Several months ago, blogger and cookbook author Emily Farris moved back to the area from New York City (Plog covered her journey). Since moving back she has co-founded the blog Fifty Bucks Per Week, where she and two other writers (one living in Brooklyn, the other in Portland, Oregon) try to eat on $50 a week. Not so hard if you've got ramen noodles and mac-n-cheese. But the catch is they have to eat well.
Yesterday, Time Magazine featured Farris and her cohorts in a wide-ranging interview on just how they manage to do it.
One of the first things I did upon agreeing to this project was join myWhile Time does not mention it, the CSA Farris raves over is Growers Alliance CSA which works in conjunction with Hen House. Elsewhere, she talks about the importance of cayenne pepper and how the biggest thing she's had to change is giving up coffee houses.local CSA [community supported agriculture]. I'm lucky in that for $25
a week, I get meat, cheese, milk, eggs, bread and vegetables. I really
only have to buy coffee, yogurt and cereal or granola. This has been
fantastic for me because I never know what I'm going to get when I pick
up my share every Monday and I'm forced to use ingredients I would
never have bought at the grocery store or farmers market... However, when the CSA ends in September, all hell
might break loose. But I'm working on a little vegetable garden out
back, so hopefully I'll just be forced to be more creative in other
ways.
Commenters have written "feeding a family at $50 or less is impressive and interesting. This is not," and even the Time
writer says their money-saving is not "world class." Farris says she isn't trying to make herself out to be Mother
Teresa and has admitted that eating on $50 "really isn't that hard."
Except when it is hard. As the article notes, many people have no clue how much they
spend per week on food and the blog's true purpose is to highlight all
the things people can (and should) do without. It's interesting to find out just how much you can eat on $50 a week. As it turns out, pretty much.
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I'd be cautious about buying ground meat after it's been marked down, but I've never had a problem buying day-old steaks.
This is a subject close to my heart and something that I've blogged about for more than a year
The secret to eating steak on the cheap is finding a store that's good about marking stuff down. Steak is aged anyway, so it's not like an extra day or two really hurts anything. As long as the meat isn't discolored or nasty-smelling, it's fine.
I'm partial to the Apple Market at 47th & Mission Road (across from Oklahoma Joe's BBQ) and the Price Chopper on Roe - both are good about marking down unsold meat while it's still edible. I regularly find the same 12-14 ounce KC strips or rib-eyes that would run thirty bucks in a steakhouse for three or four dollars each.
I'd be cautious about buying ground meat after it's been marked down, but I've never had a problem buying day-old steaks.
I have to agree eating on $50 a week is easy, and I do it regularly, without trying and including a large share of fresh local fruits and vegetables, at least in the summertime. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I'm not a vegetarian, either. Get thee to your farmers market, and you'll find food that tastes WAY better and is often cheaper than the supermarket stuff. And introduce yourself to the joy of beans!
It is easy to eat on $50 per week if survival is your goal. Hell, bologna and store-brand Kool-Aid are cheap.
If you want to eat a diet of fresh produce and non-processed meats, it gets more difficult. That said, our Sunday night dinner involved a pound of sirloin steak, a good-sized spinach/pear/blue cheese salad, and fresh green beans.
It cost $2.75 per person for everything.
It probably would have run about $13-15 with tip at Chili's or Ruby Tuesday, and ours tasted better IMHO.
Cooking your own food saves money (duh), and it eventually becomes a time vs. money issue, and that's a whole other post.
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