After ringing in the New Year, many people have the ambition to improve their health by exercising and maintaining a healthy diet. My ambition this post-Christmas season is to maintain a healthy account balance. Last year, I realized how much money I was throwing in the trash in the form of unused food. Fresh produce sat rotting in the fridge. Frozen vegetables and meats were iced over and freezer burned in their packaging. The problem was buying with the intention of cooking multiple meals during the week vaguely based on food I might eat. That kind of spending ended up wasting close to $150 during my first quarter of graduate school. This quarter I am challenging myself to cut the pork (metaphorically) out of my food budget. The challenge: a $20 limit for buying a week’s worth of groceries.
Here is what $20 got me this week:
$1.99 3-pound bag of potatoes
99 cents kale bunch
$1.99 shredded carrots
$1 onion
$1.50 bananas
99 cents three pears
$1 noodle soup mix
$1 loaf of bread
$1.75 eggs
89 cents kidney beans
$1.50 soy milk
$1.50 unsweetened apple sauce
$2 popcorn
Total = $19.09 before tax
This cold weather was the perfect occasion to make a simple chicken noodle soup with the noodle mix, onion, kale and shredded carrots. Excluding the chicken I already had in my freezer before the start of this challenge, the total cost to make this dish, which yields about six servings, was $4.98. That averages out to 89 cents per serving — cheaper and healthier than fast food.
There are quite a few vegetables and fruits available year round that cost less than a dollar and can be mixed into a soup, salad or other veggie entree that won’t leave you hungry or malnourished. From this week’s groceries, I managed to make French toast (62 cents per serving), roasted vegetable soup with kidney beans (97 cents per serving) and egg salad (55 cents per serving). So far this $20 budget is saving money and preventing food waste. Most importantly, it is possible to eat more than Ramon and frozen dinners on a $20 food budget.
