The $15 Grocery Experiment

 The end of 2017 ended up being extremely expensive for my family.  While on a road trip to visit family for Thanksgiving, our trusty van with 194,000 miles on it blew up.  Thankfully it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, but happened while we were just 5 miles away from my parents' house...so we limped our van to their house to its death.  So we bought a replacement van to drive home.  Then in December, our old car had over $800 of repairs that it needed done on it.  Then in January, we had to pay registration and sales tax on the van we bought on our road trip...which cost over $1,000 when it was all said and done.  OUCH.

So by the time we rang in the new year, our bank account wasn't looking too happy, and I knew we needed to do something to catch up on our finances.  I got thinking about what we could eliminate for the month...  Utilities?  Nope.  Fuel for the cars?  Nope.  Clothes?  We don't really buy clothes that often anyway.  Food?  Hmmm...well, why not?  You see, I spend roughly $1,000 each month on groceries for my family of 7.  I have two teenage boys who run every day with their track team, and they eat a LOT.  I have another tween boy who is growing taller and taller right before my eyes, and he eats a lot.  Our whole family eats.  But if I could just not buy groceries for ONE month, just long enough to help get our budget back on track...Could we do it?

I concluded that it probably wasn't realistic to halt all grocery shopping for the ENTIRE month, so I came up with a compromise:  I would budget $15 per family member for groceries for the ENTIRE month.  So for our family, that meant spending $105 at the grocery store all month, or roughly $25 a week.  That would allow us enough to buy eggs, milk, and a few veggies and some fruit.

My family wasn't too super enthusiastic about the grand plan when I told them about it.  The kids were particularly doubtful that they would survive the month and questioned what they would have to eat throughout the month.  However, no one died.  It turns out that with a little bit of creativity, and extra planning, I was able to pull it off!

The refrigerator was mostly empty by the end of the month. 
It was a good opportunity to clean it out!   :)

The grand total spent on groceries for the entire month came out to $103.74.  For a family of seven.

How the heck did I pull it off?  There were a few things I noticed throughout the month that made our survival possible:

1.  I cleaned out the freezer.  I don't know about you, but I have a habit of buying frozen hamburger patties or a pot roast, then throwing it in the freezer and forgetting about it.  It turns out that there were a fair amount of options in there, frozen and forgotten.  I started going through each and every mysterious bag of frozen food, and planning a whole meal around it.  It turned out to be a great opportunity to clean out all of the old forgotten goods in there and start over.  I may have to do this grocery experiment every year, just to force me to clean out the freezer and use up all of the forgotten food stashed in the corners!
2. I used leftovers.  We are generally pretty good about using up leftovers, but I confess that every once in a while, some Tupperware will hide in the back of the refrigerator forgotten, until it is well past edible and has to be thrown away.  Not this month.  Every couple of days, I made it a habit of taking a good look at what was in the refrigerator and using what was there to make into another meal.  Broken corn tortillas that may have ended up in the trash on a different month, turned into a delicious enchilada casserole.  A leftover pre-made pie crust and some leftover cooked chicken became a chicken pot pie.  I was amazed at what I could come up with when I got serious about using what was available.
3. I used food with a long shelf life I bought in previous months.  A few months ago, cream cheese was a great price...so I bought 6 bars of it since it has a 5 month shelf life.  That allowed me to make cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins, and a cream cheese cracker dip for a potluck.  I have also collected a variety of freeze-dried food that can sit on the shelf for years and maintain all of its nutrition and flavor.  It became a very handy resource that allowed me to make pretty much anything without using the grocery budget for the month.  About halfway through the month, things were looking pretty bare in the refrigerator and the kids were questioning whether I could really pull it off.  I decided I needed to get creative and come up with something GOOD for them to satisfy the crew.  So, I made calzones.  The only fresh ingredient I had available was half of a green bell pepper laying in the produce drawer.  I made the dough from scratch.  EVERYTHING else came from my cans of freeze dried ingredients:  the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, sausage, onions, and mushrooms - all of that came from my cans sitting on a shelf that I bought in previous months.  And since it all has a crazy long shelf life, all of it was available for me to use during my tight month.  

By the time January ended, I was relieved to be able to stock up the refrigerator again, but determined not to spend double the grocery budget in February...or that would just undermine the whole purpose of recovering the budget.  We have managed to keep our spending in February at a typical grocery budget without going crazy and spending twice as much.  The $15 Grocery Experiment was a success!

Have you ever done something like this?  I would love to know if anyone else has had a tight grocery budget and still managed to eat decent food (I don't consider Ramen or Macaroni and Cheese to be a real meal).  Please comment with your experiences!