Final Budget Challenge for October: Shopping Local

 

As I worked with this challenge this month, I felt that had I had some of the items from both stores, spending a bit more, I would have been able to do more.  Well naturally, if you're doubling your money spent, right?  But I did think I could do more with a budget of $50 than I could with a budget of $25.  Perhaps, I might even be able to manage a whole week of meals for the two of us?  Now let me say this, with $25 a week I couldn't swing 3 meals a day for any length of time.   But with just under $50, I managed to figure out three meals a day.  But that's what you can do if you're not limited to ONE store and half the budget.  You can choose to purchase the least expensive items at each store.

So, I thought I'd try to figure out meals using items from both stores and trying my best to get seven days' worth of food for two from it.  I'm choosing, since I have the prices, I spent two weeks ago, to 'purchase' foods from the store that will be the least expensive, so that will slightly alter things.  The goal here is to get the best price and the most food for the money, right?

Here goes. This is what I'd buy.

Dollar General:

1 can of pineapple $1.95

1 can Peas, 2 cans of green beans, 1 can of corn 85c each   $2.85

2 cans of tomatoes $1 each   $2.00

1-pound spaghetti $1

1-pound brown rice $1

2-pounds AP flour $1.35 online the information says that this weight will net me between 7 and 9 cups.  I'm going to split the difference and hope it stretches to 8 cups.

Total spent: $10.55 with tax

IGA:

2-pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts $2.99/pound $6

2-pounds ground beef $3.99 pound   $8

Jiffy corn bread 99c

Bell Pepper $1.09

3-pounds onions $2.99   There should be five nice sized onions in the bag.

5-pounds potatoes $3.99

1 pound cheese $4.58

1/2-gallon milk $2.79

1 dozen eggs $3.12

1 can chili beans $1.29

1 can kidney beans $1.29

Total spent: $37.59

Total for both stores: $48.14

Meals:

Breakfasts:  I'd bake a loaf of bread which would use 3 cups of flour. I'd use salt, sugar, and yeast that I have at home already.  I didn't price margarine, but I have a LOT of butter in the freezer, so we'll just borrow a stick from my own pantry. 

1. Toast and Eggs: 3 slices bread, 4 eggs

2. Cheese Toast: 4 slices bread, 4 ounces of cheese

3. Eggs (3), toast (2 slices) and hashbrowns, two or three potatoes, half an onion

4. Biscuits with hamburger gravy.  I'd use a bit of shortening from my baking supplies, as well as baking powder, salt, sugar, 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup milk to make the biscuits. 1/4-pound hamburger meat, seasonings, 2-3 tablespoons of flour and 2 cups milk to make the burger gravy.  *Just a quick additional note here.  Flour is required to roll out the dough, usually a couple of tablespoons and that is merely to keep the dough from sticking to the surface.  I usually get 10 biscuits from a batch of biscuit dough.  I'd serve us two each for this meal.

I'll set aside half the biscuit dough to use for one of our supper dishes.

5. Toast.  Since we typically don't eat anything but toast on Thursday mornings anyway, I'll count this as a breakfast, too

I'll use the last of the flour to make another batch of bread dough. I'll make half the dough into 6. & 7. bagels.  I should get four bagels.  I have cream cheese on hand.  Or we could serve them with peanut butter.  That should serve us two more mornings.

Now I'm going to plan main dishes.  I'm thinking that we'll piece out the foods for lunches using leftovers from main dishes.  We'll see how that works out.

I should get anywhere from 5 to 6 breasts in the two packages.  I'll plan on five.  If there's a sixth one that would be a bonus.

1. Sweet and Sour Chicken over rice: I'll use one of the largest breasts, half the can of pineapple, 1/3 of the bell pepper, 1 onion.  To make the sauce, I'll cook the juice, a little water, ketchup and cornstarch together.  

I'll make the whole packet of rice at once.  That should net me 6 cups of cooked rice.  We'll use 2 cups for this meal.

2. & 3. Chicken Pot Pie, French Fries, Cranberry sauce:  This is pretty much an all-in-one dish meal.  Normally I'd add a salad.  In my growing up years, Daddy insisted Mama serve it with French fries on the side.  I'd do just that, too, since we've got the potatoes on hand, and it will likely mean we have half the pie for a lunch meal.  We only need two decent sized potatoes to make enough for French Fries for the two of us.

I keep cranberry sauce in the pantry year-round, and also have frozen cranberries in the freezer.  This is something I am never without.  So, I'll chill a can of cranberry sauce.  The topping for the pie will be the rest of the biscuit dough.  I can either roll it thin or I can cut into biscuits to lay on top of the filling.  

To make the filling: I'll boil the remaining breasts, chop the meat of 2 and use half for this meal. I'd cook a couple of smaller diced potatoes, half an onion, add in a bit of the peas, corn and green beans.  If I have any flour at all, I'll use that to thicken some of the broth for a nice gravy for the filling.  If not, I could use cornstarch from the pantry.  This would be even nicer if I happened to have carrots or celery on hand (at present I have the carrots, but no celery, nor any celery leaves) so that I could a use a little of each, but John wouldn't miss the carrot.  He dislikes them cooked, so I usually grate them into my filling (or soups, etc.) anyway.   I could boil a couple of the eggs I have left and add those in if I felt I needed the additional protein, but I really think this will be sufficient.   

4. I'd take other half of the chopped breast meat and make Chicken Fried Rice using 2 cups of rice, 1/2 an onion, 1 grated carrot, a couple of tablespoons of peas and corn and green beans. I'll scramble one of the three remaining eggs and add that into this dish. I'd season this with soy sauce (pantry) and garlic and ginger.  I keep ginger root in the freezer.  If I didn't have that I'd use ginger powder.  I'll serve this with the rest of the pineapple on the side.   With the vegetables and chicken added in we'd have an ample serving of food for each of us.

