three people, 12 days, $120 - what *will* they eat?

That's the challenge - feed my family of three on $120 for twelve days (today until next payday - Friday, July 27).

This morning found me looking up recipes that would make use of the food we had on hand (canned beans - 2 black, 2 chick pea, canned tomatoes - 2 large cans, three boxes of macaroni and cheese and not much else). I searched VegWeb and found a nice assortment of easy, inexpensive recipes and found this, not one to ever leave a recipe alone, I came up with this. Other than a small gripe about the lemon from my sour-hating husband, it got rave reviews (he ended up finishing off Sebastian's, so it can't have been that bad). Total cost: $6 for 4 adult-sized servings (so enough for the three of us plus lunch leftovers).

Here is our 12 day meal plan (click to zoom):

I will keep adding recipes to my food blog as I try them out - most are inspired by things I found today at VegWeb.

This we're doing to make it work: simple breakfasts: cereal with milk, toast and jam, fruit. Using what we have on hand: canned and dry foods, cereal, snacks (granola bars, crackers, dried fruit). Eating as per our meal plan *and* not spending any of our other money (allocated elsewhere) on "just one thing" type foods. Buying groceries in four-day blocks: this way things won't go bad and we'll be less likely to run out for one thing and come home with five.

This is just week one (and two) in what I hope to turn into a long-term experiment. How little can I spend and still eat great food? Can I stay creative while being frugal?