Living Within the Means God has Provided for you.

I have been a stay at home mom since 2003, although living on one fairly small income has been challenging, God has always provided for our family. With a Gross income of aproximately $20,000 we own our own home, actually have two running vehicles and want for very little. Lots of people complain about not having enough money to pay their bills. I have a hard time understanding why. On a monthly basis, we make a mere $1, 356, I had no clue til recently how low that really was. Its funny, but being Poor is more of a mentality than an actuality for most of us.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Cheap winter meals, Chili

Well, we haven't exactly been as frugal as we could have or should have this past few weeks. I have been busy with doctors appointments, tests, and still have some to go.

I guess frugality is truly a seasonal thing, some weeks or months we do really well, but when Mom is barely functional, I guess frugality goes out the window.

Tonight, though, I am making Chili, which will net us a minimum of 2-3 meals out of a mere maybe $5-6

Now to figure, out of 17.90 worth of ground beef I got 14 packages for the freezer, that is 1.27 for the ground beef, my quart of tomatoes with chilies cost me 83 cents, and I canned them last season (I figured that cost in an argument I won, but it was still worth the effort) The beans, I use two cans at never more than 50 cents a piece, eventually I will be trying to use dried beans, but I am not that confident in my bean making skills yet. The onion, cost merely 3 cents (thank you sales) and the seasoning, may cost a whole quarter, but I doubt it (I have never measured how much chili powder fits in my HUGE jumbo sized jar, but I know I have had it for almost a year and its not half gone yet, and I have made LOTS of chili)
So the grand total $3.13, plus my loaf of bread that doesn't cost $1 and that will give us at least two or three meals.

Unfortunately, I don't use a recipe for chili, so I can share it, I toss the ground beef in with a quart of home canned rotel tomatoes add onion, granulated garlic, chili powder and beans. Maybe a can of Corn or mushrooms if I remember, if I add both of them, it only ups the cost by about 82 cents. still under $5

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