You Asked for It...

After receiving a number of emails yesterday and this morning, asking for some context to where we spent money on our food budget, here is the list:

• Beef - 200-pounds @ $3.40= $680
  [two split-half orders; a split-half is half a cow divided by two families]
• Pork tenderloin 15-pounds @ $5.50 - 20% = $66
• Slab Bacon (uncured) - 16-pounds @ $5.00 - 20% = $64
• Sausage (bulk) - 16-pounds @ $3.50 - 20% = $45
• Brats/Sausage (link) - 20-pounds @ $4.50 - 20% = $72
• Ham Steak - 12-pounds @ $4.25 - 20% = $41
• Spare ribs - 20-pounds @ $2.10 - 20% = $34
• Turkey (2 Heritage birds/year) = $120
• Chicken (26 birds/year) = $234
• Eggs - 78 Dozen @ $2.50 = $195
• Lamb - 20-pounds @ $4.00 - 20% = $64
• Wild Fish & Shellfish = $200
• Other meats (bison, venison, etc.) = $60
• Milk, Half & Half, Yogurt, Cheese = $980
• Butter = $185
• CSA (local, organic produce, April - Nov) = $600
• Farmer's Market & retail (mid-April - mid-Nov) = $100
• Retail Produce, including frozen (mid-Nov - mid-April) = $250
• Oils, Spices, Condiments, Nuts/Seeds/Nut Butters = $247
• Miscellaneous = $75

Total = $4,312; $82.92 each week; $27.64 per person each week.

Had this been any other point in time, compiling the list might have been impossible; last year when we moved here, I started to keep track since our food purchasing habits changed as we joined a CSA and started ordering meat, poultry, eggs and such directly from local ranchers. While we lived in northern VA, I was easily spending $150 a week, but wouldn't be able to break down where the money went by food type. Sorry, I'm just not that obsessive!

Here, living in mid-Missouri, tracking my spending by food type is rote, it's how I order much of what we consume, so understanding where I spend on food is much easier here than in Virginia.

Something that I do need to note: what this does not include: our meals in restaurants or take-out eaten at home (we average once a week, one meal out/take-in); and meals while on vacation or attending conferences.

This, I think, is important to point out because, if this is considered into the above figure, our total cost for food is truly higher, almost double, since we average $25 a week for meals prepared outside our home, and budget $75-100 a day when traveling for meals (with an average 28-days a year on vacation and attending conferences).

If I include that $1300 for meals out/take-in [25 * 52] and $2100 for meals while traveling [28 * 75], we're looking at $7,712 for food each year; $642.66 per month; $148.30 each week; $49.43 per person each week. And, no, I really don't want to do the math to see how much I really spent while we lived in VA - it's too frightening to think about since I know it's significantly more than we're spending here in mid-MO.

So how to reconcile the budget if I did prepare each meal, at home or while traveling, from purchases throughout the year - that is no meals from restaurants or take out, and no need for vacation/conference eating out since all meals are from what we purchase; a more realistic budget of $4920 is needed to maintain our almost exclusive organic/pastured dietary habits throughout the year here in mid-MO.

I arrived at this figure by taking a year - 365-days - and subtracting our current average of 28-days traveling to arrive at 337-days; then took 52-days, divided it by 3 (meals each day) to arrive at 17-days; then subtracted that from 337 to arrive at 320 days - the days of meals provided in my budget above. I then divided the budget [$4312] by 320-days = $13.48 per day for meals we eat from the above budget. I then multiplied that sum by 365-days (in a year) to arrive at what we'd need to spend if we consumed all meals prepared by ourselves without any from restaurants.

So if $4,920 is truly more representative of what it would take to eat all meals, then we're looking at $94.61 each week, or $31.54 per person...to eat an almost exclusively organic/pastured diet; here in mid-MO.

Now granted, the way I do save considerable money requires first, a good, big upright freezer; next bulk purchase of meats/poultry/game (30-100+ pounds at a time) and then enough money on-hand to purchase major quantity when something expensive is on sale (like butter or oils - for example, right now I have close to 25-pounds of butter in the freezer).

