A different kind of post

It has come to my attention that the amount that I spend on groceries and daily life expenses is absurdly cheap. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I had been naïve and didn’t know that I was living at a much lower cost of living than just about everyone that I know (outside of my AmeriCorps friends) It’s just that sometimes I don’t realize just how little I live off of until I step outside my little North Charleston bubble or speak to my friends and family about it.

Let me supplement this by saying that living like this would not be possible if it weren’t for the HUGE amount of help I get from my family. They really help me out A LOT. I am eternally grateful for the amount of financial assistance I get from my family, and one day when I make it big ,you will all have fancy cars and vacation in the tropics like rock stars.

I know it’s sort of “tacky” (Your word, Mom) to say how much you make, pay for rent, etc, I know that no one reads this except for my family and friends, and I’m sort of an open book when it comes to these things anyway. Plus, most of this stuff (like my stipend) is public knowledge.

Though I do live off of a stipend of around $10,000 a year, I hardly have any real expenses.

Things that my family covers: Over half of my cell phone bill, car insurance, and recently, my gas

Things that the government covers: $29/a month in food, my utilities

My expenses: $250/rent, $30/a month in cable and internet, $30/ a month cell phone bill

A huge part of the “AmeriCorps experience” is living well below the poverty line. I knew this signing up, and in all honestly, it was sort of appealing. I love a challenge and approached it with a “bring it on” attitude. I think one of my best skills is living frugally without appearing to do so. And honestly, I think I do a pretty darn good job of this.

Another huge thing that my family has helped me out with that I did not mention up there, is food. When I drove down here, my parents stocked me up with a TON of non perishable food items. And since I am normally cooking just for myself, I have been able to preserve a lot of it. Examples: Rice, beans, soup, tuna fish, nuts, cereal, popcorn, canned vegetables, peanut butter, etc.

I should also mention that I am really into exercise and nutrition. Although I am not trained at all ( I took one class at Community College ) I am constantly reading about proper nutrition and ways to get it. One of my main concerns with my extreme budgeting is lack of protein. See, a huge way that I cut down on my grocery expense is to eat less meat. It’s not too challenging for me to do this because I really don’t love meat that much. In particular, red meat. I have more or less given up red meat, save some special occasions. It is expensive and not too healthy, especially as a woman. But like I said, it is easy for me to do this because I don’t love it. In general, I still eat chicken and turkey, because I like the way those taste more and they are less expensive and more lean.There are some unhealthy foods that I love and refuse to give up. I can afford to do this because of how active I am and because I have a relatively good metabolism (another thing to thank my family for!) Although I fluctuate between about 5-10lbs, I always maintain a healthy weight. In general I also try to be disciplined during the week and kinda let myself do whatever I want on the weekends.

This is less about losing weight and more about staying on tasks. Like a machine, I feel like a better and more productive person when everything is in line. I feel that eating healthy is directly associated with my being more on task at work, spending less money, and getting enough exercise, which in turns makes me less stressed on a number of levels. When one of those factors is up to par it is easier for me to maintain all of them. However, without letting myself go on the weekends and vacations and special occasions, I would totally go off track all the time.

So in essence, eating well and saving money go hand in hand for me, which is why I’m discussing both of these in the blog.

Protein: My biggest challenge. My sources of protein usually come from the following foods:

Eggs- I eat a lot of eggs. I prefer egg whites or egg beaters, but these are usually more expensive than just eggs, so I only buy those if they are on sale.

Nuts- I love nuts. I eat a handful of almonds every day at work for energy as one of my snacks. My Aunt Jean sends me huge Costco bags of almonds, so that is a huge help! I also put nuts in Oatmeal, salad and even pasta sometimes. I also eat a lot of peanut butter.

Canned Tuna- Inexpensive and healthy

Fish- Salmon and Shrimp are my favorites.
*When my mom visited in January she took me grocery shopping and bought me a lot of frozen goodies, including Salmon, Shrimp, and Turkey Burgers. Again, an enormous help

Cheese- I like cheese, but, it’s something I tend to stay away from. It’s just so much fat and honestly it is not that cheap and hard to buy for one person because I never finish it fast enough to keep it from going moldy. And I really hate to have to throw away food because it goes bad. One form of cheese I do eat almost every day is string cheese. It forces me to eat slowly because I peel it (which is good for me because I tend to eat too fast sometimes) and the protein helps me stay alert at work. The other cheese I eat a lot is laughing cow cheese wedges. They taste more like cream cheese than real cheese but they are so good and only about 35 calories.

Dairy Products- Fortunately, I get free milk and yogurt at work. There’s always left overs from breakfast or lunch and since it goes bad quickly, there are always a ton extra lying around. Yes, it forces me to put individual milk cartons in my fridge and work with that but it’s ok. The yogurt is from the free lunch that all my students qualify for, and is sort of disappointing because it is not the most nutritionally dense yogurt (How upset I get about the nutrient value of school lunch is an entire other subject) But for me it’s free, so I still eat it. It’s also a good snack.

One thing I could never stop eating is Carbohydrates, which is good because as someone who is very active like me, that would be dangerous.

