This week, a blogger successfully completed a self-imposed challenge: For 100 days, he allotted himself a daily allowance of $1 for food. To fill in the gaps (and his belly), he used coupons—ones available to anybody in Sunday newspapers and the Internet—and he used them creatively, at one point using a coupon to buy tampons in order to get some free peanut butter. His biggest struggles actually didn’t involve getting enough food or going over his budget. Throughout the challenge, he wound up donating tons of surplus purchases to food banks, and, toward the end of the experiment, money wasn’t much of an issue. By Day 96, for example, he’d only spent a total of $76.11—for stuff that would have cost $1,473.94 at retail price.