How is this possible?

There is an article in the paper today about feeding a family of 10 for $250 per week. Okay, they are great shoppers, but here is a sample meal:

"Simple food and lots of it: Today's chili supper, made with four pounds of ground turkey, five cans of beans, four cans of tomatoes and two packs of Wal-Mart brand dry chili spices, fills two crock pots. There will even be enough for leftovers. Cost for the whole meal, including salad and cornbread: $11."

INCLUDING the salad and the cornbread? Do you think this is possible, even buying in bulk?

How can you buy 9 cans of something - let's say it's 59 cents each (being generous) - that's $5.90 (and I know you don't get tomatoes for 59 cents) - Four pounds of turkey? I'm pretty sure you've hit the $11 mark right there, and that's not counting the salad. Of course, "salad" could be anything - probably just iceberg and salad dressing.

I guess maybe, but I'm hard pressed to believe it.

not sure if it's okay to do this or not and I'll remove it if it's not okay...

Feeding a family of 10 on $250 per week
Organization, store brands and discipline help the Newberns hold the line on costs

By BO EMERSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/21/08
Feeding a family is one thing. Stacey Newbern feeds an army.

She and her husband Randy have eight offspring, all boys: Nicholas, 18, Joseph, 15, Samuel, 13, Elijah, 9, Silas, 7, Abel, 6, Ethan, 4, and Matthew, 22 months.



Before Randy and Stacey Newbern hit the grocery store in their west Georgia home, Stacey plans the menu for the week and only buys the ingredients she'll need for those meals. They feed a family of 10 on a food budget of $230-$250 per week.



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At a time when food prices are rising faster than they have in decades, this platoon hoovers up a weekly diet of five dozen eggs, six jumbo bags of Malt-O-Meal cereal, three supersized jars of peanut butter and 12 gallons of milk.

"Us older boys try not to eat thirds, fourths and fifths," eldest son Nicholas confided recently, as he and Joseph put an early supper on the table at the Newbern family's mobile home near Whitesburg, midway between Carrollton and Newnan.

Joseph set the table and assembled a salad while Nicholas dished out crock-pot chili and a pan of cornbread that Mom had started earlier in the day. Elijah put out the silverware. Stacey and Randy, both 39, let the older boys handle every detail, while the younger siblings waited patiently.

Considering the tight quarters and the crowd eager for vittles, the late-afternoon meal went as smoothly as a military operation. That was no accident. When you've got a small army to feed, says Randy, an 8-year military veteran, you do what the Army does. That means:

• Discipline: Everybody waits until everybody is served. Nobody eats until everybody prays.

• Chain of command: Stacey controls the kitchen but delegates responsibilities.

• Simple food and lots of it: Today's chili supper, made with four pounds of ground turkey, five cans of beans, four cans of tomatoes and two packs of Wal-Mart brand dry chili spices, fills two crock pots. There will even be enough for leftovers. Cost for the whole meal, including salad and cornbread: $11.


'Bean night' and ground turkey

Yet even at this low cost, grocery bills are taking a bite out of the Newbern budget.

They're not alone. This year, rising food prices have had shoppers howling and stomachs growling. Milk has jumped in price by 21 percent over the previous year. Eggs are up 40 percent. Overall, food prices have grown by the greatest margin in almost 20 years.

Combine food costs with soaring prices at the gas pump and Stacey and Randy Newbern are feeling the pinch. Stacey, a longtime stay-at-home mom, got back into the job market last December, working at an immediate-care facility in Douglasville. She's also attending classes toward her nursing degree at West Central Technical College in Carrollton.

Randy, a machinist who builds fuel cells for military aircraft at G&S Precision Machinery in Newnan, had plans to construct a new home on the five wooded acres that the Newberns bought a year ago. Those plans, along with summer vacation hopes, are on hold. For now, they're staying put in their three-bedroom, 16-by-80-foot mobile home on the same wooded lot.

Always thrifty, the Newberns are well-positioned to deal with tight times. Shade trees in this rural setting keep their house cool, so they leave the air conditioning off most of the time. They've eliminated eating out altogether, instituted a "bean night" once a week, excised junk food and soda, and switched from ground beef to ground turkey.

Stacey also has turned meal planning into an art form. Before she heads out on her once-a-week shopping trip, she creates a menu for every day of the week, and knows precisely what she'll need for every meal. She shops at Wal-Mart, searches out store brands, buys in bulk and takes advantage of the chest freezer out in the shed, spending about $230-$250 a week on average.

