Next Project

Okay, here’s what I’ve come up with for my next project.

I’m going to try for a week with the highest level of nutrition I can do—3 meals, all food groups, best nutrient profile I can come up with—using the most affordable ingredients I can figure out. So basically the best combination of nutrition and economy that I can think of.

I’ll give the total amount of money spent up front, and also calculate the unit costs based on how much I used. (For instance if I pay $3 for 5 pounds of flour and use 1 cup in a recipe, I’ll charge that as $0.15, for the 4 ounces I used.)

Also I’ll calculate the total cost of each recipe and then calculate a per-serving cost. So if I make a large batch of soup and eat two bowls then freeze the rest, I’ll only charge for the portion I ate that week, not what’s been saved to be eaten later.

This will give us some idea of how much it actually costs to eat well, based on conditions that are much closer to how things work in the real world than what I was working with on the Thirty Days for Thirty Dollars project.

I’ll buy the sizes I normally buy (no 50lb bags of rice in an effort to lower unit costs), and if I have a lot of something in my pantry already, I’ll probably just check the current price and report it, but not actually purchase any.

Haven’t decided yet if I should go to different stores in an effort to get the absolute lowest prices, or to shop like I usually do, going for a combination of price, quality, and convenience. I’m going to keep thinking about that.

Also not exactly sure when I’m going to start. I need to do some research and thinking to figure out what to make and to get everything ready.

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