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 Sixteen
God willing, Sam will be home a week from tomorrow! I have completed meal planning for her first week home, and my grocery list is ready to go (although I’ve already been buying things here and there)!
That also means this is my second-to-last budget challenge. I’m not quite sure where we go from here. Maybe Sam will have some suggestions. But as of right now, I have no plans to continue on with this series, nor do I have any definite plans to replace it with something else. I am sad about this.
Other than my mounting excitement over Sam’s homecoming, this week has been spent pretty much the same as last week. I did, however, have a special visitor on Tuesday: Bree! She brought me a Mother’s Day gift that included a huge bag of Hershey nuggets! She definitely knows the way to my heart! She is a busy woman who I don’t get to see too often, so her visits are extra special to me.
I have also (still) been recording birds. Additionally, I spent most of the week (still) waiting for my paint-by-number kit to arrive. Thankfully, it finally arrived yesterday. There are many intricate details on this one, so it will keep me busy for a long time.
Have I mentioned that I’m dull? I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I’m saying that I am perfectly content to live a quiet life that would bore many others to tears. Occasionally I will feel frisky, but more often than not, home is where my heart is.
I do, however, get bored with food. More often than not, I’m on autopilot when it comes to meal planning. It’s just easiest for me to default to the same ol’, same ol’ even though I’d rather eat anything else. It doesn’t help that I don’t care for meat or meat substitutes. Also, I hate to admit it, but I think I might be…picky.
Before I move on to this week’s uninspired meals, let’s see what Reddit had to say about my Week Sixteen shopping trip:
It’s true. The price of food in Canada is ridiculous. I don’t know how Canadians are surviving, honestly. I certainly empathize with this poster. But then, straight out of left field:
Yeah.
Anyway, sometimes Reddit can be surprisingly wholesome. I’ll leave you with this exchange as a palate cleanser:
A few kind words cost nothing. With that said, let’s see how I’m serving up diabetes this week!
Meals
Chef Salad (2 nights)
When I was perusing the Meijer ad preview to see what was going to be on sale, I saw that the Marzetti “Simply” dressings were going to be $1.50 off. I had also been sitting on a $2.00 coupon for ”Simply” dressings. Ranch dressing for $1.49? There was a meal idea: chef salad! Also, when I checked my receipt after my shopping trip, I saw that Meijer had given me an additional 35¢ off. Bonus! This isn’t my favorite ranch dressing, but for $1.14, I could live with it.
My chef salads included lettuce, red bell pepper, cucumber, onion, tomato, cheddar cheese, ham, and bacon. No turkey. No hard-boiled egg. I despise turkey, and I haven’t been digging hard-boiled eggs on salad in quite a long time.
Including the cost of the bacon (67¢ for three strips), which I already had, these salads came out to $5.24 each. And they were huge salads.
Mother’s Day Mediterranean (1 night)
I had forgotten about Mother’s Day until Sam reminded me. She felt bad about not being home with me, so she wanted to at least order Mediterranean for me. I fussed about it at first because Grub Hub is expensive, but in the end, I relented. She loves me and wanted to do something nice for me. Who am I to deny her an opportunity to do something kind?
She also promised me a dessert when she gets home. I will definitely make sure she doesn’t forget. What dessert shall I request?
Ham & Salami Wraps (2 nights)
These were just another iteration of the ham & salami sandwiches I made three weeks ago…and those were based on the ham sandwiches I made seven weeks ago. If you cannot tell from this week’s meals, I haven’t really wanted a hot meal.
I had bought a package of eight Old El Paso flour tortillas, which I’d never used before, because they were on sale. They were labeled as “burrito” size, which means they should measure at least 10 inches in diameter. Imagine my surprise then upon opening the package to see a stack of dinky tortillas. These Old El Paso tortillas were oval and measured 7.5 inches one way and 8 inches the other.
I had bought “burrito” size shells purposefully, so I could easily fit all of my fixings inside and still be able to wrap them. As I eyed the tortillas on my counter, I was skeptical but had no choice but to forge ahead. It actually worked out okay!
Hamburger Wraps (2 nights)
Since I was left with four flour tortillas, I wanted to think of a way to use them up. I had plenty of ground beef in the freezer, so why not make homemade Snack Wraps? After all, it’s not like McDonald’s is going to. Instead, they’re giving us an underwhelming combo meal.
Man, I used to love the Deluxe Angus Snack Wraps!
