Could you live on $176 per month for groceries?

After hearing a rumor that 60% of Americans are struggling to put food on the table, I happened to see this video on CNN.  The correspondant, Sean Callebs was challenged to live on the food stamp allowance for a month, which for a single person is $176 a month.  What I found most interesting was not the segment itself, but the comments on Callebs's blog which could serve as a text book example of the term "polarized."  Some people insisted it was impossible to live on this amount and others said they could live practically in luxury on $176.  The difference in perspective is amazing and amusing to me.  

From the perspective of a longtime Tightwad Gazette devotee, it does seem more than doable to live on this amount.  But - and this is a big BUT - you have to be organized and plan ahead.  And you have to have storage room, preferably in a freezer.  

Shameful confession here - I don't really have a food budget.  I hate tracking expenses and I don't coupon.  I've been lucky in that we have had [knock wood] consistent employment, and I've been frugal enough in other areas that I haven't had to scrutinize my grocery bills.  However, I do:

• bulk buy when things are on sale
• purchase my bread at the discount (read: day old) bakery
• buy house brand instead of name brand whenever possible
• price per ounce in the grocery store
• eschew pre-packaged or pre-made dinners or snacks
• shop at ALDI/Dollar General/ethnic supermarkets
• use produce from my (or someone else's) garden
  

Since I am now cooking more and wasting less, I'm getting more bang for my buck because I know what's in my fridge and I try to use it up efficiently.  The leftovers are all being eaten, even if sometimes by the dogs.  I've never been an entirely from scratch person - I have a weakness for Cool Ranch Doritos, Classic Coke, and Double Stuff Oreos - but I'm noticing that the more I cook, the less junk I'm eating.  I guess because I know there's something decent in the fridge and I just eat that instead. 

In any case, while I've never had a fixed grocery budget, what I've spent there has never been astronomical, and it's never been with an eye for just what I'd been eating this week.  I've always been a pantry shopper.  Here's a quick tour of my "pantry" - i.e., various places in my basement where I store food for future use.  

Main Pantry		Here the top shelf consists of cleaning products, TP, light bulbs, etc.  The stuff you don't really want to run out of, but don't want your young child to get into.  The second shelf is sort of a miscellaneous - peanut butter, raisins, condiments, spices, teas, spaghetti sauce.  Third shelf is canned items - veggies, fruits, beans, canned meats, mushrooms.  There used to be a lot more soup there, but I can make so much more soup for so much less money, I've really stopped buying that.   This third shelf is really the core of the pantry - I started it because I never wanted to not have ready food in the house in case of emergency, and it evolved from there. The bottom tier is water bottles, full of city water with a few drops of bleach in them to kill bacteria.  They are there in case of emergency as well.
Dry goods		Here is one of the secondary tiers of the pantry, with a longer term goal.  Most of this is dried stuff - dry milk, dry potatoes, Bisquick, oatmeal, stuffing.  I also have jams - bought or homemade - more peanut butter, oils and syrup.  There is also soap and toothpaste, shampoo, and things like that because J. and I share some apocalyptic anxiety of the Y2K variety.
Dry ingredients for baking or cooking		Here are more dry goods - flour, sugar, and ramen, with a large container full of different kinds of dried beans below.
Misc.		Here we have noodles, mac 'n' cheese, crackers, rice mixes, nuts, condiments, molasses and honey.  I've pretty much stopped buying rice mixes because plain rice is more economical and just as easy.  I've also gone to buying corn meal flour in 5 lb. bag quantities (or larger).
Frozen foods		Finally, here is my chest freezer.  Visible are only the top items.  This thing is packed with homemade rolls, bread, meats, cheeses, margarine, you-pick blueberries and cherries, tomatoes from the garden, and salsa.

As you can see, we are in no danger of going hungry for some time.  And this storage is only my basement storage.  It doesn't count what's upstairs in my cupboards or in my fridge/top freezer, or my root vegetables.  I have a huge trash container for dog food, and a 20 lb. bag of rice sitting around too.  I figure we could eat off of this for a couple of months at least should anything go horribly wrong [knock wood].  

All of the above is my basic food strategy for saving money at the grocery market and guaranteeing that the basics of cooking are always on hand. My goal for this next year is to replace most of this boxed/canned stuff for locally grown, grass finished products with less of a carbon footprint.  That will be easier for some of this stuff than for others.

tags: pantries  pantry shopping  thrift  freezing  food storage  great recession