You’re still in SE Michigan right? It amazes me how much more expensive meat is on the other side of lake Michigan.
We are an zero EFC family (this was the last year I needed to fill out the FAFSA) hence a lower income. As a single mom of 5 we were all pretty creative with ALL our budgets: food, clothes, rent, college tuition and undergrad/grad school app fees, EC activities…
The kiddos learned from an early age what was needed and it was just a fact of their life. We did use coupons (doubles and triples were the best matched with a weekly sale) to stay within our food budget. Meat was bought when it was marked down, Walmart marks it 30%, Lowes and Harris teeter mark it 50% and there are coupons for meat…typically in the wine department, wine hang tags and of course coupons can be purchased from a clipping service or ebay which tends to be pricier. Typically 20 coupons range from a quantity of 20 for $1 if purchased early in the week.
Big Lots and Ollie’s both carry discounted food and bread and the $1 store offers some variety as well. Big bag of pretzels from PA runs $1 and can last for kid’s lunches for almost 2 weeks, along with Arnold’s loaf of bread for $1.20, and Thomas english muffins for $1.20, same with a bag of bagels and bagel thins for sandwiches.
Protein Cherrios were $1 a box at Big Lots 2 weeks ago, $6.97 a box on Amazon. I receive pretty regularly coupons from Ollie’s for 20% of entire purchase and coupons for Big Lots, $20 off $50 or 20% off total purchase. Oldest daughter just purchased a new queen mattress set (display) for $210 and then added the 20% off coupon, and she now has a great job so she still keeps to her thrifty upbringing! Purchased a $50 Basset bed frame on Craig’s list and repainted an adorable grey with white polka dots!
I do have Amazon Prime (for years) with son’s student account and we all use it as a family. It’s great for subscribe and save and college textbooks, and son’s med school equipment needs. So I have been able to get great prices on many food items and some hard to find items.
I have also kept a budget notebook in my purse to keep track of how much items cost and what I have paid in the past. Not just for food but to all items, but the food part helps me keep track of the cycles for sales and clearances. For 30 years Target has a 90% off clearance for major holidays and end of the season. Sears and Kmart also have the same type of sales and if purchased online consumers can add additional % off coupons. I always kept track of everyone’s sizes, shoe sizes and specific favs.
So keeping to a low food budget was an absolute neccessity and with a house full of athletes (football and swimmers) it was always a challenge but once a system was in place it allowed for more time to get creative in other areas. Best coupon ever was daughter attending community college during high school and the tuition and books were covered by the district and all 72 units transferred for her BS, next best was moving from CA to NC…the in-state tuition plus scholie’s made it possible for great undergrad/grad school options.
Middle son now operates/manages the free clinic while in med school and very much understands the difficulties his patients’ have with compliance and managing their own healthcare. He has lined up many resources for them without trampling on their pride and teaches them to advocate for themselves. He understands very well where they are coming from and his effectiveness has been far reaching. I am glad he can take what he has learned in school and out to change their everyday lives, one person at a time. He keeps a list of items they all need so come Christmas he can help out more…he gives me the list and I work on it all year long!
I guess our struggles and learning to deal with them have a much larger silver lining then I thought it would back then. It is so much more than spending $29 a week on food items for 1 person. Learning to advocate for oneself and how to make one’s own dreams come true is a great result from “budgeting”…(I’m the dream “keeper”).
Kat
ps funny story about food and budgeting…same middle son was ALWAYS hungry, think Roly Poly from Disney’s 101 dalmations…when he heard a certain university had “eating clubs” he was in HEAVEN…imagine a club at school that EATS! I tried to explain but it just fell on deaf ears dominated by a rumbly tummy…fast forward to college, kiddo attends said school and joins the "eating club, ends up an executive officer so he then resides in the club instead of residential college…becomes fast friends with the 5 star chef and has meals cooked anytime, anyday!! funny food budget
Kat, that is a great story! 
Off topic, but re: dog food - I wouldn’t try to go for the cheap stuff. Most dog food sold in grocery and pet stores (true of all pet food, actually - guinea pig food, bird food) is complete junk. The brands that actually have decent foods: Orijen, Innova Evo, Wellness Core, Blue Buffalo, to name some, do cost more, but they cost more for a very good reason.
If anyone is interested, this is a good starting point for figuring out good dog foods: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
So Wisconsin has finally jumped the shark, check out the foods you cannot buy on SNAP
This link will show you the entire list https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p4/p44578.pdf
Cranberry sauce and pie filling. (Poor people can forget about making dessert for Thanksgiving dinner.)
Creamed vegetables
Baked beans
Pickles
Pork and beans
Frozen veggies that come in packages featuring pasta, nuts, rice, cheese, or meats
French fries and hash browns
Sharp cheddar cheese, Swiss, and fresh mozzarella, shredded and sliced cheeses (except American cheese of course), cheese food, spreads, and products. Even Kosher cheese is banned unless you apply to get a specific check for it which basically could identify who the poor Jewish people are.