Bread- I try to only eat 100% whole wheat bread. I also like weight watchers wheat bread and sara lee 40 calorie bread. When I get coupons for the sandwich thins I will buy those, but they are not my favorite. My favorite bread is the Thomas English Muffin High Fiber bread. They are only 100 calories and have like 8 grams of fiber. I’ll eat these for breakfast with an egg or peanut butter and I can usually stay full till snack time. (ugh sorry I work in an Elementary School, I talk like an Elementary School child sometimes...)

Pasta- I really don’t love pasta. It’s kinda bland to me for all the calories it gives you. However, pasta is cheap, versatile and easy to prepare so I will eat it. I only eat whole wheat pasta and I will usually make it with as many vegetables as I have lying around, olive oil, a bunch of spices and maybe some tomato sauce.

Brown Rice/ Whole Wheat CousCous- I love both of these.

Potato- Call me simple, but potato’s are my favorite food in the world. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, home fries, french fries… so good. I eat a lot of baked potatoes where I’ll usually put some salsa on it, a laughing cow cheese wedge, black beans and whatever veggies I have lying around.

Vegetables- I am blessed to love vegetables. All vegetables. I love salads, but again, preparing for one person is hard because vegetables go bad quickly. So typically, I will try to buy canned or frozen vegetables although I prefer fresh veggies. I always try to have at least one raw veggie on hand for snacks at work- carrot sticks, celery, broccoli, cauliflower. I always have canned corn, tomatoes and peas on hand because those are my favorites. I love onions and they add flavor for a very little cost. I try to get whatever is in season from the farmer’s market because it’s so fresh, and I also try to support local businesses whenever I can.

Fruit- I really try to like fruit, but it’s harder for me. I really don’t have a taste for berries or melons. So what I typically do is buy either apples, oranges or grapes (whatever is on sale) and try to have that stretch for at least two weeks to bring for snacks at work.

It is really important to me to try to still eat fresh foods even on a tight budget. That being said, I mix it up with packaged foods for cost efficient reasons, and because sometimes I am just busy or lazy and don’t have time to prepare food.

Also, I try to stick to the “5 small meals a day” diet. I like to constantly eat rather than eating three big meals. Big meals make me tired and I have a sensitive stomach so the smaller meals are easier on my digestive system.

So I will use today as an example of what I eat on a typical day. For breakfast I had a whole wheat English muffin with half peanut butter and half laughing cow cheese wedge. Then about halfway between breakfast and lunch I had a handful of almonds. I was feeling more tired than usual, so I made sure I had three huge glasses of water before lunch. At lunch I had a pasta Lean Cuisine, some carrot sticks, and a fun sized M&Ms packet. My friend from work remembered that I told her I liked pistachios and gave me a huge bag of them. So I munched on those throughout the day too. Then about an hour before school was done I had an orange. I went grocery shopping after work. After shopping I was tired so I had a 100 calorie bag of popcorn and 2 Hershey kisses from easter before I played tennis. I played tennis for an hour and a half with a local tennis league, came home and had 2 scrambled eggs with broccoli, onions and hot sauce. Then I had a handful of special K chocolate Cereal. Not exactly gourmet, but it was good enough. All day I drink water, water with lemon, crystal light, or unsweetened ice tea. I have 2-3 cups of coffee every day and occasionally will have a glass of wine or beer with dinner. I completely stopped drinking soda and juice.

That’s what a typical Monday-Thursday more or less looks like.

Now on to my original plan, to show you how I limit it to $29 a month on food. I first want to point out that I only get $29 a month from the government. I have enough money saved that I can spend more, but I don’t want to. I like the challenge of keeping to the $29, and with a little help from my family, it is possible. Sometimes I do spend more than $29, but with an oil change and a hair cut throwing some unaccounted expenses into my budget this month, that is not going to happen.

So here are the groceries I bought for the week:

First I went to Bi-Lo. There I got:

Broccoli which was on sale for $1.99 (it is huge)
Grapes on sale for $3.42 (2.7 lb bag)
Total: $5.41

Then I went to Publix
Special K granola was Buy One Get One ( I can bring this for breakfast) so I got two at $2.00 each- $4.00
Zucchini sale- 1 lb for 99 cents
Cottage Cheese (Cheap protein) - BYGO- $2 each- $4.00 total
Total: $8.76

This leaves me $16.15 for the rest of the month

Yeah it's annoying to go to a bunch of different grocery stores. Every week I look at all the weekly ads online and map out where I need to go to get what. Luckily, there's three grocery stores (Bi-lo, Publix, Piggly Wiggly) in the same area so it's not too hard. I usually only buy what is on sale. All the above stuff was on sale.

Other Sites I use on a daily basis:

http://print.coupons.com/CouponWeb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10 - for this site you have to download a coupon printing application, but it's very easy. And they are manufacturers coupons, and Bi-Lo will double them so it's even better savings!

http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/ Awesome blog for living frugal

Recipes-

www.hungrygirl.com - I have a minor obsession with hungry girl. I've been reading her blog every day since High School. I love her.

http://greenlitebites.com/ - I like the woman who writes this. Especially because she's always trying to save money too.

www.weightwatchers.com - Good recipes for real people who don't like a lot of fat

Well that's it. I don't know if this will be a normal kind of post, but I had fun writing it. I'm always open for suggestions and recommendations.