Unfortunately, the meat didn’t taste good. It wasn’t the best tasting meat to begin with, and it definitely has not improved with age. I think the last time I bought ground beef was in Week Nine—nearly two months ago. At that time, I had portioned the beef into half-pound chubs and froze them. Two-month-old frozen beef just does not taste good to me. Going forward, I think I can tolerate it having been frozen up to a month and no more. Sadly, I need to toss the rest of the frozen beef. I hate wasting food—especially meat!
Total Spent on Meals: $20.72
Stock Up
Strawberries were on sale again! However, I only bought three pounds this week. I now have 13 pounds of strawberries in my freezer.
But guess what?
They are going to be on sale yet again next week! After finding that out, I asked Sam how many smoothies she’d be wanting when she got home. She answered, “Lots of them,” so next week, if the berries look decent, I’m buying another six pounds.
Since I have a chest freezer with plenty of room, why not take full advantage of these cheap strawberries? With my 10% SNAP discount on fresh produce at Meijer, I’ve only been paying 89¢ for a pound of strawberries. Alternatively, the bag of frozen fruit I like to get at Meijer is $11.99 for four pounds of fruit. If you had a choice between frozen fruit that’s 89¢ per pound or frozen fruit that’s $3.00 per pound, which would you choose to fill your freezer with?
Bacon was also on sale, and I had a 75¢ coupon as well, so I bought two packages. We’ve been getting our bacon at Costco for years. However, since the membership is in Sam’s name, I’ve been having to buy bacon at Meijer over the past four months. I have since learned that I prefer the Meijer bacon; it’s delicious!
I also bought cornbread mix and Dr. Pepper in anticipation of Sam’s return. Sam loves skillet cornbread, and the cornbread mix was 50¢ off, so I got one. In case you’re curious, we make our skillet cornbread with bacon, cheddar, chives, and jalapeños. It was originally supposed to have been a campfire meal last summer; however, the power went out in our cabin, and we had to toss our bacon and milk.
Instead, we made it when we got back home and loved it. We now make it pretty frequently! Perhaps we’ll attempt the campfire version again in July. I’m skeptical, but it’s always fun to experiment with campfire cooking even if the food doesn’t always turn out the best.
Dr. Pepper is Sam’s favorite soda. Unfortunately, in New Zealand, Dr. Pepper is imported from the US, so it’s both hard to find and expensive. After four months without Dr. Pepper, Sam is really craving it, and since the 1.25-liter bottles were on sale for $1.00 each, I bought six as a surprise.
I actually went to Meijer early in order to get my six bottles of Dr. Pepper before they were sold out. Once I arrived at the store, however, I realized my folly. I glanced at the deli and saw that it was in darkness. That’s when I remembered that the deli doesn’t open until 9:00 am…and I needed deli meats…and it was only 8:20 am. 🫠
In the end, it all worked out well. I went on with my shopping trip, checked out, and loaded groceries into my car. At that point, I only had to wait another 10-15 minutes for the deli to open. But I did feel a bit foolish that my greedy haste came back to bite me.
Finally, I actually made somewhat of an impulse buy this week. The day before my shopping trip, I had clipped a $1.00 digital coupon for King Arthur flour. However, I didn’t know it was also on sale until I walked past it in the store. I was pretty sure I had enough in my budget, so I grabbed a package of bread flour. I’m glad I did because I’ll be making both pizza and Greek pita doughs later today.
Total Spent to Stock Up: $22.48
Miscellaneous
Smoothies
Total Spent on Miscellaneous: $7.63
The Final Tally
Regular price this week was $77.13, but I saved $26.30, so my grand total was $50.83. I went 83¢ over in order to buy the bread flour, and I’m okay with that.
Grand Total Spent on Food This Week: $50.83
In Conclusion
Well, guys, that’s it for Week Sixteen! I managed to stay (mostly) within budget, indulged in a little Mother’s Day treat (thanks, Sammie!), and even hoarded more strawberries…like a suspicious amount of strawberries.
As I’m now coming to the end of my $50.00 a Week Budget Challenge, I’m realizing just how much it has become a part of my routine. Planning meals, finding the best deals, tracking it all on a spreadsheet, and then writing about everything is something I’ve come to look forward to. It’s also been a journey filled with both ups and downs, but I’ve honestly enjoyed every minute of it. I am also thankful for those of you who have been joining me each week!
If anyone has any suggestions for future posts in the same vein as these budget challenge posts, please let me know! Is there anything in particular that I’ve shared that you’d like to continue seeing? Is there anything I haven’t shared with you that you’d like to see in future posts? If you don’t want to comment publicly, you can email me at jen@genericjen.com.
