Last week, we took the Hunger Challenge as part of the United Way of King County’s Hunger Week. For five days we gave ourselves the same budget as a family living on food stamps. That is $26 per day for five days, or a $130 for the five days for our family of five.

When we were starting, we didn’t think it would be incredibly difficult as we don’t spend a lot on groceries anyway and none of us are big eaters (some people call us smaller than average, but we prefer fuel efficient). What we found out right away was that we had to do more planning what we would eat each day. There was no room in the budget for changing our minds about what we wanted on a given day. Also, we had to be careful about buying extra stuff. We normally have a fridge and freezer full of alternate meals and food just up for grabs for anyone that is hungry. The same goes for my mid-afternoon snack. I work from my home, so I can walk into our well-stocked pantry or over to the fridge and pick out a snack of either healthy or junk variety. These sorts of things would not be options for that kind of budget.

It would also be hard to get better pricing by buying things in bulk. When you are using your entire food budget each week, buying large amounts of a food product would be extremely difficult even if it saved money in the long run.

All of that said, we did not eat bad this week. We were able to prepare good, nutritious food that was very tasty and in budget. But we only had to do it a for a few days. To have to budget and eat that way for a lifetime, or any extended period of time would be extremely difficult. It would be much harder on a family that had very small children (buying formula), people with dietary restrictions, or just eat more than we do. It would be almost impossible to feed three teenage boys on that kind of budget.

Finally, the hardest thing might be the inability to go out to dinner. We love eating good and interesting food at restaurants, and that is a big part of our weekend entertainment. With this sort of budget, the only eating out option would be to eat fast food.

The day we were done with the hunger challenge, we went out for a frugal Thai meal (yum) that would have added up to a third of our budget for the five days of the challenge on a single meal and felt very fortunate to be able to do it!

We are looking forward to doing more of this sort of thing. We are thinking that we may volunteer at a food bank next!

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated by going to a Sounders FC game with my incredible middle child. He is more than just a little fanatic about the Sounders. We have been the old USL Sounders games before, but this was a completely different atmosphere. While before the Sounders had 3,000-5,000 at a game, last night it was a sellout at almost 28,000. We had a blast. Here are a few images of our adventure from my point & shoot camera. I thought about taking my good gear, but didn’t relish the thought of trying to keep it dry as we stood outside for three hours! That’s what a point & shoot is for, right?

Ky Made a sign for my birthday. He walked next to me and we had about 20 people tell me happy birthday.

After a few minutes at the band performace, I realized that we were standing next to Drew Carey, minority owner of the Sounders FC and star of the Price is Right!

Here is Ky standing next to Drew Carey. Evidently it was Drew's birthday, too! ;)

Random fan.

Going into the stadium.

This is three images stitched together of the stadium before the match started.

Ky took a photo of his favorite player. Ky plays goalie, too!

Can't go to a Seattle sporting event and not get garlic fries, right?

The view from our seats. Not that we sat, but we were in the rabid fan/band/chorus section. Quite fun!

And finally, a short video of our experience taken with the point & shoot camera!

I just received a note from Janine from her wedding at Newcastle!

Derek and I are loving all the pictures and its going to be quite difficult to pick from them all we are thinking! It was such a great day and by the looks on everyones faces it looked like such a great fun time (I know we had a blast)!Janine

So the other morning I had to get Kyler to soccer.  As I was getting ready for the day, which also included a portrait session in Leavenworth, I was packing the car.  I had the camera in my hand and noticed the spiderwebs all over between the bushes, so I took this image.  I consider it to be my reward for actually being outside before 9:00 on a cold weekend.  If that sounds pathetic, I do work nights about one night a week!

Yes, that is my family that the arrow is pointing to!  Three little pumpkins, a wife and a couple of in-laws!

We went to the pumpkin patch today and had a great time picking the pumpkins, carving, hay-ride, and every hayfeever sufferer’s favorite, the hay maze!

A little pint-sized attitude.

Pumpkin snarl.

Free ride.