Weekly Menu Planning for Singles, Couples, and Working People

Spend an afternoon perusing family-oriented frugality blogs, you’ll discover there are a few recurring themes. Among them: yard sales, thrift store shopping, a widespread love of free shampoo, and of course, weekly menu planning.

Menu planning, it’s argued, will streamline evenings in the home. Ma and Pa are saved money, time, and mounds of frustration because they know what the brood’s having for dinner days ahead of time. There’s no scrambling in the kitchen or supermarket, since both shopping and cooking are refined to a science. Kids (sometimes) get to have a say in what they eat, too, which makes the whole thing a family activity rather than merely a parental chore.

All in all, it’s a fantastic strategy. Even better, EVERYBODY can use it.

See, while weekly menu planning for non-families is a rare topic around the blogosphere, it’s just as monumentally helpful for post-collegiates, office workers, struggling singles, and young couples. It even offers extra benefits, mostly involving time management. Like:

• You’re saved from 8pm post-work dinner freakouts, because dinner is ALWAYS planned.
• Ingredients are guaranteed to be on hand.
• Cooking goes much faster, since you go in knowing how to prepare a meal (by instinct or through print-out recipes).
• You eat healthier, as home-cooked meals are generally much more nutritious than calorie-laden takeout or heat-and-eat dinners (Hot Pockets, Hungry Man, etc.).
• Grocery shopping goes waaaaay faster. You go in knowing exactly what you want, and don’t have to blow an extra half-hour wandering around. Case in point: last night, using my weekly menu plan, I did all my shopping in 59 minutes, door to door, WALKING. In that time, I hit two stores, the further of which is about a half-mile away. Woo!
• Extra trips to the grocery store are mostly eliminated.
• You can plan for leftovers for office lunches. This is huge, personally speaking, because turkey sandwiches get tired 40,000 times in a row.
• You always have food for those bag lunches (the night before, no less), saving you $30 per week, or around $1500 per year.
• For budgeting purposes, you can pretty much estimate the cost of your bill to the dollar.
• There’s less food waste, because you’re buying only what you need.
• It allows for variety during the week, since you’ve got all the ingredients on hand anyway.

But how to begin? How do you organize this stuff? How do you create a weekly menu and grocery list without it taking a billion, gazillion years?

The answer: I don’t know. Everybody has their own system, based on what works best for them. But here’s what The Boyfriend and I do currently:


STEP 0
Create a new word document
This is what you’ll be typing, cutting, and pasting to. It’s much easier than writing everything down, and at the end, you can print out the grocery list, weekly menu, and recipes all at once.


STEP 1
Make a quick grocery list of what you need
What groceries are running low? What foods do you eat regularly from week to week? This is my most recent list:

Cereal
Cumin
Deli ham or turkey (for lunches)
Eggs
Fruit (for breakfast and lunch)
Meat (general)
Yogurt (for lunches)


STEP 2
Brainstorm the dinners you want to eat this week
New dishes? Old favorites? Seasonal experiments? Whatever you’re in the mood for, list ‘em here, with special attention paid to food you need to use up before it goes bad. This is also a good time to take a cursory glance at your local online circulars. Entire menus can be built around loss leaders (biggest bargains).

This week, our dinner list includes:

• Chickpea and Bread Soup from the Kitchn
• Spinach Rice Casserole from Tammy’s Recipes
• Brunch Clafouti from Serious Eats
• Spiced Chicken with Tangerine Sauce from Cooking Club
• Curry Cauliflower Soup with Honey from Sunday Nite Dinner
• Pasta with veggies
• Turkey burgers with rice and frozen veggies

For the sake of convenience, cut and paste each new recipe IN ITS ENTIRETY into your document. That way, you can print it up and consult it when you’re cooking.

(Note: I cook a lot of new dishes for both Serious Eats and CHG, so chances are your list will be a lot less complicated.)


