What Would You Do? Small Town Grocery/Budget Meals Part II

 

I'd meant to do Part II a lot sooner, but never managed to get to Dollar General as I'd planned to do.  Well, I did it today!  I thought I'd remind you of why I've done these two posts.  You can go read the first one right here to refresh your memory of what I did in the first post of this challenge I set myself.

When I did the last shopping trip, I went into Family Dollar and Piggy Wiggly.   Today while out banking, I went past those two stores and had planned to stop again at Dollar General there in the county seat.  It was packed!  I came back to my own small town and shopped at my local DG instead.  Both stores are fairly similar, prices are the same, except the store in the county seat is a little larger and I suppose selections would be a little different as they are when you're shopping in any location.

I shared in the last post that for myself, shopping in my small town is even more limited.  We have a Dollar General and a local grocery, an IGA that I personally refuse to shop in due to the gambling machines lined up at the front door.   

Our store is about 4 miles from my home.  The county seat town is about 19 miles from my home.  In a real pinch, it would likely be this store where I'd do my shopping,

I went in with an open mind, didn't buy all I might have because I felt I wanted to keep the total as low as possible.  I did note prices and supplies even on the items I wasn't going to purchase.

First, I priced produce.  If I were buying fresh produce in either town, this store would be where I'd likely shop because of the freshness of the produce and the prices, while still high, are nowhere near as high as at Piggly Wiggly.

Prices I noted today: 3 pounds of onions, red or yellow, $2.99   I considered buying those but just yesterday John brought home both a large head of cabbage and four good sized onions with green tops attached from his friend's garden.  I chopped those green tops off and cut them into pieces and froze them.  I put the onions in the fridge.

5 pounds of potatoes $4.99 (I would skip these entirely.  I think $1 a pound is too high for potatoes.  Even at the overpriced grocery they weren't that high).  I have potatoes on hand that need to be used up bought on sale at Kroger three or four weeks ago.  I didn't see anything but baby carrots and completely failed to note the price on those.  They had iceberg lettuce for $2.50 a head and tomatoes $2.50 for a clamshell type container of slicing tomatoes that looked really pretty.  I bought the tomatoes, didn't buy the lettuce since I have two thirds of a large head on hand already.

They carry a good selection of salad mixes ($2.50/$2.75 a bag), avocados (99c each), bananas, grapes ($2.38/pound), strawberries and blueberries, oranges ($2.99/bag), mandarins, ($3.99 bag) and apples.  They also have mixed and green bell peppers ($2.99 pound), etc.  As I said, if shopping locally, I'd definitely buy produce at Dollar General because the produce is really excellent and while I noted prices were higher than I'd pay at Aldi or on sale in the larger city where we typically shop, they are far cheaper than Piggly Wiggly in the county seat town.  

I looked at milk, but they only had one brand and it doesn't taste good to me.  I didn't see a price on either half gallons or gallon sized jugs.  We have a half gallon in the freezer; I have four or five of the shelf stable containers in the pantry as well as dry powder.  

I checked the prices on grits, oatmeal, hamburger patties, loaf bread, boxed mac n cheese, pastas and noodles, canned and dried beans, cornmeal, flour, baking powder.  

Here's what I ended up purchasing:

1 pound Elbow Macaroni $1

1 packet burrito sized tortilla $2.66.  10 to the package

1 packet store brand cereal (12 ounces) $2.15

1 jar of peanut butter $2.00

1 jar grape jelly $2.00

1 can mixed vegetables 69c

1 can green beans 69c

1 can whole kernel corn 69c

1 can spaghetti sauce 1.30

2 pounds of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts $9.95. There are 5 breasts.  The package says they'll serve 8 and that works out to about 4 ounces per serving.

1-pound of 80/20 frozen ground beef chub $6.00

1 loaf frozen garlic bread $2.25.   This was cheaper than a loaf of bread and says it will serve 8.  I've always found these servings to be a bit too generous

1 pound of spaghetti $1

1 pound of Roma Tomatoes $2.50

Eggs $3.35       

$37.23

From the last post, I had these items left:

At this point, I'd have half a bag of dry kidney beans, half a bag of rice, some bread, probably 6 cups of flour, 4 ounces of pasta, well over half a jar of Parm/Romano cheese, half an onion, the saved pan drippings, juice from the green beans and rinsed cans (freeze it!  It's good to add to soup), and quite possibly some cabbage if it looks like it's going to make too much salad. 

And of course, I have all my seasonings, condiments, baking powder, milk.

My purpose today was to buy enough to make three meals for two, as many as I can manage from what I purchased and what I have on hand per the paragraph from the last post, plus the head of cabbage and onions we were given, 8 smaller Russet potatoes, onions, lettuce already on hand that I haven't yet used up.  If we were to add those things to the total for meals today I think we'd be very safe in saying it comes up to $10...