Add to this, a membership in a CSA, while over time saving money, requires an up-front payment for the season (or you pay more if you pay with the payment plan; and out here there is no weekly or monthly payment plan - when you use the payment plan of three payments, it increases the total cost for the season by $50).

So, each of my "large sum required" ways to save a lot of money in the long-term makes it next to impossible for someone who is receiving assistance to do the same thing. I think this is one flaw in the current system that can and should be addressed - to me it makes sense to make funds available to allow recipients to utilize local sources, like a CSA or Farmer's Market or rancher, if it's saving more to do so than force the purchase at retail prices each month.

I don't think any of the CSA's in this area are equiped to accept EBT payments; even if they were, the up-front cost for membership would be prohibitive since those receiving assistance cannot "borrow" from future assistance to pay for an on-going source of fresh produce. So while a CSA membership costs about $18.75 each week (32-weeks) for a family of four, and would be a very cost effective way to ensure weekly fresh, local produce to recipients, it's not possible with how the system is structured today.

The Farmer's Markets in and around our area aren't equipped to accept EBT payments either; so while local produce (both conventional and organic) is available in the Farmer's Markets, often at significantly less than retail prices, it too remains a resource that cannot be utilized by those receiving assistance. (Some Farmer's Markets across the country are equipped for EBT payment)

Forget about trying to purchase meat or poultry in a large enough quantity to have a discount extended for bulk purchase; and totally forget about the significant savings when someone is able to buy a split-quarter or half, which makes meats and poultry cheap, cheap, cheap when compared to retail. Again, it's too much money up-front for someone receiving assistance to manage, even though long-term it saves significant sums of money.

Those receiving assistance, even when they have the room for one, cannot use their budget to purchase a freezer - which would enable them to purchase larger quantity at a lower price! The way money is currently made available also makes it next to impossible to stock-up on non-perishable foods (like canned vegetables & fruits, canned tuna/fish, peanut butter, etc.) when sales are favorable to a large quantity purchase, that over time saves money.

Anyway, for those of you who wanted to know how I manage to spend what we do each month on a mostly organic/pastured diet, there you have it.

Final Thoughts on the Food Stamp Challenge

With the weekend to gather my thoughts about our experience last week doing the Food Stamp Challenge, I'm left with more questions than answers, and no solutions that seem realistic to improve the situation where millions are struggling to feed themselves on what seems like a paltry sum - an average $3.00 a day per person.

As I learned, it is possible to feed a family within the budget a varied, nutrient-dense diet and even have food left at the end of the week. When I started to put together a menu and shopping list from the area stores' sale circulars, I thought it was going to be next to impossible to get everything we'd need for the week - I was surprised with the ease with which I did put together a menu, list of things on sale and the rest needed as 'fill-in-the-gap' items not advertised, and was able to buy everything for the week without much fuss. We even had food left at the end of the week - enough to more than start the next week and ease the stress of staying within the budget.

As some have noted in comments and email - I'm at a distinct advantage, I know which foods are nutrient dense and how to plan a menu, so it's not realistic, let alone reasonable, to expect someone without my specific background to be able to replicate my success in meeting the challenge. Some even emailed me links to show how pitiful some did when they tried to do the challenge.

I hate to say it, but posturing politicians aren't a great example of failure to succeed in the challenge. Their success is likely tied to their position on the issue - those who are in favor of increasing the assistance more likely to fail miserably than one interested in maintaining the status quo or reducing the budget. What I found when I poked around the blogosphere is that those without a vested interest either way, like me, were able to stay within the budget constraints during the week and seemed to do well with a little planning. Those who are strongly in favor of increasing the money provided did poorly. Coincidence? Who knows; but had congressman Ryan been trying to live on the DC budget - $31.30 average - and really planned better, he could have fared better than he did. But, that wouldn't have made headlines and would have been counter-productive to increasing the budget to provide more money to families needing assistance.

