What Now?

I have reigned in grocery and "shopping" so far this month so that neither is a big player. This, however, is what my spending looks like:

My home expenses include space rent, mortgage payment, and insurance. The insurance payment is due every quarter, so is not a monthly expense. The bills and utilities include cable (internet, television, home phone), gas, electricity, and trash. My cell phone bill has not arrived yet.  Taxes is property tax, a twice-yearly payment.

Health & Fitness so far includes a payment on a bill owed to my periodontal dentist for tissue grafting (I do not carry dental insurance; it doesn't work out for me), AARP supplement medical insurance, and a bottle of iron supplements required for upcoming surgery.

Gifts and Donations include donations to various groups, a gift for my daughter's birthday, and money into savings and college funds for one of my grandsons.

So far I have spent just $59 on groceries (less on coffee and restaurants). So I have stayed well within my goal of $18 per day, in large part because I have been eating what's in the cupboard. I have what I call a "scarcity complex" - I like to have food set aside for "emergencies" or just tough times. But lately I have enjoyed using up a lot of the canned beans and other things because I want to reorganize my cupboards and use my pressure cooker more.

In any case, there are a couple of glaring items: the cable bill, which is about $230. It creeps up all the time. I have been weaning myself off the premium channels so it is time to let them go. Gradually I will let go of the rest of the channels as well. And if it makes sense financially I'll get rid of the home phone.

My goal for this week is to reduce the cable bill, spend for groceries at $15 per day max, and spend on shopping no more than $25 for the week.

Groceries

I have been thinking a lot about groceries lately. How much I spend on them, ways to reduce that amount. I have had an account on Mint.com for over a year so I have last year's records all neatly compiled. There are still a few mistakes and uncategorized items but the vast majority are correct. That's why I know that last year I spent an average of $20 a day on groceries. That's $140 a week. This doesn't count eating out, of course. I'll deal with that another day.

One way to cut back on groceries is to reduce the number of processed foods I buy. Sometimes processed foods - by which I mean frozen or refrigerated ready-to-eat-quickly foods - are just what I need. When I can't stand to cook anything I can usually throw something in the microwave, and really, that's cheaper, usually, than eating out. However, these meals are usually not the healthiest I could eat, so I have another motivation for cutting back.

I have been reducing the number of veggie meats and cheese I buy, in particular. These items tend to be pricey and do not have real health benefits (except as compared to animal meats and cheeses, which I do not buy at all).

I also purchased an electric pressure cooker and a juicer this year. I have been making good use of them both.

Some things affect the total:
* when I am in Las Vegas visiting daughters I often buy groceries for several of us.
* I bought a Groupon for a vegan food delivery service (frozen food) that kept me using the microwave for several days - I think I bought the Groupon in December but I've been using it just recently, so it is not included in the totals this year.

So, acknowledging that such calculations are not perfect, how am I doing so far this year?

In January and February I spent $1111.35 on groceries.  That's $18.82 per day. Down from last year, so far. My modest goal for March: bring the three-month total down to $18 per day. To do that, I will need to spend no more than $509 this month on groceries. Honestly, you'd think a single person would have no problem with that! And yet.

costs

For my foodstamp challenge I am accumulating some approximate prices. Using receipts from various stores I can approximate:
(prices are not necessarily the cheapest possible)
5 # white bread flour: $3.50
2# bag white rice: $2
1# bag beans:
red: 1.05
white: 1.05
lima: 1.80
kidney: 1.35
great northern: 1

1# bag lentils: 1.05
1# bag split peas: .85
3-pk, 19 oz ea, tofu (Costco): 3.15
12-pk stewed tomatoes (Costco): 7.50
10# large yellow onions (Costco): 3.30
lge bag broccoli (Costco): 3.80
large box mushrooms (Costco): 4.50

As I get more prices I will enter them into this post, to keep them together and make this whole thing less boring to read.

The recipes for the food stamp challenge

I have developed a list of dinner menus in a general form:

Red beans and rice (one batch = 4 meals)
Noodles & stirfry vegs(2 meals)
Lentil soup & bread (3 meals)
Pizza & salad (2)
Ratatoulle (3)
Stuffed bell peppers & salad (2)
Black beans and rice (4)
Potato soup & bread (3)
Garbanzo beans & bread (3)
Split pea soup $ bread (3)
Chili & salad & bread (3)

That's 32 meals. The number of meals is, of course, approximate.

Lunches

Red pepper grilled sandwich (1)
Vegetable soup & bread (2)
Pizza (2)
Tofu stir fry w/rice (2)
Split pea soup (3)
Rice mix (jambalaya?) (2)
Chili & crackers (3)
Stuffed cabbage (2)
(need more)

Breakfast items:

Potatoes
Oatmeal
Pancakes
Toast & cashew butter

The Foodstamp Challenge

I am getting ready to try the foodstamp challenge. What this means:

I will attempt to feed myself on approximately three dollars a day, the average amount that food stamps pay for an average recipient. I recognize that:

1. Foodstamp recipients often have other ways to obtain food. It's likely that most of them do not rely solely on food stamps.
2. I am educated, have lots of free time, and I not only know how to cook but I like to cook. I suspect that most foodstamp recipients do not have my depth of knowledge of nutrition and of cooking, and that most do not have ample free time and energy to devote to providing food. Therefore I do not count myself as an example that actual food stamp recipients can easily follow - although I do hope that some would be able to.
3. The challenge, then, for me, is to find out if I can live on much less than I do now, and do so healthily.

The rules for my particular challenge:

1. I will spend $100 for one month's worth of food. I decided on a month because I am only one person and it is more difficult to purchase food in small quantities at a good price than in larger quantities. A month also allows me to make the same dish once for several meals. I will eat one meal and freeze the others.

2. I won't purchase staples such as herbs as part of the $100. This type cost would be spread out over many months as this type product lasts a long time.

I will begin when I have developed a list of recipes and a shopping list that is reasonably accurate in terms of quantities and costs.