The other part of this problem is that I don't normally do leftovers. (I know, I know!) Usually, we end up just throwing out the food from dinner that was not eaten. Well, if you are buying chicken at 7.99 lb and beef at 7.99 -9.99/lb - that is a lot of wasted money!
I realize that I have been wasting a lot of money that we could be using on so many other things, so after scouring some blogs yesterday afternoon I have decided that I should be able to feed my family of 6 for around $600.00 a month. (To give you a clue of how much over that I am I now regularly spend between $1200 -1400 a month on food.) Granted I realize that a lot of these moms (because all of the blogs that I went on were written by moms) are not buying organic chicken and grass fed/finished ground beef, but I determined that if they can spend so little money on their groceries, so can I.
I decided to go back to the cash system that I used to use when I went grocery shopping except this time I am not allowed to bring anything else into the store with me except for my cash. (And because I do not trust myself very much I am not even leaving my cards in the car. I am leaving all of that at home.)
Because approximately 1/4 of the population lives below the poverty line here in Las Cruces I also got to thinking about how people with no extra income grocery shop. What do people do when their set budget doesn't include a fall back card in which they carry around in their purses in case they spend more than they had originally allotted? What would it be like to have to live that way on a day to day basis? What foods do you choose to buy? What foods do you find are out of your reach because of your monetary limitations? Can you even feed your children healthy foods while living in poverty or is a healthy diet only for the elite? (Which, I imagine, that when you live in poverty pretty much everyone above you is considered elite. But definitely those crunchy stay at home homeschooling moms - and their families - who have no idea what it is like be truly hungry.)
According to U.S. News in 2013: a family of 6 should spend on their groceries: $146/week on a thrifty budget, $191/week on a low cost budget, $239/week on a moderate budget, and $289/week on a liberal budget. (Which means that with me spending $300+ per week we are eating gluttonously.)
To go one step further I decided to see how much money I would have to budget for groceries if our family made minimum wage. In Las Cruces minimum wage is now a whopping $8.40. So, if our current family model remained the same in which Bob worked, I stayed home with the kids and homeschooled them we would only be making $1344 a month (before taxes)!!! Based on what I can figure out from the government guidelines for those who qualify for food stamps (which of course because the government is involved in the process the website takes a freaking doctorate to get through) our family would qualify for around $522 a month in aide.
So, I had an epiphany. (My family loves when I have epiphanies!) If there are families out there who have to try and make $522 a month work for them for a family of 6 then so am I. (Bob is loving the idea because I will be saving a gazillion dollars a month if I can actually pull this off. My kids have no idea of this plan - if they knew they would be buying plane tickets right now to come and live in your homes. If all goes well, though, they will have no idea that I have cut the food budget because their bellies will not be hungry. It will just be full of a lot less variety of foods.)
Here are my self made rules for this challenge:
1.) I will not sacrifice the of quality food I bring into this house.
What this means for our family is that when I buy our meat and dairy it will always be organic/grass fed/free range, blah, blah, blah - you know what I mean. (More of that hippy, elitist jargon...)
2.) I will try and buy as much of the rest of our food organically as well.
The reason for this really should be saved for another post, but the short of it is that I think that our nation is being poisoned by the people who run companies like Monsanto and ConAgra. I think that this is why we are getting sicker and sicker as a nation and is one of the reasons why so many of us are being diagnosed with autoimmune diseases.
3.) I will only bring cash with me to the store.
4.) I will shop alone.
5.) I will shop on a full stomach.
6.) I will not deviate from my list. No. Matter. What.
So, I went to the store today to try this whole thing out. I did break one rule and that was rule #4. I brought Sarah with me, but I figured - eh, she's blind, she cannot really ask for a food item that she sees on the shelf because 1.) she cannot see the shelves and 2.) she cannot see the food on the shelves. (In the future though I will try and shop alone because have you ever tried shopping with a blind person? Yeah, not the best idea when you are trying to focus all of your energies on saving money when that is a foreign concept to you in the grocery department.)
Anyway, I took stock of what I had in the house (because that is another thing about shopping gluttonously - you always have food that just sits on your shelves unopened for ages) which was quite a lot actually. I was able to make a pretty good meal list from what we currently have and I challenged myself to spend only $80 on food this week. (For those of you keeping track that is approximately a 75% reduction in what I spent last week on groceries.)
And you know what? I did it. I spent only $58!!!! Here is the breakdown of what I got:
Niman Ranch Bacon
Organic Valley Eggs
Organic Valley 2% Milk (a gallon)
Cascadian Farms Tater Tots
3 lb bag of Organic Red Delicious Apples
2 lbs of Bananas (not organic)
Ballpark Hot dogs (definitely not organic)
Organic Valley Taco Cheese
2 - 3 lb bags of Organic Russet Potatoes
Triscuits (plain)
3 lb bag of Organic Carrots
2 Organic Cucumbers
2 Heads of Organic Red & Green Leaf Lettuce
Organic Valley Soy Creamer
1 -15 oz can of Organic Red Kidney Beans
2 - 15 oz can of Organic Pasta Sauce
1 - 26 oz can of Organic Diced Tomatoes
(I think that is it, but I am also thinking that I forgot something on the list.)
I am pretty proud of myself for spending so little while still maintaining a pretty healthy grocery list. I am going to use the remainder of the money to buy some fresh veggies/fruits at the end of the week as I know that I will run out.
I am going to go to the library tomorrow and try to find some books on nutrient dense foods. (And, no, we are not going to start eating liver or any other meat products like that.) My thought process is that if I am trying to get in the mindset of a family who is living on food stamps then I would try and fill my children's bellies with food that will keep them feeling full for a longer time. This way (at least in my logical brain) they will want/need to eat less food which means less money I am spending. The first thought that comes to mind are foods high in fiber. I don't know what else I will find out about nutrient dense foods, but I am looking forward to learning what I can.
I hope some of you have rooms in your homes for my children because there is a pretty good chance they are going to want to come live with you by the time by experiment is over. (You can check out my meals for the evening on the side of my blog.)
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