Yesterday, I came across this awesome post where the person used only $98 for the month. That's impressive and motivated me to write this post.
There was this one fine night, I ended up spending $200 at a strip club. I was a college student then and the immediate guilt I felt was harsh. I was not "broke" but something just didn't feel right. I remember going to waffle house outside the club and seeing a homeless person there. Those $200 could have seen much much better use. Anyway, lesson learnt.
Here was the plan I followed each subsequent months,
We have $35.
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$8 = $2 x 4 packets Corn Tortillas. (Each packet contains 80/100 tortillas.)
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$5 = $1/lb beans x 5. I usually buy garbanzo, pinto, red kidney, black, and some other.
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$2 = 6 lb of Onions. I like onions in everything so I usually by buy more these. For many people, 4lb is also fine for a month.
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$2 = 8 cans of tomato sauce. (Actually, even 4–6 max would suffice but I have a huge appetite so I need more.)
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$4 = 10 lb of rice from Mexican store. That easily lasts for 1 month. OR $6 = 10 lb of rice from Indian store.
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$3 = 5 lb of lentils. This too easily lasts a month.
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$2 = 36 eggs. Thats breakfast. (There’s a Mexican store near me, where you can 54 eggs for $2, once a month. Check out the stores near you as well.)
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$1.50 = Milk. (I don't like milk.)
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$3 = Cereal
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$1 = Salt
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$2 = Oil - This lasts 2 months for me, so sometimes I buy couple of $1 bread from Kroger.
Now, what to cook?
Every week, I cook up 1 kind of beans with onions, tomatoes and spices, and make a gravy dish out of it. I cook rice and also lentils in different manner. My lunch comprises of 5 tortillas, 1 bowl gravy beans, 2 bowls rice and 1 bowl lentils. And same is my dinner.
I keep altering the way rice is cooked, or the variation of spices in gravy and lentils to keep it interesting.
March 30, 2017 at 03:06PM