She also tailors the food she prepares for the best impact. There are no onions in her chili because, she knows, the kids will just pick them out anyway. In turn, you don't hear her boys complaining, "I don't like this." They don't get a choice.


Pleasure, pain and pizza

Mom and Dad rely on dishes that are cheap, easy and dependable. Wednesday's $11 chili meal was followed by spaghetti on Thursday ($11), homemade pizza on Friday ($10), and salmon patties on Saturday ($12).

Occasionally, says Stacey, she will splurge for a feast, frying up chicken and okra and green tomatoes, and using up a 10-pound bag of potatoes making potato salad.

There is plenty to eat, but some meals are more eagerly anticipated than others. Pizza night, for example, is a combination of pleasure and pain. Pleasure, because mom's home-made pizza is fantastic. Pain, because there are only so many slices to go around, so the boys don't wait for the pizza to cool before they start chomping.

"They eat as fast as they can, saying, 'Ow!' Ow!' Ow!' " said Stacey.

The Newberns home-schooled all their boys until Stacey went back to work, at which point Abel, Silas and Elijah started going to public school. The parents saw their food bills decrease, as the little guys had access to economical breakfasts and lunches at school. (Joseph and Samuel are still schooled at home; Nicholas, who plans to join the Air Force, is taking courses at West Central Technical College.)

Sharing the cooking duties doesn't always works out. Joseph, for instance, doesn't use the grill these days, not since an incident that involved chicken breasts and a fire extinguisher. But working as a team helps them surmount difficulties, as on this day, when lightning knocks out the well-pump and the family is without water.

After supper they load their dirty dishes into a plastic tub, and head to church in their 15-passenger van, the only vehicle big enough for the whole group. (It drinks $500 in gasoline a month.)

Later, they'll take the dishes over to Stacey's parents' house for washing.


Working together — or else

When Stacey starts nursing school full-time in July their household income will drop from around $75,000 to around $55,000, and they'll have to tighten their belts another notch. That means more in-home haircuts and vegetables from grandmom's garden.

The boys have started a few tomato plants, but neither parent has time to till and care for a big garden. They also tried raising chickens, but that experiment ended quickly. It turned out Rocky, the family's shepherd/chow mix, "likes the way they taste."

The Newberns couldn't bring themselves to fry up the survivors, because they'd become friends. So the chickens were transferred to a neighbor's home in the country.

Yes the Newbern family is a big family, but food and housing is no big deal. With bunkbeds and four boys to a room, they fit just fine, and with chili dinners, there's always enough to eat.

And a little Army philosophy helps things run smoothly: "You learn to work together with others, you learn to get along with others," said Randy. "Whether you want to or not."

No offense meant to the more formally religious than I (which is probably everyone), but what does that have to do with the cost of food?

and eager appetites at meal time.

What I suspected is true. She shops at WalMart, who is no doubt using their vast resources to keep their price increases fewer than the independent grocers to further draw in even more business they plan on keeping in the long haul. I don't shop there at all so I don't know how badly their prices have been effected but I bet they are gaming the market.

Yikes! I don't know how they do it.

I guess if you buy everything on sale you can pull off a meal like that for $11 but that's probably the exception. Chili and cornbread does sound good, though...

everything from the low-priced generic or Walmart label, it could be. :shrug:

If you're on a budget, why would you buy canned beans?

Also, I wouldn't buy two "packets" of spices - that's not a frugal way to buy anything.

"I'm too BUSY to cook beans from scratch."

You used to be able to get cheap ground turkey, not anymore. It's usually at least $3.50 lb. I hate when they do this shit.

I always try to cook healthy, and would like to include more turkey in our diet. However, at these prices, I have to look for cheaper alternatives, and ground turkey isn't on my list.

The ground white meat turkey is usually around 4.99 lb here. The regular ground turkey I can usually get for 3.59. I can still get ground beef cheaper than that. Even the ground chicken is more expensive than beef.

I know I've seen ground turkey frozen in tubes in our Grocery Outlet store. I think that was closer to 1.59 lb. But I'm leary of buying meat there.

I hate ground turkey. It always cooks up tough.

I guess with some work I could figure it out, but as a ground product, it doesn't immediately lend itself to cooking. I haven't spent a lot of time working with it, but whereas ground beef or pork usually cooks up decently, ground turkey always toughens up. Probably needs some other stuff to make it work out. I'm not so sure it's that much cheaper, though, cooking quality aside.

I use the ground white meat Turkey.

