I am a SNAP recipient who receives $110.00 per month in benefits. To augment that, I am able to budget an additional $100.00 per month for food. Altogether, that leaves me with a budget just shy of $50.00 per week. Join me as I share what I do to make it work.
Welcome to Week One
This week’s menu planning actually began a couple of months back when I spent several days brainstorming meal ideas. I came up with a pretty substantial list of foods, including a different soup for each week that Sam is gone.
I do the bulk of my shopping at Meijer because it’s close to home, and that’s important to me due to my agoraphobia and PTSD. Since I don’t feel safe outside of my home, not having to venture very far helps motivate me to get out. Furthermore, to shop anywhere else, I’d have to travel several miles, which doesn’t seem very cost effective.
As many other folks do, I base my meals around what’s on sale. Meijer releases their ad for the following week on Fridays, so I take a peek and start thinking of meals to make. Then I create a shopping list, which I stick to because straying from your list is a good way to blow your budget.
Besides sales, Meijer sends out paper coupons, offers digital coupons, and the company also has its mPerks Rewards Loyalty program. With this program you earn points on every shopping trip—10 points for every dollar you spend. When you collect enough points, you can redeem them for various rewards. For example, today I redeemed 4000 points in exchange for $4.00 off my purchase.
That’s it. That’s pretty much all I do because I like to keep things simple. I don’t have any exciting tips or tricks. I’m sure they’re out there. You just won’t find them here, unfortunately.
Meals
This week’s meals were carb heavy—barely any protein in sight. That’s just how it worked out. Some weeks I do better than others. I also opt for convenience a couple of nights per week. I’m not all about cooking from scratch every single day. This week’s convenience meal was a box of Red Baron supreme French bread pizzas. I had a $1.00-off coupon, so why not? That’s two dinners for $3.69—well, they were supposed to cover two meals.
In reality, I ate them both because I was hungry. Because of my annoying agoraphobia, I couldn’t bring myself to go to the store for several days. Instead, I lived on half-boxes of Kraft mac & cheese for dinner for four nights. Yes, I’d rather starve than leave my house. So, now I was short one dinner. That was okay; there was one more box of Kraft.
And, honestly, that box of pizza was not enough food for two dinners. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Also, a note to Red Baron: I don’t know what spice you’re using in your sausage that’s reminiscent of cinnamon, but you need to tone it down. It’s all I could taste! I spent 5 minutes picking off all of the sausage. Blech!
For Saturday, Sunday, & Monday, I made Chef John’s macaroni salad, and that is because I had a very specific craving for macaroni salad. I do understand that macaroni salad is usually treated as a side, but pasta really fills me up. As for having it three nights in a row… Hey, we’re dealing with a pound of pasta here, so it’s going to take time to get through it. At least it was chock full of veggies?
I had never before tried this recipe, but it looked good. I omitted the carrot and poblano because they aren’t my favorite. In place of the poblano, I just used more bell pepper and jalapeños. I threw in two bunches of green onion, which was a lot, but it worked.
I ended up really liking this macaroni salad! When I first tasted the dressing, I thought, “Oh no! Way too zesty!” However, the dressing really soaks into the pasta, and the finished product tastes very good. Unfortunately, because the dressing soaks in, it wasn’t as creamy as I like it, so I made another half-batch of dressing.
For Tuesday and Wednesday, I made potato & dumpling soup. This is a soup my mother always used to make and one I looked forward to. I’d never made it before though and had to recreate it from memory. I was skeptical when I stepped into the kitchen Tuesday afternoon, but the soup ended up spot on. In fact, instead of waiting for dinner, I ate a few bowls of it right away. I can never get enough of the satisfying chew of those dumplings. And the broth, although on the thinner side, was savory and comforting.
Total Spent for Meals: $18.86
Baking/Dessert Project
For dessert this week, I could have made either no bake cookies or chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I had everything on hand for the cookies, and for cake I just needed powdered sugar for frosting. In the end, the no bake cookies won out. They’re quicker than cake, and I just can’t get enough of them lately. Besides, with ingredients like oatmeal and peanut butter, they’re practically a health food!