Canned peas and green beans
Albacore tuna, red salmon, and fish fillets
Bagels, pita bread, English muffins
White rice and wild rice
Taco shells
Almond, rice, goat, and soy milk.
Brown eggs and any eggs produced by cage-free or free range chickens, which basically helps corporate chicken farms
Several kinds of infant food
Anything in bulk
Anything organic or natural
Fromm’s is a comparatively well-priced high quality dog food.
NO, NO, NO on Blue Buffalo! The independent food maker reformulated their food to keep up with explosion in sales which grew 60 or so percent in a year, in target to reach $1B in sales in order to IPO or get acquired. The reformulated food caused a lot of issues, per my vet, and I suspect that my cat’s bladder stones were caused by it. I switched the cats to boring, no good (according to organic food maker claims) Science Diet with high protein content, and they are doing way better. The big boy gained a lot of weight on the Blue Buffalo chow, but is losing it now without starving.
Those in the know on dog foods have told me that they consider Blue Buffalo overpriced.
My jaw literally dropped over that Wisconsin list.
From the Wisconsin list (post #244)
Well, that’s brilliant. Really? And what’s wrong with sharp cheddar cheese? Rice? Canned beans?
For shame, Wisconsin.
So… Fresh yams are out, but frozen chunks are ok? And what’s wrong with a potato or two once in a while? While it kinda looks like the list tries to exclude processed foods with added sugar, some things make zero sense. Cranberry sauce? Who buys it outside of Thanksgiving? So a poor family has to make their own, apparently. No shortcuts. And allowing American cheese while prohibiting Swiss - that is ridiculous.
That Wiscondin list is ridiculous. What moron came up with that? Anything “natural”? Natural actually means nothing, it’s a marketing ploy to make you think the item is healthy, but often it is. So what? Brown eggs, rice, sharp cheddar cheese, but not mild?
You can’t buy rice? You can’t buy canned green beans? Or pitas? That’s gone from mean to stupid.
And you can’t buy sharp cheddar, IN WISCONSIN???
“And you can’t buy sharp cheddar, IN WISCONSIN???”
Okay, that one is so stupid, it’s almost funny. I don’t know, maybe that information came from the Onion, cause really…
Gee, I wonder how much tax payer money was spent making that list.
The restrictions are just STUPID. There is no logic whatsoever.
I looked through the whole PDF that partyof5 posted. Many of their recommendations go against best practices recommendations by all the public health professionals and nutritionists that I know.
I mean good freaking grief- you can only get 1 lb of pita? No more, no less? If I was forced to buy a pound of pita every time I buy it (and I eat pita quite a bit), there’d be a LOT going in my garbage.
No bagels? Thats going too far.
So you cant buy french fries and hash browns, and you also cant buy white potatoes to make your own fries or hash browns, wth?? I get staying away from white potatoes, but good grief.
A few months back a man spoke at my church, he has some big position at Google now, maybe CFO of one of the divisions. He talked about how he grew up near here, and he was dirt poor. He came from a two parent house, but it just wasnt enough and they were on food stamps, rarely getting a snack. He said, the one treat every blue moon he could count on, would be that his mom would eek out enough to buy those hostess ho-hos. He said he never forgot some of the dirty looks she would get in the line as if she was wasting money treating her boys to a snack cake every now and then. Obviously he is quite wealthy now, but he talked about the scars he had from not being able to eat. He also talked about liking this girl and she looked at him, and said, “eew hes poor”. Those are things he said he has never forgotten. His story was so moving.
Honestly, what is this world coming to? Im all for limits, and yes I know people abuse the system. But this is just too much.
It’s the nanny state mentality. Let the govt save you from yourself. Despicable and humiliating for a parent to be told what he/she can and cannot feed their child. I get the exclusions on liquor, cigarettes, and highly processed crap (sugary fruit punch drinks, cereals with more food dye and sugar, etc), but anything in the produce, dairy and grain aisle should pretty much be fair game. And how is processed cheese food (aka American cheese) better than sharp cheddar? This whole thing stinks.
I completely disagree that this is “nanny state” mentality. Knowing the thought process behind these bills, it’s a punitive measure. Punish people for being poor. Don’t let them have anything tasty or that they might actually like. Because then, you know, they won’t try to better their situations 8-|
If it was really about the nanny state, they’d be pushing to increase limits on places like McDonalds.
I respectfully stand behind my comment. Micro managing is exactly what a nanny state mentality does best! Don’t worry your pretty head about decision making. “The govt” will do that for you. I don’t think the actual intent is to punish, though it certainly does just that. We’ve given too much control to those who cannot see the end of their own noses, let alone the crazy consequences of their “helping”.