The Downshift: Week Two $4/Day Food Budget Shopping List & Prep

This is part of an ongoing series that chronicles our challenges, shopping lists, meals, and (hopefully) successes living on a $4/person daily food budget. For the what and why of this series, please read our first post HERE.

We didn’t successfully purchase 50% of our food from local producers in week one, so we had to make up for it in week two. It meant a few concessions which we’ll chat about below. We’re a week ahead of these posts and are almost finished eating our week two budget, and so far we are still happy that we made the decision to buy local where we did. There is something to be said for quality over quantity (though my stomach wishes there could also be a little more of the latter, too).

We started planning this week’s menu by looking at what was left over from week one:

  • Two cobs of corn
  • 2 cups prepared chickpeas
  • A bell pepper
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • Most of our 10LB bag of potatoes
  • 1 1/2 cups dried polenta
  • 2ish cups of oatmeal
  • 6ish cups of frozen corn
  • half a squash

Finding a recipe for things that would expire (veggies) became top priority, then we built the rest of the menu from there. Here is what we bought and where we bought it:

Apples – Withrow’s (local): $3.95
Spinach – Withrow’s (local): $1.60
Green pepper – Withrow’s (local): $0.84
Zucchini – Withrow’s (local): $0.70
Onions – Withrow’s (local): $1.50
Vermicilli noodles – Sobey’s: $2.49 (NOTE: We found these $1 cheaper @ Bulk Barn after purchasing)
Peppercorn – Bulk Barn: $1.23
Scallion – Sobey’s: $0.99 (BOGO so we actually got 2)
Chili flakes – Bulk Barn: $0.50
Gluten free bread – Seaport Market @ Farmhouse Foods (local): $4.00
Parmesan – Seaport Market @ Foxhill Cheese (local): $4.85
Garlic – Gateway Market: $0.89 (for 3!)
Arborio rice – Italian Market: $4.49
Stock bone – Seaport Market @ Sweet Williams (local): $2.00
Cheese curds – Seaport Market @ Foxhill (local): $5.70
1L milk – Gateway Market: $1.99
GF pizza crust – Seaport Market @ Schoolhouse GF (local): $5.00
GF soy sauce – Sobeys: $4.99
Popcorn – Sobeys: $2.50
Eggs – Gateway Market (Local): $2.89
Paprika -$0.35
Cayenne pepper -$0.35
1 star anise – $0.07 (we literally bought ONE)
Tea (20 bags) – No Frills: $1.50

The two hardest decisions this week was buying the pizza crust and pizza cheese local. We love Schoolhouse Gluten Free, and LOVE their pizza crust, but their very reasonable price of $5 for one was a difficult compromise when I can get two for $5 from Sobeys. We also love Foxhill, but knew that $5.70 would get us double the cheese at a grocery store.

True food security means shifting more of our spending to local producers, making our communities more self reliant, supporting the livelihood of our producers, and, working toward being able to produce as much of our food here as possible. We committed to a 50% local goal and since we didn’t quite make it last week, and we wanted to make up for it this week. So we bought both local, and will now share a ONE pizza tonight night rather than each gorging ourselves on our own pizza.

I’m not going to tell you I’m not a little hungry. We’re both still feeling mild but constant hunger pains at the end of week 2, and we were really feeling them when we were shopping. Drew stopped for every single sample opportunity in Sobeys and at the Seaport Market. We fantasized out loud to each other as we roamed the aisles about ripping open and devouring bags of chips. So you can see why one pizza when we could have two pizzas felt like a difficult decision.

If you are following along at home and you don’t have an allergy, I think you’ll be able to find a bit of extra room in this week’s budget.  Cheaper pizza crust (or the fully topped, ready to bake pizza for $2.99 on sale this week at sobeys, GAH!), bread, soy sauce & regular noodles rather than vermicelli). If it does, my recommendation would be to get a larger bag of rice, or start building up your pantry with pasta, more chickpeas, or beans or lentils. These items are very versatile and go a long way.

Week Two Food Prep:

This week’s prep took way less time than last week. When we first got home from our shopping trip, I sliced and froze the gluten free bread, put away the rest of the groceries, and set to work making soup stock.

Since I didn’t have enough corn cobs to make stock last week, I took both my beef bone and the two cobs and combined them to make a pot of stock. I roasted the soup bone for 45 minutes at 350 (taking the opportunity to also roast my garlic), then popped it into a pot of water with some salt, the corn, and an assortment of the spices I purchased this week. I brought it to a boil then covered it and lowered the heat and let it simmer for an hour and a half.

While that was cooking, I set to work making the spice oil from the Good and Cheap Cookbook. I was SO EXCITED to make this, I think it will make a big difference this week. The book says the oil only keeps a little over a week in the fridge, so I halved the whole recipe and just made half a cup. I have already tried it on popcorn, in soup, and, as recommended in the book, in the cold and spicy noodle recipe.

Spice Oil Good and Cheap

Once the stock was finished, I took the leftover squash, a few potatoes, and broth and made my squash soup variation from last week (but this time with broth and spices!). You can see that recipe in our week one meal plan post HERE.

On Sunday I made the cold and spicy noodles (from Good and Cheap Cookbook) and a pot of corn soup. I wasn’t planning to make another pot, I was hoping to save the corn for down the road, but we were pretty hungry by the end of last week so I wanted to make extra soup so that we could have larger portions at lunch. Everything else will have to be made on the day.

I’ll have a full list of our week two meals in my next post, plus an unexpected struggle from early on in week two. Read it here.

Post 2: Preparing to eat on $4/day (and our week 1 shopping list)
Post 3: Week 1 meals and recipes and how it went 
Post 4: Week 2 Shopping List and Prep
 Post 5: The Nacho Debacle and Meals for Week Two
Post 6: How Week 2 on a $4/Day Budget Went, & Week 3 Shopping List
Post 7: Week Three Recipes and Cooking Disasters
Post 8: $4/Day Food Budget Shopping List (Week 4)
Post 9: $4/Day Food Menu – Week Four
Post 10: $4/Day Shopping List and Meals (Week 5)
Post 11: 10 Lessons Learned Eating on $4/Day

About the author

Gillian Wesley

Since getting together six years ago, we have given away our television, begun weekly DIY nights, experimented with urban homesteading, challenged ourselves to drive less (100 days car-free in 2013), and have learned more about food security. We have experimented with a range of budgeting strategies, all of which involve consuming less stuff. We buy food with reducing packaging in mind. We got a dog. We have been doing these things for a variety of reasons: financial, social, environmental, to achieve a better work-life balance. It has resulted in us enjoying an increasingly simple and satisfying lifestyle. We’ve been influenced by a lot of people we’ve encountered and things we’ve read about along the way, notably the Transition Movement, the Antigonish Movement, and, more recently, traditional Acadien living. And we’ve learned that we are by no means alone. There are many, many people who are taking steps to downshift their lives. Sign up for our eNewsletter, and we’ll send you a round-up of our new and upcoming projects once a month.