That's not to say that the assistance currently provided is great; it's not. It definitely does not allow a family (or individual) to buy whatever, whenever they'd like. Heck, without some planning you won't get through the month - plain and simple.

Even with planning you still won't have lots of goodies or all the convenience more money does provide one with.

While I was able to stay within budget, there were no ready-to-eat snacks, beverages (other than calcium enriched V-8), or packaged, quick to grab-and-go foods.

The budget forced planning, creativity and cooking each day - something no amount of money will inspire someone to do unless they see the value of their time as fundamental in managing on their budget.

While it's infinitely easier to grab a bag of pre-cut and washed lettuce than to wash and chop it yourself, the convenience comes at a steep premium - an average bag of lettuce (romaine) weighs 8-ounces and is often on sale for 2-for-$5.00....reality check - that's $5.00 per pound; head lettuce (romaine) goes for anywhere from $0.99 a head to $2.49 a head. Last week I weighed the two heads I purchased - one was about 1.75-pounds, the other 1.25 (green and red leaf respectively), so I had 3-pounds of lettuce that cost me $1.39 a head (total $2.78, or 0.92/pound).

If I purchased the amount of lettuce we ate throughout the week, already washed and chopped for me, I would have needed 6-bags to have 3-pounds of lettuce - at 2/$5 that's $15 - or, put another way, 47.6% of the budget for the week for a family of three.

Doing the washing and chopping myself left $12.22 in the budget for other foods.

So, I'm left wondering, if $21 per person each week isn't enough, how much is? Is it $25? $30? 40? More...? How much is enough?

When I poked around various state websites, detailing program funding in different locations, it's clear where you live matters in how much is provided. For example, here in Missouri and in neighboring Kansas, the average assistance is about $21 per person per week; but in areas that have higher cost-of-living, the amount can be as high as $38.75 per person each week.

What I did find shocking was that, according to Harvesters website, "Harvesters clients who receive Food Stamp benefits indicate that their monthly allotment lasts just 2 ½ weeks."

So, if my math is correct, a family of four - who receives an average of $21 per person per week - receives an average of $364 a month for a family of four.

[The math here = 21 * 4 = 84 * 52 = 4368/12 months = 364]

Based on the Harvesters finding that this amount provided for only 2.5 weeks in a month - are we to believe a family of four needs an average assistance with $582.40 a month instead of the current $364 each month?

[The math here = $336/2.5 = $134.40 per week when it's all spent in just 2.5 weeks; 134.40 * 52-weeks = $6988.80 per year/12 months = $582.40/month]

Do those needing assistance need 60% more each month to feed their families?

I don't know about you, but even we don't spend that much on average over the year, and I'm not exactly what you'd call thrifty when it comes to grocery shopping. In fact, I've heard many, many times from my much-more-cost-aware husband that I'm spending way too much on groceries!

So, I sat and calculated out our food costs, based on actual buying through the year, and between May 2006 and May 2007 we spent $4300 on food, including almost exclusive purchase of grass-fed pastured beef, chickens, turkey, pork, lamb and eggs; dairy from milk of pastured animals (including goat milk products); milk, fresh produce, oils, butter, and miscellaneous purchases at various grocery stores and produce when the CSA and Farmer's Market isn't providing fresh local vegetables and fruits.

That's an average of $82.69 a week for the three of us - $27.56 each per week - $3.93 per day per person. And we eat almost everything organic and grass-fed/pastured - and for less per person per week than the person needing additional help through Harvesters each month! [update 6/5: math error: annual, weekly and individual food budget updated to reflect correction]

Why are we not asking how we can help folks learn to budget better? When the same folks are coming through for additional help each month, maybe it's worth our time and effort to sit and listen, help them learn where they can make changes to their current buying practices to stay within their budget next month? It's easy to call the problem "not enough money" and just give them more money - but seriously, after doing it for a week, I'm not surprised we managed well - what I spent isn't that much less than I normally do on a weekly average!

