Low Wage Living - Episode 5 - Food

After the House tied for the next biggest line item is Food. SNAP will cover some of that but until those kick in, if they ever do, the budget needs to be able to cover the pantry.

So far the budget is a grand total of 800 bucks and we've committed 400 to housing.  Our Wiggle Room is currently sitting at NIL.

1. Shelter 30%  50% of our budget - $400

2. Food 20% - $160

3. Transportation 20% - $160

4. Phone 10% - $80

So step one - is 160 bucks a month reasonable? It's actually a lot more reasonable than you would think, it's just that we are so used to eating out at 5-15 bucks a meal that what it actually takes to feed a human seems ridiculously low in comparison. While it is doable this is one of those areas where it's going to be a drastic change for some. 160 bucks is 1.77 a meal, I bet you don't see many menu items for that price. Which means eating out will BUST the budget. Personally when I started out my monthly bill was closer to 300 bucks or 3.33 dollars a meal - I tended to eat lunch out with co workers so my real costs tended to be lumped there with a rotisserie chicken/pizza covering my other meals.

The crazy thing is at the time of writing this a frozen pizza goes for 2.50 at Walmart. I would eat one of these a day, about 1/2 for lunch and another 1/2 for dinner, If they went on sale for 2 bucks a pop I would load up.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size1/3 Pizza (146g)

Servings Per Container3.0

Amount Per Serving

Calories360.0 Cal

Calories From Fat150.0 Cal

% Daily Value

Total Fat16.0g21.0%

Saturated Fat7.0 g35.0

Trans Fat0.0 g

Cholesterol35.0 mg12.0

Sodium750.0 mg31.0

Total Carbohydrate36.0g13.0%

Dietary Fiber2.0 g8.0

Sugars4.0 g

Protein17.0 g23.0

Vitamin A8.0

Vitamin C2.0

Calcium30.0

Iron15.0

(-) Information is currently not available for this nutrient.

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:**

** Percent Daily Values listed below are intended for adults and children over 4 years of age. Foods represented or purported to be for use by infants, children less than 4 years of age, pregnant women, or lactating women shall use the RDI's that are specified for the intended group provided by the FDA.

	Calories:	2,000	2,500
Total Fat	Less than	65g	80g
Sat. Fat	Less than	20g	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2400mg	2400mg
Potassium		3500mg	3500mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g	375g
Dietary Fiber		25g	30g

Calories per gram:

Fat 9•Carbohydrate 4•Protein 4

So the thing about eating cheap is that it isn't the healthiest, the thing though is that a pizza providing 2 meals for 2.5 *4.5% sales tax = 2.61 while what we have budgeted is 1.77 +1.77 =  3.54

29 oz. Rotisserie Chicken $4.98 this would do me for 3-4 meals  so 4.98 *4.5% sales tax = 5.2 what we have budgeted for 3 meals is 1.77+1.77+1.77 = 5.31 for the all carnivore diet, or you can add mashed potatoes for around a buck (.99)

So while the food isn't just rice and beans it can fatten a person right up. It would pay a lot to concentrate on some of the staples Rice, Beans, Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate chips (seriously it's actually darn cheap on prime pantry) Apples.  Gives you some nice Chicken and Rice, or Apple, Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Chips, etc.  While it can be done even cheaper give yourself some decent variety but DO NOT EAT OUT.