And it was all downhill from there...

As the saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". After proclaiming, a tightening of the purse strings, a "concerted" effort I believe were the words, to buckle down for the last stretch and bring my balance back closer to $12 a day, I lost my way and down the slippery slope I went.

After a good little stretch where I spent only $5 and $0, I came home after a very long day, starving and suggested we go out to dinner as a family. Now mind you I don't believe we had dined out at any other time this month and we did go buffet, which was reasonable, but still – we went out. Bam, $25 right there and then it literally was all downhill.

For some crazy reason, I can only attribute to a delayed reaction to my perceived restraint, I started obsessing about certain food items, not unlike when one goes on a diet and then all you can think about is food. I began indulging cravings. First, it was $16 on ingredients to recreate a nostalgic and exotic dish, then a compulsion to stock up on sale items but at the organic grocer!! and then a general replenishing of a number of comfort foods we had simply gotten low on.

I will say, I did stop buying organic milk after discovering Canada does ban growth hormones in dairy. Not quite ready to completely abandon my social agenda, I did purchase it from a local small dairy but at a $1 difference as opposed to $5.

So basically, what I'm trying to say is, I ate my words – literally. Instead of triumphantly finishing the month proving to myself I could live on $12 a day, I lost my resolve and started shopping with not quite abandon but new found gusto. 

What I will say is $12 means forgoing, compromising and strategizing in order to keep costs down. This last week's hurrah means I leave February almost $100 over and with a $15 daily average.

Friday Spent: $27.60 ($25 dinner out with family, $2.60 transit)
Saturday Spent: $10.90 ($7.70 groceries, $3.20 transit)
Sunday Spent: $26 (more food indulgences)
Monday Spent: $26 (yup, groceries)
Tuesday Spent: $34 (still more groceries)
Wednesday Spent: $6 (sensing a pattern: food)

Food Insecurity

I don't do big weekly grocery shops. I don't clip coupons (although perhaps I should). I kind of admire people who 'stock up' when there are sales but that's just not me. My pantry is rarely full but I can cobble together a meal most days. I watch for deals but I don't go out of my way for them. Then one day my shopping habits changed. Yes, I started a blog and tried to live on $12 a day but that's not it.

One day, I was at my local supermarket standing in a long line with a few items behind a woman with a grocery cart absolutely filled to the brim. When she got to the cashier, she pulled out a stack of flyers, flyers from other stores and was wordlessly pointing to various items on various pages. She had multiples of each item and it was clear English was not her first language. Then I realized what she was doing – she was pointing out all the sales at the other stores and having the cashier match them – item by item in her massive shopping cart. Not one generally known for patience in these kind of situations, I surprised myself. Instead of feeling frustration (not at the shopper but by the lack of clerks and long lines), I felt a sense of awe and respect for what I was witnessing – extreme shopping smarts. I noted on the wall beyond the registers a huge sign stating the store's "lowest price" policy. I'd seen it many times but it never registered before then. They actually mean it!

Hibernating is cheap

With a long weekend upon us and the beginning of my Spring Break, we found ourselves with no plans to head south, to a spa or a ski hill instead we opted to stick close to home and just relax. Other than one grocery shop and a couple little excursions, we managed to be entertained and entertain rather simply. The result – a really fun and restorative weekend that didn't cost much. And to top it off, we barely got out of our pjs!  

Food continues to eat up the bulk of my spending and since this experiment grew rather quickly and organically without a proper plan of action or budget in place I thought I'd start actually trying to find ways to whittle down my food costs a bit more. I like to bake and since the beginning of this month my supplies had been dwindling to the point I actually ran out of all the staples: flour, sugar, baking powder, etc. I had been avoiding making extra purchases until I finally ran out and decided I would make a trip to the bulk store and stock up in a spend thrift manner. I figured I would document the additional savings to be had by buying in bulk and present a cost comparison here. Well, I'm glad I did because the results were actually surprising to me.

Paying it Forward

As I pass the midway mark on this month's $12 a day experiment, I realize a couple things. One, although my average spending has been hovering between $13-14 a day (a tad over $12) I have been operating in a deficit since Day 3 and the 'debt' continues to grow unchecked. Two, I haven't felt like I'm missing much.

