It's still August but I am gearing up for my September food budget challenge with my daughter-in-law.
Yesterday, I knew my grocery bill was going to go over $50 (actual bill: $66.03)because I added some items to my cart that I don't buy on a regular basis. A bag of frozen shrimp and some fresh ground nut butters.
Feta cheese. This always feels like a splurge to me. I only buy it when I think of it. If you're into adding a little sumthin' sumthin' to your salads, you should give flavored feta cheese a try. This is the only one I've tried because I'm so in love with it that I think why would I try anything else? If I were to cut something from my grocery bill, this would be the first to go. Luxury item.
The other item that would be on the chop list is Triscuits. Crackers are a NMF (not my food) for me but I am allowed to eat Triscuits on my food plan. I tend to eat too many of them when I have them in the house and, frankly, I shouldn't have bought them today. This box will be gone before the weekend is over. I also bought a container of cottage cheese but discovered when I got home that I still have a container and a half in the fridge already. It will all be consumed but I could have chopped this from my cart.
Last week, I bought this cilantro and never used it. I pulled it out of the fridge when I got home from the store and it is now mixed in with the spinach that I still had remaining. As you can see on the spinach expiration date, it is past its time. It still looked great enough to mix into a salad so I chopped it up and added the leftover coleslaw mix and sugar snap peas with the remaining cherry tomatoes and this all made 4 servings of salad that we'll eat in the next two days. Being on a budget means I don't let anything go to waste. When I'm in budget mode, I get busy thinking about how I'm going to use things up. 
Speaking of which, there were still eggs in my fridge that I bought before I went to Alaska on July 5. Yeah. They also had an expired date on the carton. I've been feeding a raw egg to my dog every morning but still had 6 left. I decided to throw caution to the wind and scrambled up two of them for my breakfast this morning. They were perfectly fine, I am happy to report. Look at this wonderful bowl of expired eggs, a brand of guacamole that I am not really fond of but refuse to throw it out, on a bed of brown rice, topped with a little shredded cheese and salsa. It was gourmet.
IN MY CUPBOARDS I've been chipping away at the dry roasted edamame I bought a year ago in bulk. These little beauties are a super nice source of protein that I learned about from my Alaska friend who also turned me on to this eating program I am committed to following. These are wonderful sprinkled on a salad for crunch and added protein, I simply forget I have them. It may take me another year to finish them off. Another really great way to eat them is put them in a little container and sprinkle Mexican hot sauce on them (not Tabasco!).
Lastly, let me tell you that I opted to buy the more expensive peppers at $1.28 each vs. the red peppers which were .98 each. The red peppers were soft and I knew they wouldn't make it to the end of the week without deteriorating to a point where I won't eat them. I became willing to pay an extra .30 each for them.
Summing it up, I could have chopped these items and come in under budget:
- Cottage Cheese $1.68 (excess)
- Nut butters $2.70 (didn't need it)
- Shrimp $7.48 (didn't need it)
- Feta Cheese $1.98 (luxury item)
- Peaches $1.92 (excess)
- Bulk Black Beans $2.37 (already have several lbs. in cupboard)
- TOTAL POTENTIAL CHOP: $18.13
WHY BUDGET? I get a kick out of challenging myself in certain areas of my life. It makes me think about things and get creative. I have a point to prove that's been on my mind for a very long time. Humor me here. When I hear people talk about cutting food stamps for families, or how families could do a better job with spending their food stamps, I think about my own food spending habits. I want to put my money where my mouth is. Can a person live on a food stamp budget? I don't even know how much people receive for food stamps. It's never really been any of my business. I don't know how it would be to feed children on a budget. If I had to live on food stamps, how well would I do? I ask myself this question constantly ... and then I try to be a better shopper.
Are you a bargain hunter? What food items do you buy no matter what it costs?
Have you ever had to live on a budget? Shouldn't we be teaching our kids how to cook from scratch and learn how to budget their money?
Wanna join me in tracking your food budget for a month? I'd love to hear from you!
love, susan
You know that I can't help myself sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that was published this year about SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - this replaced "food stamps."): https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/chart-book-snap-helps-struggling-families-put-food-on-the-table
For the total United States, partipating households averaged $249 per month in SNAP benefits. However, this does actually very quite a bit from state to state. The Kaiser Family Foundation produces state by state data (https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/avg-monthly-snap-benefits/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Average%20Monthly%20SNAP%20Benefits%20per%20Participant%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D) and states range from a low of $102 per month per participant (New Hampshire) to a high of $228 per month per participant.
This certainly isn't a lot of money, but it does help families quite a bit.
I think there are two more troubling concerns: (1) SNAP access is generally means tested and benefits decline as income increases and (2) 65% of those receiving SNAP are children, the elderly, and disabled. So, when people talk about cutting benefits, they are actually saying that they are okay with children and the elderly starving. This is not a program that is rife with abuse (even though people would try to convince you otherwise).
Most households receiving SNAP benefits are working and do continue to work. However, jobs are often low-wage, part-time service jobs (think Walmart -- who actually receives about 25% of SNAP benefits each year through people spending benefits there).
I could say a lot more here, but I'll stop.
While we should all be budget conscious for one reason or another, I think the bottom line is that ultimately people are responsible for how they allocate their individual household resources.
Yes. If someone wants to buy steak & lobster with their food stamps, who am I to judge that? Of course, I'd love to see all people eating healthier. I wish there was a huge campaign for that. Back in my high school days, we had a Presidency award for physical exercise. It was a big deal to us to earn that and along with pride we got a patch (if my memory serves me correctly) that we could sew on something ... maybe our letterman's sweater or something. Kids nowadays would think that was weird, I'm sure. We also learned a bit about cooking, shopping, and how to balance a checkbook. Just basic skills for living. Oh well.
DeleteI'm just going to try to have fun with this budget challenge. I couldn't help but put this out there as it has really been on my mind for a long time.
If people think there is a lot of crime now, just watch what happens when families can't feed their kids because some asshats in Washington DC think it would be a good idea to cut them off.
Okay. Really. I'm off my soapbox now. Susan
We had a similar exercise program when I was a kid too. It's actually still a thing (https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/programs-and-awards/presidential-youth-fitness-program/index.html), although I couldn't readily find data about how many schools or kids participate.
DeleteI would argue that a lot of those "basic" skills should be taught by parents. While I think there is a place in schools for some of it, we can't ask teachers to possibly handle all of it. Now, I realize that my argument is tough considering the context that a lot of families are in with both parents working and there not being enough hours in the day, but no one said parenting is easy either.
I remember grocery shopping with my mom and she would have me look at the price per unit and tell her which was the cheapest. She also taught me how to coupon. If we think it's important for our kids to know, it's on us to make sure that they learn it.
Just a heads up: People always think that there is more crime than there really is. Crime rates declined from the early 1990s to about 2007 and have held largely steady since then. Thanks to "if it bleeds, it leads" news media and an overabundance of crime-based shows, people tend to think crime is more of a problem than it is. Unfortunately, we don't have shows about economic inequality (because they would be boring). If we did, maybe we would start thinking that's actually a problem too.
One last thing, Bernie Sanders just introduced a bill that would require large employers such as Amazon and Walmart to pay for the costs associated with having their employees receive federal assistance/benefits (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/24/thousands-amazon-workers-receive-food-stamps-now-bernie-sanders-wants-amazon-pay-up/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a134827f0684). The corporate gravy train could be headed for an upset.
THANK YOU!!!
ReplyDelete