Wow: The average mother of a child under 15 spends more on fast food every year than on books, music, movies and video games combined

From the NYT:

Fast Food's Portion of Parent's Dollars

a week of cheap meals: sunday

Inspired by the pile of produce and fresh meat we brought home from the farmer's market, I decided to put our $32 worth to the test. Could we eat for an entire week using what we purchased, plus a few pantry items? I believe so. The next several posts document exactly what we ate on each particular day of the week, and how we prepared it.

SUNDAY
We tend to cook our biggest meal of the on this day, so I decided to put the chicken and zucchini on the grill, Italian style.

What we ate/drank:

Chicken alla Diavola (spicy devil chicken)
You're really missing out if you haven't ever grilled a whole chicken before. It's such a bargain, the meat stays incredibly moist and you can use the leftover scraps to top a green salad or to make chicken salad. Also, you can use the carcass to make delicious chicken stock. Recipe to follow....

Grilled Baby Zucchini
This is too friggin' good and easy. Just slice them length wise (1/2 inch slices), brush with olive oil and grill until lightly charred...

Baguette
You can warm this up on the grill.

Red Wine
Have you heard of Tisdale? This stuff is a godsend. At about $2.50 per bottle, you'd think it'd be dumpster juice, but this stuff is actually palatable. When asked to guess how much Tisdale costs after tasting it, several of our friends thought it was worth perhaps 8 or 10 dollars. Strange enough, the Tisdale winemakers don't have a web site that I can find, but a quick Google search did pull a few online wine shop sites that sell it. The cabernet is particularly good.

We intended to have strawberries with whip cream for dessert, but we decided to save it for later in the week... Stay tuned for recipes from the week.

a trip to the market

Where we live, prime season for Farmer's market shoppping begins in about mid-May and ends in late September. You can shop there year around, but the shopping during the fall/winter is typically limited to meat, cheese, eggs, squash, potatoes and onions. We visited the market this morning and were pleased to see so many delicious vegetables and other products at a relatively low cost. Since implementing our new grocery budget ($60.00 per week), we've aimed to spend about $20-$30 at the farmers market, and spend the remaining cash at the grocery store for milk, dry goods and other less perishable items. We were out of town last weekend, so we spent the entire budget at the supermarket.

Today's trip was fairly typical. Before leaving the house, I spent a few minutes trying to plan out our meals for the week, which makes shopping at the market a little easier (it's tempting to buy too much, since it all looks so fresh and good). With $40 cash in hand, we purchased the following (see picture):

• 4 lb free-range chicken ($8.86)
• 3 sirloin pork steaks ($6.16)
• dozen eggs ($3.00)
  
• 1# baby zucchini/squash ($2.00)
• 1 bunch spring onions ($1.00)
• huge bag of mixed lettuce ($2.00)
• 1# plum tomatoes ($3.00)
• 3# baby yukon gold potatoes ($3.00)
• 1# strawberries ($4.00)

Total cost: $32.02

Now, I haven't yet done an empirical price comparison of farmer's market produce vs. the supermarket, but many of the farmer's market products are obviously a better deal. If money were no object, I would prefer to buy organic/natural/free range products exclusively, but at the supermarket this is typically cost-prohibitive. That said, I feel such products are a for the most part a better deal at the farmer's market, and there's the added benefit of buying from local producers (rather than agribusiness).

The main challenge to shopping/eating this way is you have less choice and unpredictable supply, so you have to be willing to create meals based on what's available, rather than what, exactly, you prefer or want to cook. I prefer this approach because I have to make less decisions about what to buy - they're made for me by the season and growing conditions. This takes a while to get used to, but I believe it's the most practical/frugal way to cook, especially for the single-income family, and your family learns more about where food comes from and when.

The best example of a good deal at the farmer's market is chicken. The fresh, free-range bird I bought today was killed just a few days ago and it cost about $2.25 per pound for a total cost of $8.86. By contrast, I saw an organic free range chicken at the supermarket last week for $18.00 ($4.50 per pound!). This represents exactly double the cost of the farmer's market chicken. Enough said. I'll be back again next week - it's a no-brainer.

shopping update: actual cost of groceries

We just returned from the store and I am pleased to report that we actually spent less on our groceries than predicted. The following table shows the estimated cost of each item (from my last post) next to the actual price. Note: We omitted the cherries since they now seem to be out of season and were cost prohibitive.

item	est. cost	actual cost
head of lettuce	$2.00	$2.00
Mushrooms	$2.00	$1.76
eggs (2 dozen)	$4.00	$3.20
limes (2)	$1.00	$0.60
garlic (1 head)	$0.50	$0.34
bananas (6)	$1.50	$1.20
shallots (5)	$2.00	$1.12
cilantro	$1.00	$1.29
celery	$1.50	$1.49
tortillas	$2.00	$2.69
milk (gallon)	$4.00	$3.89
sour cream	$2.00	$2.45
natural peanut butter	$4.00	$2.79
sandwich bread (2)	$4.00	$4.00
baguettes (2)	$4.00	$4.49
Total cost	$35.50	$33.31

We also purchased a few additional items:

tortilla chips		$3.00
greek olives		$5.49
melons		$5.86

This brings our adjusted total cost to $47.66, which is well below our allotted $60. This is good news, as I'd like to swing by the farmer's market for a few items this weekend.

