An interesting week. It would have been run-of-the-mill if it weren't for a giant holiday at the end of it. So my dilemma was how to continue the challenge when for two days I was living on the charity of others. In fact I was living on the hospitality of my parents, as we all live on the hospitality of others from time to time and offer the same in return. So what to do with two days of zero food expenditure/consumption as it relates to my challenge, to avoid two days of basically $0 destroying the realism of the daily average? The best solution I came up with was to more or less delete those two days (1/2 day Friday, Saturday, and a 1/2 day Sunday) from my challenge. I make up those lost days by:
1) extending my week by one day so it will end on Tuesday rather than Monday now, and
2) replacing the remaining missing day with a mosaic day, so "Day" 18 is in fact Good Friday breakfast and Sunday lunch and dinner, with a snack thrown in.
There were a couple of interesting occurences. First, Days 15 and 16 were an expensive run largely, it seems, because I did tacos for dinner. I wonder if the further you go from making things from scratch, the more expensive it becomes. I may have to test this further before I'm done. Second, Days 17+ show the introduction of Tim Hortons coffee to the mix, and we'll have to see yet how that plays out. Third, I made banana bread to salvage a couple of over-ripe bananas. This required using shortening, sugar, and pecans which I had on hand from before the challenge. The quantities total less than $2 and I have a more detailed breakdown of the recipe's cost (and also that of the muffins) if anyone cares to challenge. Fourth, on Day 18 I went out for burgers with a friend and paid the larger part to simplify things. (On a side note, it should be illegal for a restaurant to call it a 'poutine' if they use grated cheese instead of curds.) All in all, it added up to under $17 cost to me. Two days later, we chanced to meet up for pho and dinner was on her - score evened. Still, a 20-dollar day will do a number on my average, but we'll see tomorrow (end of Week 1 of the extended challenge) if my savings the rest of the day will even 'er out. Check out the spreadsheet for details.
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