$21 Experiment

Now, it's been since 2009, ya'all, but here's what I remember from the Feed The Family For $21 A Week experiment, which went on most of that summer, I do believe.

We ate oatmeal frequently.

1 egg, 1/4 cup of milk and 5 slices of raisin bread plus the heel makes enough French Toast for two tweens and a small lady.

1 stick of butter is plenty for a week, if you're careful and not trying to do holiday baking.

1/2 gallon of milk is enough, if you must have milk, and that is debatable.

Frozen veggies are cheap. Ditto rice, but brown rice, oddly, is more expensive. Canned beans are cheap, but not all canned beans, and not in all grocery stores.

Stir-fried veggies and rice with soy sauce is a GOOD meal, by which I mean satisfying and nutritionally responsible. Boxed mac and cheese, not as much. But it is quick, and youth-preparable.

Packaged breakfast cereal is 'spensive, yo. Even the bulk off-brand ones. And requires the purchase of milk. (see above.)

Soup is good. Grilled cheese sandwiches are good. Together, they are excellent.

At $8 a package, ground coffee can seem like a hefty luxury item. However, at $4 a CUP, fawnceh coffee-shop coffee actually IS a hefty luxury item, and takes your toll tunnel money into the bargain.

Meatless meals feel good, and are plenty satisfying.

Cleaning supplies, toiletries and paper goods make a grocery bill look bigger. Those items are not, in fact, food.

Vegetarian chili leftovers are good for making burritos, so much that they became "plan"overs, rather than "left"overs.

Impulse buys of 'interesting' items often go unused. I found a lot of things during the week we "ate the pantry." Most of them were expired and needed to be pitched. And right now, I'm thinking about a jar of mole sauce, a tin of lobster bisque, a jar of mincemeat and a packaged of very fine rice noodles that are in my kitchen. Some lessons need to be relearned.

Reducing one's food budget doesn't automatically result in a reduction in one's weight. I rather expected it would, but it didn't. I felt better, because I was eating less junk, but I didn't weigh less. Maybe over the course of a year I'd've knocked off a pound or three, or five, but three months didn't make a dent big enough that I noticed it.

Chicken in a can is useful in many ways. Ditto refried beans.

Fresh fruit you don't buy doesn't spoil or attract fruit flies. Fresh vegetables are often sold in portions greater than the use one buys them to fulfill, then moulder in the bin thereafter.

Astronaut chicken is handy and stretchable, but time-consuming.

Meal plans and grocery lists are essential. Item by item hand-totaling of food items as they're added to the cart keeps one on budget better than mentally calculating or guestimating, which both are frequently inaccurate. 

Budgeting for food spills over into other life areas, like fuel purchasing, personal care and (especially) disposables.

Apropos of nothing heretofore mentioned, my recipe for tuna salad:

3 cans of tuna, in oil when possible
3 hardboiled eggs, chopped
3 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, or half a medium one, minced
parsley
salt
pepper, sometimes lemon pepper
dill
mayo or ranch dressing (I favor Duke's)

If the tuna is packed in oil, I don't drain it. Packed in water, I drain it somewhat. To appease the cats, mostly. I adjust the amount of dressing accordingly.

I should make tuna salad sometime soon. It's quite popular chez moi.