So, I'm not convinced more money given to those who do need help is going to change much for them, or be the panacea that fixes the very real problems inherent in the existing system.

More money won't solve transportation problems.

More money won't relieve predatory pricing - it may even provide incentive to not only continue predatory pricing, but increase prices to eat up the additional dollars provided just as quickly.

More money won't buy access that isn't already there for fresh fruits and vegetables.

More money won't solve poor dietary habits.

More money won't solve time management issues.

More money won't incline people to cook more from scratch.

And, I hate to say it like this, but more money won't make people better planners - if someone today isn't thinking far enough ahead to budget for meals for a month, more money isn't going to change short-sightedness and failure to plan ahead when it's not in practice now.

After years as an IT professional, I can say with certainty, the saying "throwing more money at system problems makes them worse" is true.

I hate the idea that people are hungry and malnourished in the United States.

We can do better. We need to do better.

But I'm left without any good solutions....

All I have after a week of staying within the budget is questions - lots of questions...

Hunger in America, Are You Up to the Challenge?

Hunger Awareness Week begins tomorrow, June 2-10, and my home state, Missouri, and neighbor Kansas, through the organization Harvesters, are encouraging citizens to take the Food Stamp Challenge for a week.

The challenge includes a budget $38.75 per person each week - guidelines are available online to determine your food budget if you participate, and are based on the maximum benefits available across the nation.

The guidelines note that in Missouri and Kansas the average is approximately $20/week per person; so the budget I worked with last week is closer to the reality here than the higher budget allowed in the challenge they're hosting.

But, that's OK - I think it's a good experience for anyone interested in working within a budget to feed your family, especially when that budget is less than you'd normally spend each week. What I'm not convinced of is that more money each week/month is the solution - but that I'll get to in a later post.

Into the Home Stretch

Well, we're into the home stretch - vegetable omelets for breakfast with bacon; tuna salad (celery, onion, mayo) on a bed of lettuce, cucumber, shredded carrots, walnuts and dressing; with dinner to end our day - a dinner salad (baby spinach, romaine, shredded carrots, cucumber, tomato, dressing) and chicken chili, topped with a dallop of sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. And yes, in the picture, my son's hand is reaching for his additional item on the side - some cantaloupe.















My use of chicken for chili started a few years ago, when a dinner out included a cup of chicken chili - a medley of vegetables, spices, beans and chicken - unlike any chili I'd had before...it was insanely delicious!

I don't have any particular set recipe to make it - it's just basics that I start with and is a great way to use up leftover vegetables that sometimes collect in the refrigerator throughout the week.

You know what I'm talking about - the two tablespoons of spinach, the half-cup of broccoli, the scant onions and peppers, etc. - the veggies you won't bring yourself to toss while clearing the table from dinner (and shouldn't), but the amount isn't really enough for a side at another meal.

I use these leftover vegetables often, in omelets, but even that doesn't always get them eaten fast enough. So, chicken chili (or other "stew-like" dish) is a great place to add them and boost nutritional value of a meal without much fuss.

When I make dishes like this, I usually start with more fresh ingredients, but since I was working with what was on hand for the week, here is what I wound up doing to make the meal.

The small 3-pound chicken went into a pot of water to cook slowly. This provided not only the meat for our chili, but also provided a rich stock for future use.

When the chicken was done, I simply removed it from the water and let it cool while I started another pot (the stock was also set aside and cooling).

The burner was on medium heat and into the pot went a can of diced tomatoes, a jar of picante sauce, 1/2 packet of taco seasoning, 1/2 onion chopped chunky, 1 carrot diced really tiny, the green pepper tops I'd saved from when I made the stuffed peppers - chopped medium/chunky, 1-cup V-8, the leftover zucchini, tomatoes and onions from the night before, and 2-cups frozen green beans.

