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 Five
Another week has flown by, and we’re almost into March. In less than one month, spring will arrive! It’s currently sunny & 70 degrees outside, so it definitely feels like spring, but I doubt it will last. Winter likes to play mind games with us.
Guess what? I didn’t get pizza this week! I wasn’t within the vicinity of a Jet’s though. This week, my doctor appointment was at Michigan State University, where I’m being treated for a problem with my tailbone. Much to my surprise, we discussed a possible coccygectomy (removal of the coccyx). I certainly wasn’t prepared for that! I figured I’d just get scheduled for my next steroid injection and that would be it. Nope!
However, I will be getting another injection in about three months. The first one didn’t work. If the second one doesn’t work, I’ll have some decisions to make. Anyway, what the hell does this have to do with food? Who wants to hear about my tailbone and then about food?
Moving on…
Meals
Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwiches (one night)
mPerks, which is Meijer’s loyalty program, had a $3.00 off coupon available for Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, so I figured why not. Why not? I will tell you why not. I bought the four-count bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, and they were absolutely disgusting. Well, the egg, cheese, and bacon were as expected, but the “biscuits” were horrible. They had some kind of bitter chemical taste. The sandwiches were also tiny. I can’t believe their regular price is $6.79. I barely choked down the first one and couldn’t finish the second one.
Luckily I had also bought some fresh strawberries. Well, it turns out that I wasn’t so lucky. Despite them looking red & delicious, they were tasteless & extremely crunchy. I couldn’t finish those either. I hate tossing food, especially fresh produce, but there was no way I was going to eat anymore.
Minestrone w/Homemade Bread (two nights)
I haven’t had minestrone in over ten years because Sam doesn’t care for it, and boy have I missed it. I made up my own recipe, and it was delicious. The broth was comprised of chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, and fire-roasted diced tomatoes and was flavored with garlic, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, oregano, and thyme…oh, and Caldo de Tomate, of course.
I threw in onion & celery, ham, Parmesan rinds, ditalini, and frozen mixed vegetables from which I picked out all of the corn. I did not want corn in my soup.
Although beans are traditionally a fundamental ingredient in minestrone, I didn’t add any to my soup. I don’t care for beans in soups or stews unless it’s Tex-Mex and has pinto or black beans in it.
I’ve been really digging my soup-a-week. Apparently, I’m a soup person. Who knew?
Cheese Enchiladas w/Rice
I was supposed to make these last week but wound up getting a pizza instead. They were delicious when I had them a few weeks back. This time around, despite me using the same ingredients and the same amounts of ingredients, they were not saucy enough, and I love saucy enchiladas. I have no clue why they were so different from my last batch.
The rice turned out fine and was perfectly cooked, which was quite an achievement for me because in the past I have struggled with stovetop rice. The method that has been working for me is: bring to a boil a cup-and-a-half of water to one cup of rice. Let them boil for exactly one minute, then clap a lid on, turn the temperature down to low and cook for 15 minutes—no lifting the lid! Remove it from the heat, and let it stand for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
Shell Pasta w/Ham & Peas (two nights)
While browsing the internet for pasta recipes, I came across Pasta Shells with Peas and Ham, and I added it to my list due to its simplicity. I decided to make it this week because I had some heavy cream I needed to use up.
I actually really enjoyed this, and I will definitely be making again. It was tasty! And despite the cream it was not heavy at all. I didn’t bother with the dill. It was an extra expense, and I wasn’t sure if I’d like it in this dish.
Total Spent for Meals: $11.31
Baking/Dessert Project
While I was never an accomplished bread baker, I had made my fair share of bread over the years. However, since I had not baked in over five years, I was intimidated to try bread again. I needed a foolproof recipe that anyone could make. My beloved King Arthur came through for me with The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake.
And this bread really was easy to make. I whipped up two loaves, and it only took two-and-a-half hours from start to finish. The crust came out nice and crusty and the bread had a nice crumb. The only downside was a lack of flavor. In the future, I will see if I can remedy that by bulk fermenting it in the fridge for 24 hours.
A bulk ferment in the fridge creates organic acids within the dough and those organic acids are primarily what gives the dough its flavor. If the bulk fermentation doesn’t deliver, I will just move on to a different recipe.
Total Spent for Homemade Bread: $3.29
Fresh Fruit
I already discussed my sad and incredibly crunchy strawberries. There’s really not much else to say except that I’m looking forward to fresh produce season in Michigan.
Total Spent on Fresh Fruit: $2.25
Stock Up
I spent the bulk of my weekly budget—55% of my budget, to be exact—on stocking up. I probably won’t need that bacon for months, but it will do just fine in my deep freezer.
I was low on sugar, so I grabbed two bags since I like to have backup bags of flour and sugar. I hate unpleasant surprises when I go to bake something.
I was low on both Better Than Bouillon chicken base as well as dijon mustard, so I grabbed more of each since they were both on sale. The Maille brand mustard is pricy, but while I was faithful to Grey Poupon for years, it has gone down in quality, and I don’t like it anymore.
Ahhh, the parmesan. I had just bought a wedge on Week Four, but since I only eat one meal a day, I often find myself hungry with nothing to eat. Last week, when I was grating some for a meal, and having never tried Frederik’s by Meijer parmesan, I tasted it. I thought it tasted good, so throughout the week, when I would get hungry, I found myself snacking on it…until it was gone.
When I was shopping for Week Five, I discovered they were out of all parmesan except for the Grana America parm, which was nearly a dollar more than my usual BelGioioso regular parm. I was then mad at myself for eating all of the parmesan. But I can’t help being hungry. Going forward, I should probably purchase a cheap block of Meijer cheese to have on hand when hunger strikes.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $27.73
The Final Tally
The regular price of my groceries altogether was $55.68 [yes, my spreadsheet was off again!], but I saved $10.90—22% of my weekly budget—so this week’s total was $44.58.
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: $44.58
In Conclusion
Another week is in the books! While this week’s food featured a lot of duds, I got to enjoy a delicious minestrone soup, and I discovered a new pasta dish to add to the rotation. Furthermore, while my bread ultimately didn’t have any flavor, I got out into the kitchen and baked. Getting over the anxiety I’ve had about getting back into baking is half the battle, so this week’s bread was definitely a win! Hopefully, going forward, I will continue building on this progress.
So that’s the good, bad, and the ugly of Week Five—all of which was accomplished under $50.00. This week reminded me that even though every meal wasn’t a win, each time I step into the kitchen, I’m becoming more confident and less anxious, which is a HUGE WIN! I’m excited to see what next week brings and to continue sharing my experiences with budget-friendly eating.
