February Dollar a Day Challenge Rules

So! here are my rules.

1. Spend no more than a dollar a day for the month of February. I have figured that my gardens cost 17 cents per day, so that leaves me 83 cents per day to play around with at the grocery store or farmer’s market.
2. I am not going to eat anything else from my pantry except items I have grown myself or received from trading partners. Since I harvest from the garden all year ‘round, this rule will not be as difficult for me as it has been for others doing like challenges. In addition, I already have a small stock of foods from trading partners. Most of this stash consists of non-local food items traded during the Eat Local For One Year challenge in 2009.
3. I will replace what homegrown foods I eat out of my pantry with seasonal foods. So, if I eat a serving of frozen zucchini, I will add a rack of parsley or leeks to my dehydrator.
4. If my friends and/or trading partners want to go out to eat, I will go along, and the tab won’t be counted in my daily food total. I’m done with not going out with my friends because of a silly food challenge.
5. I will keep track of my experience on the blog, but I won’t post receipts! Not only has that been done before, but I don’t have a camera.
6. NO RAMEN NOODLES! Unless a trading partner gives them to me.

Why February? In deference to Lessisenough, who started her food challenge last February, and also because it is the slowest time of the year at the garden. Doing this in September would be too easy. I am still on the Locavore Lite 2010 challenge, of course.

Care to join me?

My next post will be all about my trading partners.