STEP 3
Make a rough menu
Based on what you have in the fridge, what you’re planning for the week, and what you usually have, create a weekly menu. Take care to note when you won’t be home for a meal. Yours can be simple or complex, but I might start off pretty low-key until you get the hang of it. Here's ours:

WEDNESDAY
Lunch: sandwich, leftovers yogurt, Kix, fruit
Dinner: Spinach Rice Casserole with leftover Irio

THURSDAY
Lunch: Leftover casserole, salad, fruit, yogurt
Dinner: The Boyfriend OUT; Me - Chickpea and Bread Soup w/asparagus

FRIDAY
Lunch: Leftover soup and/or casserole or sandwiches, fruit, yogurt
Dinner: Both OUT @ comedy show

SATURDAY
Brunch: Brunch Clafouti
Dinner: Both OUT @ friends’ house for dinner

SUNDAY
Brunch: Omelets, toast, and fruit
Dinner: Spiced Chicken Breast w/tangerine Sauce and Cauliflower-Honey Soup

MONDAY
Lunch: Leftovers, crackers, fruit
Dinner: Pasta with veggies

TUESDAY
Lunch: Sandwiches, popcorn, fruit
Dinner: Turkey burgers with rice and frozen veggies

(Note: 90% of our weekday breakfasts consist of cereal [or homemade whatever], so we don’t list them. Also, we keep our beverages limited to coffee, beer, and water. This way, we’re always awake, tipsy, and hydrated, just the way we like it.)


STEP 4
Add additional ingredients to the grocery list
Now that you have a concrete menu, add your new needs to the foods you listed in STEP 1. Mine are at the bottom here, for the recipes I plan to make:

Cereal
Cumin
Deli ham or turkey (for lunches)
Eggs (for Clafouti and otherwise)
Fruit (for breakfast and lunch)
Meat (general)
Yogurt (for lunches)
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas (for Chickpea Soup)
4 cups beef stock (for Chickpea Soup)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock (for Cauliflower Soup and Tangerine Chicken)
3/4 a baguette (for Chickpea Soup)
9 or 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves (for Casserole)
1 1/2 cup fresh fruit (for Clafouti)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (for Tangerine Chicken)
1/2 cup tangerine juice (for Tangerine Chicken)
2 tangerines (for Tangerine Chicken)


STEP 5
Go through circulars (thoroughly this time)
Now that you have a general plan, comb your online (or paper) circular for sale items corresponding to your list. If you have coupons, this is a good time to see if there are any good discounts.

One more thing: if you see something you love but don’t need on mega-sale, go for it. For example, I don’t NEED red peppers this week, but I use them frequently for salads, pastas, and whatnot. So, I’ll probably pick up a few because $1.99 is a good price. If beans were on sale, I’d be all over that, too. But they’re not. Boo.

This week, this was on sale from my list:

SUPERMARKET #1
Chicken Breast - $1.69/lb (for Tangerine Chicken)
Bananas – 2lb/$1 (for breakfasts/lunches)
La Yogurt – 2/$1 (for lunches)
Oranges – 8/$2 (for breakfasts/lunches)
Red Peppers - $1.99/lb (for whatever)

SUPERMARKET #2
Cantaloupe - $0.99/ea (for breakfasts/lunches)
Blueberries - $1.99/6oz (1-1/2 cups for Clafouti)
Eggs – 2/$3 (for Clafouti and otherwise)


STEP 6
Finalize the list
Okay, stocks weren’t on sale. Neither were tangerines, chickpeas, baguettes, cold cuts, or spinach. So now, I assign them to a grocery store that I think will have the lower price.

In the end, my list looks like this:

SUPERMARKET #1
Chicken Breast - $1.69/lb (for Tangerine Chicken)
Bananas – 2lb/$1 (for breakfasts/lunches)
La Yogurt – 2/$1 (for lunches)
Oranges – 8/$2 (for breakfasts/lunches)
Red Peppers - $1.99/lb (for whatever)
2-15 oz. cans chickpeas (for Chickpea Soup)
2 tangerines (for Tangerine Chicken)
1/2 cup tangerine juice (for Tangerine Chicken)

