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 Thirteen
I apologize for this being a week late. It’s ridiculous because I had most of this post drafted over a week ago. But every time I thought about getting it ready to publish, I just didn’t even want to deal with it. That’s pretty much where I am at with most things lately. I’m not even depressed; I think it has to do with the change in season.
Anyway, as Sam’s return date loomed, she and her partner became increasingly depressed at the thought of her having to leave New Zealand. She had thought about extending her stay, but she and I were supposed to head to the Upper Peninsula for our annual spring camping trip the week after she got home. However, I told her not to worry about the trip, so she went ahead and applied for a visa extension. Instead of coming home on May 6, she will now be returning home on May 23—just in time for us to spend Memorial Day weekend with my brother and his family!
Because she has extended her trip, I will also be extending my budget challenge by two weeks. You wonderful folks now get to look forward to four more installments of $50.00 a Week Budget Challenge! I know this is a Huge Deal because my posts are enthralling, but I hope you aren’t getting too excited. I don’t want anyone fainting.
Speaking of enthralling, this week’s meals are mainly repeats. While that’s fine by me, it doesn’t really make for an interesting blog post. However, as I said last week, I just haven’t been inspired by any new recipes. Well, actually, I haven’t been looking for any new recipes. But you know what? I went about three months without repeating any meals, so I think I’ve did a pretty good job of trying different things—as different as I can get when I don’t like eating a lot of meat, anyway.
Each week, I post my grocery haul on the r/32dollars subreddit. When posting on Reddit, you open yourself up to a lot of scrutiny. People can be assholes over the stupidest things. Surprisingly, I haven’t had too many issues on my grocery haul posts. However, this past week, I received the following comment:
I wasn’t offended or anything. I just found it funny because people are so weird! I have no idea what type of diet this person eats. I’d guess keto based on the obsession with sugar. But as I responded to this poster, I am not into extreme diets.
Look, I will acknowledge that I could eat better, but that is just not realistic for me—or most other people for that matter. In life, I try to take a middle-of-the-road approach. I do my best to strike a balance between what tastes good, what’s good for me, and what I can actually afford. I’m not under the illusion that deli meat, store-bought salad dressing, or potato chips are a health foods. I could also choose unflavored yogurt for my smoothies to cut down on sugar. But I am a human being with taste buds, and I like what I like. With that said, here’s what I did with all of the toxic sugar I purchased:
Meals
Ham & Salami Sandwiches (3 nights)
Once again, I had leftover hamburger buns in the freezer, so I decided to use them for sandwiches like I did back in Week Nine. This time, I used salami in addition to ham. Also, instead of American cheese, I used Swiss slices.
I made up four sandwiches up after my shopping trip, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and threw them in the fridge. I was only planning to eat sandwiches for two dinners, but since I can’t eat two sandwiches in one sitting, I had them over three nights.
Pasta Salad (2 nights)
This pasta salad is super easy to make. You cook and rinse two pounds of rotini pasta, and then you mix in a 24-ounce bottle of Italian dressing, 2.62 ounces of McCormick Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Seasoning, as well as some onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. The longer it sets in the fridge, the better it tastes. If possible, I like to make it at least one day prior to serving it.
My family has been eating this since the 80s. The original recipe called for spaghetti, but my mom started using rotini pasta at some point, which we all preferred. The original recipe also contains ham, but we’ve never added it.
I like to buy the largest container of Salad Supreme so I always have some on hand. Sam & I especially like making a large batch of this salad during the summer when it’s too hot to cook and you don’t have much of an appetite anyway.
Potato & Dumpling Soup (2 nights)
Despite just having just made this soup two weeks ago, I decided to make it again for two reasons: 1) I wanted to enjoy it once more before Sam gets home, and 2) I bought a 10-pound bag of russets last week, and I need to use them up before they sprout.
Speaking of sprouting, is it just me or do potatoes not last as long as they used to? It seems like, back in the day, my mom would buy a huge bag that would last forever. These days it seems like they start sprouting within a week of purchasing them. I’ve even tried transferring them from their plastic bags to a brown paper bag with no luck—not even if I also stored them in a cool, dark place.
And sure enough, when the time came to make this soup, the potatoes had sprouted. I was still able to use them, however. The sprouts weren’t too big and the potatoes were nice and firm. I did have to toss the rest of them though, and that pisses me off.
