Surviving on $20 a week. 365 days of savings!

Surviving on $20? Is it possible now?

2012-10-08T17:18:00.001-04:00

With food prices going up and wages going down it seems even harder to survive. Let alone feed a family!

Lets see what magic I can come up with for next weeks food plan...

Wow! So many pageviews

2012-10-05T14:42:00.000-04:00

Okay okay.... I did neglect this page a little bit due to the lack of views.

After now seeing this I may just have to start up again. :-) Currently we have been eating on $50 a week on a Paleolitchic diet. It is very pricey.

Lets see what I can do next Monday for starting up!

New house!

2011-05-31T14:34:00.000-04:00

We are finially in the new house and we now have a huge kitchen all to ourselves. I am curently writing up a meal plan to scan in later. We will be eating 1200 calories a day roughly. Heating up leftovers and eating whatever is left in our pantry.

After September we will be going low carb in prep for figure and fitness competition :). Thanks for listening! Check back later

Back on it

2011-03-30T09:38:00.002-04:00

We will be moving in to our new house on Saturday and starting up our $20 a week blog again. Sorry for the long pause. We have both been busy saving and moving.

We will be back this weekend

2011-01-27T16:55:00.001-05:00

We have both been out with the flu... We will be returning this weekend with more meal plans!

Good morning fellow twentybuckers :)

2011-01-14T09:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight will be another leftover tonight, we still have the ingredients to do the weekly meal plan. We just have far to many leftovers! How crazy is that?!

Still lots of bean soup, and lots of Mother Hubbard soup.

We should be making the Caribbean chili this weekend (Well... I will!) and adding some meat in there. Nick is away this weekend so it will just be me. I am excited to finish up all the leftovers and be done with them! A fresh start next week.

As for Gas, $10 should last me to the end of the week. I have been working on driving slower, and being more cautious about revving the car. It seems to work.

I definitely need to check my tire pressure though. Due to the cold weather they are at 28PSI. Eeesh.

What a week...

2011-01-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

We have so many leftovers, we are just eating them constantly. :-) I am starting to think the $20 a week plan could work out for a family of 4. Its insane how much food we have leftover.

Nick and I got home at 10pm tonight (I literally walked in and wrote this). We are too exhausted to cook and someone (...me..) forgot to put on a fresh slow cooked meal. It worked out well though. Far to many leftovers!

Vegetarian Chilli

2011-01-12T12:17:00.000-05:00

Pre soaking kidney beans for the chili.

It does not look to attractice right now, but it smelt amazing. :-) I put no celery in this time.

This is the last leftover from last week, I put it in the freezer and defrosted it today. Its meant to be a bean soup but I think the beans overtook the water. Woops... So this should make around 5 lunches for Nick and I.

So firstly we decant some of the soup in to two Rubbermaid containers that are microwavable. This soup is REALLY filling.

I also pack Nick and I some almonds for a 10AM snack

Our breakfast is a PB Sandwich, they actually keep good overnight too. So you can make this the night before.

In the morning we pour some coffee in to our travel mugs, and put some filtered water in to our bottles for the day.

Its easy when you know what you are doing.

Its just one of those days....

2011-01-12T11:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was one of those 5AM-11PM days. Let me give you a run down of both of our schedules..

Nick: 5AM wake up
5:30AM- Out the door to work
6:00AM-3:00PM work
3:00PM-5:00PM nap
5:00PM-10PM School

11PM- Sleep...

Katie:
5AM Wake up
5:30AM- Complain about waking up
6AM Breakfast
6:30AM out the door
7-8AM Training
8:45AM-5PM Work
6:00PM-9PM School
9PM-10PM- Pack Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner for Nick and myself, prepare all school work

11PM- Sleep

Today we are making the vegetarian chili. This time I shall take photos as it should be finished in around 4 hours. :-) We have so much food leftover, we are never hungry. There is a lot of leftovers for lunch.

As for surviving $20 a week on gas...This week I filled up last friday with $20, after 2 long journeys I had to finally fill up again today. :-( I was doing so well..

