A Mexican Fiesta

John and Lori enjoy Mexican food and have planned to have fajitas sometime during the challenge but haven't yet.  Late last week Lori went to her therapist hairdresser and the conversation turned as if often does, to favorite recipes.  This time however they focused more on low cost recipes.  Lori's most excellent hairdresser, shared a couple of favorite, low cost Mexican recipes.  Lori left that day not only with fabulous hair, but an idea for the week ahead, making this week a Mexican themed week for their evening meals.  When she discussed it with John, he was all for it.

Tonight we are having chicken ole.  It is chicken smothered in pinto beans, black beans, corn and salsa. served over rice.  I cooked the black beans and pinto beans over the weekend.  Using only the amount called for in the recipe there are plenty for the rest of the week.  (Love that no cooking theme!)  Tomorrow night, we plan to have Mexican pork.  It should be an easy slow cooker meal.

Both recipes should yield at least 6 servings.  So we could easily alternate nights for the rest of the week between chicken & pork.  We're both ready for some fajitas so we'll work those in one night as well.

Speaking of ethnic foods, we were both getting a hankering for pizza over the weekend.  Lori made a pizza crust from scratch at a cost of $0.84.  They had some pizza sauce made over the summer with ripe tomatoes and herbs from their garden.  (It is scrumptious!!!)  Adding 1/2 lb of ground beef, 1/2 lb of sausage, 4 oz of pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese brought the cost of the entire pizza to $5.41.  We made it in a 9x13 pan and cut it in 8 generous deep dish slices.  Each slice cost us a mere $0.68!!

We are enjoying a wide variety of food for a very low cost and just a little planning.

A Grocery Store Trip by Lori

I went to the grocery store today and thought it might be a good idea to share some of my shopping routines.  They aren't complicated.

I plan our meals around several factors, what we like (obviously!), what is on sale, and what we have on hand.  I am planning for next week to be Mexican week.  (I'll share how this came about in another post soon.)  I know that soon I want to make sausage lentil soup.  I make my shopping list based on those meal plans for the next several days, I look through the sale papers to see if what I want is on sale.  That will move a meal plan up to the top of the list.  Then, I look through my coupons.  I'll hold coupons waiting for the item to go on sale or until it is about to expire.

 I only clip coupons of things that we use.  I always double check before using a coupon that it is the best price.  Sometimes, another brand is less expensive even after considering the coupon discount. Today, I had two coupons for croutons.  It was $0.40 off.  My store doubles coupons up to $0.99, so the value of each coupon was $0.80.  The croutons were on sale for $1.00.  So, I got two boxes of croutons for $0.20 each.  They are regularly priced at $1.99.  So, I got $3.98 worth of food for $0.40.  I have at least one items like this every time I shop.

As I shopped today for next week's food, I noticed that lentils were on sale for $1.00.  I bought them knowing that we probably won't eat them next week, but we will soon and dried beans keep well.  The regular price is $1.29.  I saved $0.29.  While that might not sound like a lot.  Think of it in these terms.  It is a banana.  I bought some chicken broth for the lentil soup.  It was half price.  That saved me $1.50.  That's a bunch of bananas and then some!  (I bought a bunch today and it was $1.15)

I got what I needed for our meals the week ahead and got a few things for weeks beyond and I only spent $31.03!  It isn't hard and really doesn't take much time.  I spend just a few minutes before going to the store making the list and gathering coupons.  (We also keep a running list of what we run out of during the week.)  I have my list & coupons in hand, making the shopping trip short work.

Whatever time I use preparing to shop and preparing menus is paid back nicely through the savings I get.  And it is fun!  It is almost a sport for me to see just how much I save.  I'm a little disappointed if it isn't 50% or more!

Stats So Far

Today marks the halfway point in this challenge for us.

We have spent $93.51 purchasing food from the grocery store, or our own pantry.  We started with $256.80, so we feel good about making the second half of the challenge on the remaining balance of $163.29.