SUPERMARKET #2
Cantaloupe - $0.99/ea (for breakfast and lunch)
Blueberries - $1.99/6oz (1-1/2 cups for Clafouti)
Eggs – 2/$3 (for Clafouti and otherwise)
Cereal
Cold cut ham or turkey (for lunches)
4 cups beef stock (for Chickpea Soup)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock (for Cauliflower Soup and Tangerine Chicken)
3/4 a baguette (for Chickpea Soup)
9 or 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves (for Casserole)

(Note: I get cumin in bulk from an ethnic grocer on the walk home, so it’s not included here.)

~~~

And that’s it. Now, after only 40 minutes of planning, I have an exact grocery list AND menu for the whole week. Plus, I’m guaranteed to save money on sale items, prepare healthy foods, and have plenty to bring to the office. And that’s good for everyone involved.

Readers, how about you? Do you menu plan? What’s your plan like? How might you change this one? Fire away in the comments section.

City Kitchen Chronicles: Not Your (Well, My) Grandma’s Cabbage Soup

City Kitchen Chronicles is a bi-weekly column about living frugally in Manhattan. It's penned by the lovely Jaime.

My grandmother died a few years ago, and it’s interesting what bits of life remind me of her. Thanksgiving’s transitioned from a huge affair crammed into her studio apartment to a holiday I associate with cooking in my mother’s kitchen, and for Passover the family’s now scattered to all corners of the Earth. But some things still always remind me of her. Namely, Scrabble and cabbage soup.

Grandma was a FIERCE Scrabble player. I never actually went up against the woman myself, but when I was twelve or so I played against my cousin, whom she’d taught, and damn. I consider my self a pretty word-smart person, but I got my rear kicked but good. It was only after Scrabulous took over Facebook that I got a hang of the strategies of the game. Every time I kick some rear myself now, I think of Grandma and how proud she’d probably be.

And then there’s cabbage soup. I don’t remember Grandma being a major cook, but this recipe, like her Scrabble prowess, is famous within our family. I remember my mom making this soup, having somehow gotten the recipe off her mother-in-law, and though it’s probably been fifteen years, I still remember how great it was – an old-world recipe full of beef bones and soup-plumped raisins, it was delicious, sweet and savory and an effective way to get a seven-year-old to eat – even love eating – cabbage.

And so just like when I’m clicking virtual Scrabble tiles around the internet, when I make my cabbage soup I think of my Grandma. Other than being a soup with cabbage in it, it’s nothing like her recipe – it’s vegan, for starters, and sour and spicy. There’s no delicious marrow to suck out of bones, just cubes of baked tofu soaking up the broth. But still, when I ladle the cabbagey broth into a bowl, I think of her. The thought actually forms as a silent “Hey Grandma.” Cause it’s always nice, once in a while, just to say hey.

I found this soup on the inimitable Vegan Yum Yum. I believe it was the soup that inaugurated last winter’s new (and my first) soup pot. I made several batches over the course of the cold months, to the point that I was only not-sick enough of it by last week to bring it back for this year. Lolo at Vegan Yum Yum claims to have just, like, thrown this soup together – “Today I found myself with a cute little organic cabbage in my refrigerator, but not much else. I also had some baked tofu and some carrots, and after looking in the fridge a million times, I had an idea for a soup.” Um, okay, genius girl. This thrown-together experiment turned out to be hella delicious – a little sweet, a little sour, a little spicy (or more, if you’re of a stronger constitution than I), it’s a veritable party in your mouth. Full of veggies, free of bad stuff, cheap, delicious, and easy.

I’ve made a couple of changes to Lolo’s recipe – She calls for carrots, but I don’t like cooked carrots, so I leave those out. I can’t bear to dirty my food processor pureeing a can of tomatoes, and couldn’t find cheap crushed tomatoes, so some tomato paste plus extra water does the trick. I’ve previously made this recipe with store-bought baked tofu, but this time I used TheKitchn’s guidelines to bake my own. Not as flavorful as store-bought, but much cheaper, and still better than plain.

Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup
Serves 6. 
Adapted from Vegan Yum Yum


1 tbs oil
1 small onion, minced
1 small cabbage, about the size of a grapefruit, cored and shredded
1 small can (about 6 tbs) tomato paste
7 1/4 cups water
1 package of tofu, baked w/ 1/4 c tamari
1/4 cup tamari, low sodium
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 tsp sugar
(or replace rice vinegar and sugar with 1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar)
1/2 - 1 tsp hot red chili flakes
1/2 tsp salt

1) In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion. Cook 6 to 10 minutes, until golden, stirring occasionally.

2) Add tomato paste to water, mixing well. (You can mix the paste into a smaller quantity of the water, say 1 cup, if that’s easier.)

3) Add tomato paste/water mix and cabbage to the pot and stir well.

4) Add tofu, tamari, vinegar, chili flakes and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover. Drop the heat to medium low. Simmer until cabbage is soft and ready to eat, about 20 minutes.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
6 SERVINGS: 174 calories, 7 g fat, $0.89

Calculations
1 tbs oil: 120 calories, 13 g fat, $0.07
1 small onion, minced: 44 calories, 0 g fat, $0.30
1 small cabbage: 178 calories, 1 g fat, $1.20
1 small can (about 6 tbs) tomato paste: 81 calories, 0.5 g fat, $0.79
7 1/4 cups water: calorie- fat- and cost-free
1 package of tofu, pressed and baked: 513 calories, 28 g fat, $1.85
(1 package tofu, 1/4 c tamari)
1/4 cup tamari: 43 calories, 0 g fat, $0.36
1/4 cup rice vinegar: 0 calories, 0 g fat, $0.65
4 tsp sugar: 65 calories, 0 g fat, $0.05
1/2 - 1 tsp hot red chili flakes: 0 calories, 0 g fat, $0.02
1/2 tsp salt: 0 calories, 0 g fat, $0.02
TOTAL: 1044 calories, 42.5 g fat, $5.31
TOTAL/6: 174 calories, 7 g fat, $0.89

Tuesday Megalinks: U2esday (U-Tuesday?) Edition

U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon, comes out today. To celebrate, we’re peppering our (mammoth) list of links with some of our favorite songs by Bono and the boys. Really, it’s like a national holiday. I can’t wait until Edgesgiving or LarryMullenJrmas.

Backwoods Home: Canning 101
If you go by personal finance blogs, libertarian-leaning Backwoods Home is the hottest magazine on the market right now. And this comprehensive, but eminently readable article on canning is a good example of why. (Thanks to Frugal Dad for the link.)

Casual Kitchen: How to Enjoy Wine on a Budget
Dan makes several greats point about the difference between frugal and expensive wines, but the best is undoubtedly: “it's highly likely that you can't tell.” True dat.

Consumerist: Sharing Restaurant Dishes is Becoming Slightly More Acceptable
It seems more and more folks are hitting eateries and splitting entrees. Part of it is explained by the economy. The other part, by commenter microcars: “My wife and I have always wanted to ‘split’ meals not because of thrift but because we are normally served double the amount we would ever eat!” In other words, it’s easy portion control.



Culinate: Kosher and Other Salts
Don’t know your kosher salt from your sea salt from your finishing salt? Me neither. But this helps.

The Digerati Life: Save On Groceries With Printable Online Grocery Coupons
Nice coupon site comp to go along with recent rundowns from Chow and Wise Bread. If you can’t find a certain coupon after perusing these three posts, it’s likely it doesn’t exist.

Epi-log: The Argument Against Organic Food
Organic foods may not be as safe, healthy, environmentally sound, abundant, or anti-corporate as you think. Bummer.

Jezebel: The Complicated Business Of Getting Women To Buy Crap
If this was a movie trailer, it would go like this:
“In a world…
Where it’s tough marketing junk food to weight-conscious ladies…
Ad companies…
Rely on rough stereotypes…
And our perceived neurosis…
To sell their wares…
Is it good?
Is it bad?
Only time – AND NICHOLAS CAGE - will tell…”

The Kitchn: Pantry Organization - Storing Many Half-Empty Bags in One Large Container
This … seems … so … intuitive … Yet … it never … occurred … to me … Am I … an idiot? … Probably … blerg.

The Kitchn: Put Down That Winter Tomato – It Was Picked By a Slave
“Slave” is a pretty potent word to throw around (especially since I just finished Beloved on Sunday), but it seems to fit here. The Kitchn follows up with good questions about the high cost of cheap produce.