Tip of the week to save money on gas= SHOP AROUND FOR THE BEST PRICE

I cant stress enough how much of a difference that makes. Every penny counts. :)

I will update later with a more coherent entry once I have had more coffee.

Food bill

2011-01-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

Our food yesterday came to $18.00 exactly. Which is perfect. We had leftovers from the weekend today, and tonight we are having the mother hubbard soup. When I get home around 4PM I will be making it and then heading off to class. By the time Nick and I are home it should be ready.

Its been an exhausting start to the week, both of us get up early for work or school, come home for 30 mins, and head back out the door for school. The only time we get a day off is when its a national holiday, and then we try to sleep in for a few extra hours.

Phew. I haven't updated with photos in a while, due to the fact I have been to busy. Nothing to eventful has happened. Apart from being burned by gravy on Saturday evening.

Hope to try and update again soon.

Time to get next weeks shopping done :)

2011-01-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

Here is the copy of our shopping list for this week, the red checks beside the item means its something we have in our fridge. Or we can substitute it.

Check out the size of that :). Hopefully we should be spending a lot less than $20 this week, due to the huge amount of leftover barley soup we have, as well as the one with beans in.

We are having a feast tonight as its Nicks cousins last night before he leaves for Army boot camp.... We shall take plenty of photos and get back to updating later today.

Soup leftovers, again...

2011-01-07T14:39:00.002-05:00

Hey, we never said this plan was going to be full of new and exciting dishes. The secret to saving money on food is saving food. Leftovers and cooking large portions for less people are big time money savers.

Honestly, though... we haven't had to spend anything on food yet. I figured we'd be stuck having to buy at least one thing this week but it looks like we'll hit our goal just yet. This morning I had toast and coffee (starbucks would have been 5 bucks easy, at home is free-ninety-nine) and I had an early day at work so I came home in time for lunch, which was reheated barley soup. Once reheated, the barley takes on a different, more solid texture. With a little salt it was delish, and very very filling. Couldn't finish a bowl of it, honestly.

So my advice for the day, get a hold of some decent plastic sealing containers, preferably microwave and dishwasher safe. The best way to know (without the packaging available) is in the thickness of the plastic. If the container itself is tough to twist or bend with your hands, then it's usually a good item that'll last you a long time. Flimsy ones, like the kind they give you at Chinese restaurants for extra sweet & sour sauce, those are the ones that'll warp in the microwave/washer.

On that same note, you will notice if you keep a plastic container for a long time that it'll develop light scratches on the bottom from utensils and such. After those occur, you'll also start to notice that those scratches retain some of the color from the last food that was in it, even after washing. This is normal, but it is something to be aware of. Just like a cooking surface and the counters in your kitchen, scratches can harbor bacteria and are difficult to clean out thoroughly. The best practice in this situation is if the container is getting very discolored, just toss it. We have some that are like that, but in the spirit of saving money, we're just very thoroughly cleaning everything.

As for dinner, it's still up in the air.

So let me know in the comments what you do to save food? Containers? Freezer bags? Dehydration? Comment!

Nick

End of vacation mode

2011-01-03T17:51:00.001-05:00

Nick here, Katie's cooking so I'll do today's update.
We got lucky with the first couple days of the month, since the 1st was on Saturday. We went out for our 1st anniversary on New Year's Eve and that pretty much culminated the end of the "Spend whatever we want on food" year. We accumulated a lot of leftovers and ran on those for the weekend, but it finally hit a point where we need to buy food and had to follow our new rules.

Tonight we made the Easy Italian Chicken Dinner from our little Slow Cooker Cookbook. We posted the recipe last week. The only thing we added to the recipe was some leftover raw carrots, and instead of pasta sauce we used tinned tomato. One can of stewed, diced and tomato sauce. It looks awesome.

As you can see, we started prepping later in the day so we did not slow cook. We are cooking it on high for around a hour, and baking the chicken separate.

We added the carrots we had in the fridge as extras.

