Wow - the $1 a day challenge, I was amazed at how tough that was. Even for someone as frugal as me, I don't think I could keep it up indefinitely. What it has shown me is how to streamline some of my meals and tighten the budget - especially going into the holidays and all the holiday entertaining I'll be doing. Some of these meal plans will be graet to expand on for feed a group. I noticed dairy is my biggest budget buster while rice and pastas really help the financial diet I'm on. For entertaining, I'll expand on some basic rice dishes, look for deals and steals on meats (of any kind!!) and just keep doing what I've been doing.
I need to find more free items to stock up on, which is a challenge considering that no stores within 100 miles double coupons on a regular basis - only Kmart and they double coupons sporadically.
I've been spending some time organizing my pantry - it makes meal-planning and grocery shopping much easier. It feels great each time I check an item off the list knowing that I won't have to shop for it for quite some time. If I find free - or darn close to it, I try to buy enough to last 3-8 months at a time. What ever extra I can grab, I typically share with family and friends, though I'm actively trying to hound more stuff simply for donating to the local food pantry and soup kitchen.
Now, I'm off to hunt up some cereal coupons - though I have cereal, it's all the kind that DH likes, so I'd like to hound some for myself!