It is important to note that we have not eaten everything we have purchased.  We still have cereal from the initial grocery store trip and even have two apples from that same trip.  We bought a whole box of saltines along the way and have eaten less than one sleeve.

As we have valued each meal along the way through our evening meal tonight we have eaten $82.65 worth of the food we've bought.

The average allotment of $4.50 or $4.20 each day* for these 15 days is $130.80.  We are under that on both purchases and eating.

We have a list of what we would have received at a local food bank as a SNAP family.  (We will publish the list in a later post.) We were keeping that in mind if we ran out of money before the 30 days.  We would purchase those items ourselves but charge $0 for them since they would be free to a SNAP family.  It does not look like that will be necessary.

All in all we've done well and are well fed.  We are looking forward to the second half of this challenge with perhaps even an eating out splurge.

*The national average through October 31 was $4.50 per person per day.  Beginning November 1, the average dropped to $4.20 per person per day.

No Cooking for a Week!

Our readers since the inception of this blog may remember that the first evening meal we had was chili, with cornbread and cooked apples.  We have mentioned the chili a couple of times since we had a hard time determining the number of servings that pot held.  We charged ourselves for $1.04 per bowl for 8 servings.  Lori ate bowl number 10, the last one, for lunch on Tuesday.    There are still apples left.  We have a large pot of potato soup in the refrigerator waiting to be eaten. 

We don’t mind leftovers as we have mentioned previously.  We actually enjoy them.  This week, we will reap the benefit of leftovers in that there will be no cooking all week, only heat & eat.  Here’s what we’ve had so far or are planning  this week for our evening meal (generally breakfast & lunch are already heat & eat or eat as is meals):

                Monday:  Hamburgers & potato patties from last week

                Tuesday:  Potato soup

                Wednesday:  Roast and trimmings remade in to what Lori’s family called “hash”

                Thursday:  Potato soup (probably the last of it)

                Friday:  Remaining “hash” from Wednesday

Even for us, though,  there comes a time when enough is enough.  When that happens we generally freeze the leftovers in single serving portions for use another time.  It is very handy for packing lunch.  John has taken leftover hamburger helper for lunch several times for a change of pace from sandwiches.  While at this time, we’ll continue to eat leftovers until they are gone we thought this was a good time to point out that this is an easy way to stretch the food budget and it is also an easy way to add variety given the freezer space. 

Then there is the issue of time.  A big pot of chili or soup can be put in the slow cooker before leaving for work in the morning.  It is hot and ready to eat when dinner time arrives.  Remainders can be refrigerated or frozen for those occasions when time is short.  The remainder of most meals can be frozen for future use.  In just a few weeks a wide variety of home prepared low cost meals are right at one’s fingertips.  Investing only one or two cooking occasions each week can yield results for weeks. 

Surprises So Far #1

The other night we were discussing what we had expected vs. what we were experiencing with regard to our SNAP challenge.  We each had several things spring to mind right away.  We decided that the best way to share them was for each of us to write about two on a blog post periodically throughout the rest of the challenge.

Lori's Turn:
As time goes on in this challenge more things arise that were unexpected.  In the interest of brevity, I'll discuss only two.
1.  I expected to miss my afternoon treat drink.
2.  I expected to miss trying new recipes.

My afternoon drink:  I am a water drinker.  Drinking 8 eight ounce glasses of water per day is just getting started for me.  It hasn't always been this way.  Drinking the required 64 ounces of water for optimal health was at one time a chore.  In order to give myself an incentive to drink water, I gave myself a treat drink once I'd downed the initial 64 ounces.  I had a diet cola, agave sweetened tea, or  lemonade, or some other calorie free or low calorie beverage with a lot of flavor.  I'm not sure why, but I haven't missed it.  I just keep on sipping my water.  I know I'll have tea with supper.  Maybe that is it.  I don't know.  I'm just enjoying it. (I have switched to sugar sweetened tea for the cost savings with no ill effects, so I might not switch back.)