We also did the shopping today and spent 20.73. The reason for that silly .73 is due to the fact that Katie was not sure of which kind of barley to get. I didn't even know there were more than one type of Barley. We also had to get 2 canned soups for emergency lunch situations.

Other than this, we are having some leftover bread, and then packing 4 servings of spaghetti (Old...In the pantry), sauce and chicken in to leftover containers for the rest of the week. Along with some leftover chocolate cookie bars. Yeah... We will be running later this week. Trust me!

Pasta recipie...

2011-01-02T17:03:00.000-05:00

So much better than store brands...

To make about 1 pound (5 to 6 servings):2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lukewarm water

Place the flour on a large floured surface.
Make a well in the center. Break the eggs into the well.
Add the salt, oil, and water. Beat the mixture in the well with a fork.
Using a fork, gently start to work the flour into the liquid.
Continue until the dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with the fork.
Use your hands to form the rough dough into a ball.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Cover with a bowl or towel and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
Proceed with rolling and cutting the pasta according to your recipe.

If you want a hint of Basil, add around 4tbsp to the recipe after the eggs have been added. We made ours in a bread machine and then used our new pasta maker to beat the dough together. Its a very eggy tasting pasta!

<-----Our bread machine. Very highly recommended. We got it for Christmas and now use it at least 2 times a day. Make sure you follow every single direction carefully. Do not let the yeast touch any liquid at the start. Also, make sure its at least lukewarm and not boiling.

Tonights dinner.....$20 a week officially begins tomorrow!

2011-01-02T16:59:00.001-05:00

Today we spent $40 on the necessaries at a local wholesale store. We needed beans, and other condiments to last us over the next 6 months. :-) on top of the $20 a week.

As for tonight, we are baking some Italian herb bread. To have along with chicken pasta sauce over basil fettuccine which is being slow cooked/baked/mixed and chilled as we speak.

The total cost of this meal to feed 6.... $4.

We are using some frozen chicken breasts, some oldish flour, and some pasta sauce which is about to expire.

I cant wait to start back college soon, and I am hoping to actually get some solid followers on this blog. Hopefully, some people will start their own $20 a week blogs. :-).

Nick and I couldent post pics of the bread we made... Its not very attractive right now. However, we will set the table for dinner tonight and then take some amazing photos (hopefully!)

Ta-ta for now!

Good morning fellow twentybuckers :)

2011-01-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

After a unsuccessful trip to a local farmers market, we have decided to stock up on the food at a local wholesale place.
The only highlight to driving out there was eating breakfast with Nick, Askim and Jackson (Nicks cousin). We will be doing another pasta tutorial later today, along with a bread tutorial.

It really is the key to eating cheap!

Off to film the bread tutorial now.

Think this would be any good for a Friday or Saturday on the diet plan?

2011-01-01T20:06:00.000-05:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12874797/Original-Kentucky-Fried-Chicken-Coating-Secret-Ingredients

We love a small amount of fried chicken as a treat after a race... What do you all think? It looks like it would taste good.

Videos of the pasta we made...

2011-01-01T19:40:00.000-05:00

Cooking the pasta....

Now for one of the puppy having his one noodle of the day.

Happy New Year.

2011-01-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

We just came home from our one year anniversary celebration. We are ready to rock and roll for the $20 a week journey. We have the food (Going shopping tomorrow), and we now have a pasta machine!
No more expensive pasta in the store, we can now make our own. Its our little anniversary present.

Pretty cool eh? :-)

Look at the size of the pasta we made (pre run!)

Please remember to get your "essential grocery" list tomorrow. The one labeled in the post below as "BJ's list". This will hopefully last you 6months through the winter and spring, so you can eat cheap and good.

As I said before...We are working towards finishing a short sale purchase on a house, and each week we will be putting the money we saved from buying food, towards an item we want.

This week we will be ordering the...
To go with our amazing pasta maker...Hopefully it will hold our long linguini.

If all turns out well, we may end up selling some at a farmers market on weekends!

