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 Nine
How has it been nine weeks already? Dang! It’s also crazy to think that Sam will be headed back home in five more weeks! Time has flown by! It seems as though I was just preparing to get through a long winter, and now it is almost April. I’m definitely not complaining.
I am sorry this post is late again. While I am physically feeling better, I just haven’t been in the mood for writing. It doesn’t help that I’ve been totally uninspired. I’m not going to stress about it though. The same thing happened back in December, and I was back to writing in January. I’m hoping this is the same type of situation.
As far as food, I did go over budget for Week Nine because I wanted to take advantage of sales to stock up. Ground beef was on sale, and I was down to my last chub in the freezer. Also, butter was on sale, which rarely happens, so I definitely wanted to take advantage of that.
Meals
Ham Sandwiches & Chips (2 nights)
My sandwiches were a bit disappointing. First of all, I went against my better judgment to save money and used the American cheese I had on hand. It was oddly…sweet. After I suffered through the first two sandwiches with cheese, I took the cheese off the remaining four. In the future, I’ll definitely be spending the two bucks for Swiss. In my opinion, American cheese is good for grilled cheese and not much else. I mean that for me, personally. I’m just not a fan.
Secondly, for bread I used my leftover hamburger buns from Week Eight, which I had frozen. The buns just weren’t very good and were rather dry. Then again, nothing beats homemade bread, with bakery bread being a close second. Unfortunately, Meijer’s bakery items kinda suck, and I’m skeptical of my ability to make hamburger buns.
As for the chips, I may have snacked on them until there were none left for the second night of sandwiches. I’m not a huge fan of chips, but if they’re in the house, I will eat them.
Roasted Red Pepper Soup (2 nights)
When I was compiling a list of soup recipes back in November, I was starting to run out of ideas, so I hesitantly added roasted red pepper soup. It just didn’t sound that appetizing. However, I was pushing myself to try new things, so I figured I should give this soup a chance.
In Week Eight, since red peppers were only $1.00 each, I decided it was time to try the roasted red pepper soup. However, I had already planned my Tuscan Soup, so I purchased the six peppers a week early and hoped they’d keep.
They kept fine and last Sunday I made the soup—although preparations actually began Saturday morning. I do not like sun dried tomatoes whatsoever, so I dehydrated three tomatoes to replace them. Perhaps a bit extra of me, but there honestly wasn’t that much effort involved. I wanted to keep this recipe as close to the original as possible.
Well, I’m the end it didn’t matter. I hated this soup. I couldn’t even finish a bowl of it. I wasted six peppers, three tomatoes, and an onion on this recipe. That stung, especially when I had to dispose of the wasted soup. On a positive note, I got to bust out my new immersion blender, and it made quick work of the chunky vegetables.
I was supposed to eat this two nights, so the second night I just ate grilled cheese.
Detroit Style Pizza (2 nights)
I use Kenji’s dough recipe for this pizza because it’s perfect; however, I made up my own sauce recipe. While I like my sauce recipe a bit more than Kenji’s, I’m still not satisfied with it. No matter how many different pizza sauce recipes I’ve tried over the years, they all pretty much taste the same, and that is not a plus. I don’t know that I’ll ever create the perfect sauce recipe. Everything I try is missing something, and I can’t pinpoint what that something is. As for cheese, Meijer doesn’t carry brick cheese, so I used a combination of whole milk mozzarella and muenster.
My pizza turned out good—not Jet’s good—but it was pretty tasty. I even managed to get those carmelized edges. The best part, however, was the price. It cost less than 10 bucks to make this pizza. Where else are you going to find a pizza containing a whole pound of cheese for that price? Then again, I’ll happily pay the $20.11 for Jet’s pizza, but having shelled out twice for Jet’s last month, I’ll be holding off on my next pizza—probably for quite some time.
Next time, I want to use this dough to make a BLT pizza. I just need to figure out the best way to add mayo.
Fettuccine Alfredo (1 night)
It took a couple of weeks, but I finally made the fettuccine alfredo to which I added the green peas that were left over from my minestrone way back when. Green peas get a lot of hate, but I like them just fine. Lima beans, on the other hand, deserve all the hate they receive. Yuck!