Missing new recipes:  I like to cook.  I like to read cookbooks.  I'm often running across recipes that I think John and I will like.  I particularly run across dessert recipes that I think we'll like.  Often times, the new recipe will require an ingredient I don't keep on hand.  I knew that during this 30 days, we may not be able to afford and extra ingredients and I would have to forgo the experimentation in the kitchen.  I was wrong.  I am experimenting in the kitchen trying to keep costs down while making flavorful food has been much more fun than trying a new recipe.  And, we have done so well with our cost savings, that we will be able to afford an extra ingredient if I find something we want to try before the 30 days are over.

This has been a grand adventure, and part of that is having these little surprises arise.  There are several more that I will share in another post soon.  And I'm sure before I write that entry, I'll have added a few more to the list.

John's Turn:

I've been surprised that I've not really ever been hungry except for when I should be hungry--about the time that a meal time is approaching.  Cutting back on portions hasn't been a problem.  I noticed it a little bit at first, but I suppose my body and mind adjusted more quickly than I might have supposed.

I am also surprised at the one thing I seem to miss most--gummi bears!  I like to keep them around for a quick snack or just when I might be wanting something to chew on that tastes good.  As low-cost as they are and as well as we're doing on our budget, I suppose I could work some degree of gummi bear consumption back into my diet, but for now I'm trying to resist.

Tonight's Supper

Lest anyone think we are not eating well, here is a picture of tonight's supper.

This is a chuck roast, potatoes, carrots and onions simmering for our evening meal.  The total cost of what is in the pot is $8.22.  Chuck roast* is on sale this week at Harris Teeter for $3.47 per pound.  This roast weighed 2 lbs and 2 oz bringing the cost to $7.39.  There is a pound of potatoes ($0.23), one onion ($0.30) and one pound of carrots ($0.30).  A typical serving of meat is 4 ounces, so this should yield 8 servings making the per serving cost of the meat $0.92.  The side items should also yield 8 servings. so the entire meal is valued at $1.03.  Add some green beans, which are $0.16 per serving and we have one of our favorite meals. We have been quite pleasantly surprised that we have been able to enjoy many of our favorites during this time.

*We purchased a side of beef about a year ago about $2 per pound, so the roast literally cost us just over $4.  We fully realize that families using SNAP could not afford to spend several hundred dollars for a year+ worth of beef.  In the interest of being as realistic as possible, we used the current grocery store price as we have for all of the beef used during this challenge.

A Tale of Two Puddings

A few days ago we found ourselves in the grocery store for fresh produce.  While we were there we decided to look around for low cost/high flavor options to add to our SNAP diet.  We ran across instant pudding on sale for $0.97.  We were excited about adding a low cost dessert item to the mix.  The total cost of the pudding was $1.29 after adding two cups of milk.  It made four servings so we could have a small treat for the low cost of $0.32.  It was a good thing.  Or so we thought.

Lori began to think about what it took to make pudding at home.  In addition to the milk, it would require flour, sugar and eggs.  None of which were very high cost items.  She got out her pudding recipe and priced each ingredient and learned that making pudding at home was $1.10.  Not only was it cheaper to make the pudding at home, the recipe would make 8 servings!  She then decided to calculate the cost of a vanilla cream pie.   An entire pie - crust, meringue and filling would cost only $2.13.  If the pie was sliced in to 8 servings the cost per slice would be $0.27.  That is still cheaper than the cost of ½ cup of instant pudding.

Lori felt a little suckered.  She had fallen for the idea that the purchased pudding mix would be a good value because it was on sale.  She hadn’t done her homework and vowed not to waste money like that again. 

John, on the other hand, didn’t feel as strongly about the extra cost of the pudding.  He still felt like it was a nice low cost treat.  He pointed out that not everyone had the ability to make pudding from scratch.  Although the ingredients are simple,  easily found and afforded, there is a certain knack to getting the mixture to the right temperature to get it to set properly.  Then there is the whole issue of meringue.  He just didn’t feel like just anyone, SNAP recipient or not could make pudding.  He felt like in the spirit of the challenge, that the purchased instant pudding was just fine.

Lori made a pie. 

John ate it.