Honestly, I was a bit worried about hitting our budget, but our experience today leaves me further convinced that you (whether a single-income family or not) can make wholesome, nutritious dinners on a tight budget.

That's all for now. I'm going to celebrate our sensible grocery run by making the corn chowder I mentioned last night. I'll post the recipe and some pictures later tonight.

the challenge: one week of groceries for $60 or less

Tomorrow we're due for a small trip to the grocery store. I've put together a short list of items that, in combination with what's already in our pantry and fridge, should get us through the week. As mentioned in an earlier post, our grocery budget is $60.00 per week for our family of three. Even though our baby is only weeks old and doesn't eat solid food, I still count her because the breast milk she eats is a result of the same grocery budget. While we've been on this budget for a few weeks, the new baby hasn't allowed for much of a routine (and Stay-At-Home Mom just stopped receiving paychecks). As a result, we haven't exactly made sure we're eating within budget until now. I hope to keep closer tabs on this as the weeks pass.

Since I can't accurately list the cost of each item on the grocery list, I've taken a good guess and will post the actual costs when I return tomorrow. Should be a good test of cost estimation and perceived value....

head of lettuce - $2
mushrooms - $2
eggs (2 dozen) - $4
limes (2) - $1
garlic (1 head) - $.50
bananas (6) - $1.50
cherries (1 #) - $4.00
shallots (5) - $2.00
cilantro - $1.00
celery - $1.50
tortillas - $2.00
milk (gallon) - $4.00
sour cream - $2.00
natural peanut butter - $4.00
sandwich bread (2 loaves) - $4.00
baguettes (2) - $4.00

Total: $39.50

I'm hoping to make three big meals this week, with enough leftovers to cover most of the week's lunches and dinners. Here's what I'm planning to cook:

• white corn chowder (2 dinners)
• ground turkey burritos (2 dinners)
  
• egg salad sandwiches (3 lunches)
  

I'll post the recipes as I make each meal. Stay tuned.

grow your food

Given our new, poorer existence, I promised myself I would try to grow a small vegetable patch to supplement our produce supply and reduce grocery spending for at least one month (likely August). I've wanted to do this for some time, but haven't been able to make it a habit, which seems to be the key.

Coincidentally, we received a $25 gift certificate to a local greenhouse, so I decided to dedicate all of it to seedling vegetable plants. Starting your own plants from seed is definitely the most cost effective way to garden, but since I know next to nothing about gardening I thought it would be smart to start with some healthy plants grown under expert care.

As is, the space I have set aside for vegetables isn't much, but if this goes well, I'd like to expand the operation and include a wider variety of plants and a more graduated harvest. Rather than have too many vegetables in August, I've heard it's possible to plant different things at times, which results in a more steady supply of produce over a longer period.

Anyhoo, here's what I decided to plant:

(2) "beefmaster" tomato
(2) japanese eggplant
(6) sweet banana pepper
(1) hot red chile
(1) butternut squash
(1) rosemary
(1) mint
(1) basil

In addition to the new plants, I also have an existing chive patch and a small head of rhubarb. And I intended to have some lettuces, but the greenhouse didn't have any. Maybe I'll find some elsewhere... I also should mention that I tried to plant things that tend to be expensive at the grocery store - I'd rather not waste time with potatoes, onions, etc. since they usually cost less than $2 per pound.

Like I said before, it's not much, but I'm hoping the crop will help with a few meals, and, more importantly, inspire me to crank it up next spring. I'll keep adding pictures and updates as things progress, as well as some recipes from the resulting meals. So far so good. In fact, my red chile plant just sprouted a few tiny pepper/bud things (they come out of the flowers)...

update: gas prices ruin budget min-vacation

I found two provocative pieces of recent commentary regarding petroleum:

"How to Win the Energy War" is an op-ed that appeared in the New York Times on May 23.

And, I'm not familiar with the website, but I found this column about the relative cost of gasoline at different points in the 20th century at www.humanevents.com.

Please let us know if you've read anything provocative on the subject.

gas prices ruin budget min-vacation

I can't resist. To celebrate Memorial Day weekend, I have to add one post to the maelstrom of observation, speculation and general complaint regarding the current price of gasoline. Last Friday we made our first trip with the baby to grandma and grandpa's cabin in the north woods. We haven't made the trip in some time, and I hadn't thought much about the cost of driving up there until recently, when we outlined our new budget. I was shocked. Rapidly rising gas prices are quickly eroding the traditional expectation that a family could spend very little money on a short road trip.

