As I mentioned in my first post, one of my motivations for starting this blog is to encourage myself to save as much money on my grocery bill as possible, but a blog that just lists my meals is going to get boring really quick, for you and for me, so I decided to break up those posts a bit with a few of the things that I am doing to keep within my budget.
One of the big things that I save money on is my entertainment budget. I don't pay for cable TV. I do have a small satellite device for my television which gives me local channels. One of my main forms of entertainment lately has been audiobooks. There are some really fabulous ones out there. I'm fortunate that my local library has a huge selection of high quality library books. My favorite ones have been the "In Death" series by J. D. Robb, read by Susan Ericksen. They are well written books with fabulous narration. They are a romantic suspense series set 50 years in the future, and the main character is New York homicide police officer. There are around 40 books in the series right now, so they provide hours of entertainment.
If you don't have a library near by, librivox.com is a great free resource for audiobooks. They have a huge selection of public domain books that are narrated by volunteers. Because it is a wholly volunteer service the narration can be a bit hit and miss, but there are some definite gems. Karen Savage is my personal favorite. She has narrated a couple of Jane Austen books, several of the Anne of Green Gables series and many more.
The way I see it is that every dollar I save from somewhere else in my budget is a dollar that I can put on my debt, which will help me in my attempt to be debt free (with the possible exception of a mortgage) in 5 years. I'll have more advice posts later.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Days 2 and 3
Well, preparing ahead and cooking leftovers doesn't make for the most exciting meals. I fear that my diet hasn't changed greatly in the past couple days.
Saturday (Day 2)
Breakfast: Oatmeal with apple, sugar, and cinnamon and 2 cups of coffee: $1.40.
Lunch: The rest of my apple from breakfast and butter chicken over rice: $1.53
Total cost for the day: $2.93
Sunday (Day 3): I slept until noon (after getting home at 8 am from work) so this was another 2 meal day.
Breakfast: Bagel with cream cheese
Bagel: 6/$2.00 (50 cents for one)
Cream cheese: Going price appears to be $3.50 for 8 ounces for the Philadelphia brand, so I'll go with that. I'll estimate I used about 50 cents worth.
Coffee with non-dairy creamer-3 cups: 24 cents
Total Breakfast cost: $1.24
Dinner: Butter Chicken over rice
Total Dinner cost: $1.53
Day 3 total cost: $2. 77
Total for 3 days: $9.63
Saturday (Day 2)
Breakfast: Oatmeal with apple, sugar, and cinnamon and 2 cups of coffee: $1.40.
Lunch: The rest of my apple from breakfast and butter chicken over rice: $1.53
Total cost for the day: $2.93
Sunday (Day 3): I slept until noon (after getting home at 8 am from work) so this was another 2 meal day.
Breakfast: Bagel with cream cheese
Bagel: 6/$2.00 (50 cents for one)
Cream cheese: Going price appears to be $3.50 for 8 ounces for the Philadelphia brand, so I'll go with that. I'll estimate I used about 50 cents worth.
Coffee with non-dairy creamer-3 cups: 24 cents
Total Breakfast cost: $1.24
Dinner: Butter Chicken over rice
Total Dinner cost: $1.53
Day 3 total cost: $2. 77
Total for 3 days: $9.63
Saturday, June 29, 2013
SNAP Challenge Day 1
Here are my meals from Friday.
Breakfast:
For breakfast today I had Overnight Oatmeal, which is wonderful for making a solid breakfast when you don't have a lot of time in the morning.
Overnight Oatmeal
1 cup Steel Cut Oats
4 cups water
Start this oatmeal the night before you want to eat it. Combine oats and water in a pot. Heat on stove until water begins to boil. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Leave the covered pot, with the heat off, over night. In the morning, stir the oatmeal and heat on medium heat until warm throughout.
4 servings.
I added some chopped apple, cinnamon and sugar to my bowl, and ate the rest of the apple sliced on the side.
I also had 2 cups of brewed coffee with non-dairy creamer.
Oatmeal: $3.35/2 pounds. Approximately 15 cents per serving of Oatmeal.
Pink Lady Apples: $1.99/pound. $1.07 per apple
Sugar: $2.92/5 pounds. About 0.5 cent per teaspoon (I'll round it to 1 cent for pricing purposes)
Cinnamon: $6.48/8.75 ounces. About 1 cent per serving.
