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 Two
Well, this week didn’t get off to a good start. When I opened my Flipp app a couple Fridays ago, I was confronted with this:
The whole ad was filled with these “great game deals” aka snack foods. Look, I was as excited as anybody for the Lions versus the 49ers game, but it was one day! Snack food has its time and place, but most of us aren’t out here looking to eat it seven days a week. With the exception of a frozen bag of chicken wings, there was no fresh meat or produce featured at all. With few sales to take advantage of, I figured it was going to be a tough week budget wise.
Speaking of Meijer, last week I truthfully stated that I do most of my shopping there. However, I generally hit up Walmart about once a month. It’s right on the way home from my doctor’s office, so I just swing by after my appointments. The bulk of my purchases are household goods, but I also like to stock up on pantry items because they’re usually a bit cheaper there.
Sam and I also share Sam’s Club and Costco memberships. I spring for the Sam’s Club Plus membership, which is $100.00/year because I can get free shipping on the household goods I regularly purchase there. I set aside $8.75 each month, which pays for my annual membership. I haven’t actually been inside the club for several years, and therefore, I am limited to what food items can be shipped—like unsalted in-shell peanuts for my bird friends.
Sam pays for the Costco membership, and we do stock up on select food items every few months. Our regular staples include butter, bacon, and avocado oil [I just found out that they no longer carry Marianne’s avocado oil], and less frequently we purchase pecans and chocolate chips. Those chocolate chips? You can get 4.5 pounds of them for around $10.00!
I will admit that, unlike most people, I’m not a huge fan of going to Costco. First of all, there’s that whole bit about me not liking to leave the house. Secondly, ours is rather a pain the butt to get to. And honestly? I’m just not impressed with their famous hot dogs or pizza. Blasphemy, I know.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to this week’s meals.
Meals
Frozen Pizza (one night)
Shopping List: one Red Baron frozen pepperoni pizza
Despite doing Red Baron pizza two weeks in a row, I’m not a huge fan of frozen pizza—or Red Baron, for that matter. What I am is lazy. Because of my agoraphobia, venturing out of the house zaps my energy. Therefore, on shopping days, I don’t want to cook. Frozen pizza is quick and easy.
Last week’s Red Baron French bread pizzas were ruined by an overpowering spice in the sausage, so this week, I opted for just a pepperoni pizza. Unfortunately, the sauce on this pizza was way too sweet. Why do American foods have to always be so sweet? I guess that’s what I get for being lazy.
BBQ Chicken Pizza (two nights)
Shopping List: bacon, tomato
Since there were few sales, I consulted my list of meal ideas with our pantry in mind. We keep a pretty well stocked pantry, so I just needed to be creative.
First of all, I had been craving BBQ chicken pizza for a while. Because I’m not a fan of meat, especially chicken, I had thought about doing plant based chicken; however, that stuff never tastes quite right. This situation definitely called for real chicken. And so it was my craving for this pizza that led me to buying a family pack of chicken breasts last week.
As for pizza dough, I always have flour and yeast on hand. I also have a stand mixer, so whipping up some dough is simple. By the way, the yeast I have in my freezer is SAF instant yeast, which I bought at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020. I keep it in a Mason jar in the freezer. It still works beautifully.
I typically use Bobby Flay’s dough recipe. There’s nothing special about it. I just googled “pizza dough recipe” years ago, and his was the first hit. I used it, and it worked fine, so I’ve stuck with it. I do, however, like to make the dough a few days ahead of time to let it cold ferment in the fridge. Flay’s recipe makes enough dough for two pizzas, so this time around I’ll use half and freeze the other half.
As for the other ingredients, there was plenty of BBQ sauce in the fridge. I also had a bag of leftover mozzarella that has been sitting in the fridge since December. I just needed some tomato and bacon. I portioned out the remaining bacon into 3-strip servings and froze it. That way I’m “paying it forward” towards future meals.
My pizza was just okay. I’ve never been able to successfully transfer a pizza from peel to stone [seriously, what is the trick?], so I just bake it on a pan. That makes for a very lackluster dough, unfortunately. Plus, I forget that our Breville oven cooks much quicker than a conventional oven, so I way overcooked my chicken breast. I had meant to cook it to an internal temperature of 150; it was at 209 degrees when I checked it. Chicken leather. You can bet I won’t make that mistake again.
Tex-Mex Chicken Soup (two one nights)
Shopping List: red bell pepper, onion, jalapeños, limes, tortilla strips
Next up was Tex-Mex Chicken Soup. It started out as a tortilla soup, but I don’t like tortillas in my soup. So, I just came up my own “Tex-Mex” soup recipe based on what was in my pantry: chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, and black beans. I made a spice mixture of chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, freshly ground coriander, and a bit of an umami bomb with some Knorr Caldo de Tomate. Before I put the chicken in it, it was so freaking good that I was afraid it wouldn’t last for two dinners [it was probably all of the MSG in the Caldo de Tomate].