After stirring that all together to simmer and cook, I took all the meat off the chicken and diced it up. After I waited about 15-minutes for the vegetable mix to simmer and cook, I added about 2/3 of the chicken meat to the mix, along with one can of drained, well-rinsed red kidney beans and left it to simmer and cook.

When it was ready, it was served with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream for topping.

What's great about this recipe is that it's not dependent on any particular vegetables, other than the tomato base - whatever vegetables are on hand are used and you can let your imagination go - it's all good!

Today's breakfast is eggs and bacon with a side of strawberries (the last we have for all of these foods), and lunch is going to be leftover chicken chili.

So that wraps up the week, and we do have food left. I'll follow-up with some thoughts later.

Delicious Wednesday!

Since I planned to make deviled eggs with dinner (I'll explain in a moment), our day started with creating something from the chickpeas sitting in the refrigerator - hummus - spooned atop cucumber rounds and strawberries in yogurt. Lunch included chicken salad (made from our leftover chicken) atop a green salad and some iced tea with lemon.

Last nights dinner was simply delicious - we started with some deviled eggs, and then enjoyed wild salmon en souffle with a side of sauteed summer squash (green zucchini, yellow squash, scallions and 1/2 of a fresh tomato, sauteed in butter with a touch of salt and pepper).

Deviled eggs were an obvious choice to eliminate wasting the yolks of the two egg whites I needed for the "souffle" part of the salmon recipe (see below). Rather than toss them, I placed them in a shallow pan with simmering water until they were cooked and added them to the yolks removed from hard boiled eggs I had made earlier in the week to have on hand for snacking. With a spoon of mayonnaise and a touch of mustard, we had deviled eggs as our appetizer.

The salmon recipe is one of the simplest and tastiest I have in my collection!















Salmon en Souffle
1 pound salmon filets
2 TBS butter
2 TBS dill weed (or seed)
2 egg whites
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Fresh lemon wedges

Melt butter and add 1 TBS dill, stir and spoon onto salmon filets in a baking dish; bake at 350F until cooked to liking (15 to 30 minutes depending on thickness and desired thoroughness).

Souffle - While salmon is baking, in a bowl place two egg whites and whip to firm but not dry peaks; add 1TBS dill weed (or seed) and 1/4 cup mayonnaise; fold mayo and dill into the egg whites and place in refrigerator until needed (salmon cooked).

When the salmon is ready, remove from oven and place oven on "broil" setting (low is better, but high will do); top each filet with a portion of the souffle mix and return to oven for about five minutes under broiler until souffle topping is golden (not too dark).

Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Taking Dinner to Lunch

After an interesting breakfast - omelets with pepperoni (salad bar item), ham (Carl Budding) and cheese; the last of the blackberries and some coffee - we started our day. I say "interesting" because I've never had Carl Budding meats before, and can honestly say I probably won't again. It didn't look like ham, nor did it taste like ham.

Lunch was some cut cantaloupe (we're almost done with the melon too) and the leftover stuffed peppers. Each day you may notice we eat for lunch the leftovers from dinner. It's something I learned long ago when Gil was following carb-restriction for weight loss - it's easier to make a big dinner and pack that as lunch than try to create a new lunch each day or eat out. It's also a lot less expensive!

Regardless of budget, it's something I always suggest to those who ask for help with menu and meal planning - and it allows some great lunches the next day! For example, last night we started dinner with shrimp cocktail (served with cocktail sauce and lemon wedge), Gil had water, I had some V-8, our son had milk; and our meal was broccoli and grilled chicken legs/thighs.

For Gil and me, lunch today will be chicken salad made from the leftover chicken - just a simple mayo based salad with diced celery, onion and mayonnaise, served on a bed of romaine, some sliced cucumbers, grated carrots and dressing. My son will likely have some cut-up chicken, leftover broccoli and a kiwi fruit, along with some milk.

To do such a menu, where you can maximize you time cooking and preparing meals, takes planning and cooking a larger meal for dinner than you'll eat at dinner.

