining in with them.

Its been a dream of mine for a long time to get rid of my hips, I really REALLY hate them. Hopefully a years worth of solid working out and eating cheap and good will help.

That's all for now folks!

Introducing, Nick! The husband and leftover-eater-upper.

Greetings, viewers!

I'm Nicholas, but most people call me Nick. I'm Katie's husband whom you will undoubtedly hear a lot about in the coming weeks on the blog, since I and my appetite will be making it difficult for her to keep her budget under control.

That's what I think is the most interesting thing about this idea. Is it possible for one person to survive on a minimalist budget week-to-week? Of course it is. I was a bachelor once, I could eat ramen noodles and cheap pizza for months at a time and spend peanuts by the end of the week. The real challenge comes from the circumstance here. We're feeding me, Katie, and on the odd occasion we need to refill the dog's dish (he's a pig, but a little one. A piglet.)

That stretched along seven days, plus the fact that our schedules are NEVER in sync, plus the business with the house we're working on purchasing, plus school for both of us, plus homework for both of us, divided by stress... How easy is eating cheap sounding now?

This reminds me of the Good/Fast/Cheap triangle. You can only pick two. So I can try to work in my crazy schedule with something fast and good, but it won't be cheap (e.g. a nice microwave dinner from the supermarket, about 4 bucks, every day for lunch for a week equals 20 bucks already) or i could go for fast and cheap, and suffer the stomach punching consequences of a knee-jerk taco bell run.

To reel it in a bit, what you should expect from me on this blog is how I fit this new 20 dollar idea into my (our) schedule. Talk again soon!

Easy ways to save money.. COUNTING DOWN TO $20 A WEEK!

We are getting ready for the $20 a week challenge starting January 1st… We are both A little bit nervous, but very excited.
In the run up to this challenge we will recommend you splurge on a few items before the 1st.
• Stock up on any 2 for 1 deal you can keep in your pantry for the year. For example, we stock up on diced tomatoes, jarred pasta sauce, pasta, and tuna. You have no idea how often this is going to save your day!

• Buy some flour for making bread in bulk. It’s going to be a lot easier to make your bread from scratch than to buy it. Not to mention it will not be full of garbage to keep it “fresh”.

• Take some measurements, including your weight and waist size, before the 1st January. This will be a starting point to see how much you can lose in 365 days.

• Practice saying “No!” You don’t need to go out and spend $5 on a premium beer, or $1 on a McDonald’s item. Keep it fresh and healthy.

• Take out $20 CASH for your first week, and find an old calculator to keep with you for those shopping trips. The $20 is all you are allowed to take.

• Start meal planning, get used to planning your meals for the week, and what you can take to work for leftovers.


• Think of a exercise goal for next year. Whether it is running a marathon, or simply walking up the stairs without gasping for air.

That’s it for now kids…Sorry it’s been quiet the past few days. We have had company over and have been busy preparing the new Podcast.

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Also please let us know what you would like to see on the blog....Another entry is coming up!