Bettacreek's "is it really that hard?" journal

[Bettacreek]

Ok, finally went shopping earlier today, so we'll start with dinner (lunch was free, so not counting that here).

Shopping list:
Chicken Leg Quarters (10lbs) $5.70 (damn prices went up on these bags!)
Bulk BBQ Sauce (76oz) $3.12
Worchestershire Sauce (10oz) $1.08
Sammich Bologna (16oz) $1.28
Whole Milk (1gal) $3.76
Black Tea bags (100ct) $1.00
Italian Bread (16oz) $0.96 (sliced bakery bread, "sell by" tomorrow)
Sugar (5lbs) $2.96 (white sugar, don't usually buy this, but since I'm on budget and can't get to the store for my 50lb bag of raw, this will do)
Nacho Cheese (6.6lbs) $5.82

Total $25.68

The bread is in the fridge, to keep mold away. I might end up freezing half of the loaf, since I still have the keel of the last loaf (I save it for nice days when the crows are around), but can use that bag to freeze half and keep the other half in the fridge. The 10lbs of chicken legs looks like there are 10 quarters in there (I haven't bagged it for the freezer yet) and we eat three per meal with George or 2 per meal with just the kids and myself. I can get really cheap and boil one quarter down to make chicken gravy or to put it in a "one pot wonder" meal to feed all three of us. I basically really am starting from scratch... We really don't have much here, because the BF tends not to eat here much, and when he does, it's usually something like burgers, his protein shake or take out, unless, of course, I'm cooking, lol). When I count eggs in, I'll count in like a dozen eggs (or possibly calculate the cost of a flat of eggs, since we do have a lot of eggs here, and a flat is within pricerange of a FS budget). I didn't buy any salad today because it was yucky junk from the bottom of the crate today. Maybe by monday I'm hoping to get some fresh greens for salads, and a few other things. I know, it doesn't look like much of a shopping trip, but I wanted to cover dinner for the weekend and drinks. Instead of chocolate milk, I wanted a cheaper option without resorting to drinking stank water without something to cover up that dreadful taste!

 

[ORChick]

Welcome to the adventure! I will be starting this on Sunday, since this last week (through tomorrow) has been very weird and discombobulated as far as food is concerned.

 

[Bettacreek]

This should really help me save some money, and eat a little bit better. So, I'm all for it, lol. I found pork loin at $1.99/lb (just renewed Sam's membership, after a year and a half without it), which is about the price I've been paying, when finding it on sales for BOGO free. Italian seasoning and some garlic and I'm all set for one of my favorite meals! Bacon here is getting to be ridiculous as well... About $3.89 for 12oz. It used to be like $1.99/lb! It's crazy to think how prices have skyrocketed in just the past two years or so.

 

[Denim Deb]

Do you have Shoprite in your area? They have London Broil on sale for $1.79/lb. It's supposed to be limit for one package, but that's 1 package per visit.

 

[Bettacreek]

Wow, unfortunately not! I wish I did though, that'd be well worth it to make several trips, lol.

Dinner:
3 Chicken leg quarters
Mac and Cheese w/broccoli

Put the chicken in a baking pan, upside down (I don't like crispy skin), mixed up some BBQ sauce and worchestershire sauce and painted the chicken. I had about a half cup left, and I usually add more to add to the pan, but this time, for the sake of shaving money, I added about half a cup of water, mixed it up and put it in the bottom of the pan. The mac and cheese was my tri-color pasta (about $0.47 for the half pound I used), nacho cheese and broccoli (about 1/3rd of a pack, at $0.98/pack). So... About $2.30 for a meal to feed four, with plenty of mac and cheese leftover. I always overdo my pasta (and one dish wonders). I still haven't quite figured out how to portion that stuff out, lol. It doesn't look like much in the pot, but always has enough left over to give a few small dishes for lunch. Some day though, I will hopefully figure out how to portion it. Whole wheat pasta is a little easier, since it doesn't swell up so damn much.

ETA: Forgot to portion out the seasonings... $0.11 for worchestershire sauce (it's 10oz, not 12), $0.33 for BBQ sauce, so $2.74 for a family of four

 

[Bettacreek]

So, today I made chicken gravy. I used two leg quarters, water and flour. Used the stick blender to mix the flour and water to make my life easier, and to avoid clumps. I made up some egg noodles that I purchased ($1.68/lb), but plan to make some noodles for it next time... I was in a rush today and had to buy the flour, so I bought the noodles at the same time instead of making them. I also added a side of canned corn ($0.48). We drank tea with a sprig of fresh spearmint from my potted plant. We still have about 2/3 of a large pot of gravy left. In a day or two I'm hoping to make mashed taters to go with it, and do something other than corn, with homemade noodles, to try to change it up a little. I'll probably pop the rest in the freezer to make a quick dinner another day later in the month.

Breakfast has mostly been consisting of eggs and toast. Eggs were technically $0.85/doz, but for this purpose, we'll say $1.19/doz, since most people aren't going to be going to an auction house to buy eggs.

 

[Bettacreek]

I've put this on a slight hold. Something's up with either the chicken or the fridge, and the first bag of chicken went bad (two legs left) and after 2 days, the second bag went bad... That was yesterday, and the "use or freeze by" date isn't until 6/6. I could've frozen them, but I just thought that the first bag went bad because we had it a little while. Second bag was only 2 days old, with another week before supposedly expiring. I plan to pull the thermometer from the incubator to put it in the fridge once the last chick is hatched out or dead. Once I get that crap figured out, I hope to restart this project. Still trying to eat on the cheap though, that's for sure!

 

[DianeS]

I don't know, Betta, I kinda hope you continue the journal in spite of this extra difficulty. Lousy refrigerators and outdated food happen to people on foodstamps, too. Wouldn't it be nice to see the final journal of someone (like you) who had a mini-disaster and who tried to recover from it? You could be one of the examples of why it might be difficult or impossible for someone to eat only food that foodstamps provide.

That said, a potentially broken fridge is lousy. Hope you don't lose too much from it!

 

[Denim Deb]

Hope you get it all figured out. I know someone who had their fridge die. They couldn't fix it and all they have is a mini fridge. It actually is working out for them because they're forced to keep up w/the leftovers. So, they're wasting less food.

 

[moolie]

Sorry you had to throw out food--just curious though how long you were keeping chicken in the fridge? The guidelines (around here anyway) have always been to keep raw chicken in the fridge for up to two days.

I did a little online search and found this as well: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_does_chicken_stay_fresh_in_the_refrigerator I've never seen a "use or freeze by" date on a meat package, so I don't know how many days it gave, but there's no way I'd keep a package of chicken in the fridge for 8 days and assume that it would be good to eat.

FWIW, here's a couple of charts with guidelines for fridge and freezer storage of various foods--I would always go with the shorter time period in the fridge and the longer time period in the freezer (most foods are fine in the freezer for longer than specified, but may suffer loss of quality over a longer period of time):

http://fooddemocracy.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/how-long-will-foods-keep-in-the-refrigeratorfreezer/

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/cooking-tips/toss-it-out-dec06