I mix the ground Turkey with lots of roasted chopped garlic, sauteed onions, fresh parsley and a tablespoon or two of Marsala wine. I shape into thin burgers and then sandwich a piece of Provolone cheese and a piece of Prosciutto. Seal two burgers together making sure the cheese and meat are securely encased inside the burger.

I cook on top of the stove in a bit of olive oil but you can also just broil them.

Best Turkey burger ever and full of flavor!

I would compare it to cooking chicken and that you only cook it for a short while until it's done. If you overcook it, then yes, it will be tough... The way I do it is wait until there is no more pink and then immediately remove and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking of the meat... Add spices and voila!

but I doubt if anyone sells it that low! I find that cheap ground beef is usually less than any of the turkey.

but i have the coolo kitchen aid meat grinder attachment and grind my own

let me say if you invest in a grinder you can make very good deals on meats at most chain groceries
if hamburger is 2 dollars a lb and i grind my own with his going out of date meats i usually get a better grade of burger for a lot less money

same for poultry
my publix manager loves when i come in because he knows hes going to get rid of back inventory
i can get on of his turkeys take it hame bone it and have 6 or 7 lbs of ground meat for 69 cents a lb

They could get it from "grandma's garden" as the story says but the cost seems to be included in the meal price.

I think we have a hand meat grinder. How hard are those to work? Our turkeys are 99 cents a pound, usually. How big of turkey would be needed to get 5 lbs of ground turkey, for instance? Do you add anything to the ground burgers? I can totally see doing this with the 49 cent Thanksgiving turkeys. You could freeze a years worth of burger at a time.

so small birds deliver more meat

i go and clean up on almost out of date cuts and i have the best hamburger around
and a side benefit is your turky boning skills will improve
this thanksgiving i made turducken and it was perfect

I shop between a local store called Frazier Farms, Boney's, Sprouts and Henry's and between those four stores, I am always able to find ground turkey for $1.79 to $1.99 per pound.

FYI, though... I hold a 2nd job as a delivery driver for a local Alta Dena dairy plant and they announced last week that CA milk costs are rising $0.25 starting June 30, 2008.

unless they shoplifted the meat.

we'll see what he says.

a buck a pound.

Bush's beans were on sale for a buck a can, but the smaller Campbell's sometimes are 50 cents.

Dunno what size cans of tomatoes, but I never pay more than a buck, and still have some of the 28oz cans of Redpack I got for 69 cents last year.

So...

Turkey- $4.50
beans- 2.50
tomatoes- 2.80
(I already have enough stuff in the spice rack to do the job for chili.)

That leaves you $1.20 for extra spices, salad and cornbread.

I guess it could be done if you are very lucky, very savvy, or don't get caught shoplifting. And those 10 people better not be too hungry.

well, and the ground turkey. And even with a mix, you'd need some type of oil, egg, milk or something for the cornbread.

in the salad. Missed if they said anyuthing about that in the article.

Cornmeal, flour, milk, eggs, shortening... all those could be considered staples grabbed from the pantry and thus really cheap.

I notice that not only are some of the kids really young, nobody gets a lot to eat at their place.

Yeah, if you gotta do what you gotta do, you can feed everyone for around a buck a meal, although most people won't deal with the effort or the sacrifice.

I know I make a lot of meals for under a buck when I hit the freezer and pantry for stuff I bought on sale or in bulk, but those aren't exotic, or even interesting, by any means.

It's not easy. I don't have the willpower to do better than $130. You have to buy in bulk and make EVERYTHING from scratch and eat little meat.

If I had a big garden it would be a cakewalk. Even more so if I had some laying hens, lol.

WTF?!? They don't have a sink?

lightning blew out their well pump so they have no water until they repolace it.

Things do come somewhat cheaper in the South when compared to other parts of the country. My wife and I spend $100/week for the two of us and eat like a king and queen. We always have meat to BBQ, ground turkey for tacos or taco salad or burritos, veggies. Even here in San Diego, we are able to get close to this family's budget if we so wanted. We have a new store called Fresh & Easy and their milk and eggs are CHEAP!!

12 eggs: $1.59
1/2 Gal Mill: $1.89
Oil: $2.99
Bread: $1.99

And then there's the Henry's, Boney's, Sprouts, Frazier Farms group of stores and we get all the majority of our produce there for close to 1/2 the cost of your standard chain grocery store (i.e. Albertsons, Vons, Kroger, Ralphs, Stater Bros.). Buying in bulk is also a big way to save money. We fill our spice jars for pennies on the dollar when comparing the price to a new jar of any particular spice.

Why do I shop at the chain grocery store?

BEER! :)