Inflation Vs Market Swing

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I’ve been arguing for years that food isn’t as affected by inflation as it is the commodity market swing.  I saw this poster on facebook this week and I think it proves my point:

1958 Cost of living

For simplicity’s sake, let’s pretend inflation has driven everything 10x’s higher.  By moving the decimal point on place to the right you would see that:

A new house = $119, 750

The average income = $46,500

A new car = $21,550

Rent = $950

Tuition to Harvard = $10,000 (Nope, it’s $43,938 source)

A movie ticket = $10

Gasoline = $2.40

Postage = $.40

These numbers are rough, but fairly close. (Except the tuition thing, and gasoline is a commodity so the fact that it worked in this formula is coincidence.)

But apply the same formula to food:

Sugar $8.90 for 10 lbs —  um, no.  It’s closer to $3

Vitamin D milk $10 a gallon — nope, $4

Coffee $9.30 a lb — We don’t drink coffee, so I’m not sure but amazon sells Folgers for $7 a lb

Bacon $6.20 a lb — nope, $3

Eggs $2.80 a dozen — sometimes, but they go on sale for $1

Hamburger $5.70 a lb — closer to $3

Fresh baked bread $1.90 — nope more like $5

Think about it.  We have way more spending power when it comes to food, than our 1957 counterparts did.  Then why were they able to easily maintain a single income family and still feed their families well?

I think it comes down to two things:

1.  Thrift and home economics were valued by society.  Think Leave it to Beaver. Today these qualities are portrayed negatively by mass media. And why not?  The less thrifty they make us, the more money they can get from us.

2.  They used more pure commodity ingredients such as eggs, milk and flour.  With both spouses working and a plethora of kid actives, we tend to gravitate more towards pre-made ingredients and convenience foods just to survive.

What do you think?

 

 

 

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

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Frugal food doesn’t have to be time consuming.  Here’s a fast dish I threw together with all convenience items while our bread was baking last night.  Tuesday’s activities include violin lessons for the big boy, piano lessons for the littles, and then scouts for the 2 biggest boys.  There’s a tiny gap for eating in there, but not much time for cooking.

Our kids are growing quickly and with 2 teenagers in our family of 8, we’ve outgrown a 9×13  casserole dish.  This 10×15 dish holds as much food as a 7×11 plus a 9×13, which is perfect for us with a few leftovers for lunches the next day.  I haven’t been able to find a lid for it yet though.  If you know a source, put it in the comments below.

Bean and Cheese enchiladas

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Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients

  • 20 6" tortillas
  • 1 can, 15 oz, refried beans
  • 1 can, 15 oz, black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 8 oz of shredded cheddar blend cheese
  • 1 can, 28 oz of red enchilada sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 10x15 baking dish.
  2. Place a small amount of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the pan and spread to coat.
  3. Stir together the refried beans and drained black beans. Divide among tortillas. Add a sprinkling of cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish.
  4. Top with enchilada sauce pressing down all the edges.
  5. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
  6. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 5 minutes more or until the cheese is melted.
  7. Serve with salad, corn, or rice.
http://www.groceryshrink.com/bean-and-cheese-enchiladas/

Cost estimate:

Tortillas:  $1.50 (Aldi)

Refried Beans: $.69 (Aldi)

Black Beans: $.69 (Aldi)

Cheese: $1.50 (Taken from a 5 lb bag of Costco cheese.)

Enchilada Sauce: $1.67 (Walmart)

Total: $6.05

12 servings: $.50 each 🙂

 

 

When it’s Time to Bake Bread

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Crescent Rolls Homemade Bread

There are  just a few days left in the month. I used the last of our grocery money on Monday and discovered this morning that we are out of bread. It matters because all the kids pack their own lunches in a half asleep state at 6:30 am and when there’s no bread they get confused, and require my help.  I’m not good help at 6:30 am.

Danish Dough Wisk

I haven’t baked bread in a long time.  I just needed a little motivation to get back to it. Thankfully none of us are gluten sensitive.  Here’s why we still eat wheat: “Wheat ranks first among the grains for its nutritional value.  Wheat is an excellent source of fiber and many critical B-vitamins when used in its entirety, including the bran, germ, and endosperm.  Wheat germ is one of the richest sources of vitamin E if used when freshly milled, before oxidation takes place.” Source Plus it tastes good and it’s affordable.