Some food too are simply not going to work well for a lunch the next day - things like cheeseburgers don't tend to taste good the next day. So on day's following something like a dinner of cheeseburgers you need to plan what else you'll have for lunch instead, or prepare something similar while you're making dinner. One option I usually suggest for a cheeseburger dinner is to brown some ground beef and season it like taco meat - then the next day prepare yourself a taco salad using that meat prepared the night before.

Stuffed Peppers ala Controlled-Carb!

A quiet Memorial Day was our plan yesterday - a delicious breakfast of slow-cooked oatmeal, topped with yogurt, sliced almonds and strawberries started the day. It's not often we have oatmeal, but it was among the things I bought to add some variety to our menu throughout the week - and it was a tasty change of pace!

When Gil arrived home from his morning patients, we enjoyed leftovers from dinner the night before and then headed out to get some things done in the yard and then Gil and Hunter went fishing for a couple of hours.

With a number of emails asking to see our lake, I decided to post one so my readers can see why we choose to live where we do now - two words: peace and quiet!
















While they were fishing (it's almost always catch and release relaxation fishing - the night before was an exception to the "gut-hook" consumption of fish from the lake) I got dinner started.

Last night was stuffed peppers and a small salad. I haven't made stuffed peppers in years, mostly because recipes are based heavy on rice as part of the stuffing, but the green peppers were such a good bargain that I bought nine of them, thinking I'd come up with a recipe for stuffed peppers when the time came to make them.
















So, with a little creative license, here is the recipe I created as I went along last night:

Wash 8 green peppers well, the cut tops off and set aside. Remove the stems and seeds and fill each pepper with cold water. Place in a large baking dish, with about an inch of water in the bottom of the dish and microwave for 10-minutes.

Trim tops and place in container/bag in refrigerator for use later in week.

While peppers are steaming in the microwave, saute in butter, one diced zucchini, 1/4 onion diced, and one carrot shaved/diced very small until the zucchini is tender and the onions are still not quite translucent. Remove from pot/pan and set aside in a bowl.

In same pot/pan, add one pound crumbled ground turkey, salt & pepper, and cook, then add one can of diced tomatoes.

By now the peppers are done, so take them out of the microwave and empty each one of the water and drain the pan of water...add 1/2 inch of cold water to the pan and place peppers back in the pan.

Back to your pot of ground turkey and diced tomatoes - now add 3/4 of a jar of picante sauce (thin salsa), 1 can black-eyed peas and your onion-carrot-zucchini mix. Stir all together and spoon mixture into peppers. Take one small can of tomato sauce and pour over the stuffed green peppers, allowing the sauce to also fall into the water in the pan....then, taking a spoon, dollop the remaining picante on top of each pepper. Cover pan with foil and bake in the oven at 350F for about an hour (until the peppers are tender) - remove foil and bake another ten minutes to set the sauce on top.

Serve and enjoy!

Each Pepper:
198-calories
7.5g Fat
2.9g Saturated Fat
22.6g Carbohydrate
4.5g Fiber
18.1g net carb
12.4g Protein

Expect the Unexpected

Saturday was an uneventful day - a simple breakfast of bacon and cheese omelets started our morning, followed by a quick trip to the playground to play while we waited for Gil to return from his morning at work. When we bumped into a friend with her husbands kids, the old saying, expect the unexpected, rang true. With the kids in town for the weekend, she was hoping maybe they could all come over Sunday to play with my son and go fishing on the lake since her husband, also a doctor, was off for the holiday.

Running through my head - what to make for dinner?

They'd surely stay for dinner and if I was going to honor my commitment to this week, what would we have to serve as a meal for not just us, but two more adults and three more children? I quickly ran through the options and decided to explain to her what we were doing because, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with a meal for all of us with what I had on hand. I offered up that we had enough chicken and salad and could cut up the cantaloupe and maybe make some frozen strawberry yogurt for dessert. She offered to bring the asparagus bunch she had in her crisper and anything else she could think would add to our meal.

