Couple of notes that may be helpful for those of you joining us. (by the way who's in? who's out?)

Here's our basic shopping list from last time and a few additional ideas

Eggs $.88 (all prices pre-tax) used these for making cornbread AND hardboiled as snacks

Stick Margarine $.50 for oatmeal, rice, was more than we needed for a week but was smallest cheapest size

Rice $.88 (bought two bags but was too much for just two of us)
Beans
--$.68 Red Beans 2lbs
--$.82 Lima Beans 1lb
--$1.06 Black Beans 1lb
----ended up with 1 1/2 lbs too many for two of us, never made it to the limas

Oatmeal $.98 Breakfast

Tea $1.25 (again more than we HAD to have for the week, but smallest cheapest size)

Wraps or Bread $1.24 (we used wraps for turkey burgers but bread would go farther)

Ground Turkey $4.56 for 2.5 lbs made 8-10 burgers out of this

Iceburg Lettuce $1.12 for burgers, would probably forgo this for something with more nutritional value this time

Tomatoes $1.12 for burgers too. This was the first time I ever weighed a veggie to find out if I could afford as many as I had put in the bag

BBQ Sauce $.77 put this in the burgers and on the burgers (this was quite a luxury for the week, it's when we learned how addicted to tasty foods we are and how much a luxury taste actually is)

Apples $2.16 1.5lbs for snacks, sometimes split one combined with peanut butter

Jiffy Mix Cornbread $.33 I think we bought 4 and only used 3 (needs milk and eggs to make)

1/2 Gallon Milk $1.85 (it's a little more expensive now) used for cornbread and made oatmeal with it instead of water for caloric intake toward end of week.

Sugar $1.18 2 lbs for oatmeal again more than we needed but smallest we could get

Peanut Butter $1.38 Would have bought more of this with jelly and bread for sandwiches. Just a spoonful was a nice snack too.

Salt and Pepper $1 (bought those little containers at Wal-Mart)

This is what we bought and had 3 sticks of margarine, 1 box of Jiffy Mix, 1 1/2 lbs of beans, some oatmeal and of course tea, salt and pepper left over. Could have eaten several more days on this.
I know our tastes aren't everyone's. This is just what we did.

Here are a few other ideas from Roger and us
Two Boxes of Mac and Cheese with two cans of tuna make a mean tuna casserole for 4 for about $2

You can get a "Whole Fryer Chicken" (this is the cheapest kind we have found) about a 5 pounder for about 4 bucks but some butter, salt and pepper on it, cut up some taters (I would definitely buy potatoes this time) and maybe some onions and/or carrots and feed 4 people possibly two meals (definitely 1 with leftovers) for around 5 bucks total.

Spaghetti (with our without meat sauce) The canned sauce is the cheapest. Might even be able to afford some meat for the sauce.

Someone in the Roger Patterson Family came up with the idea that a Little Caesar's $5 large could feed someone for several days

A can of Refried beans (or just cooked beans) on a tortilla shell (corn is cheapest) makes a decent burrito You could make about 4 from one can for about $.75

Yes we are trying to raise money for the kids. But the added benefit is the experience for us. We are all very spoiled. We are all very wealthy (money, resources, access). And we all need reminders. Our kids need them too. Engage them. Get them to help shop.
We are starting Monday.....Please email me and let me know if you are IN. Email your friends, invite them. The more we have, the more kids eat.

Some of you may not be able to join us THIS week. We are shooting for another group doing this the week of July 9th. We'll need some encouragement (email or in person) from those of you that do it this week for those who do it in July.

Anyone else got ideas? Please reply and let us know.