Today I began an experiment on my loved ones. I am only able to post this since none of them read my blog. If they knew what I was doing, they would certainly revolt. It's not terrible, really.
I am feeding them beans. Every. Single. Day.
A family of seven eats money. We wear, wash, and toss clothes by the basketful. We drive here and there constantly. Music lessons for a few children, school books for five, sports activities...the list goes on and on. The biggest expense remains our bellies.
We eat a lot.
I started thinking about bracelets and beads and yard sales. I was thinking about the money that we eat every day. What if we didn't spend so much on our plates? What if we saved so much each week that we were able to send a nice chunk to HopeChest for the school? Seems reasonable. I'm already pretty frugal in the area of groceries, but I thought I might be able to do better. I still splurge on occasion. Our splurge isn't a night out for seven at the local Cheesecake Factory, more like a take out pizza (or three). It still adds up.
This idea of eating up so much money got me to thinking. I can't keep our children from eating so much...they are growing! I can spend less on what I'm feeding them. Bags of dried beans came to mind.
Healthy. Easy. Cheap. The options are endless.
I wondered if my family would even notice. In sharing this idea with a friend, she suggested I blog about my 'experiment'. I didn't make a lot of rules to follow. Every night for dinner--beans of some kind. If I have something in my cupboard, it's fair game to add. Anything from my garden is fair game also. We will have eggs or smoothies for breakfast and have leftovers for lunch.
Tonight--one bag of chickpeas, tomatoes from the garden, rice, spices, and onions from the cupboard.
Total-- $3 to feed seven. Off to a pretty good start.
2 comments:
Awe.some. I'll be interested to see how it goes. I am constantly searching for ways to reduce our grocery bill, even though it's below the level of Thifty on the USDA's Official USDA Food Plans chart. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2012/CostofFoodJan2012.pdf
I feel your financial pain! Been doing some serious cutting back here too. Rob HATES beans, but he's trying to be a good sport. If you have any great breakfast ideas, send 'em my way. Boxed cereal is on its way out. SOOO expensive and the new kids eat a LOT. Currently thinking up good consequences for whinin' and complainin' when the meal isn't exactly to their fancy!
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