5, 6, maybe 7. Chicken Spaghetti, Green Beans, Garlic Bread.  Spend with Pennies has a Chicken Spaghetti recipe that calls for no cream of anything soup but does require broth and flour.  I'm thinking at this point my bag of flour is empty and finished and while I'm more than willing to borrow from the pantry, I'll leave it to you to decide how to proceed.  I keep cream of soups on hand almost all the time.  And because of that I'm 'borrowing' from the pantry.  I could also opt to spend $1 more for a can of store brand condensed cream of soup.  That would work as well, since I'd have the 4c extra required for tax.

Here's what I plan to do: I'll cook the box of spaghetti and set half of it aside for another meal.  I'd cook 1/2 an onion and 1/3 of the bell pepper until just tender, then add in seasonings (garlic, pepper, oregano, parsley), then the soup.  I'd salt after I added the soup, since some are saltier than others.  Then I'd stir in 1/2 can of tomatoes, 1 chopped chicken breast (should be about 2 cups of meat).  The recipe does call for a whole can of tomatoes, but I want half the can for another meal.  I'd shred half a block of cheese, add 2/3 cup to the sauce.  Mix in half the spaghetti and pour into a 13 x 9 pan.  

I could skip garlic bread (we usually eat 1 slice each).  But I might take up the end pieces, run them through the blender and sprinkle over the top of the casserole as a crunchy topping.

Obviously, we'd not have green beans and toast with all three meals, but this will make a huge pan, plenty big enough to net us two lunches of leftovers.

My plan: 

8. Chili with Rice.  1/2-pound ground beef, 1 can chili beans, 1 can tomatoes, 1 can kidney beans, 1 large, chopped onion, seasonings from supplies on hand.  I could go as low as 1/4-pound of meat for this meal, but I've purposely planned it to use 1/2-pound because I plan to get a second meal from the leftovers of chili.  I'm figuring this would make about 8 cups of chili.  We'd eat 4 cups of chili

I'd reheat the last 2 cups of rice and serve the chili over the top.  In years past, we always served chili over rice because some of our children liked foods that were less spicy (some chili powders can be hot even if they don't say they are).  It also helped to stretch the meal and make it more satisfying. 

9.  Tamale Pie, Corn.  The corn muffin mix requires 1/3 cup of milk and 1 egg, plus 2 tablespoons of fat which can be butter or oil.  I'll mix that, put leftover 4 cups leftover chili in an 8x8 pan and then pour batter over the top.  I'll let that cook until the cornbread is done then top with half a cup of shredded cheese.  Corn will be served as a side dish, but you could add it to the pie.

10.  Shepherd's Pie.  I'd cook 4 potatoes and make mashed potatoes. I've still got an egg left and I'd probably add that into the mashed potatoes to give them a bit more body as they bake on top of this dish.  I'd brown 1/2-pound ground beef, 1/2 onion, add in the rest of the undrained peas, 1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons dark steak sauce or ketchup, seasonings of choice, then use cornstarch to thicken the gravy.  Place in an 8x8 pan and top with Mashed Potatoes.  

11.  Leftovers.  I'm honestly thinking we will have a serving each of tamale pie and Shepherd's pie leftover.  That would do well enough for a lunch for us.  

At this point, I'm seriously wishing (as I did in the last two challenges) there were more vegetables and something fresh.  But you know what?  If we had a tight month, this is doable for one week.  We won't go hungry!  And I've still got a few meals left to plan.

12.  Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.  1/4-pound ground beef browned, 1 onion, remaining 1/3 of the green bell pepper, 1/2 can of tomatoes, seasonings.  I'll set aside about 1/3 cup of sauce to use in another meal.  I'll serve this over the remainder of the box of spaghetti, about 8 ounces, dry.

If we still have bread, I'll make garlic bread.  I've been trying to think how many slices I'd typically get from a loaf of bread, and I can't quite remember. Not as much as I'd get from a store-bought loaf (at least 20 slices).  So perhaps 14?  I could just get by with that one loaf of bread then to do garlic bread here with this meal, but they'd likely be scant slices.

13.  Pizza.  You may recall that I set aside half the dough from the last batch of bread dough.  I made half into bagels.  I can go two ways with this.  I can spread it out or make it up as a loaf of French bread. Either way, I'll have a base for pizza.  When I make a pizza from a half batch of dough, we generally get 8 generous slices.  If I were out of bread for the prior meal I might choose to make the loaf of French bread, then save one half to make pizza and use half to toast to stretch out the spaghetti and shepherd's pie meals.

I'd cook the spaghetti sauce down to thicken it slightly, spread that on my dough, perhaps add some sliced onion, then top with the last of the cheese shredded.  I should have about 1.5 cups cheese at this point.   Usually if we eat pizza, we have two slices each.  If we're really hungry we'll eat three.  

14 & 15.  At this point, I should have a few potatoes, an onion, 1/2-pound ground beef, any juices from canned vegetables (I'd save those in the freezer as I usually would do), half a can of green beans (having used a portion in both the chicken pot pie and the fried rice).  If I had dibs and dabs of leftovers, I'd toss those into the soup pot, too.  I could most certainly use those things, water and bouillon cubes to make a pot of soup.   

There you are.  I've made a week's worth of meals for less than $50.  How do you think I did?  What would you do? 

In November I'll visit another store or two and see how I might do there.  I'm thinking I'm going to shoot for a $50/week budget, but I may go as high as $100/week.

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