Eating On A Budget
Al Dente reader Quilly Mammoth said it best when he wrote:
Menu planning is the main reason people rich or poor blow the food budget. For a person with means it's an inconvenience, for people with a fixed budget it is disastrous.
For me, this week has been an exercise in eating on a $7-a-day budget. For many people, it's easy. For some it's not hard, but takes time, planning and organization.
Here are the rules:
- Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner spending only $7 ($12 for two, $18 for three, and $22 for four) per day.
- Salt and pepper don't count but all other seasonings, cooking oils, condiments, snacks, drinks, and everything else do.
- Don't use food you already own.
- Don't accept food from family, friends, coworkers and others. Not even the free samples from Costco!
- Try to include fresh produce and healthy protein each day.
You may note that for this particular challenge, I can buy hot, prepared and restaurant foods if I wish. I can purchase foods from Costco or Sam's Club, but I can't eat their samples or any other food someone may offer for free. I must buy it. The goal is straightforward. Eat for no more than $35 over five days.
Yesterday I saw that eggs were on sale for $1 a dozen. If I hadn't started my week with a rotisserie chicken, I would have anchored my meals this week around eggs. I started the day with a fried egg and ate oatmeal for lunch. I was craving cheese, so I made chicken and cheese quesadillas with sour cream for dinner. Someone asked if I was including drinks in my budget. The answer is an inexpensive "yes." I almost never drink coffee, tea, pop or juice. I drink tap water.
Many readers have written in with their meal planning ideas, menu suggestions and recipes. I am thrilled you have taken the time to share your daily bread with me. Thank you.
--Tracy Schneider
Mary on March 24, 2011 at 04:06 AM
When I was a single mom of four children, brown rice (purchased inexpensively from a co-op) was the base of many of our meals. Fried rice (adding a couple of eggs, cooked as omelets and cut up into small bites) makes a cheap, filling and nutritious meal.
I'm enjoying this series!
Quilly Mammoth on March 24, 2011 at 07:52 AM
When we have hot dogs for dinner I freeze half the pack. But I hate to freeze bread items like hot dog buns and defrost them. They just suck. Instead I split them and make them into little garlic and cheese bread loaves. I actually find the toaster oven does a better job then the oven. They're great to serve along with a hearty soup or pasta.
JonnyBear on March 24, 2011 at 02:06 PM
One thing I'd also throw in is to party: get together with three friends and pool your funds for a day. One person could make/bring a roast, another bread and dessert, another vegetables, and the fourth could pick up some wine. Everybody enjoys a meal that individually they might not be able to afford by the rules.
PacRim Jim on March 24, 2011 at 04:49 PM
Go to Costco and lunch on the free samples.
Beth Donovan on March 24, 2011 at 04:56 PM
I like the idea of this challenge, but I'm one of those food shoppers who buys when things are on sale - two for one porkchops or chicken breasts, and then I wrap and freeze them in 2 serving packages. (It's just my husband and I). It would be hard for me to plan and budget for things I don't already have on hand.
Another thing - if I make a big pot of spaghetti, I divvy it up into 8 2-serving portions and freeze 7 of those for future use - how do I figure that kind of cooking in this challenge?
John on March 24, 2011 at 05:02 PM
Can you amortize your costs? For instance, I but the 30 egg carton because its cheaper per egg, and I hate to go to the grocery store, I use two eggs per day, do you count total costs of purchase, or amount used? Cause the 6 egg carton costs alot more per egg.
AStev on March 24, 2011 at 05:04 PM
I currently budget $13 per day for a family of four. (2 of those are a 2-yr-old and a 6-mo-old, though, so it's more like a family of 2.8)
TomHynes on March 24, 2011 at 05:46 PM
I bet you could do it at the McDonalds dollar menu.
Figure you need about 2,100 calories per day, so you need about 300 calories per dollar.
Most items on the dollar menu give you more than this.
It doesn't have to be McDonalds, just make sure everything you buy gives you more than 300 CPD.
NC Mountain Girl on March 24, 2011 at 06:40 PM
Your system imposes discipline, but it doesn't allow for bargain hunting. For that reason I budget just as tightly but over a longer period by tracking expenses in Quicken and keeping very close tabs on what is in the freezer and pantry. After all, a real bargain on a cut of top round can be a roast this week, fajitas next week, a stir fry the third week and a crock pot beef stroganoff next month.
I am also not wedded to any one store. There are several on my normal commute and I carry the bonus cards for all of them. I have found that while store A may have the best prices on a daily basis, store B has the best sales and store C has the biggest selection if I want or need something a bit different. I check the specials on line at all of them in advance of my shopping trip and go first to the one with the best deals that week.
Robert Speirs on March 24, 2011 at 06:51 PM
And while you are all doing this, the Obamas give veal to their dog for its birthday. Somebody's a sucker.
Borealis on March 24, 2011 at 07:40 PM
The idea to live on $7 a day is admirable. But don't do it because that is what Food Stamps pay.
Food Stamps is officially known as the "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program", and as the first name suggests, it has always been intended to be supplemental and not what people have to eat.