Wishing you all a happy new year!

$20 a week on gas, $20 a week on food...

2010-12-30T08:57:00.000-05:00

The part that we are personally struggling with right now is the gas. We both work in opposite directions of each other, and currently have one chevy cobalt, and one trail blazer...
The trail blazer is a huge gas guzzler. Often taking $40 every other week.

On way we are reducing our gas bill is by walking and cycling places. If Nick happens to get this new job, we will be able to cut our gas a lot. This is when we are in the new house of course...

He is able to walk to work and college, and I would be the only one using the car. Also a lot of my classes are online this term, as it was just so expensive to drive to college and back every day. Online classes are a great option for the gas cash strapped.

Another way to reduce our gas bill would be to invest in a Chevy Volt...But being the $40,000 car they are right now I don't think that will happen anytime soon... Still looking for a way to win one of them!

I am hoping in the new year I can get some scholarships to help me through college. Its been such a struggle these past few months with trying to figure out a way to afford that one extra class. Ack!

Will update again later!

MEAL PLANS+SHOPPING LISTS

2010-12-28T18:41:00.001-05:00

This morning while drinking my coffee, I saw a program on extreme couponers....I have to say. I was slightly jealous. Spending $5,000 on groceries and getting them for $300 is a huge deal. But then again, I don't have that much pantry space in the new house.

We will be spending about $300 extra A WEEK outfitting our new house with items. Eeesh.
So here is the first meal plan for January. Also, the bulk buying shopping list for the first 6 months. Shouldn't cost more than $30 to set up.
I will also post the recipies below. As I have mentioned before, a slow cooker is essential! Or a large pot on a low heat, if you are home all day.

This is the bulk buying shopping list. I will be going to BJ's to get a majority of this. We are talking year long supplies. The bigger the better.

Leftover containers are key too...

Italian Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (About 1lbs)
8 ounces mushrooms (sliced)
1 medium green bell pepper (Chopped....Optional!)
1 medium zucchini (diced...Optional!)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 jar of pasta sauce

Combine all ingredients in crock pot or slow cooker and cover. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken is tender.

Savory Mushroom and Barley Soup:
3 cups of water
1 can of diced tomatoes
3/4 cup of each: Onion, celery, carrots
1 teaspoon dried savory leaves
3/4 teaspoons crushed fennel seeds
2 cups white mushrooms
1/2 cup quick cook barley
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients, except barley, salt and pepper in slow cooker; cook on high 4 to 6 hours, adding barley during last 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Garlic Vegetable soup
2 quarts water
1 can (15 ounces) navy or great northern beans, rinsed, drained
1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded coarsely chopped
1 cup each: diced new potatoes, coarsely chopped carrots, cut green beans (1/2 inch), chopped leeks (Some of these are optional. Its all about what you like)
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 large cloves garlic (Minced)
2 tablespoons each: Tomato paste, dried basil leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, except salt and pepper, in 6 quart slow cooker; cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Vegetable soup
1 quart vegetable broth
1/2 cup each: thinly sliced green cabbage, chopped celery, onion, broccoli florets, cut green beans, cubed zucchini, potato (Again, pick and choose!)
1/2 cup uncooked ditalini
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup basil (Pesto or dried)

Combine all ingredients, except ditalini, salt, pepper, in slow cooker. Dont add basil pesto yet if you are using it.
In a slow cooker, cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, adding ditalini during 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in basil pesto at last second!

(Ditalini...http://www.barillaus.com/Products/4/ditalini.aspx.... I had some in my pantry!)

Please comment if you have questions!

Taking my coffee to work....

2010-12-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

Check out this little cute thing :)
http://www.cafepress.com/+keep_calm_and_carry_on_fire_engine_red_travel_mug,436858160

Now I can stop abusing Dunkin Donuts and start making my own coffee!

$20 a week items

2010-12-27T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well after doing the meal plans I believe we have a few issues to clear up:

#1. You are going to need a good spice rack! Such as

This is one that I have. Spices are the flavor of life. You will be using them EVERY day. I cant emphasis this enough. You can completely change up boring dishes.

