Last week I was doing a presentation on the features of our Spend Smart web site. I discovered that we had gotten lots of hits from the more matters® web site which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Further investigation showed the people were being referred to our Spend Smart site from a flyer and other postings called 30 Ways in 30 Days to Stretch Your Fruit and Vegetable Budget.
The number ONE recommendation was:
Calculate an appropriate Healthy Food Budget for your family, based on USDA’s Low-Cost Food Plan. This easy-to-use calculator, offered by Iowa State University Extension, helps to create a budget for what is a reasonable amount to spend to feed your family healthy meals.
If you don’t know what a healthy food budget is for your family, you might want to put each family member’s age, gender and number of meals eaten away from home into the calculator. Then, to compare your spending, you will need to collect receipts for all your grocery spending for a month. Don’t count non-food items such as pet food, paper, cleaning and personal care items that you buy at the store.
-pointers by Peggy
food cost, resources
budget, calculator, fruit, grocery, spending, vegetable
Do you regularly pack a lunch? It saves money, but until you make it part of your regular routine, it can be a hassle. My husband and I want the health and money saving benefits of taking lunch from home, but often are too unorganized, lazy, short on time, or whatever to consistently get something together either the night before or in the morning. Here’s what we’ve done:
My noon lunch is usually ‘super cheap’…and super easy. I always keep a variety of light yogurt and fresh fruit on hand. If there are no leftovers available, I can just grab a yogurt and 1 – 2 pieces of fruit and my lunch is ready. If I happen to have cut up veggies or whole wheat crackers on hand I may grab them, too. This lunch costs about $1. The down side is that for some people it would not be enough to eat…and I admit, some days I’m hungry at the end of the work day. If you want to watch calories and sugar intake you do have to be careful when buying yogurt. Look for the containers that are both low fat and low sugar, they will usually have 100 calories or less for a 6-ounce serving. (Check out the yogurt buying tips on the website at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/dairy.)
Tell us about your ‘lunchtime solutions.’ How do you eat economically—yet healthy—for lunch?
-contributed by Renee
food cost, food preparation, resources
fruit, healthy, low fat, lunch, yogurt
Sometimes it’s the way you present food that makes it special. Fruit Kabobs are an example. You could chop fruits up and stir the yogurt in, but it wouldn’t look this good.
Kids will love to make their own kabobs—let them choose the fruit, and maybe slip in something they haven’t tried. Check out the SpendSmart. Eat Smart. recipe page for the Fruit Kabob recipe and a video demo. Let the kids watch, and after the fruits are cut into pieces, they can take over!
The cost for the fruit kabobs is $2.67 for 30. I wouldn’t buy the whipped topping for just 2 tablespoons, but if you have it on hand, it adds a little.
Fruit Kabobs for $2.67
1 red delicious apple: $0.30
2 kiwi: $0.67
10.6 ounce can chunk pineapple: $1.00
8 ounces low-fat fruit yogurt: $0.66
2 tablespoons fat-free whipped topping: $0.04
-pointers by Peggy
food cost, food preparation, recipes
fruit, kabobs, kids, recipe, yogurt
On a recent shopping trip, I started thinking about the cost of produce—bananas to be specific. It seems their cost has really skyrocketed over the past few years. I’m probably dating myself by admitting that I remember when I could buy bananas for 25 cents a pound! On this shopping trip to a big box store, the cost was 64 cents a pound. Well, it’s no wonder families are tempted to buy snack food to satisfy their hungry members instead of produce. So, being a home economist, I decided to do a comparison. I bought 5 bananas that weighed 1.71 pounds; the cost was $1.09. That meant that each banana cost between 20 and 21 cents each.
Next, I strolled over to the snack aisle and looked at a package of taco chips. The regular size bag cost $3.99. How many bananas could I buy for the cost of a bag of chips? Nineteen bananas! For a family of four, each member could have a banana a day for about 5 days for the cost of one bag of chips.
I’m sure the chips would not last that long at most houses; but, neither would the bananas. The lesson for me was that fresh produce may seem expensive, but when you calculate it by serving (a banana is one serving), the cost is reasonable. The challenge is to know—and serve—just one serving. Fresh produce tastes so good it may be hard to eat just one. Sounds like the start of a campaign—”I bet you can’t eat just one.” Oh, right, that’s already been used with a chip commercial.
-contributed by Susan Klein
food cost
bananas, fruit, produce
