Day 1 36 Meals for $30

Pre Day 1

The evening before we started this three day event was going to be crucial. The meal plan had already changed as I was unable to afford chicken that only a few days earlier was $0.66 a pound. The chicken was going to be the base of our meals as a meal, the extra meat would add sustenance to salads and pizza, the rest was be used for a soup.

The night before we started I prepared to make a huge salad that would be stored in a large plastic container. ½ a head of lettuce and red leaf lettuce made the base of this salad. A tomato, and half of all the vegetables I purchased were used to give the salad flavor, texture and color. Everything was put in a large container for future meals.

Next task was to make the home made syrup for the pancakes. 2 cups of water and one sliced apple are brought to a boil and then simmered for a couple minutes before the cup of sugar I purchased at the store is added. I thickened it with some cornstarch and vanilla. This gave me three days worth of apple flavored syrup.

Day 1

Here we go, let the adventure in food begin. The Morning began with the adults eating a combined ¾ cup of quick oats with raisins and a little brown sugar. Since the kids are on summer vacation I let them sleep in for a while. My plan was to make a batch of 12 pancakes which would give them each 3 pancakes with home made syrup. The batch would last 2 days.

Lunch was a simple homemade cheese pizza with salad. The pizza sauce was a combination of 1 tomato, garlic clove, a little bit of red onion, oregano, and vegetable oil. Blend until smooth and spread on the home made pizza dough.

Late snack was leftover pizza slices or an apple. We did make a small loaf of bread during the afternoon to have with our dinner.

Dinner was spaghetti with cooked ground pork seasoned with butter oregano and basil. It was simple and filling.

The Scratch is our newest book about feeding a family on a budget. we have made this free book available to help familes like ours get started with three simple dinner meals. These three meals will help you save big dollars when you are ready to start budgeting.

If you would like a copy all you have to do is email me. I understand privacy is a concern for everybody and I promise that I will not share your email with anyone. Everything we do is done manually. I will check my email  a couple times a day and send you a pdf file.

The Book is free and you can share it with anybody you like as long as you do not try to sell it.

Simply put "The Scratch" in your subject line and sent to: rickjhenderson@hotmail.com

The Grocery List

The end result of our shopping trip was I felt unsure if I could afford everything I had in my grocery cart. To limit the embarrassment in case I had to much food and had to pick and chose what stayed behind and what was going to be purchased I used self checkout. The end result was I had to leave the hamburger behind. We had no meat to eat over the next few days, The chicken was its usual low price and scales in the produce section were not very accurate so the apples cost far more than I had estimated. Some tough choices had to be made at the grocery store that left me feeling like I was not providing for my family.

While the feeling of not providing everything my family needed stayed with me. I tried to over compensate that feeling with the fact I can cook and we will get by.

The grocery list was very short. It required many

their income from two jobs

The Grocery list;

To make the most of my $30.00 budget I had to travel to two stores, the first store was important because they have bulk foods. This allowed me to maximize my dollars by purchasing ingredients in the portions I needed to use for the following three days.

My bulk list was 2.5 cups quick oats, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, ½ cup raisins. Everything else on my list was going to be purchased at the regular grocery store.

My regular grocery store list was 7 small gala apples, 3 small green apples, green leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, 3 bulk carrots, celery bunch, 1 cucumber, 3 tomatoes, 1 red onion, 2 cup bag of store brand shredded Mexican mix cheese, 1 block unsalted butter, 1 gallon 1% milk, 1lb of manager special ground pork, 1lb box spaghetti, 5lbs of potatoes and vegetable oil.

What to Eat???

The plan is to live like it is financially tough for us. The scenario for us is to assume our kitchen is almost out of food. The weeks leading up to this event required some easy planning of purchasing less food at the grocery store to empty out the fridge and cupboards. During the past few weeks we were able to make substantial space in the fridge and cupboard to allow a whole shelf in the fridge for our three days worth of food and one shelf in the cupboard for non perishable foods.

Three food items were able to be brought from our current supply into our three day event. The three items could not be the most expensive shopping items as that would just make this task seem to easy. The foods had to represent items that carry over from grocery shopping week to week. For our family the three items were yeast, baking powder and lemons. This may seem like a strange combination but it will fit into our dietary needs.

How tough is tough? We had $30.00 to feed a family of four for three days. 12 meals and only $30.00 to do it with. When I told my family we were doing this a couple weeks ago they just brushed it off and carried on. Yesterday when I reminded them about this three day event they were kind of upset. But I 

explained it as, imagine us running out of money and we still needed to eat until payday. This happens to thousands of families everyday. I would rather learn how to cope while I can afford to eat than learn how to cope because we have no choice. At least we will appreciate what we have.

The shopping trip started with both children going shopping with me. Almost instantly after the doors closed in the first grocery store they asked to get some candy. I reminded them that we are purchasing only what we need for the next three days. The list was small as we planned to purchase only what was needed to feed us for three days. The first stop was the quick oats bulk bin followed by the dried raisins. The kids agreed to eat pancakes for breakfast over the next few days with home made apple flavored syrup. We headed to the bulk sugar bin when the oldest child tried to work her magic asking in her gentle voice if they could get a small bag of gummie bears. I know what she was up to and played the game by asking which meal would she give up so she can have some gummie bears to eat? Her initial response was lunch but after she changed her mind to sacrifice the bears for lunch. We quickly finished getting the remaining items on our list. The first store seemed easy, my list was small and I had relatively a substantial amount of cash leftover.

We left the first grocery store and headed to our last stop where some of the biggest priced items were going to be purchased. The plan was to start with the fresh fruits and vegetables. This proved to be time consuming and difficult. Eat bag of fruit needed to be counted, weighed, and mathematically calculated in my head since I did not bring a calculator with me. The kids disappeared for a while looking for samples to try which really helped.

Loss of Income Creates Changes in How We Eat

We all enjoy watching the cooking shows where only the finest and freshest ingredients are used. Cost is no object for their belief of eating what is considered to be the best. For the rest of us, convenience comes at a price that will easily be justified by marketing that it is healthy and quick. As long as we can afford to fund our beliefs nothing really changes.

But something did change. The economy slowed and many families were not able to keep having a dual income family. For single income families they lost all their income and had to resort to using savings or government assistance.

Change for these groups came fast and hard. These people realized very quickly, wasting food is the equivalent of throwing away good money. Forget about dining out as a form of entertainment or as a way to feed a family. With very little extra income dining out is usually the first expense that suddenly becomes expendable.

The transition to cutting back on food expenses usually takes some time. Non essential packaged foods are still purchased but not as much as in the past. For many people the cost of food is just now being realized as before it was a simple get what we want swipe a piece of plastic and sign on the computer screen.

The reality of food costs really hit home when you find the few snacks and packaged foods you can barely afford to purchase only half eaten. Expensive low nutritional valued being thrown away. When times are financially tough you can realize what many low income families already know.

The limited food budget has to achieve maximum value and quantity. Nutrition must be reasonably balanced and waste must be kept to a minimum.

The Scratch is our newest book about feeding a family on a budget. we have made this free book available to help familes like ours get started with three simple dinner meals. These three meals will help you save big dollars when you are ready to start budgeting.

If you would like a copy all you have to do is email me. I understand privacy is a concern for everybody and I promise that I will not share your email with anyone. Everything we do is done manually. I will check my email  a couple times a day and send you a pdf file.

The Book is free and you can share it with anybody you like as long as you do not try to sell it.

Simply put "The Scratch" in your subject line and sent to: rickjhenderson@hotmail.com