#2. Get the basics down. Before the new year, get in some dry pasta, beans, canned tomatoes, frozen peas (The biggest bag you can find), frozen kernel corn, Bread mixes (You can make your own bread and save a fortune!), tuna, canned veggies, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, canned chicken. Etc... That's the main ones I can think of.

#3, Nick and I are so busy in the first few weeks of January, that we survive on slow cooking. The one we have is

It is amazing. :)

#4. get up and get peeling! Essential for surviving on $20 a week. Keep the peels and start a vegetable garden with fresh compost.
In the summer this will keep your costs down.

#5. Use what is in your pantry! Dont go over the $20 budget, if your missing a few ingredients in the meal, substitute. Use one type of bean instead of three.

#6. Clip some coupons.

#7. Go to your local Farmers market. Grab some fruits and veggies. Bargain prices :). If they are still more expensive than your local store, haggle with them. And bring proof. If you haggle loud enough, they will probably match the price you are asking.

Later today will be the first food plan. I will post the recipies underneath the scan of my plan.

Keep the recipies in a word document. This will be useful for reusing specific meal plans.

See you all later.

Please feel free to comment!

Welcome back after the holiday season!

2010-12-27T09:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the short break, we have been so busy planning out our first few months of this blog.

We will be touching on a few different "Fad" diets in the coming months. We shall be eating on each of those fad diets for one month at a time and still be within the $20 limit.

Januray: Low fat, healthy
Feb: Low Carb, 2 weeks of Ketogenic
March: Healthy (Low Fat)
April: Healthy (Low Fat)
May: Vegetarian
June: Vegan
July: Gerson Diet plan
August: Gerson Diet plan (Requires 2 months to work normally)
September: Healthy (Low Fat)
October: Low Carb
November: Low Carb
December: Healthy (Low Fat)

Cant wait for the new year to start! Everyone has to begin to clip coupons around now for this diet to work. And print out a diet planner, such as this:
http://www.vertex42.com/Files/weekly-meal-planner_portrait.pdf

I love this meal planner, it also allows me to budget for each item I am buying.
For example, I will put "Carrots-$1". Which means the maximum amount I can spend is $1.

Later today I will post an example.

How to eat cheap on mall trips

2010-12-04T13:25:00.000-05:00

Nick and I have been doing a lot of shopping recently. Also, we have been working our butts off trying to get promoted, get our degrees finished, and finalize our house purchase (Short sales=No fun for the buyer!).

Needless to say, we needed a bit of a release! After window shopping for around a hour (Okay...Maybe I got a dress and a sweater....And a big union jack trunk...) we were hungry and thirsty.

Because I am frugal, I always carry around a power bar in my bag. Also I carry round a reusable coffee cup (for car rides...Saves the $10 trip to Dunkin), and a bottle of water.

Nick was really REALLY hungry and decided he wanted some Chinese food. At $7 for a plate, its kinda pricey I think! So instead of both getting one $7 meal, we split it. It was very easy to do and the staff at the establishment did not mind one bit. It saved us from having to both buy a plate and a drink. We shared my water and were pretty full after. I think chewing the food slowly, and drinking water between each bite really helped us stay full.

Another piece of news yesterday... I got Tonsilitus...AGAIN! I get this around 5 times a year and the ENT doctors still wont remove them. It drives me insane, but I guess they are there for a reason.
After a panicked call to my sister in law, we got a antibiotic script called in to our local grocery store.
Now, this grocery store has a deal where some Prescription Antibiotics are FREE. You heard that, FREE!
I got a 14 day supply and it made me feel great not having to spend more money.

However, today we have blown the budget. We just brought some storage trunks to keep our stuff in before we move. They are pricey but so useful... We managed to get up to 50% off each one by shopping around. I am still tempted to go back and get the BIGGEST one there. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be stored...

Well that's my random entry for today. I feel kinda worn out being sick, so this article is kinda all over the place.