Feeding four for under $300

So, my hubby works at a really big company. He's part of a union - which I'm forever grateful for. We have decent benefits, and he makes a living wage. For the first time since he started working there, the company and the union are in the middle of contract negotiations. We generally live paycheck to paycheck, and since the current contract is up July 1, we figured we had all month to prepare for a possible strike. We were wrong. We have until June 9, when they'll see the proposed contract for the first time and then vote on whether to strike or not.

***insert Rogue Artist completely freaking out here: If we have no income for the second half of June, we have no rent money for July, which means there is absolutely no grocery budget. And I have no stockpile to speak of. And the last strike lasted 6 weeks. Holy moly!***

When we lived in a house, I maintained a grocery stockpile that had about 1.5 months worth of food, and 6 months of non-food items. I never worried about feeding us. When we moved into our cramped 2 bedroom apartment, I could no longer have my stockpile - there just isn't room. We've had a bit of a stockpile in our deep freezer, but recent months have depleted it.

So, after being paralyzed with fear for two days, I decided that I'd come up with a menu for the month of June and shop for it while there's money to do so. And then I got distracted by many rabbit trails. How to feed a family for wicked cheap - here's my menu that has you eating the same thing for lunch and dinner 3 days in a row! How to make gnocchi from scratch. How to make meat stretch. Etc... And after spending another whole day stressing over my menu plan, I had an epiphany.

I don't do well with written out menu plans. I make them, I shop by them, and then I don't want to actually cook them. This is why I still have a can of "hearts of palm" in the cabinet. I'm one of those people who cooks by looking in the cabinet and weighing the ingredients on hand against how much time/energy I have, and then goes from there.

So with this in mind, I finally devised my shopping list. I didn't really do a full-blown kitchen inventory first; I just checked on if my memory of our canned goods was right.

Since dear friends requested it, here is a link where you can see what I bought, what we already had, and what I plan on feeding two teenagers and a DH who eats like a teenager. Oh, and what I plan on making from scratch to save money...

Like these lovely bagels that my son and I had for breakfast this morning with a smidge of butter and jam...

Or the tortillas that I can't make yet - because I didn't look at the recipe carefully, and I could have sworn I had 4 partially used cans of shortening, so I didn't buy any. (I've now remembered that I got rid of them because I never remembered them and bought more shortening every time I needed it - hence the 4 barely used cans). 

It's okay though - I still have $45 that I can spend on groceries before I hit that $300 mark for the month. And I'm pretty sure that shortening isn't that expensive...

The journey has just begun

This year, I took a huge risk.  A terrifying step. I quit my full time job to be a stay at home mom.  I don't have small children - just a loving hubby, a 13 year old son and a cat.

So, why in the world would I want to leave the "working" world and be home full time?  Really, it was a variety of reasons. 

I hated commuting.  Yes, many people commute for a hour to a hour and a half each way.  Yet, this was the longest commute I've ever had, and I would almost always walk in the door in a lot of pain brought on by my arthritic knees operating a stick-shift through that awful traffic. 

I didn't particularly care for my job, and it wasn't serving the purpose it was intended to serve.  I quit school to go back to work in order to make ends meet.  Between commuting costs, convenience foods at home, eating out and the tax bracket that my income put us in, we were basically breaking even for me to come home stressed and in pain.

My son wasn't doing too hot in school - despite being a gifted child, he's never really excelled in school.  His lack of organization, self-discipline and my lack of energy left for parenting at the end of the day were not really a recipe for success. 

A couple of hours on Sundays in January spent with coupons and sale ads resulted in us restocking the grocery stockpile with over $1,000 worth of food for around $300.

When the hubby and I sat down and added all of this up, we figured that by me staying home, the family could benefit greatly:

• I'd be a lot happier
• I'd be a lot less stressed
• I'd have time for my art
• I'd have time to volunteer more
• The family would see significant savings in the grocery expenditures every month
• The kiddo would have an involved parent who could help him learn to keep on track with school
• The kiddo would be able to participate in extracurricular activities
• The family would reap health benefits associated with a well-planned menu

June Cleaver by toledo clubber via Flickr

Since quitting my job in April, we've had a lot of changes in our life. It's been a rough and challenging road.  I'm certainly not seeing all of those benefits that we thought we'd see. We moved from a rented 3/2/2 house in a suburb into a 2/2 apartment in the city.  We've struggled financially after a large unexpected expense in June.  I had a not-so-lovely bout with severe depression for the two months before the move.  After we learned that the kiddo has high cholesterol, significant changes to our eating habits were implemented.  I'm having trouble with my personal schedule, and so I'm not volunteering at all right now.  There's no space for an art studio in a 2 bedroom apartment, and most of my supplies are in a storage locker down the street.  And I'd imagined this glorious life of coffee klatches, PTA meetings and homemade cookies.  HA!

I don't know why I thought I'd be June Cleaver within a week of being home full-time - but then again, I've spent most of my life setting unrealistic goals and standards, and beating myself up for not meeting them. 

So, here I am - five months into being at home - still trying to get organized (because an unorganized move wreaks havoc upon existing organization), cooking, cleaning, planning, researching.  Praying for more little feet in the house.  Learning to mentor a young teen in how to succeed at goals.  Discovering my flaws and imperfections, my triggers for depression.  Learning how to navigate relationships with friends and family - because frankly, I've spent years neglecting them.  Figuring out the middle ground between being ridiculously perfectionist and being an ostrich with her head in the sand.  Realizing that I'll never be June Cleaver, and that I really am just fine with that.