Is it really that hard?

[ORChick]

Reading through this thread makes me wonder about the feasibility of trying this as an experiment for a month or two, just to see how/if it would work. I envision two major problems: the first would be my DH; I have a strong feeling that he wouldn't think it a good idea. And the second would be that I have a pretty full pantry, and the garden is coming along nicely right now, so it would be difficult to calculate costs. I suppose I could cook from the pantry and the garden, but take the prices from the market. If I were to do this I might be inclined to take the prices of things at the low end of the price range, as well as what I would normally buy/use as my food buying stands now. Just to see what the difference would be - for example, I have more than enough eggs from the Girls at the moment, but were I to do this experiment I would use the price that I charge for selling my eggs ($3/dz) as this is the price I would expect to pay if I had to buy them, and also the price of the cheapest supermarket eggs. Another problem in the way of getting an accurate cost would no doubt be that, as I have so many eggs (stocked up wheat, beans, meat in the freezer, etc.) I would most likely tend to use more of them than if I were on a tight budget, and had to buy them.

Anyone willing to work with me on how this might best be done, and then do the experiment with me for a month?

 

[Bettacreek]

Hmm. I might be interested in making an attempt... The only thing is the milk... I KNOW we couldn't do it just based on the milk we drink, because that's about $15 right there. And the boyfriend, well, I could count him out (count whatever food he eats with us, since he doesn't eat breakfast or lunch with us, and only half the time eats what we make for dinner), all except that he will not let the milk supply run out... For real, he goes to the store every few days, and chocolate milk is the first thing he picks up, and he doesn't even drink chocolate milk. I wonder if we could discount this, since we cannot drink the water here? Hmm. I wonder how that'd work, since it'd technically be cheating, but most people have water that they can drink for free. I suppose I could TRY to cut milk out, but I'm not thinking that it's feasible.

ETA: It's chocolate milk, btw, so any cooking comes out of the regular milk, and we could count the regular milk in the budget. Hmm.

 

[Denim Deb]

OR, I'm planning on doing this in the fall. And, I'm planning on using stuff that I have, and subtracting what the normal lowest cost would be from my bill. For instance I know I can get eggs in the one store for 89 cents for a dozen, so I'd subtract that.

I went in 2 of the store today to check out prices, and I'm beat! It took me about an hour in each store, and I KNOW I missed a few things in the 2nd. But, I have a pretty good idea of what they cost, so that helps.

 

[moolie]

I'm in, what are the rules?

Can we supplement with garden produce? If we already have bulk stocks (wheat, rice, oats, beans, pasta etc.), canning (tomatoes, fruit, pickles, relish, jam etc.), and stuff in the freezer (meat, butter, veggies etc.) can we still use those things assuming that people do stock up? 'Cause that's how we live, on a strict budget or otherwise.

Or do we need to estimate cost every time we use something we already have like Deb plans? Maybe that is more fair to the experiment?

 

[Denim Deb]

I'd say that's more fair. For instance, frozen peas cost $1.49 in the one store, $2.29 in the other. So, depending on which store I used, that would be the amount I'd subtract from my budget. The one store does have some lower prices, but their meats aren't really cheaper, and they don't have as good of a selection, so it might be that I'd just go w/the bigger store. After all, most people don't have the option to shop in a bunch of different stores.

 

[moolie]

OK What is the weekly budget?

What about bulk food? I know how much I pay for wheat for instance (50lbs for $25), but I only use 8 cups of flour when I make bread--how do I work that in? I guess I can weight it every time I use it to know how much I'm using, along with the oats and rice etc.

And meat? I buy frozen meat in bulk and the individual packages are not priced, just marked as to cut and weight. I buy $250 at a time from the beef and pork sellers at the market, and I buy about the same amount in chickens at a time--I guess I could divide up the order by the number of packages and go from there?

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm not sure since you're in Canada. Any way you can find out what someone would get per week w/assistance where you live? I've based the $35 on what you get here. I know where Pinky lives, they get less.

 

[Bettacreek]

To be fair, you'd almost have to look at the prices in the grocery store. If you have budget left over at the end of the week, you could drop prices down a little bit, to account for someone actually in this situation being able to actually purchase in bulk on some items.

ETA: Budget is a harder one... I know I can live on the budget we'd qualify for, because it's $43.83/person/week... We've already done that, lol, and it's not hard. For more of a challenge, I'm thinking more along the lines of maybe $45/week for 3 people? Hell, I can do that more fairly, since I can include my chocolate milk on that budget.


http://www.snap-step1.usda.gov/fns/

 

[Denim Deb]

Oh, forgot to say, for things that you buy in bulk, I'd allow what the normal cost would be in the store. For instance, if you grind your own flour, figure out what a 5 lb bag costs in the store and use that amount for your flour.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yup, that's more fair, IMO, because many people don't have the food stores we have, and cannot purchase bulk foods, or they can only purchase one bulk food item per month (they might have to buy 5lbs of flour now, then save whatever they can at the end of the month to be able to afford a larger, bulk purchase). Some places do not even allow for the rollover amount (which I believe to be stupid... people should be learning how to save, buy in bulk, etc). Watch your local circulars if you get them, if you see something on super sale, try to account that into your budget if you're using your own products.

ETA: Another thing... if you're using something like salt, should you add the cost of a small thing of salt in your budget? Are we pretending that we're starting 100% from scratch, or are we pretending that we have some spices or what?