Here’s why I don’t always soak it.  Well, that’s how I sleep at night.  The actual reason I don’t soak is it’s an extra step that stresses me out, and we prefer the taste without soaking.

Danish Dough Wisk

My all time favorite bread recipe is Vickilynn’s Absolute Best Challah. I usually bake her 2 loaf version, but today went with the whopper 6 loaf one.  It takes 15 cups of flour!  My kitchen aid can only handle about 6 before the dough starts climbing up into the motor shaft….so I mixed this by hand with a Danish Dough Wisk.  When it got too hard to do with the wisk, I dumped it out and kneaded it by hand for 15 minutes (while watching Brain Games on Netflix.)

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I really wanted a lot of bread, but I only have 3 loaf pans.

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No matter, the dough makes good rolls too.  I usually do clover leaf rolls with 3 small balls of dough in each muffin tin, but we had to leave for violin lessons in 5 minutes and I just plopped a big ball in each well.

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And then I ran out of muffin tins….so I made crescents.

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Before rising.

Bread DoughWhen we got back from violin, they were nice and big.  Time to proof the oven and let them rise a little more.

Muffin Tin Dinner Rolls

They went over well :).

How much was that meal?

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This is something I hardly ever think about. I like to feed my family and guests, and not think about how much it costs. I think about the money when I’m at the store, but once I’m home, I don’t.

Last week, the school sent home a note that made me think about it a little more. They wanted to know how we felt about the quality of the school lunches and if we’d be willing to pay $3 if the lunches were better. (I know the expense doesn’t just cover food. It also pays for staff, utilities–there is overhead involved.)

$3 doesn’t sound like much at first glance. If we paid $3 per school child for lunches, it would cost us $300 a month. That’s for 5 school age children, 20 days of the month, for one meal of the day. 6″ black forest ham sub’s loaded with Veggies from Subway are $2.75. A McDouble with value fries and water is $2. (Not healthy, but $2.)

Our food budget for the month is $500. Darren gets an extra $30 for groceries to keep at work. So $530 all things considered. In a 31 day month, we eat 124 meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack.) If we paid exactly the same for each meal, it equals $.53 per person.

Some meals I spend more, some I spend less. For example a couple of eggs and a slice of toast costs $.37. A bowl of oatmeal is around $.10. Turkey burgers (just the burger) are $1 each plus fixings and side dishes.  A cup of milk is $.18 add a couple of graham crackers for $.10 more. Grant eats a tiny amount compared to the older boys and Darren. So it’s not ever $.53 per meal per person…that’s just an average.

So how about you? Do you ever think about what that meal is costing you?

Can I Afford to Stay Home With My Kids?

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mother and baby

When we first married I was a 5th grade teacher. It was a great job, but also really stressful.  I became pregnant after we had been married just 3 months.  I had already signed my teaching contract for the next year. There was a steep contract breaking fee, but it didn’t matter.  My husband was in grad school and I was the only income producer in our family.  I had to work.

This was not how I planned to be a mother.  Read the rest….

Wrapping up the Spending Freeze

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Can you believe the 31 day freeze is over?  I know some of you have already told me you are going for another month and I think that’s awesome.

 

We had a possible $200 from our basic living expenses to put back into our goal fund.  Those dollars were kept separate from my purse, where they would have normally gone.  Those budgets were: eating out, misc., hygeine, and blow money. The clothing fund also came out of my purse, but we can’t put those saved dollars into our goal fund. They need to be saved for future needs that we know are coming.

We had a few expenses and mistakes which left us $173 from money that normally disappears throughout the month.

I was gifted $200 from 2 separate places for Christmas/End of year bonuses that I decided to donate to the goal fund.

I also earned an extra $400 selling items on craigslist and online.

So the Spending Freeze found $773 for our project!  Guys, this is huge for us.  This means we can move the door, do the drywall, and basically create a finished bedroom to sleep in.  The bathroom won’t be done yet, but still I had doubts that this much was even possible.

 I’d love to hear how your spending freeze turned out–good or bad. Nobody can do this perfectly but even a little push in the right direction is awesome!