Starting off on the Thrifty Food Plan
Since my husband did a Costco run on Friday, I’m going to retroactively start our month on the Thrifty Food Plan then, as otherwise our spending this week would be artificially low. (I recognize that most poor people don’t have the extra money for a Costco membership, and many don’t have the car to get them there. We don’t do that much of our shopping there, as we don’t have much storage space, so I don’t think it should distort the results too much.)
|
Costco 1/7/05 |
||
|
Skim Milk |
2.45 |
|
|
Whole Milk |
3.05 |
|
|
Quaker bars |
9.49 |
|
|
Potato rolls |
3.69 |
|
|
Brisket |
15.65 |
|
|
6 pounds spaghetti |
5.79 |
|
|
Dirt cup kit |
2.97 |
|
|
Chicken sausage |
12.59 |
|
|
White cheddar |
6.29 |
|
|
Cat food |
13.69 |
After tax, that brings us to $64.45; $78.14 if you count the cat food.
|
Giant 1/9/05 |
|
|
Eggs |
3.19 |
|
Skim milk 1/2 gal |
2.19 |
|
Skim milk 1/2 gal |
2.19 |
|
Worcester Sauce |
1.29 |
|
Chicken |
6.43 |
|
Ginger |
0.46 |
|
Tax |
0.63 |
|
|
16.38 |
Ok, we’re up to $80.83 without catfood/$94.52 with it.
Sunday I did a mini-run to Giant for split peas (I was sure we had them in the house, but we didn’t) and onions. I can’t find the receipt, but it was under $4. Say $84.83; $98.52 for simplicity. So we’ve pretty much blown our first week’s budget, but we’ve got lots of food still in the house. We’ll probably need to buy milk (we go through a ludicrous amount of milk), but otherwise I think we’re in decent shape.
January 11th, 2005 at 11:43 am
Elizabeth — this is a great experiment and I think you’re right, that you can do this with ease.
The follow-on question, then, becomes this: what is an actual, up-to-date, realistic poverty-line budget for this country? I would be very interested to see the line items for housing, transportation, and education expense. I know many, many people who consider themselves middle-class (read: they grew up in a middle-class household) but are absolutely bankrupted by student loans, car insurance, and rent.
January 11th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
An interesting experiment. I’ll check on your progress. Looking at your list of books, I was just wondering if you read Herbert Kohl’s book and if it was any good.