When we arrived home and were preparing our lunch (tuna salad, romaine, diced celery, tomato, pecan pieces and dressing) I let Gil know we'd be having company on Sunday, he had a great idea - if they're going fishing, why not have fish for dinner? So, that was the plan - the chicken would be our standby just in case, but if they caught some fish, that would be our dinner.

Saturday dinner was a salad, cheeseburgers and spinach. Yum!
















Since Gil had the day off yesterday (Sunday), we prepared a family breakfast of spinach and cheese omelets with some blackberries on the side; coffee as usual and an addition - a small glass of V-8 with a twist of lemon rounded out our morning meal. Our friends arrived shortly after lunch - I didn't have lunch (not hungry yet), Gil picked on what was in the refridgerator and our son ate some yogurt, blackberries, cucumber slices with ranch and roast beef from the salad bar I picked up - and had brought a big bunch of asparagus, cut up watermelon, a homemade lemon pie and a spinach & artichoke dip with rye rounds.

They liked the idea of eating their catch for dinner, so everyone was keen on fishing as planned with a fish-fry for dinner if they managed to catch some fish if the weather cooperated!

On and off thunderstorms throughout the day continued through most of the afternoon, so when a band of weather cleared, the kids and Gil headed to the dock with poles and bait and returned with dinner about an hour later. After cleaning the fish, we had about 4-pounds of filets for everyone to enjoy!

So, dinner was a meal of a large salad (romaine, tomatoes, pecan pieces, cucumber slices, scallions and dressing), fresh caught fish, grilled asparagus and fresh-brewed iced tea with lemon. The pie, for those not watching carbs, and added to the watermelon some cantaloupe and berries and we had a great dessert too, remaining within our commitment for the week.

Funny, but the kids didn't seem to mind not having the usual junk-foods - no complaints at all - they were quite content with the meal and fresh fruits or homemade pie for dessert, and enjoyed the fresh iced tea to drink with not one asking for juice or soda.

And, yes, I'm fully aware most folks would not have the option to go fishing off their dock...and if we didn't have that option available, we would have had the chicken legs/thighs in enough quantity to make grilled chicken for everyone. Fishing was just too tempting not to use as an opportunity to not just have fun (the kids wanted to go fishing - it was one reason they were coming over) but to feed ourselves from our own hands.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." Chinese Proverb

The Shopping Adventure

With my goal being as much produce (fruits and vegetables) as possible and enough quality protein for the week, I set out to stay within a budget of just $63 for the week (two adults and one child) to feed us all and not compromise our health with nutritionally inferior foods.

First stop, the online sale circulars for our local grocery stores. Most people get these each week in the mail or paper, but ours was already long gone, in the trash earlier in the week. After reviewing each, I compiled a list of foods on sale and then set to complete menus for the week to add what else I needed to the list I'd buy while shopping.

Once that was complete, it was off to the stores - first to one without an online circular - the grocery store in the northside of town, that bills itself the "discount" grocery store.

It was a good first place to start - I knew what the other stores had on sale, so if this store had things for less, I would buy them here. The first big savings was on green peppers - 4 for $1.00; followed by cantaloupe for $2.00 each (other stores were advertising $2.50); Kraft real mayo $1.50; and an assortment of canned beans and tomatos (paste, sauce, diced), ranging from $0.19 a can to $0.53. I also snatched up a one pound bag of frozen, peeled, deveined shrimp for $3.99 - granted they're uncooked, but this was about half the advertised price elsewhere for cooked shrimp.

In total, I spent $26.53 in this store.

Our next stop (I had my son with me) was my math adventure. The store had, in addition to their advertised specials, a number of manager specials screaming from bright neon orange signs lining the shelves. One in particular caught my attention - block cheese, 24-oz, for just $3.88 - or $2.58 per pound. It did look like a good deal, and unless you could do the math, might be tempting - it looked much bigger than the advertised 8-ounce block (obviously) and seemed like it might be less than the 2/$5.00 sale price on the 8-oz blocks. It actually cost $0.08 more per pound, so I chose the sale cheese over the managers special, spending $2.50 on a half-pound block instead of $3.88 on more cheese than we'll use in the week.

