Saving Money for the Trip

As part of our plan to do this trip on a budget, Kiddo and I have decided that we need to cut expenses in other parts of our lives in order to make this trip responsibly (aka: Doing it without using a single charge card - my rule).

We started out by plugging the household finances into Mint.com. It was a bit of a hassle to get everything together and in the program, but it seems pretty secure, and evaluated our spending patterns in a matter of minutes - without using graph paper, calculators, or Kleenexes. The program showed that we spent a LOT of money on food - groceries, bagels, fast food on dance nights, etc. So we decided that THAT was one area that we could cut without a lot of problems. The question was how.

*I* didn't want to eat junk. I have a metabolic problem that makes traditionally cheap food REALLY bad for me. So, it had to be healthful food, at a reasonable cost.

We stumbled upon (not sure how - sorry I can't give credit) The Three Dollar Cookbook. The web-site has a sample recipe for you to try and a really great article about why whole foods are important - the part that caught my attention was the $3. We purchased the cookbook and downloaded it. We already had a lot of the "pantry" items in the cabinets, so there wasn't a huge outlay for new stuff. We are determined to use the stuff we already have too, so that helped.

Tonight we tried the Park Avenue Sloppy Joes. (Kiddo approves heartily, BTW!)

This is our adaptation and cost breakdown - shopping at Kroger's:

1 lb. ground beef (90/10) $4.55
Organic Ketchup (more than 3/4 cup) - already had
Mustard (as in recipe) - already had
Kroger brand organic pinto beans $1.39
Kroger brand organic chopped tomatoes - already had
Onion - already had
Olive oil - already had
Yummy whole wheat buns (the BIG ones) - $2.00

We also like our food a little more robust than the original recipe, so we added a teaspoon of chili powder, Herbamare (didn't measure - sorry), black pepper, and crushed garlic - all stuff in the pantry.

Served with a can of vegetarian baked beans ($1.39), tomatoes from the garden, and a salad (I had a "free" salad coupon from Kroger's).

The grand total outlay (with padding for existing materials) is: $13.38

From that - the recipe says it will serve 4, with seconds - BUT with the addition of the 1/2 pound ground beef - it feeds closer to 6 - with seconds. So - that averages out to be about $2.23 per person.

What that means in practical terms: We ate REALLY well tonight, and will eat REALLY well tomorrow, and STILL probably have enough to freeze for a lunch or something!

We are looking forward to trying out some more of the recipes soon!