Los Angeles Times: Grocers, name-brand food producers at odds over prices
A complex issue best summed by an article excerpt: “The nation's big grocery chains contend that food manufacturers have raised prices too fast and too far, considering large drops in prices for fuel, corn, wheat and other important commodities in recent months.” (Thanks to Serious Eats for the link.)

Los Angeles Times: Trim chefs share their fitness secrets
Wondering how Giada does it? These California chefs have some insight, and it mostly involves a lot of exercise. And maybe a little denial. (Thanks to Get Fit Slowly for the link.)

Mother Earth News: Cut Your Food Bills in Half
There’re a gazillion articles like this scattered across the ‘net, but rarely are the suggestions so concrete and well-considered. Excellent reading, and the best post I’ve seen of its kind.

New York Times: Brooklyn’s New Culinary Movement
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

New York Times: Study Zeroes In on Calories, Not Diet, for Loss
Recently, the biggest-ever controlled study on weight loss concluded: “people lose weight if they lower calories, but it does not matter how.” In other words, whether it’s Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, or whatever - as long as you’re monitoring your intake, you’re good to go.

New York Times: What’s Eating Our Kids? Fears About ‘Bad’ Foods
According to the NYT, we’re freaking our kids out with our overzealous damning of junk food. The prescription: moderation, moderation, moderation. (Very different from location, location, location.)



Pay Less for Food: Save Money Eating By Going Ethnic
The article’s got some good points, but I especially like the headline. It lets me imagine I can magically turn Indian or Mexican, like “Kris, you don’t have to be a pale white girl whose familial culinary legacy consists entirely of potatoes anymore! There’s spice out there! And peppers! AND HOPE!”

Real Simple: Reading Nutrition Facts Labels
Quick and dirty breakdown of nutrition labels, from the magazine industry’s foremost efficiency and sweater set experts.

Resolved Worship: Kitchen Makeover
What this woman does with $10, most people (self included) couldn’t do with $1,000. Is Trading Spaces hiring? Is Trading Spaces even on anymore? So many questions. (Thanks to Like Merchant Ships for the link.)

The Simple Dollar: A Walkthrough and Cost Breakdown of Brewing Your Own Beer
Verdict: if you’re a Pabst or Bud quaffer, no. If you prefer Dogfish Head and/or the refined flavors of upscale beer, yes.

Smart Spending: Devil’s advocate - Don’t brown-bag your lunch
Writer Jim Wang argues that buying your lunch gives you a mental break, gets you up and moving around, and lets you socialize with coworkers. And that could be more beneficial than the $6/day savings. Sometimes, I wonder if he’s right. My vision turns to pixels when I don’t leave my desk for awhile.

Smart Spending: She’s spending $1 a day on food
Wow. I’ve seen lots of $30/week challenges, and even a few $25/week challenges. But $1 per day? That’s rough. I couldn’t do it.



Thrifty Florida Mama: Thoughts on Frugal Food and Recipes
I love this post, because it illustrates the issue a lot of folks are having with food shopping lately. With grocery deals dwindling, they have to ask themselves if it’s easier to stockpile basics or go for cheaper, coupon-friendly processed meals. Thoughtful and relatable.

Time Magazine: How Consumers Shop Differently Today
American buying habits have changed drastically in the last year or so, and here, a retail expert explains the whys, hows, and whats. Most interesting? We’re purposely avoiding malls, since we don’t want to tempt fate. As an ex-Long Islander, this blows my mind.

Wise Bread: Cornmeal – Fresh Ideas for a Frugal Family Staple
Holy schmoly. Bazillions of recipe ideas for cornmeal, from fritters to bruschetta to hallacas to rolls to scones to spoonbread to cobbler to biscotti to … you get the idea.

And! To top everything off, CHG was included in two blog carnivals this week:

• Festival of Frugality #167: Green Panda Treehouse
• Make it From Scratch Carnival

Homemade Pizza, FTW

We New Yorkers are pretty chill about a lotta things. We grumble about expensive housing, dirty subways, and overcrowding, but considering our size, our reactions are pretty commensurate. In general, there’s not a lot of flipping out. Heck, in 2003, a region-wide blackout disabled most of the five boroughs for half a week IN AUGUST, and the entire city remained cooler than Andre 3000.

