SBD Budget Challenge 2

[Magna]

Some time ago I did a one-week "budget challenge." I ate a regular phase 2 SBD menu, but allowed myself only $21 to spend on everything I ate. Here's a link to my diary from that challenge:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=97061&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

I'm starting a second budget challenge, beginning today. It will go on for at least one week, but I might extend it to two. As you might know, this idea isn't new - a few years ago, a number of people did this as a way of showing solidarity with people who rely on food stamps. That's not really my purpose here, though. For me, it's to challenge myself, and also as a demonstration that healthy, good-tasting SBD food is affordable. I often see people posting about how they can't eat healthy food because it's too expensive, and how their limited budget is forcing them to eat a bad diet. That is hogwash. People in the U.S. can eat very healthy food for less than they can pick up food from the drive-through, and for less than the cost of snack foods or convenience foods, and you don't have to work at it full time or be an extreme couponer to do it.

Anyone is free to comment here, or even do your own budget challenge!

[Magna]

I've changed my ground rules a little from the first challenge. Here they are:
1. I'll limit my budget to $30 for the week for all the food I eat and everything I drink. I expect to have some food left over, and that's OK. If I extend my challenge a second week, my budget for both weeks will be $42.
2. I won't worry about factoring in canola oil, condiments, or packets of Splenda or other sweeteners I use. In my last challenge, the cost was very low anyway and I may have even overcharged myself for it. For example, I paid about $2.50 for the large bottle of canola oil I'm now using, and I doubt I'll use even a tenth of it this week.
3. I can have free foods that would be available to someone on a strict budget. This will include at least one potluck that I contribute to.
4. Discounts, coupons, and sales that come along periodically are fine as long as they'd be available to someone on a limited budget long-term.
5. Non-food items like plastic bags, soap, paper towels, supplements, etc. don't need to be included in the budget.
6. I won't do anything antisocial, risky, or embarrassing. No mooching, dumpster-diving, etc.
7. I'll buy groceries as part of my normal routine - not run all over town to save a few cents. (I've already bought most of the groceries this way.)
8. If I buy larger containers than I need, I'll only count the cost of the portion I use. But I won't buy big sizes that I normally wouldn't buy, or that I'd have trouble using up.

[Magna]

Here are the groceries I've bought so far, with a photo.

Produce
5 oranges .46
2 apples .45
7 bananas 1.33
3 onions .48
3 Roma tomatoes .32
1 pound carrots .77
head of cabbage .87
celery .88
broccoli .93
head of cauliflower 1.69
frozen peppers 1.29
frozen stir fry vegetables 1.29
--->10.76

Dried staples
pound of split peas 1.00
12 oz. pearl barley .67
8 oz. steel cut oats .40
13 oz. ww pasta .50
8 oz. sunflower seeds .91
-->3.48

Other grocery
1 jar pasta sauce 1.00
8 envelopes NSA hot chocolate 1.50
8 oz. coffee 1.20*
--> 3.70

Dairy, meat, etc.
1 gal. NF milk 2.99
1 doz. eggs 1.29
3 pounds tofu (2 lbs. firm, 1 lb. silken) 3.00
1 pound frozen mixed seafood 2.99
-->10.27

Grand total $28.21

*Coffee is clearance from Christmas, and was $2.40 for a can. I estimate I'll be using half a can this week.

[Magna]

Yesterday evening I prepared a week's worth of steel-cut oats. Added salt, cinnamon and a few packets of Splenda. When it was nearly done, I added a pound of silken tofu, to increase the protein content. Tofu doesn't dissolve, so there are small shreds of tofu throughout the cooked oats. I notice it makes the oatmeal a little more fluffy and less sticky. Divided it into seven plastic bags, ready for microwaving for breakfast. It came to 20 cents a serving.

I made cinnamon oven-toasted sunflower seeds, and divided them into seven servings for this week. It's slightly over the 1-ounce nut/seed allowance but not enough to worry about. Those came to 13 cents a serving. Also made a pot of split pea with barley soup with added vegetables (onions, carrots, celery), and divided it into plastic containers for lunches this week. It made a total of five servings, at about 45 cents a serving.

[Magna]

Today's menu:

B: steel cut oats with NF milk
1 egg, scrambled
coffee w/NF milk and Splenda

S: boiled egg
couple of carrot sticks
coffee w/NF milk and Splenda

L: split pea with barley soup
carrots and celery
orange

S: sunflower seeds
banana

D: ww pasta with seafood sauce (sauteed frozen seafood and diced tomatoes, added a jar of spaghetti sauce - made several servings)

S: NSA hot chocolate
steamer (hot NF milk w/Splenda & a couple of drops of vanilla).

[Magna]

Today's menu looks fairly similar to yesterday's, so I won't re-post. The pea soup with barley is terrific. The seafood pasta is all right too. The sauce, even with the tomatoes I added, is still a little too sweet for my taste.

