Day 14: Hunger Pains or Something Worse? [FAIL]

After a quick recovery from yesterday's flu, I felt really hungry the whole morning. It was by lunch time when I felt sharp pain from my stomach. At first I just thought that it was just hunger pain but the pain did not stop even after having my meal and stuffing my face with more Weetbix. The pain was so bad that I felt like fainting and vomiting every time it struck.

Later that evening, I came down with a fever. Unknown to me, the worst part is yet to come. 

Todays expenses

Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30

Snack - Butter raisin bun, RM1.60

Dessert - NZ Zespri Kiwi fruit, pre-purchased

Total spent = RM3.90

Total saved = - RM0.40

So, my maths has failed me again. I have overspent on today's meal, thus this would be counted as a fail day. Booooo.

Day 12: Here Comes A New Challenger!...& Some Wafer Chocolate

I'm absolutely excited for this week's new item — kiwi fruit. Without a doubt, this would be the item that I will be buying in advance for the remaining of the week, partly because it's on promotion for these couple of days. The only down side is that I'll have to peel them primitively because i don't have a knife and spoon in my office.

However, the price of a kiwi fruit isn't cheap. At RM1.50 each, my budget for the snacks have been greatly reduced. I will have to find a way to get through the week without breaking any more rules. This would make for another interesting week.

Today's expenses:

Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30
Snack - London Cereal Bite (chocolate) wafer, RM1.10
Fruit - NZ Zespri Kiwi fruit, RM1.50

Total spent = RM4.90
Total savings = RM0.10

Day 08: Almost Yogurt & A Chiffon Cake

I think the staff at the supermarket below thinks I'm sort of a nutter not because I shop there almost everyday but I always make multiple rounds through the aisles as if searching for some secret treasure hidden in the shelves. I guess you can say thats almost true because I do want to find that sweet deal that fits into my daily budget, but the truth is that I'm terribly indecisive. 

Case in point: I felt like having yogurt today so I head over to the refrigerated aisle and searched for some yogurt. While I was busy picking which flavour that I wanted, I spotted a slice of seedless watermelon on a nearby shelf. Thus, began the cycle of indecisiveness. The yogurt was much more expensive than the watermelon but I already have an apple in my drawer so buying another fruit wouldn't make much sense. But then, the watermelon was cheaper and bigger compared to the yogurt. After a few rounds of walking up and down the aisle, I did what I usually do when I face this kind of dilemma, I'd buy something else that never crossed my mind, and in this case, it's a chiffon cake. Most of the times, the decision to buy something totally random would result in some kind of satisfaction but today's purchase was not such.

In a way, I suppose today's lesson is about confidence and be ready to jump into the deep end and take whatever consequences that come your way, rather than being indecisive and lose precious time and wonderful opportunities.

Take that, moral lesson!

So, today's expenses:

1. Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30

2. Snack - Chiffon cake, RM1.10

3. Dessert - NZ Fuji apple, brought forward from yesterday

Total spent = RM3.40

Total saved = RM1.60

BTW, they re-stocked the apples and I feel like an idiot for buying old apples yesterday. That has to be a lesson for another day.

Day 05: A Sneeze & The End of The Week

It's Friday, which means it is the end of Week 1! It has been a very educational week. I'll probably do a summary of what I've learnt over the week this weekend. So far, I'm quite happy with what I've managed to achieve this week.

Today's meal is quite similar to Monday's meal except for the slight variation of fruit and dessert. I've been really hungry the whole morning because of last night's super exhausting 10km (nearly!) workout on the rowing machine so I decided something with more greens and a bit of meat, hence I opted for the popiah. So I hopped onto the lift and went down to the restaurant on the ground floor to pick up a popiah. While I was waiting in line to pay for my food, the man in front of me let out a huge sneeze away from his food on the counter towards my direction, which was behind him. I got worried about my food being contaminated as it was not fully wrapped in plastic. Both ends of the wrapper are open. Also, not to mention that this was in a restaurant that had food exposed on the shelves. If that did not put you off your meal, I don't know what would. Due to my severe hunger, that thought quickly faded out of my mind and into the call of replenishment.

The apple is a natural choice as I've procrastinated on buying it yesterday, and to add a bit of glucose into my diet, I bought two packs of chewys. I've decided to put one pack aside for Monday. I'm beginning to like this idea of purchasing slightly more for the next day but then it does mean that I'm saving less than what I would like to.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had some leftovers which would be incorporated into today's meal. Well, that didn't really work out as plan. I was severely hungry today that I ate all my leftovers, and a bar of Weet-bix for morning tea and I was still famished by lunch.

So, that's the last meal of the week and I can't wait to start the next week although I am still deciding if I should cut the length of the experiment from 20 days to 10 days. I'll have to make that decision over the weekend.

Today's meal breakdown:

Main meal - Popiah, RM2.30
Snack - NZ Fuji apple, RM0.80
Dessert - Sugus stick x 2 (Blackcurrent, Apple), RM0.90 + RM0.80
Total spent = RM4.80
Savings = RM0.20

Day 01 - Cheesecake & Weetabix

Today is the first day of the challenge and I've already started it on a wrong foot.  In order to avoid having a heavy meal during lunch, a big breakfast is necessary to keep me going for at least half a day. 

However, because it was Mum's birthday yesterday, all I had for breakfast was a slice of cappuccino cheesecake.

Later this morning, temptation struck. The furniture guy came over to unlock my mobile pedestal (I lost the key about a week ago) thus freeing the box of Weetabix that has been waiting for me. I knew that if I had taken a piece, it would be counted as cheating as having that as morning or afternoon tea would just defeat the whole purpose of this challenge. Hence, I have decided that Weetabix shall be only consumed as emergency rations due to extreme hunger and unless I am able to justify my hunger, that day will be nulled and counted as a failure. I've not thought about the consequences of a fail day but I hope I won't have to go through that anytime soon.

Perhaps, I'm being too harsh on myself. I have a bad feeling about this. I'm gonna die.

Anyway, here's what I had for lunch today:

1. Main meal - 1 Popiah (spring roll)

2. Snack - 1 Royal Beauty Apple

3. Dessert - 1 pack of Cream O Sandwich (vanilla)

Despite starting off with a bad breakfast, this meal managed, albeit barely, to get me through the afternoon without having to dip into the Weetabix box of shame. Also, today's spending is RM4.80 in total, RM0.20 below the set limit.

I hope tomorrow will be a better day. Come on, 19 more days to go!