The biggest compromise I have made so far along this journey was to not attend a special yoga workshop last weekend by a visiting instructor whose practice I enjoy immensely and was looking forward to for quite awhile. When it came down to it, the cost for the one hour class was $35 and right up until that weekend, in the back of my mind, I was planning to go...then I actually started to question the expense and my commitment to this experiment and decided it wouldn't be right. And, so I didn't.

Taking Stock

A classmate of mine, who is new to this country and our Valentine traditions, asked me a good question today, "How do I explain to my 3 year old what Valentine's Day is about?"

Not having quick knowledge of all the historical facts surrounding St. Valentine and pagan fertility festivals and quite sure it might be lost on a 3 year old, I said she could simply say today is a day we are reminded to appreciate those we love (whether we should be prompted to or not is another debate entirely). Wanting to show my family a little love and not get sucked into the commercial consumption that amounts to a reported $15 billion dollars annually (the average Valentine shopper spends $126/per person!) I hit the 'net in search for a truffle recipe that was both easy and for which I already had the ingredients. Success! I found "So Easy Homemade Truffles". The name was truthful and understated. They were both so easy and so delicious – dangerously so. And even after splashing out on decorative tins I had spent nowhere near $126.00 because as we all know money can't buy you love so why bother.

"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

– Lucy Van Pelt (from Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz)

Monday Spent: $13.00 (mostly groceries and a couple dollar store heart shaped tins)
Tuesday Spent: $10.80 ($5.20 transit, $5.60 lunch)

Let it snow, let it snow...

The Universe continued to provide this weekend. While an unexpected change in the weather put a crimp in my plans to bike/walk for the rest of this month a couple welcome offers of lifts from other parents to and from the children's activities made our travels infinitely smoother than anticipated. And free!

This weekend also happened to boast a bevy of fun FREEBIES to keep us busy, happy and socializing with our friends and neighbours.

On Saturday between their lessons, the kids wanted to make Valentines for their classmates. From year to year we waffle between buying the standard commercialized box or entertaining grandiose plans of elaborate homemade Valentine's – while really sweet does take quite an amount of time and the craft supplies do add up. This year I decided to take a look online and see what we could find that would be somewhat original and not so time-consuming.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

I knew food would be the hard one but I didn't realize how hard. It's becoming abundantly clear how much of our money goes to food and how hard it is to shop on a such a meager budget. It's the daily food decisions that are the tricky ones.

So far, it's actually been easy to cut all unnecessary spending but challenging to change my shopping habits when it comes to what we eat. I'm not someone who insists on buying high-end or name brand products but I am discerning when it come to some things. I feel very strongly about buying fair trade and organic when I can. Not to say that everything I buy has to meet those standards but I am particular about a few things. When it comes to chocolate or coffee I pretty much insist on fair trade, and usually hand-in-hand, organic.

Coffee and chocolate are my two great loves but I really don't like to support the slave trade or do undue damage to the earth – call me crazy. So that means one of two things, I don't buy it or I accept that the indulgence will cost and I'd rather be the one to absorb that cost than marginalized producers that aren't given the choice.

Laws of Attraction

The lessons to be learned aren't always the most obvious ones. Today I had an extremely trying day and one of the foremost thoughts on my mind as I cycled home was, "I'd really love a glass of wine" which was quickly followed by, "I really need to get my spending in check".

After yesterday's curfuffle, I really wanted to get things back on track and try to bring my balance closer to zero. I hadn't spent a cent and then remembered I had to pick up a book for one of my kids on my way home ($10.50) and, of course, there was a few groceries ($13), too.

But as I sat down to a late dinner,  I was happily interrupted by a couple of neighbours bearing a gift – a bottle of wine – sensing I could use it. I've been a believer in the power of positive thought or manifesting long before "The Secret" came out. The results have been evident in my life far too many times to ignore.

Time Management 101

I knew today would be tricky from the onset. I had a paper due, interviews scheduled for the morning, class all afternoon and a reception in the evening. This meant I would be running around quite a bit and unless I was super organized, eating on the run.

While I do have amazing multi-tasking powers, time management is not necessarily my forté. It had been part of my master plan to purchase a day pass ($10.50) in advance to get around. I figured biking might be too slow and I had to go in 4 different directions throughout the day. Right from the start I was running late and had to grab a cab to my first interview ($10). I know, that's really bad. I contemplated actually not even divulging that info but went for full disclosure. My interview was a no show so I bought tokens ($7.80), figuring it was more economical with one less trip at this point, and headed to campus.