JustPlainBroke on March 24, 2011 at 11:53 PM
I've been living on a $7/day food budget for a year and a half. I'm not anal about the accounting, but $200/ month is certainly about right. I shop the sales at the 3 grocery chains in town (but won't spend $.80 in gas to "save" $1.25). A $5 rotisserie chicken will get me 6-7 meals after I boil the carcass, add chicken base and spices and then combine that reduction 2 ladles at a time with some Minute Rice (or pasta) and some fresh broccoli or asparagus. Ground beef on sale under $3/# is another great find. Another staple is boneless, skinless chicken breast which Kroger runs out at $1.88 in packages of 5# or more. Yes, the size of these breasts makes me think they're from worn out old laying hens but that's what the food chain (and Obamacare LOL!) are all about. For the record, I spent $3 at McDonalds in 2010 and $21 total on fast food - all because I was stuck out on the road. Little Caesar's has an everyday $5 One Topping deal that they lower to $3.99 on Wednesday's here. Half a pizza fills me up and I have $5 leftover in my budget. I'd also recommend checking out small produce stores. I found Kiwi's at 5 for $1.00 for most of last summer when the big grocers sold them in the $.29 - $.50 apiece range. Shop the sales, buy low and freeze/store bargains and learn a few simple recipes.
ray martin on March 25, 2011 at 09:03 AM
i make veggie soup in a big pot; mix 4-5 cans campbells veggie + 1 tomato (plus water); throw in a couple cans of corn and one string bean; add a big can stewed tomatoes; and cut up a kielbasa into little chunks and throw that in too. some cream cheese with italian bread, and ice water and you have a cheap meal to feed a bunch (i do this when my kids have friends around)
cathyf on March 25, 2011 at 01:46 PM
One of my "cheap tricks" is more about being picky than frugal. Every few weeks here chicken breasts go on sale for $1/lb. These are the "worn out laying hens" that JustPlainBroke refers to above -- about one-pound per breast. I de-bone them at home. The tenders go in one bag, the racks go in another, and then the breasts I pound thin between sheets of plastic wrap and then they go in the 3rd bag, and everything in the freezer. The pounded breasts make fabulous chicken piccatta or parmesean, or are great cut up in chunks. The tenders are great for all sorts of things, too. But the best part is that every couple of months all of the racks from the chicken come out of the freezer and go in a stock pot, where I boil them for 2, 3, 4 days, and then strain the stock and freeze it in 3 or 4 cup containers. Which I then use for making risotto, soup, sauces, or any other recipe requiring chicken stock. To save space in the freezer, I started the trick of taking 6-cup batches and reducing down to a 1/2-cup, which I then reconstitute when I cook. The reduction carmelizes the stock and makes it truly nectar of the gods -- for a food which started out as scraps that most people just throw away! One other trick is to boil a whole chicken (69cents per pound here on sale) for about 30 minutes on the first day of stock making, and eat it for dinner that night. After dinner, pick the carcass of all the nice juicy meat and put it in the fridge, and throw the scraps back into the pot. Then when the stock is done the cooked chicken and some of the stock form the beginnings of an awesome chicken soup. Oh, and fans of rotisserie chicken? Throw those carcasses in the freezer, too, and add them to the stock as well.
Kevin on March 26, 2011 at 02:46 AM
5 lbs rice - $7
2 lbs peanut butter - $6
a month's worth of full spectrum vitamins - $7
Cook rice. Mix in peanut butter. You've got enough food for 18 days. Spend the extra (18*7-7-6-7) $106 on something fun for the kids.
Kirsten on March 26, 2011 at 09:00 AM
We've done something similar for Lent - give up convenience foods, eat from our supply (to ensure we aren't letting food expire and learning to be more creative with what we have).
For fun, we set a budget at $100 to see how far we could make it. We made it three weeks before we ran out of butter, milk, sugar, whole wheat flour and fresh fruit. Interestingly, what we spent on everything (not just food) was a fraction of what we typically spend. So, living within your means seems to be a mindset that benefits all areas of your budget! We were happy about that!
We use eastern cooking as a model for eating healthy and inexpensively. Since Western poverty seems to be linked to obesity and other very unhealthy things, we found better inspiration from the approach that some other countries with high levels of poverty. Things like "Every self respecting Indian family serves LENTILS twice a day." is not exactly a goal I'm after...but our family has chosen to eat bean main dishes at least once a week for the nutritional value and their cost effectiveness.
I've also started making anything from scratch that I can. Bread, brownies, playdough, you name it...so easy. Staying away from the grocery store as much as possible is good for the budget. And, it's satisfying to see what you can come up with when you are determined to make due with what you have....not run out and buy it (that quick trip to Target for bread suddenly turns into $100 for me in a heartbeat).
If you did chose the $ amount because it's what people who receive nutritional supplementation from the government...good! We need models out there of people living healthy lives on that amount. There's too many ridiculously false messages sent to people living on fixed incomes that they can't afford to eat healthy. That's crap...it's about choices. I'm tired of paying for people to eat poorly and then have to pay again for their health care due to unhealthy eating!