Total Spent for Dessert: $2.49
Stock Up
Another way I try to save money is by stocking up on things when they’re on sale. This week’s sales weren’t very good, but I bought a couple of extra things nonetheless. I saved a whopping $2.53. Then again, that’s 5% of my total budget, so every little bit helps.
The family packs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale as well as Barilla pasta. I have some future recipes in mind that require ditalini, so I grabbed a box. As for the chicken, I quite honestly do not care for it, and Sam has a poultry allergy. Therefore, I haven’t purchased chicken in several years. However, I decided to give it a whirl again because—well, why not? I struggle to get enough protein since I don’t care for meat in general. Compared to beef, chicken is an inexpensive protein. It is also incredibly versatile.
I almost didn’t purchase the chicken, however. The last time I bought chicken was years ago, so I’m behind on the times; I absolutely had never heard of woody chicken. Sam quickly brought me up to speed on this disgusting topic. Thanks a lot, Sam.
After a lot of reading on the matter, I decided I would carefully inspect the breasts at Meijer before making my decision. On the advice of The Internet, I looked for smaller breasts that felt nice and squishy. I located a package that fit the bill and threw it in my cart. Time will tell if there’s a woody guy in there, but I’m feeling optimistic.
Now I plan to individually portion my chicken out and freeze it. When it’s time to use it, I think I’m going to pound it out and dry brine it. Perhaps if I take care to prepare and cook it properly, I won’t mind eating it so much. Who knows.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $10.48
The Final Tally
My graphics above are a few cents off somewhere or another because I’m getting a total of $31.83 for everything at Meijer. It was actually $31.92, and then I redeemed my $4.00 mPerks Rewards, so my grand total for this week’s groceries was $27.92 as seen below. Between sales, coupons, and mPerks Rewards, I saved a total of $9.56, which is 19% of my overall budget. My grand total would have been a bit more if my sweet cherries had been in stock. They were supposed to be on sale this week, but there was nary a cherry to be found. Boo!
And in the end? I didn’t eat Kraft mac & cheese again on Friday after all. I went to the Mediterranean place in town and ordered a falafel wrap, which was $11.65 with tax. Yes! I actually left the house two days in a row! And that’s because I had to.
I had to buy mayo for my macaroni salad. I had used a new-to-me brand of avocado oil to make homemade mayo, and it didn’t turn out twice! I have never experienced this before. The first time the emulsion broke. The second time it looked like it had emulsified, but it was…weird, and it tasted hideous. So I had to run to Meijer and spend $4.89 on 30 ounces of Duke’s mayo despite needing only a cup of it. Now I need to figure out how to use the rest.
However, despite the spontaneous fast food dinner and mayo dilemma, I managed to stay within my budget.
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: 44.46
In Conclusion
I just want to say that, while I’m referring to this as a “challenge,” it’s not a contest for me. I only spent 55% of my weekly budget during my initial shopping trip, which I did not intend to do. Like I said, this week was carb heavy, so that played into it. And while I could have bought food for breakfast or lunch, I’m no longer wired to eat those meals; I rarely get hungry during the day anymore. Lastly, I had my heart set on those cherries, and no other fruit sounded good to me, so I didn’t buy any fruit. Had there been cherries available, I definitely would have bought some. To sum it up, I’m not trying to show off how little I can spend.
And that is the end of my inaugural budget challenge! Going into this for the first time, I wasn’t sure—and I’m still not sure—the best way to lay this all out for you. I am really hoping for some input. What would you like to see? What would you like me to cover? I have invited you in to have a peek at my life, and I’m eager to hear from you—whether you have suggestions, want to share your own budget-friendly tips, or have thoughts on woody chicken! Let’s make this a conversation about navigating the challenges of food insecurity and tight budgets together. My journey with you has just begun, and I’m open to learning from your experiences too. Stay tuned for next week, and don’t hesitate to drop your insights in the comments below!