Here too was my best deal on the shopping adventure - wild salmon for just $3.49/lb (frozen) and was less than the $1.39/4-oz wild filets I intended to buy at the next store ($5.56/lb).

It was in this store too that I hit the mother-lode for spices - the health food section had bulk spices, sold by the pound. Garlic powder, ginger, italian spice mix, white pepper, and sesame seeds were had for just $0.65, and enough rolled oats for one breakfast was had for just $0.17.

In total, I spent $25.05 in this store...$51.58 so far, $11.42 remained with one more store to go. I suspected at that point that I was going to exceed the budget...but continued on.

Last stop, I was determined to stick with my list and not purchase anything not needed. Eggs, check; baked beans, check; yogurt, check; fresh tomatoes, check; frozen strawberries, check; ground turkey, franks on sale and ground beef, check.

After looking over my remaining things needed, I grabbed a jar of relish and headed for the salad bar - why? Here you can get fresh produce in very small quantity, often for less per pound than the produce aisles or deli counter. At $3.49 a pound, it was cheap to get baby spinach to add to the romaine I had. A 6-oz bag of baby spinach was being sold 2/$5, or $6.65 per pound - the salad bar was a better price...so I put together one small container of baby spinach. Next I put together a small container of red peppers and mushrooms. Red peppers were being sold for $3.99/pound whole, so here I could buy just what I needed and have no waste I paid for; and mushrooms weren't sold loose, but in one-pound containers for $3.29, and I didn't need a pound! I also added some pepperoni and roast beef strips to add to salads or omelets during the week. Salad bar items added $1.65 this way instead of more than $8.00 had I purchased these items stand-alone.

The last minute impulse buy took me over my budget - I grabbed three small bags of nuts (sliced almonds, pecan and walnut pieces) to add to salads, forgetting the one-pound of sunflower (hulled) I'd already purchased for $1.39 in the first store. At $1.43 per bag, this added another $4.29, and took me over the budget.

In total I spent $16.35 here, and a grand total of $67.93 - $4.93 over budget.

The budget over-run could be chalked up to the nuts, or the fact that I won't compromise with milk for my son - organic whole milk was on sale, but still more expensive than conventional milk and I spent $5.98 on his milk, $2.13 more than I would have if I'd picked up regular milk.

Had this been a real world scenario, I'd have put back the extra nuts to keep the organic milk since they alone make up most of the overage, along with condiments that it's unlikely one would need to buy all of in one week (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and spices, including iodized salt) since I'd think most people have these on-hand, or at least some of them, and buy as needed.

So, at the end of the day, my conclusion is that you can feed a family of three for just $63 without resorting to low-nutritional-value foods.

As you can see from the picture I took (post below) of my purchases, we have plenty of fresh produce, more frozen vegetables to add to those, fresh and frozen fruits, nuts & seeds, yogurt, cheese, eggs, and a wide selection of meat, poultry and fish.

The big question now is, will it last a week and will our meals be filling and nutrient-dense?

It is Possible...

With some compromises I hadn't planned, it is possible to find and purchase groceries for the week, for a family of three, for $63.

Doing it took some major planning - reading through the sale circulars for our local grocery stores, planning a menu for the week based on what was on sale before I headed to the store, and then lots of mental math in an effort to cut through the hype of some sales, which it turned out were not a bargain!

Our first meal from my finds - a salad with romaine, tomato, sliced almonds, chick peas and ranch dressing; sausage with red and green peppers, onions and mushrooms; iced tea with lemon.

A simple meal that was delicious!

In posts that follow I'll detail the shopping trip, decisions made along the way, and each day take pictures of our meals for the week!

I haven't crunched the numbers for nutritional value yet, but will as the week continues and let you know how we do!