The soup was delicious, as always, and I was able to send some home with Bree.
Hummus & Greek Pita (1 night)
That last batch of hummus I made was 🔥, and I’ve been craving more ever since. Since I needed a one-night meal, I figured I’d make more hummus—and more Greek pita bread, of course. That’s one of the nice things about cooking for one; you can make whatever the hell you want whenever you want it—even if you’ve just had it. I also liked the fact that I had nearly all the ingredients to make both the hummus and pita bread; I only needed a lemon. I did use my last can of chickpeas, however, so I’ll need to buy more very soon.
A delicious meal for 62¢ is definitely a win! However, I ended up not making it this week because I ate the sandwiches for three meals instead of two. I will do the hummus and pita next week.
Total Spent on Meals: $20.93
Baking/Dessert Project
I made a chocolate cake for which I usually always have the ingredients on hand.
Total Spent for Dessert: $0.00
Stock Up
I only had a tiny bit of Salad Supreme left, so I needed to buy more. I also needed more onions. I use a lot of onion! There was nothing on sale to stock up on this week. That’s a good thing too because I wouldn’t have had the budget for it anyway.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $9.95
Miscellaneous
Smoothies
I finally used the last of my year-old frozen fruit blend, so this week, I had to invest in a new bag of fruit. I was happy to find that Meijer carries a frozen fruit blend containing the same fruits as Costco’s Daybreak Blend: strawberries, peaches, mangos, and pineapple. Luckily, it was on sale—four pounds for ten bucks. Four pounds is equivalent to 1814 grams. I use 150 grams of fruit per smoothie, so I will get 12 smoothies out of this bag of fruit.
Because the membership is in her name, once Sam gets back, I’ll want to visit Sam’s Club if we continue to make smoothies. I can get five pounds of the same blend of frozen fruit for $10.98. In the meantime, I thought I’d start getting my frozen fruit at Walmart because it’s $2.00 cheaper than Meijer’s. However, I saw the Walmart fruit was only rated 3-stars overall, so I checked out the reviews. Too many people mentioned bad fruit, a chemical taste, and bugs! That is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable! I’ll stick with the $11.99 bag of fruit at Meijer.
Snacks
I am not really a potato chip person, but I have been having intense cravings for them lately. I was dismayed that they weren’t on sale because chips have gone up so much in price. In the end, however, my cravings won out, and I bought some.
For The Birds
Since bird migration is under way, I have been using the Merlin app to capture & identify bird sounds. The other day, Merlin detected a Baltimore oriole. It is still quite early for orioles to be in my area, so the app may not have been accurate. However, I thought I should have some grape jelly on hand just in case. Besides, house finches also love grape jelly, and I have plenty of them in my backyard.
Total Spent on Miscellaneous: $21.35
The Final Tally
Unfortunately, my money didn’t go very far this week. There wasn’t much on sale, and I was only able to use one coupon. Plus, I had to buy a 4-pound bag of frozen fruit for smoothies as well as a large container of the Salad Supreme seasoning. I also treated myself to a large bag of potato chips, which are ridiculously overpriced and, unfortunately, were not on sale.
The regular price for this week’s groceries was $58.29, but I saved $6.06, so my grand total was $52.23—$2.23 over budget.
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week:
In Conclusion
This budget challenge is proving to be…well, a challenge. And to make matters worse, I now find myself in a rut. I’ve pretty much exhausted my list of meal ideas, and I am not really in the right headspace to search out new ideas. There’s something about the season changing that has made me averse to focusing on this stuff.
My head is in the clouds thinking of summer and all of our summer plans. I am also ready for Sam to be home. While I have been enjoying my autonomy, I really miss her. Because of these preoccupations, food has been the last thing on my mind. Rather than looking at shopping and cooking as an opportunity, it’s now starting to feel like a despised chore again. I am just not feeling any inspiration whatsoever.
So, yeah, this week definitely highlighted the mental aspect of staying on budget. While the financial challenge is important, so is maintaining a healthy and positive approach to food. Perhaps it’s time to embrace some simplicity. Next week, I will probably once again focus on quick and easy meals that require minimal prep and cooking time. Maybe that will free up some mental space to explore new recipe ideas later.