For breakfasts:

Cereal with milk (3 meals) The package clearly states that there are 8 cups of cereal in the box and a serving is 1 cup.  I typically will eat 1 cup myself but John has never eaten just one cup of cereal in his life.  Hence my reasoning that we might get 3 meals from this box of cereal.  I'm not planning to serve toast or any other bread with this, so I think I'm being reasonable in my assumption that he'll eat about 1.5 to 2 cups.

Pancakes: use 2 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 cup milk (3 meals of 2-3 pancakes each)

Breakfast Burritos: Scrambled eggs, 3 eggs with 1 cheese slice each, wrapped in a tortilla and heated in a pan.  I have a partial jar of salsa in the fridge. I'd plan on 1 for me, 2 for John (1 meal)

Omelet (2 eggs 2 slices cheese), with Biscuits: 2 cups flour, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup shortening or oil  (1 meal with leftover biscuits. A recipe typically makes 10 biscuits and we can plan on 2 each with 6 leftover, I think)

Egg Biscuits (2 each)

That's 9 breakfasts.

I'll plan dinners next because leftovers of that often serves as lunches for us...

Dinners: 

Spaghetti with Sauce, Salad of Lettuce and Cabbage, Garlic Bread   I'll set aside 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce and rinse the can out well, saving that water (2 meals one without garlic bread but likely having toasted split biscuits)

Burgers on Garlic Toast, lettuce, tomato and onion, homemade potato chips Using 1/2 pound ground beef, two sections of garlic bread, 3 potatoes (1 meal)

Red Beans and Rice, Coleslaw  I'll cook all the kidney beans and all the rice. I have about 1/2 pound of each.  I won't need but half of each for this meal. I'll season the kidney beans as red beans (a bit of onion, a bit of crushed celery seed, dried bell pepper from the pantry and liquid smoke)  (1 meal with leftovers)

Chili and Rice, Tortilla chips, shredded Lettuce and Green Onion tops salad : I'll use 1/4 pound ground beef, 2 cups cooked kidney beans, three of the tomatoes diced fine, chili powder, 1/2 cup onion, water and some of the chicken and tomato bouillon powder I have in the cabinet.  (1 meal with leftovers)

I'll slice up two of the tortillas to bake and make my own 'chips'

Baked Chicken Breasts (2 smaller ones), Green Beans, Steamed Cabbage, Rice (1 1/4 cups of rice) w/ pan gravy (Chicken Bouillon with a tbsp of flour) (1 meal)

Chicken Pot Pie, Coleslaw, Corn  I'll cook the two remaining breasts and dice them up, mix with the canned mixed vegetables and bouillon-based gravy.  I'll make a single crust pastry top for the pie using 1 1/4 cups flour, shortening and water. (2 meals without corn at second meal and with leftovers.  I should get six generous slices of Pot Pie)

Kitchen Sink Soup Cabbage pieces, the drained veggie juices, whatever's leftover of green beans and corn, a chopped potato, onion, a bit of the spaghetti sauce (about 1/2 cup), chopped tomato tops, kidney beans, 1/4-pound hamburger, 1 cup macaroni, beef bouillon, all the canned vegetable liquids I've saved in the freezer and seasonings from the spice rack. (1 meal and leftovers)

Macaroni and Cheese, Sliced Tomato and Lettuce Salad I'm experimenting with this one. I'll use 3 cups macaroni and cook it.  I'll use 6 of the cheese slices with a bit of milk and if that isn't quite enough cheesiness, I have a packet of cheese sauce mix from a box of mac'n'cheese I used to make chili mac a while back.  I stashed the cheese powder packet in my jar of dressing mixes. The salad will use 1 tomato per person. (1 meal with leftovers)

That's 9 dinners and leftovers to go to lunches.

Lunches:

Chicken biscuits with lettuce, tomato, mayo (2 for John 1 for me) and oven fries (2potatoes) Leftover biscuits, 1 sliced tomato and 1 pan sauteed chicken breast cut into 3 pieces (1 meal)

PBJ roll-ups 3 Tortillas with peanut butter and jelly, Kitchen Sink Soup (1 cup each from leftover soup)

Garlic Toast Cheese and Fried Egg Sandwiches I should have about 4 pieces of garlic bread left, top and bottom.  I'll top with 1 slice of cheese per two pieces of bread and we'll have one fried egg each. 

Burritos 3 tortillas, using leftover chili and rice and the last of the cheese slices

Leftovers:  Red Beans and Rice, Coleslaw

Mac and Cheese

Chicken Pot Pie 

Chili and Red Bean Leftovers mixed with Kitchen Sink soup leftovers

That comes up to 8 lunches.

All total I have 26 meals averaging $1.81 for 2 people or about 90c each...I am not upset about this.

At this stage I have little or nothing left of what I began with.  I think I've used all the pasta and at best I might have 1/3 cup of flour. 

This is not an exercise I'd want to do repeatedly but it was fun and made me think.  I'm quite happy with what I could do with just under $50.

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