A pair of school teachers decided to embark on a challenging journey through the world of “frugal gastronomy.” In a series that began on TIME’s Cheapskate Blog, readers were challenged to eat on a budget, but Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard kicked it up a notch and pared down the allotted amount to just one dollar per day.

The ground rules:

1. All food consumed each day must total $1 for each of us.
2. We could not accept free food or “donated” food unless it is available for everyone in our area (i.e. foraging, samples in stores, dumpster diving).
3. Any food we planted, we had to pay for.
4. We would do our best to cook a variety of meals; ramen noodles could only be prepared if there is no other way to stay under one dollar. (We had six packages and would buy no more.)
5. Should we decide to have guests over for dinner they must eat from our share; meaning they don’t get to eat their own dollar’s worth of food.

It’s a fascinating experiment that may inspire you to take another look at how much you spend on groceries and dining out. A dollar a day may be little too extreme for you, but why not try to cut back on those weekly lobster dinners?