I am a SNAP recipient who receives $193.00 per month in benefits. To augment that, I am able to budget an additional $32.00 per month for food. Altogether, that leaves me with a budget of just over $50.00 per week. Join me as I share what I do to make it work.
Welcome to Week Ten
Here we are at Week Ten, which means I will only be doing five more weeks of challenges after this due to Sam coming home. I’m not exactly sure how things will work as far as meals once she’s back. I’ve come to enjoy planning, shopping for, and making my own meals, and I hate the thought of giving that up. Plus, Sam and I are not often on the same page when it comes to foods we like. On the other hand, it will be difficult to have two people making two separate meals in our tiny kitchen. This is certainly a quandary.
For now, it’s just me, however. And although I’ve been pushing myself to try new things, this week I wasn’t too adventurous. Besides trying a new soup recipe, everything else was stuff I’ve been making for years. I planned these meals based on food I already had on hand, which allowed this week’s budget to go further.
Meals
Fettuccine Alfredo (1 night)
This was my second night of alfredo—the remnants of Week Nine’s final meal. I tossed the leftover alfredo into the microwave and hoped for the best. The cream and cheese had totally disappeared. I don’t know where they went. So, I essentially ate slightly greasy pasta with some green peas. It wasn’t terrible.
Hamburgers & Salad (2 nights)
I’ve really been digging burgers lately, which is great because they’re a quick, easy meal. This week’s burgers had the works and were so delicious that I think I need to make them again next week.
I had lettuce left over from last week’s ham sandwiches, so I used it to make salad. One of the goals I have with this challenge is to use up all leftover ingredients in order to reduce food waste and save money. In fact, I think I will use this week’s leftover hamburger buns for more hamburgers along with ham and salami sandwiches next week. And if I don’t, I’ll just freeze them.
Pizza (1 night)
I had plenty of pepperoni, green pepper, onion, and crushed tomatoes leftover from last week’s Detroit-style pizza; I also had pizza dough in the freezer. Who can say no to a free pizza?
Tortellini Soup (2 nights)
Another week; another soup I didn’t care for. Unlike last week, however, I managed to eat this soup for two dinners; I just didn’t particularly enjoy it. As far as creamy soups containing sausage, I much prefer the Tuscan soup I made two weeks ago. In fact, I think I will make that again soon.
If I’m recalling correctly, I think out of the ten soups I’ve made over the past ten weeks, there were only two I didn’t care for. There was also the southwest soup I wound up not liking after I put shredded chicken in it; I loved it prior to adding the chicken, however, so I’m still counting that as a win.
Sausage Burritos & Crispy Potato Rounds (1 night)
I decided to make another bulk batch of sausage burritos to freeze. Afterwards, I needed a quick & easy meal, so I had a couple of my burritos with some potato rounds.
I didn’t include the cost breakdown for the burritos here since I made twenty of them, so I don’t feel it fits under meals. The cost breakdown is under “Miscellaneous.”
As for the potato rounds, it was a miracle that Meijer finally had them in stock! I think I’ve tried to buy them three times in the past, and they’ve never had them.
I loved the Ore-Ida crispy crowns but they either quit making them or Meijer quit stocking them. Either way, I miss them. I was happy to see Meijer carries a similar product. They’re not quite as good as the Ore-Ida brand, but they are fine.
Total Spent on Meals: $13.02
Baking/Dessert Project
This week I made both blueberry muffins and no bake cookies because I had everything on hand to make both.
Total Spent for Baking & Dessert: $0.00
Stock Up
There were no particularly exciting sales this week. There was a deal on sausage, but I had to buy two in order to get the sale price. I used one for my burritos, and I’ll use the second one for future meals. I also bought a bag of potatoes that was on sale since I’ll be making potato soup next week. Also, butter was on sale, and I had a 50¢ coupon for one. I only bought one, however, since I just purchased six boxes last week. The rest of the things I bought were just because I was getting low on those particular supplies.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $16.11
Miscellaneous
I’ve really come to enjoy having a smoothie in the morning. However, I was only able to do five per week because that’s how many servings of yogurt are in a container. From now on, I’m going to make sure to have enough yogurt and bananas on hand so that I can make seven smoothies per week.
I ran out of my frozen strawberries, so I moved on to a year-old bag of frozen Daybreak Blend from Costco. Daybreak Blend contains mangoes, peaches, pineapple, and strawberries. It makes a delicious smoothie—even this old bag where the fruit is covered in ice crystals.
The bag has sat in our deep freezer for a year after Sam came home from New Zealand last year determined to make smoothies more often. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen—probably because it’s a hassle to haul out/put away our Vitamix each day. However, now that I’m allowing the blender to live on the counter, I’ll empty that bag of fruit in no time.
As I previously mentioned, I also decided to make another batch of burritos to freeze. There are now many days when I’m no longer content to eat just one meal per day—especially since I started gabapentin, which makes me ravenous—so having extra food available has been wonderful.
Total Spent on Miscellaneous: $19.20
The Final Tally
Disclaimer: In the images below, you will see that I purchased a 24-pack of Coke. However, I’m not including that in my grand total. The Coke was paid for by Sam. She has gastroparesis and drinks Coke when she’s having a flare. Since Coke was on sale, she had me purchase some, so it will be available to her once she returns. I, myself, rarely drink soda, especially since it has become outrageously expensive.
So, this week I spent a total of $48.33. The regular price would have been $54.43, so I only saved $6.10, but I did stay under budget. I also managed to work in supplies for smoothies and twenty sausage burritos!
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: $48.33
In Conclusion
Before I know it, Sam will be back home. I’m in no great hurry to have her back because I’ve actually been enjoying having the place to myself—especially the kitchen. Of course, however, I’ll be happy when she’s home safely, but before that happens, we’ll need to come up with some sort of plan for dinnertime.
In the meantime, I still have five more weeks of my challenge left. I know I’ve been slacking by not posting my weekly challenges in a timely manner. This post is a week late for which I apologize. I’ll try to do a better job going forward. I just have not been able to concentrate on writing lately. Perhaps it’s the change in season?
Despite my lack of effort with the blog, I’m still committed to working with my $50.00 weekly grocery budget. I’ve enjoyed the challenge and, for the most part, I’ve done pretty well. Speaking of which I need to get Week Eleven written up as well as meal plan for Week Twelve! I’m way behind!
See you next time!
