California teachers Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard decided to live for a month on food that cost a total of $1 a day or less; by their own rules, they could forage but only if the food they found was available to anyone, such as orange trees on public land.

They blogged ithe experiment -- It Starts Today is the beginning; click the "Day __" link at the upper right of each blog entry to see the next day's thoughts and menus.

Both are vegans. Here's a typical day's menu:

Breakfast: 1 cup cooked oatmeal - $0.06, 1 TBSP Peanut Butter - $0.05 (Christopher only)

Snack: 1 mug of Mint Tea - $0.01 (1/2 TSP dried mint flakes, foraged lemon - Kerri only)

Lunch: PB and J sandwich on homemade bread - $0.36, 4 Figs - FREE (Foraged from a tree in front of our house - Kerri only), 2 cups popped popcorn with salt - $0.07 (Kerri only)

Dinner: 2 Bean and Rice Burritos - $0.42 ( Beans - $0.07, Rice -$0.11, Tortillas - $0.05ea., small strips of Lettuce - $0.07, 1 TBSP taco sauce - $0.12)

Dessert: 1TBSP Peanut butter - $0.05

Kerri's Total: $0.97

Christopher's Total: $0.95

He lost about 14 lbs., she 5 and a half.

The daily reports are grim to a foodie. Lots of carbs, a struggle for protein and vitamin C (they bought Tang), headaches. Both stopped exercising to conserve energy.

They've turned their experiment into a book that is to be published in January. Its title: On a Dollar a Day: Adventures in Eating in America.

And... the first day after the diet ended, they each ate about $20 worth of food.