Beans & Rice, Rice & Beans

If you've listened to Dave Ramsey's radio show for any length of time you've heard him say that to get serious about paying off debt you need to live on "beans & rice, rice & beans."  This phrase (I think) is more of a philosophical statement meant to encompass your approach to spending in all areas.

{image from delicious-cooks.com}

Fortunately for us, we happen to love beans & rice, rice & beans.  In fact, we eat it... every weekend... nearly all weekend (Smith Family Budget Reduction Strategy #3).  Before you think we're martyrs, let me just say that these are legit -- I mean fantastically, amazing, belly-filling, soul-gladdening beans.  Trey's mom fixed them for her family while he was growing up, and it was his very favorite meal.  We have this meal on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for dinner... and Saturday and Sunday for lunch, as well.  You may think this is excessive, but in many countries (say, Brazil, for instance) people eat beans and rice every single day.  Would you believe that this rhythm means that we only spend a few dollars to eat all 5 meals on the weekends?  Could you imagine what you could do with the money you saved?  Over the course of a month, that's 20 meals we've replaced -- with pennies on the dollar. 

Confession: When we were going down to one income, I just did not see how we could continue to support our Compassion and World Vision kids.  As we crunched the numbers and weren't sure that we could even afford health insurance for me, I asked Trey if we could cut out the $120 a month total we send to them.  I even imagined over the course of 6 years how much of that money could have been diverted to paying ahead on student loan debt (enter Shannon's wicked heart).  Trey was not receptive to this request.  In fact, he was dead set against it, and said that surely there would be a way that we could make this work. His reasoning was that if we could afford trips to the zoo or Netflix, we could re-prioritize to help put food in the tummies of hungry children.  As sometimes happens in our marriage, Trey was right... and I'm so glad he stood firm.

It's been months since we've been on our beans & rice routine, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized that the amount of money we are saving -- by eating food that our sponsored kids eat daily -- is the amount of money we needed to continue to sponsor them.  What's more, it stirs our heart towards gratefulness that He has so richly provided for us so that we can help others.

The up-side:

• Beans are a super food - packed with protein and rich in vitamins & minerals
• Dietary fiber - in this house, with these boys, any source of dietary fiber is a plus
• It's easy - one pot of beans takes us through the weekend
• It's cheap - huge bag of rice, huge bag of beans - eat like kings for months

The down-side:

• Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot
• Beans, beans they're good for you heart, the more you eat, the more you...

How we do it:

Around 1:00 on Friday afternoons, I do the following:

1.  Heat up stock pot
2.  Melt 2 TBSP bacon grease (reserved from bacon drippings a la Little House on the Prairie)
3.  Chop up 1/2 sweet onion and saute in bacon grease
4.  Rinse 1-1/2 pounds of pinto beans 
5.  Add beans to stock pot
6.  Fill stock pot with water 2 inches from the top
7.  Leave on a slow boil for 3-4 hours
8.  When husband get's home from work, have him magically season the beans with salt, sugar, and Cajun seasoning until it is practically perfect in every way.
   
9.  Throw rice in the rice cooker.
10.  Serve a bowl of rice covered in beans with plenty of bean broth
11. If you're really feeling froggy, grill some corn tortillas and put strips into your beans & rice
12.  Send me an e-mail thanking me profusely for having changed your life forever
13.  Replace the time you would have otherwise spent on cooking those four additional meals with way more exciting things.

Cost:
20lbs beans - $15 *HEB (that will get you through 66 meals) = 23 cents a meal
10lbs rice - $5 *Aldi (covers at least 30 meals)   = 17 cents a meal
1 sweet onion - $1 (covers 5 meals) = 20 cents a meal
Pack of white corn tortillas - $1.38 (covers 5 meals) = 28 cents a meal

If you're counting -- that's 88 cents a meal for our family of 4 (Ellie doesn't count yet).