"Curse a Fair February"

$7.80 in transit fare was all I spent today. That seemed good and bad. Good that I didn't need to make any purchases today but extraordinary that a simple return trip with the kids ate up almost 2/3 of my daily allowance.

In considering what I would and wouldn't count as expenses, I decided I had to leave transportation in. It's a reality pretty much everyone, regardless of situation, has to face and when you are car-less and on a limited budget sometimes making a trip or not comes down to how much coin is in your pocket. Today, I was kind of kicking myself because I was out of tokens and had to pay the slightly higher cash fare as a result. I did have tickets for the kids.

Souper Bowl Weekend

I admit I'm making up the rules as I go along but since it's my challenge and I'm hoping no one will get hurt in the process I feel it's okay. I did spend money this weekend but I'm going to be selective in what I count. This might be construed as cheating but I have my reasons.

As previously mentioned, we are car-less by choice (and to be honest, for financial reasons, too) and Saturday I had to give my mate, and a bunch of his gear, a lift to a work site and pick him up again later in the day. This meant I needed to book an Autoshare which amounted to almost $40 but since it will be reimbursed as a work expense I'm not counting it.

Healthy Eating can be Expensive

I was still grappling with whether I was actually going to fully commit to this $12 a day challenge I had proposed to myself but in the interest of trying to keep my spending down coupled with the fact I was trying to get more exercise, I decided to bike to school today saving $5.20 in transit tokens. It certainly helps that we have been experiencing a particularly mild winter and the roads are dry.

I had 2 classes to attend with a lunch break in between and that was precisely when – lured by the promise of stimulating conversation and the company of a personable classmate – I BLEW IT! We wanted something healthy and quick near the campus and ended up with slow and expensive. So accepting that I had just spent $19 (including tax and a wee tip) on a veggie bowl, I decided to confess my self-imposed spending sanction to my friend. He was supportive and suggested I publicly document it, hence this blog.

So, I quickly started out with a deficit today but didn't spend anything else after lunch. That is until I decided last minute to catch a friend's act at a local bar and feeling a combo of "I've already blown today" and wanting to just chill, I bought a beer ($7.50).

Spent: $26.50 (a whole day's spending off-budget already)

God Love the Vegans

Still toying with whether or not the $12 a day is doable, I embarked on the day determined to not spend ANY money. I'm still trying to figure out the nuances of this path I have chosen and figured I will carry over any extra money or just examine my spending over the week or month. At this point, I'm going to try and do this for the month of February and as you all know it is the shortest month.

Weighing in my favour was the fact that I hadn't spent $12 yesterday. I'm a grad student and had to go to the campus for an appointment and since I was over there I decided to enjoy a cheap campus perk, HotYam! – a hot, delicious and nutritious $4 lunch put on by a volunteer group of vegans. I arrived late and one of the food items had run out so in exchange they gave me an extra cookie and only charged me $3 for the meal. So, my total expenditure on my first day of the challenge was only that $3 plus $5.20 return transit fare for a total of $8.20. It seemed easy so far.

Taking up the Challenge

Okay, so it wasn't an 'official' challenge but last night I happened to watch "The Daily Show", the one after Mitt Romney had just won the Florida primary and had declared to CNN that he "is in the race because [he] cares about Americans, but [he's] not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net..."

As you can imagine, Jon Stewart was all over that interview and highlighted the fact that because there's a safety net does not mean the poor are okay. After praising the CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien for calling him on the comment and making some jokes, Jon Stewart said that safety net probably amounts to $12 a day. Now, I'm sure it was a simple figure he threw out to make a point but the number stuck with me and I starting wondering what it look like to live on just $12 a day.

See The Daily Show Clip:



After some quick math, I discovered $12 a day is $4,380 a year or $360 a month, depending on the month. I recalled friends of ours that had been living, not quite off-grid, in rural Atlantic Canada in an old farm house they inherited, growing their own food and using a barter or "in-kind" system to acquire life's necessities. While visiting one time, my mate and I were bemoaning taxes, etc. and the "bread-winner" of this family of four said he had never filed taxes. He then said he had never earned more than $3000-4000 in a year! That has always stuck with me.

So, bolstered with this thought (while recognizing I live in an urban centre, not the backwoods) I decided to see if I could indeed live on $12 a day.

Spent: $8.20