Coffee: $7.99/27.8 ounces. 3 cents per cup
Non-dairy creamer: $3.29/32 ounces. 5 cents per serving
Total breakfast cost: $1.40
Lunch:
For lunch I had Butter Chicken made from 1 pound of chicken, 3 tablespoons butter, and Kitchen's of India paste for Butter Chicken over rice. It made 4 servings.
Chicken breast: $2.99/pound. 75 cents per serving.
Butter Chicken paste: $1.99. 50 cents per serving.
Butter: $2.89/pound. 27 cents for amount used in this recipe. About 8 cents per serving.
Rice: $12.99/10 pounds rice. I cooked 1.5 cups of rice and divided it for four meals. About 20 cents per serving.
Total lunch cost: $1.53
Snack:
2 kiwifruit, bought at the price of 2/$1.00
Total snack cost: $1.00
I work a 7 pm to 7:30 am shift, and I rarely want to eat when I get home from work. I am much more interested in a hot shower and climbing into bed, so this was my total food for the day, along with plenty of tap water.
Total food cost of day 1: $3.93
Breakfast:
For breakfast today I had Overnight Oatmeal, which is wonderful for making a solid breakfast when you don't have a lot of time in the morning.
Overnight Oatmeal
1 cup Steel Cut Oats
4 cups water
Start this oatmeal the night before you want to eat it. Combine oats and water in a pot. Heat on stove until water begins to boil. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Leave the covered pot, with the heat off, over night. In the morning, stir the oatmeal and heat on medium heat until warm throughout.
4 servings.
I added some chopped apple, cinnamon and sugar to my bowl, and ate the rest of the apple sliced on the side.
I also had 2 cups of brewed coffee with non-dairy creamer.
Oatmeal: $3.35/2 pounds. Approximately 15 cents per serving of Oatmeal.
Pink Lady Apples: $1.99/pound. $1.07 per apple
Sugar: $2.92/5 pounds. About 0.5 cent per teaspoon (I'll round it to 1 cent for pricing purposes)
Cinnamon: $6.48/8.75 ounces. About 1 cent per serving.
Coffee: $7.99/27.8 ounces. 3 cents per cup
Non-dairy creamer: $3.29/32 ounces. 5 cents per serving
Total breakfast cost: $1.40
Lunch:
For lunch I had Butter Chicken made from 1 pound of chicken, 3 tablespoons butter, and Kitchen's of India paste for Butter Chicken over rice. It made 4 servings.
Chicken breast: $2.99/pound. 75 cents per serving.
Butter Chicken paste: $1.99. 50 cents per serving.
Butter: $2.89/pound. 27 cents for amount used in this recipe. About 8 cents per serving.
Rice: $12.99/10 pounds rice. I cooked 1.5 cups of rice and divided it for four meals. About 20 cents per serving.
Total lunch cost: $1.53
Snack:
2 kiwifruit, bought at the price of 2/$1.00
Total snack cost: $1.00
I work a 7 pm to 7:30 am shift, and I rarely want to eat when I get home from work. I am much more interested in a hot shower and climbing into bed, so this was my total food for the day, along with plenty of tap water.
Total food cost of day 1: $3.93
Thursday, June 27, 2013
I have seen news articles about various congress people attempting the SNAP challenge, and making some ridiculous choices while doing so. For example, Donald M. Payne, Jr., Congressman from New Jersey, paying $1.08 for a single boiled egg. I bought 12 eggs yesterday at the store for $1.89, less than what he would have paid for two pre-cooked eggs.
My purpose with this blog is not to mock those who use food stamps, but rather to present ideas on how you can save money on groceries by making good purchasing decisions. I hope to be able to share a variety of tasty and nutrition recipes and meal ideas, including those for bagged lunches, in an effort to help everybody eat a healthy diet on a budget.
Additionally, this blog will serve to help me stick to my food budget in order help me keep my finances under control. I have a number of school loans to pay off and a credit card bill that is a lot higher than I am comfortable with. There a lot of expenses each month that I have minimal control over, loan repayments, rent, auto insurance, etc., but my food budget is an area that I have almost complete control over.
Now for the details of the SNAP challenge. The goal is to spend no more than $31.50 a week on food. That works out to spending $4.50 a day on food. My personal goal is to keep my grocery budget under $100 (for one person) for the month. I will be using items that I already have in my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator, so I will do my best to approximate what I spent on those items based on current prices when I use them.
I will also use this blog to share other money saving, or money creating tips, that I use at home. Please feel free to use the comments to add links to your own thrifty recipes or to share your own money saving tips.
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