[Magna]

Friday's menu:
B: steel cut oats w/NF milk
coffee with NF milk and Splenda

S: sunflower seeds
banana
coffee w/NF milk and Splenda

L: split pea soup
apple

S: olives
ww cracker w/bruschetta
red wine
(This was at a reception.)

S: tofu and vegetable stir-fry

D: sauteed seafood and pepper risotto
NF milk

S: NSA hot chocolate

[Magna]

My menus have been generally similar all week, which is fine with me. Some of the main dishes I ate for lunch and dinner were tofu stir-fry, onion and pepper frittata, split pea and barley soup, seafood risotto (actually, made with barley so not a true risotto), and ww pasta with seafood sauce. The pea soup may have been the best of all, but they were all good. The pasta and seafood sauce, as it turned out, reheated really well and tasted better reheated than fresh out of the pan. (I cooked several portions, and put them into serving-size plastic containers for lunches and convenient heat-and-eat meals.)

I was on the lookout for free food and had some snacks and wine at a reception, some free coffee when I had my car worked on, and some free coffee, fruit, and veggies (from a veggie tray) at church. (My church offers refreshments to everyone.) After church, there were some veggies from the veggie tray left over, and a few pieces of fruit, which I asked for and took home. Made the veggies into a gumbo-style soup with the rest of the mixed seafood and about 1/3 of a pound of tofu, cubed. (No okra or gumbo filé , so it wasn't true gumbo, but I seasoned it to taste like gumbo.)

[Magna]

Besides the free stuff I got, which I already mentioned, I also paid $1 for a jar of Barilla pasta sauce (on sale for $2, with a $1-off coupon). I paid 50 cents for 13 ounces of ww pasta - this was the sale price with frequent shopper card, with purchase of at least $10 - which for me was other sale merchandise.

The frozen seafood happened to be on sale for half price. There are plenty of other meats I could have gotten for the same price, or less. I just chose seafood because it was ready-to-use, flavorful, and healthy, and worked well with my menu. Although I don't eat particular foods just to prove a point, the fact that I have been able to eat shrimp and calamari on my budget shows you don't have to eat like a beggar even if funds are tight.

[Magna]

Today is the last day of my weeklong challenge. I won't continue for another week, though if I did, I estimate I'd spend another $10 or so. I have quite a few leftovers, including:
half a serving of split pea and barley soup
two servings of seafood gumbo
about 2/3 pound of tofu
half a dozen eggs
about 1/3 pound of frozen peppers
a serving of celery
a serving of oven-roasted broccoli
a Roma tomato
half an onion
two tangerines
about 1/2 cup of barley
half a box of ww pasta
a serving of sunflower seeds
two extra envelopes of hot chocolate mix
about a pint of NF milk

Having done this once before, I can say the second time was easier. I expect it wouldn't be too hard to settle into a routine and stick to a budget like this long term. I estimate that, if I were on this budget for a long time, I'd be spending in the neighborhood of $21 to 24 per week, on average.

[Chris55]

I've been in a fog all week and just remembered to check to see if you had started your challenge! I'm glad to see it was so successful again. In fact, it looks like you had more interesting food this time around with the seafood instead of all of your chicken like last year.

I am envious of your veggie prices, though I realize you may have bought less than a pound of some things so maybe the prices are pretty much in line with what I pay. I was ecstatic that broccoli crowns were on sale again this week and stocked up. I may go back and blanch and freeze some!

I eat a lot of bean soups for lunch, but since I'm not doing a challenge, I make different kinds and freeze them in small containers. That keeps me on program for my lunches in the winter when I don't really want to eat salads. It's nice having a variety but I could easily eat the same kind every day for a week if I had to.

[Magna]

The chicken last time was fine. If I had been doing the challenge for more than a week, I probably would have bought a different kind of meat the next week, just for variety. Meat is an expensive item, and I've found I need to limit myself to about a pound a week to make the budget work. The rest of the protein comes from other cheaper foods. I did manage to have coffee both times, though!

For the vegetables, I bought what was cheapest, as long as it would fit in my planned menu. For example, last time I bought cucumbers (which were a steal at 5 for $1), but this time they were 2 or 3 for $1, so I opted for other things. Onions were more expensive than last time, but still affordable (and they're very versatile). Carrots (the ordinary kind, not baby carrots) are also usually very affordable, and celery happened to be on sale also. Navel oranges were cheap, too, though a lot of fruit is higher than last time. I happened to hit a big sale on broccoli and cauliflower, and stocked up. My local supermarket also had frozen veggies on sale, which is how I was able to afford the peppers and stir-fry mix.

I should point out, for anyone reading this, that even if I were paying full price for everything, and never getting the benefit of sales, coupons, or freebies, my budget would still be pretty low. Probably under $50 for the week. The foods I ate are not terribly expensive, and anyone in the US (or most of the US, anyway) can do this.

Here's a link to my earlier budget challenge journal, in case anyone is interested:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=97061&st=0&sk=t&sd=a