The van doors slide open, everyone piles out grabbing a
cell phone, their
partner and their
money. We line up agreeing that we will meet back in
15 minutes. Ready, Set, GO! It is a mad dash to the store doors with me yelling "WATCH FOR CARS!!!!!!" My partners are
Malory and
Hyrum, we dash through the fresh fruit and veggies to the meat looking for a cheep, tasty, beginning to our meal. We spy
brats for
$3.54. Deciding that will be the perfect start we dash down the frozen isle for
veggies. Malory grabs one that looks
"good and healthy" that is on sale for
$1.40. Since we have 2 food groups we go looking for the most important
DESSERT. On our way we pass
Baylen and
Tylen looking at the frozen dinners.
Baylen is telling Ty that he could get a corn dog AND brownie if he wanted this one. We giggle and
sneak by. Down the
ice cream isle we saw all kinds of sugar free goodness but...they were all 4 dollars or more. Our
budget wouldn't allow that but we could get
cheese toast for
$2.58. We decided that was a good choice then on to the fresh veggies.
Mal spots the
little tiny bags of
carrots deciding that would be a really good choice for
$1.68. Then we both decide we can have gum for dessert. As we are checking out we grab
tic tacs for
.97 cents and
gum for
.96 cents. With tax our
total is
$11.56. YEAH! We did it. With
.44 cents and
7 minutes to spare. We dash to the car meeting everyone there. Comparing notes we
all met the requirements. Everyone was able to get a meal for them and their partner for
4 dollars a person in
15 minutes or less.
Brin and
Cam spent
$7.14,
Baylen and
Tylen spent
$8.01 which they claim as
fair because they found a
penny on the
ground. We
gather around the table.
Brin and
Cam show us their dinner,
Dinty Moore beef stew,
spaghetti, 2 kiwis, a little jug of milk, and a tiny Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream.
We
commend them for the good choices they made then,
Baylen and
Ty pull theirs out. A Banquet TV dinner for Ty with corn dog and brownie,
Marie
Calenders country fried pork chops TV dinner, and Orange Juice.
We
commend them for the good choices they made. Then Mal and I show everyone what we got. Again good choices.
It is a race for the microwave and dinner is cooked and eaten.
"This was the most fun" the kids say, "can we do it every Monday night?" "Well then it wouldn't be super fun, we will just do it whenever" I reply.
So the plans start for the next time...
And who knew $4 could be so much fun!
spaghetti, 2 kiwis, a little jug of milk, and a tiny Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. 
We commend them for the good choices they made then, Baylen and Ty pull theirs out. A Banquet TV dinner for Ty with corn dog and brownie,
Marie Calenders country fried pork chops TV dinner, and Orange Juice. 
We commend them for the good choices they made. Then Mal and I show everyone what we got. Again good choices. 
It is a race for the microwave and dinner is cooked and eaten.