While I didn’t overcook the chicken this time, I still wasn’t feeling it. Guys, I just don’t like chicken, and the texture of the shredded chicken in my soup made me gag. While I ate it on Sunday night, I went without dinner on Monday because I could not bring myself to eat that soup. Next time, I’m only adding black beans. In the meantime, I think I’ll send the rest of my chicken breasts home with my daughter, Bree. I’m glad I gave chicken another shot, but unfortunately it’s just not for me.
Since I used what was in my pantry, I only had to purchase the necessary produce and some tortilla strips for the garnish.
Cheese Enchiladas w/ rice & beans (two nights)
Shopping List: corn tortilla shells, cheddar jack cheese, enchilada sauce
Yes, I made two Tex-Mex meals in a week. This was also an occasion to use The Poor Man’s Special: rice and pinto beans.
Going into this, I was extremely afraid that my pintos wouldn’t turn out. Their use-by date passed two years ago. I also forgot to soak them the night before, so I didn’t have high hopes. I threw them into the Instant Pot along with onion, garlic, jalapeño, dried chiles, a bay leaf, and a bit of bacon fat. I set them to cook for 60 minutes and hoped for the best.
I was also nervous about the rice. Since my Instant Pot was in use, I had to cook it on the stovetop, where I can never seem to cook my rice to perfection. I first sautéed some jasmine rice in oil until it became a nice golden brown. Then I threw in some onion, jalapeño, and garlic, which I cooked for a minute. Next came my broth of Caldo de Tomate. I brought it to a boil, boiled it for a minute, turned the heat down to between low & medium, and slapped a lid on it. Waiting to see if it turned out was the longest 15 minutes of my life.
I wasn’t worried about the enchiladas. I cheated and used canned sauce.
Guess what? Everything turned out perfect! Two good meals out of seven isn’t the best, but I was expecting to be 0/7, so I’m actually thrilled.
Total Spent for Dinners: $23.41
Baking Project
Jalapeño Cheddar Bread
Shopping List: sharp cheddar, jalapeños
In December, I got a hankering for jalapeño cheddar bread, and since I want to get back into baking, I began googling recipes. I saw the picture on this recipe and decided I had to make it.
We mostly hand-grate our cheese these days, and I was in the market for a new grater. I came across this contraption and decided to order one. It’s not a genuine KitchenAid attachment, so I didn’t have high hopes for it. Well, it seems to work okay except for the fact that it sends cheese flying everywhere. I had to hold a bowl right up under the shoot, which was a bit challenging. It also kind of sucks that it’s not dishwasher safe, but I knew that prior to my purchase.
This bread dough was so easy to make! Because it is a high hydration dough, however, it’s very wet and sticky. So, the most difficult part was dumping the dough out onto the counter, folding it in on itself, and transferring it to parchment paper. Sticky, sticky!
As it was baking in the oven, I patted myself on the back for not screwing anything up. That’s when I remembered that I forgot to add the cheddar and jalapeño topping! D’oh! Typical Jen. After the bread baked with the lid on for the requisite 30 minutes, I pulled it out of the oven, removed the lid, added my toppings, and slid it back into the oven.
I baked it for an additional 20 minutes as I was instructed, but I wasn’t convinced it was done baking. So, I took it out of the Dutch oven and threw it back into the oven. When I checked it again, it still didn’t seem done, but I pulled it anyway because it had been in there quite a long time.
The verdict? It wasn’t done. I should have trusted my judgment. While it wasn’t doughy, the texture grossed me out, so I had to toss it unfortunately.
Total Spent for Baking: 3.14
Stock Up
Shopping List: bread flour, tortellini, enchilada sauce, taco shells, onion
While bread flour was not on sale, I was going to be using most of mine up, so I wanted to have a bag on hand. I always purchase King Arthur brand, even though it’s the most expensive. I think it’s the best, and if I’m going to put my time and effort into baked goods, I want to use quality ingredients.
The tortellini was .99¢ off, so I grabbed one to throw in the freezer for a future tortellini soup. I’ve neither frozen it before, nor do I know if I’m even supposed to. I hope it will be okay. The verdict will be rendered in a few weeks.
Old El Paso products were on sale this week. There was also a coupon available that was $1.00 off the purchase of three Old El Paso products. So, I bought an extra enchilada sauce and some taco shells for future use.
The onion and coffee filters were just getting low, so no sales there.
Total Spent to Stock Up: 15.85
The Final Tally
Once again, I stayed under budget this week. Doing so will give me the necessary funds to keep my pantry stocked. My grand total was $42.42, and while there weren’t a lot of sales to take advantage of, I did manage to save $4.01. That’s 8% of my overall budget, so every little bit truly helps.
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: $42.42
In Conclusion
Well, I tried cooking & baking some new things this week, and it didn’t go so well. But that’s okay! I have learned from my mistakes. I created a delicious new soup, and now I know not to add chicken to it. Next, I chose a highly-rated bread recipe that just didn’t work out for me; instead, I’ll try this one in the future. Finally, if I ever make chicken again—which I won’t—I know what not to do.
I’m a bit sad, however, to have wasted food. It breaks my heart to throw things away, but sometimes it simply cannot be helped. And I will not allow myself to dwell on it; worrying about something out of my control does me no good. As always, onward and upward!
