Categories: Dieting & Weight Loss

Review: Hillbilly Housewife $45 Emergency Menu

As the new year started, my family recently found ourselves with some financial problems. Cash was a little slower at coming in than expected, and we were wondering how we were going to feed everyone. After an internet search, I came across the Hillbilly Housewife who claimed that we could feed ourselves well for a week on only $45. It was just too good not to give it a try!

After a closer perusal of the page, I realized that $45 would only feel four. To feed the six of us, I would have to spend an additional six dollars putting the total at $51, still a bargain. (We are frugal but still usually spend between $100 and $140 on groceries each week.) I read the menus, made a grocery list (one was provided but we already had some of the items so I modified it a bit), and set a start date of the next Monday.

The first step was a trip to the store. The Hillbilly Housewife assumes that you have nothing in your pantry and puts everything on her list right down to the salt and pepper. We already had all of the spices on her list as well as yeast and baking powder. We also took tea off the list because we prefer an herbal tea which we already had plenty of. Because of some experiments in the past, I was certain that my kids would not be willing to drink powdered milk, not even for one week. So I added two gallons of 2% milk to the list, and also a loaf of whole wheat bread so that I could make quick lunches for my girlfriend who is a teacher. Other than that I kept the list as is. We bought most of the things on the list at Aldi’s and the few that weren’t available there at P&C.; Our total was $75. The estimated prices for staples like eggs and sugar were much lower than the prices we paid. My thought is that the webpage had not been updated in awhile. $75 was still lower than what we usually pay though so we headed home with our purchases eager to try something new.

The Hillbilly Housewife’s plan is very simple to follow. She lists the things you need to do to prepare each meal daily step by step. Steps that need to be done the night before are listed on the appropriate day. All you need to do is read and follow each step. Sunday night, I mixed up the dough for six loaves of Overnight Bread, cleaned the kitchen, and went to bed eager to do some from scratch cooking the next day.

I was a bit skeptical about making homemade bread. I can turn out a decent loaf from the bread machine, but in the past, my efforts at regular oven baked bread did not come out very well. I was surprised the next morning to find that the overnight bread had risen well in spite of our chilly kitchen. I made my hungry brood some plain but filling pancakes and put the bread in the oven. It filled the house with a wonderful aroma, and we all had a taste as it came out of the oven. It was delicious!

The day proceeded as planned one meal after another. Lentil soup was for lunch, and pinto beans and hoe cakes were for dinner. Meals were complete with plenty of side dishes, and the food was rather plain but plentiful. No one went hungry following this plan. Even my fifteen year old son with the bottomless stomach was full.

The next day, I realized there was a problem though. The food was so labor intensive it seemed that I could never leave the kitchen. Many of the meals involved cooking dry beans, a time consuming process. There was also a lot of baking, usually twice a day. I found myself exhausted! Also the dishes were plain, and many of them were similar to each other. We quickly grew bored with the lack of variation, and I found myself adding my own seasonings and condiments to spice things up a bit.

We did find some recipes, in addition to the overnight bread, that were keepers. Burritos made with homemade refried beans were very good and inexpensive. In my version, I add chili powder, salsa, and cheese. Neither creamed tuna and peas, nor hot dog and veggie stir fry sounded very appealing, but both were delicious and will be on our menus in the future.

All in all, I do not recommend this menu plan to those struggling financially. You are probably better off modifying your own typical meal plan to include less expensive ingredients that your family is familiar with if you need to cut food costs.