This meal is all carbs and fats, but it’s easy to make and comes together quickly. The worst part was grating the parmesan with my Microplane. I should have used my KitchenAid grater attachment, which would have made quick work of it; however, I am lazy and didn’t feel like handwashing the parts afterwards. My arm instantly regretted that decision.
Because I had planned on making this a couple of weeks ago, I had everything on hand to make it, so it was technically ”free.”
Total Spent on Meals: $19.09
Baking/Dessert Project
To accompany my roasted red pepper soup, I once again baked The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake. I had made it a couple of weeks back, and I was dismayed that it had no flavor. I decided to make it again and let it cold ferment, hoping that it would develop some flavor. The recipe makes two loaves. I baked the first loaf after a 24-hour cold ferment. No flavor. I baked the second loaf after a 48-hour cold ferment. Still no flavor.
I am really bummed that this recipe just isn’t going to work out for me because it truly is the easiest loaf of bread I’ve ever made.
I had everything on hand to make this, so I didn’t spend any money for baking this week.
Total Spent for Baking: $0.00
Stock Up
As I mentioned earlier, I went over budget to stock up on ground beef and butter, and I’m fine with that. Butter doesn’t come on sale very often, and I use a lot of it, so I bought six boxes. I also bought 3.5 pounds of ground beef, which I portioned into half-pound chubs. All of the butter and ground beef went into my deep freezer.
I would be lost without my freezer. The only downside is that it’s a chest freezer, so I have to layer everything. That means I have to remove a bunch of crap to get to the items underneath. Why, yes, I am lazy. Okay, I’m actually more impatient than lazy. Anyway, I digress. I am very thankful for my freezer, and I especially love it because Dad bought it as Christmas gift over 20 years ago. Damn, I miss him!
I also stocked up on strawberries, which were only $1.25 each. Frozen strawberries were $3.99 for 16 ounces, while 16-ounce containers of fresh strawberries were on sale for $1.25, so it was a no-brainer. I brought them home, cleaned and hulled them, and then I popped them into the freezer for smoothies. I wish I could have afforded even more. At 10-12 strawberries per smoothie, they’ll go quickly.
Speaking of smoothies, I can get five smoothies out of a quart of yogurt. That means I only get a smoothie five out of seven days per week. I’ve really been digging them, so I think I’ll get two quarts of yogurt next week. That way I can enjoy a smoothie every day! Since fruit is lower quality and more expensive this time of year, smoothies are a perfect way for me to get more fruit into my diet.
I’m also glad I’m finally taking advantage of having a Vitamix. Sam, Bree, & I all went in on it years ago during an Amazon Prime Day sale. We were going to make so many smoothies! Yeah, no. That didn’t happen. It’s a pain in the ass to get it into/out of storage. Plus, with it being hidden behind doors, it’s been an “out of sight, out of mind” situation. Well, this time around, I have been allowing it to live on my countertop. I am not a fan of countertop clutter whatsoever, but I’m trying to learn to adapt. So far it hasn’t hindered me overmuch. I’m going to allow it to live on my counter for as long as I plan on making smoothies.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $51.36
Miscellaneous
Total Spent on Miscellaneous: $6.78
The Final Tally
This week was all about saving money, and I did. At regular price, I would have paid $116.34 for my groceries; however, I saved $39.11, which brought my grand total down to only $77.23!
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: $77.23
In Conclusion
So, this week my soup was a flop, and my ham sandwiches were underwhelming; however, the Detroit-style pizza definitely hit the spot, even if it wasn’t quite Jet’s level. Plus, that pizza dough recipe is a keeper! Speaking of keepers, the longevity of my trusty freezer continues to amaze me (thanks Dad!). I am also thankful for the ground beef, butter, and strawberries that are all nicely tucked away in it. It’s a satisfying & reassuring feeling to have a freezer full of food. So, here’s to a well-stocked freezer and delicious meals for weeks to come!
