1. By: Rachel King

2. Individual will have a peanut butter sandwich, 1.5 bananas and 10 carrots.

3. Calories: 465 Total Fat: 16.4 g Cholesterol: 0 g Sodium: 401 g Carbohydrates: 67.8 g Sugars: 21.5 g Protein: 15 g Vitamin A: 28% Vitamin C: 23% Calcium: 22% Iron: 14.5%

5. I found this experience to be very difficult. I thought it would be easy because I went to a discounted market, but it was still hard for me to find items that fit in my price range. I decided that I had to get bananas because they were the cheapest fruit. Bread was also pretty cheap. Finding something to make a sandwich out of was the hardest because jelly was very expensive, so all I could afford was peanut butter. I chose to get carrots to make it more balanced meal. Overall I learned a lot from this project because I never knew how expensive food was. The first grocery store I went to was Weis and I could not find anything cheap enough to make a meal out of, so I decided that I would have to go somewhere cheaper. I chose to go to Aldi’s and even there I found it hard to find food. I was in Aldi’s with my mom for over a half an hour just trying to find a meal that would work. I had to calculate everything over and over again to make sure I could afford the meal. I could not even afford to buy drinks, so I will have to drink water with this meal. Luckily I could find healthy, fresh items. This opened my eyes to how hard it is to buy food while living on a very tight budget.

6. I decided to try the lunch one day. I made a peanut butter sandwich, put some banana slices on the sandwich, ate the 10 carrots I was allowed, and a whole banana. I felt satisfied after eating the meal, it was actually very tasty. I began to feel hungry about 2 hours later. I decided I would need a snack, so I counted out how much bread I had and found out that I could have a slice of toast for a snack, while leaving enough bread for the next 5 days.

7. After buying the $5 meal and having success I decided to see if I could do this at a different store. I went to the Dollar Tree and gathered some food. I ended up buying a 4 day lunch for $4. I bought an 8 pack of hotdogs, 8 pack of hotdog buns, 4 pack of apple sauce and an 8 pack of drink mixes. I figured the individual could have 2 hotdogs with buns, an applesauce and 2 drink pouches for their water. I thought this was a great success. The hotdogs would fill you up and the applesauce was nutritious. I got to the register and realized they had taxed the drink mix! My total came to $4.06. Luckily a good Samaritan behind me gave me 6 cents.