Day 5

Our last day of the challenge, my challenge card today says that I can partake in someone else's hospitality today. Can you wrangle an invitation from family or friends for a free meal? Yes, yes I can!! I am not sure what that will look like yet but I will get myself invited somewhere for dinner today. With it being Valentine's day I'm sure I will be gifted lots of chocolate to eat from the kids at school!

Day 4

Gah! I am a day late on this post. I didn't need a challenge card yesterday as I had my own challenge in the night! My 5 year old woke up and barfed all over the bed at 12am. This caused me to have to strip all the bedding and start laundry once I got him cleaned up. I was thinking about the laundry issue I would have if I had to use the laundry mat! All that bedding would just be sitting there with barf on it all night, and then in the morning I wouldn't have had time to go to the laundry mat or the time to sit there for the couple hours it would take to clean everything!

We had parent council meeting last night so I was able to eat some of the snacks that were provided there because I didn't have time for dinner. On a day like that when we have parent meetings and then school council - I normally would have grabbed something to eat from somewhere quick but because I didn't have any money left in my budget, I was unable to do that!

Day 3

My challenge today was that my pet is sick and I need to get medical assistance for it, how will I do that? This one I am really not sure what I would do. I possibly would reach out to It's a Dogs Life, or talk with the Vet Clinic to see if I could set up a payment plan. This would make me very vunerable as it would put me in the position to talk about my financial struggles which isn't something people really want to share with others. I know that my whole budget of $63 would not even begin to cover the Vet bill even if it did just end up being something minor!

It is midday and I am yet to eat anything. I did bring leftover Kraft dinner for something to eat today though so I am happy to have a little snack soon! I noticed on the homepage that we haven't included toiletries in our supplies. I am going to deduct $10 to cover my two rolls of toilet paper, toothpaste, and deodorant. I've cut conditioner out of my hair supplies and no hair spray either so I will save on those things.

I did some other number crunching last night - my internet, cable and home phone would cost me around $5.50 a day and my cell phone would cost me around $2.33 a day. So for those things alone, I would be spending $39.15 over my five days. So if I were to count my $10 for curling, $10 for toiletries, $25 on groceries and $39.15 for my phone, tv, internet and cell phone I would be at $84.15!! That is without my vet bill. It is true that when I started I was just focused on food, but it is clear that with everything else, I am over my budget. 

To curl or not to curl

Well I just finished my dinner. Tonight I had Kraft dinner which is actually something I really enjoy - and never make!! I ate half the box and have enough for dinner lunch tomorrow. I was also able to feed my 2 year old some too! I did use ketchup from my house so I’ve added .25 to my tab on the fridge for using condiments that already exist in my fridge.

Tonight is my night for curling. I would say that my real challenge for tonight could have been a challenge card. I wasn’t going to curl because it was going to cost too much but then my team was down to three with one person sick and the other not having a babysitter lined up. So I’ve arranged a ride from someone on my team to save on travel costs to the game. I am also going to pay the spare fee rather than 1/21st of $330 which is what the season cost me. I know that if I was in the situation of having only $63 per week to live on that curling for an entire season would not be possible. I would have to be put on the spare list. So I feel comfortable deducting the spare fee which still isn’t cheap. So tonight in total will be costing me $10 from my budget and I will be drinking water upstairs but tonight one of the teams posted that they will be bringing snacks for after the game! I was thinking that I know triple play exists for children in the community but are there any subsidies for adults to be active and envolved in sports or health and wellness activities? It is so important for personal health and mental health to be involved in physical activity.

Day Two

Today's Challenge: It is Wear Red Day at work. You have no red clothing. How will you participate in the activity with your colleagues?

I think if this were the case I would maybe reach out to some colleagues to see if they have any extra red clothing that I could borrow for the day? I would also check out stores like The Salvation Army, or Twice as Nice to see if they had anything for around $2-$4 - I would make sure to buy something that I would be able to wear again - maybe a top or a cardigan.

So far today I have eaten a couple strawberries - I have a junk drawer at work with sweets and easy to grab snacks and it has been hard for me to stay out of it - so I've got a sleeve of crackers handy so I can grab one of those if I want to go into that drawer.

Day One

Hello Everyone,

Day one is under wraps. My challenge card for today said 'Your glasses are broken. You have an interview that involves a written test. You cannot see the paper. What will you do?"

I thought a lot about this and how stressful this could be for someone. I am lucky to not need any eyewear at this point in my life. I do know many of my friends that do require either contacts or glasses. I know that they are very costly. I know that you can get "cheaters" at dollarama for cheap ($3.00 I believe) and I would think that I would try to have those as a back up if my expensive ones were to break. I think at that moment I would as if they had any extra glasses in their office - I would explain that mine broke and that I was unable to get another pair.

I did my grocery shopping today - I had read over the flyers last week so I knew where I was going to go for my best bang for my buck. I usually do my shopping at Safeway, Walmart and Shoppers but I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford to drive around to all of those places. So I ended up going to No Frills - they had good prices on their strawberries and cheese (two staples in my life already) so I thought it would make sense for me to shop there this week.

My plan is to roast that chicken for dinner tomorrow night and then use the leftovers through the week in salads or just to eat plain with my cheese and crackers. I am terrible because I do not eat breakfast! I've never been a big breakfast person but I guess in this case, it saved me money. I know it is not healthy to skip meals, especially breakfast.  During the week I am also very terrible at eating lunch, I know, I know - no breakfast and some days no lunch - it's terrible but it's the truth. In education, I find it is hard to find a break during the day to stop and eat, especially when you're an administrator. I did, however, buy myself some strawberries, cheese, and crackers to bring to work for the week - I will snack on these things throughout the day. My other dinner options will be the tomato and red pepper soup that I bought on sale for $1.49 and possibly a box of kraft dinner. Everything you see in that picture was on sale except for the milk and the kraft dinner. I did discover today that buying two 1 liter cartons of milk was cheaper than buying a 2 liter. So FYI to you shoppers!! All of my groceries only cost me $24.73 and then $3.00 for travel. So far I have spent $27.73 and I think I did pretty good on the healthy front with regards to protein, veg and fruit. I am happy that I still have over half my money left because I am not sure what will come up in these challenges.