Case in point: Round trip, travel to the cabin runs about 540 miles or about nine hours, and our semi-efficient vehicle needs about two tanks to complete the trip. Prior to departure we filled up in the city for $3.13 per gallon; a total of $32 to fill the tank of our four cylinder Japanese sedan.Factor in the inflated cost to fill the tank up north, which on Friday equaled $3.29 per gallon ($46 per tank), and our total gas expenditure was roughly $78 for round trip travel. Prior to the summer of 2006, we could buy a full tank for about $28, ($56 for a round trip to the cabin) so the current price of gas represents a 21% cost increase....

Now, let's assume gas prices do, in fact, hit $3.90 ($54.60 per tank) in the city, as many analysts are predicting. The total round trip cost then exceeds $109 and represents a 49% climb from 2005 prices.

The point? It's depressing to think that at some point we may have to limit the number of times we visit the cabin, as fuel for our seemingly cheap getaway may become cost prohibitive. On the other hand, the scenario described may require us to more consciously consider carpooling with family, which is perhaps the most sensible way to travel, regardless of the price at the pump.

easy: homemade granola

As promised, here's an excellent granola recipe from Jonni McCoy's "Miserly Meals" cookbook (see books on right). We've tried several different recipes, including a fairly good one from Mark Bittman, but this version has the right amount of sweetness for us. It tastes very good with plain yogurt and will keep indefinitely if refrigerated in an air-tight container.

Once you try it you'll be appalled that grocery stores and co-op's charge so much for boxed or bulk granola....

Granola
5 C. rolled oats
3/4 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. concentrated apple juice
1/2 C. nonfat dry milk
1/3 C. honey
2 T. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. dried fruit
1 C. nuts (almonds, pecans, etc.)

Mix sugar, juice, dry milk and honey in saucepan and heat over medium heat only until sugar dissolves. Combine dry ingredients and fruit in mixing bowl. Pour sugar mixture slowly over dry mixture and blend well. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-20 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Options: Be creative by adding peanuts, sunflower seeds, coconut, sesame seeds, peanut butter, or whatever else your family enjoys.

Cost analysis (1 pound): homemade = $1.00 Store-bought = $2.39 or more

p.s. Speaking of Mark Bittman, I saw this article yesterday on NYT online. I'll bet one could eat very well in Istria on $60 dollars per week. Too bad it costs more than sixty bucks to get there...

all-nighters part deux

With some apprehension, we let the baby sleep between us from 2:30 am to 8:30 am. It was a vacation. The thought of doing it again tonight is very tempting, but I need to spend some more time reading about cosleeping before I rest easy (figuratively), as it seems to be very common despite what you may hear. Even our pediatrician, who cannot officially endorse the practice, alluded to the fact that it is safe if done correctly. Stay tuned for an update...

The whole situation leaves me very hungry, and for the single income family, the lack of sleep poses a nutritional challenge: to eat well on minimal sleep for minimal dollars. Our present budget provides the three of us with $60.00 per week, so ordering takeout is definitely out of the question. We typically cook most of our meals from scratch (or near-scratch), which requires a considerable amount of time and motivation but is ultimately the most cost effective option. Thankfully, our parents and friends have stuffed our refrigerator and freezer with all sorts of good, wholesome meals, and an ample supply of leftover pizza from a Mother's Day family gathering. These rations will likely keep us alive until Friday, when we must officially begin our more modest menu.

I like to cook, so I'm looking forward to the challenge. Rest assured. The best recipes will end up here.

p.s. In case you didn't see it, the "Miserly Meals" book featured on the link to the right is an excellent resource for cooking healthy meals on a budget, including many meals you can make for less than 75 cents per serving. So far, we've only made the hummus recipe, but it tasted great...

numero uno

Let's start from the beginning. A short while ago we decided it was time to start a family. We were both working and recently move into our first home. After a quick assessment we laid the groundwork in early 2006. Upon becoming pregnant, several questions became clear: Will we have enough money? Who will take care of our child? Why is everything so expensive?

Following our newfound parental instincts, we decided it would be best - for us - to live off one income. The benefits were clear: more time with child, more time with spouse, less work-related stress. The drawbacks were daunting, but not inhospitable: less money (much less), massive lifestyle overhaul (as a result of drawback number 1).

One year has passed since that time, and our daughter only recently arrived. We're not living off one income yet, but the July 1 deadline is fast approaching. Therein lies the purpose of this blog. To document the experience and hopefully, share one approach to living in this way.

Are you raising a family with only one breadwinner?

Are you thinking about starting a family on one income?

Have you raised a family on one income?

Let us know what you're thinking, or if you have any advice. We need it.