But god forbid you present us with substandard baseball, bagels, or pizza. They are our birthrights, and we will tweak mightily if they aren’t up to snuff. Those daily demonstrations in Union Square? Have nothing to do with Palestine or the evils of Capitalism. They happen because once, many years ago, a pissed-off NYU student was served a crappy bialy.

Which brings me to today’s recipe. Replicating New York pizza is impossible at home. I’ve had a few grilled slices that are decent imitations of brick-oven style pies, but nothing that would compete with your average experience at Ray’s. So, when I tried Money Saving Mom’s homemade crust (with The Kitchn’s prep directions), I was initially skeptical. Part of this came from my total inexperience with homemade pizza-making, and part of it came from … well, see: everything above.

Happily, it worked. The recipe yields a solid, medium-crust pizza - a little breadier than most versions, but not as thick as Sicilian-style pies. The Boyfriend and I found the whole shebang very tasty, and I’ve felt few moments of triumph sweeter than creating pizza from scratch. Graduating high school doesn’t compare.

Even better, the homemade pie costs less than $3 to make, total. With sauce and cheese. Toppings would add a bit more, but … $3. Seriously. (We added a cup of sautéed veggies for less than $1). Plus, you get a solid hour of entertainment to go along with it, as you watch your loved ones try to toss pizza dough. It’s pretty awesome.

Of course, if you go ahead with the pie, there are a few things to know:

1) When it comes to cheese, I usually buy blocks and grate it myself. It’s almost always cheaper, and for some reason, it tastes better than the pre-grated stuff. Pioneer Woman agrees.

2) The fat and calories of this particular homemade pizza is comparable to store-bought pies. Still, there’s the advantage of knowing exactly what’s going into it. And that’s fun.

3) If you’d like a thinner-crust pie, roll the dough out more and use a larger pan (maybe even a cookie sheet?) to hold the crust. OR only make a ¾ batch. Toppings, sauce, and cooking time can be increased or decreased proportionately.

4) The parchment paper (which is VERY different from wax paper) is key. The pie practically slid off the pan when we removed it from the oven. As an alternative, MSM suggests greasing the pan.

5) Don’t fear the yeast. This is my first time using the stuff, and things went surprisingly smoothly.

Folks, how do you make pizza? What kind of toppings? Tips? Tricks? Do tell.

Homemade Pizza
Adapted from Money Saving Mom and The Kitchn.
Makes one 12-inch pie, yielding 8 small pieces pizza

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup barely lukewarm water (test with your finger)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup flour
Parchment paper
Pizza pan

1/2 – 3/4 cup your favorite tomato sauce
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella

Lean topping options: sautéed vegetables, pineapple, Canadian bacon, sweet Italian turkey sausage, grilled chicken with barbecue sauce and cheddar

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2) Dissolve yeast in the water with a whisk or spoon. Add rest of the ingredients and mix with a spoon, until it becomes a single lump of dough.

3) Dump lump on to a lightly floured surface. Knead dough for at least five minutes, adding a tablespoon or two of flour every minute. At the end, it should be smooth, elastic, and a little moist, with no real visible flour left on the surface. (Check the Money Saving Mom site for a picture.) It SHOULDN’T stick like gum to the table or rolling pin. If this happens, add more flour and keep kneading.

4) Shape the dough into a thick disk. With a rolling pin or the heel of your hand, massage the dough into a roughly circular shape, big enough so the edges would just be outside your pizza pan. If you want to try tossing it, go crazy. (The Boyfriend did this, and it actually came out pretty well.)

5) Cut a piece of parchment paper to match exactly over the pizza pan. Spread the dough on the parchment paper, and fold the edges of the dough over to make a crust.

6) Spread the sauce on the dough, using the back of a spoon. Then, evenly spread your desired toppings on top of the sauce. (Make sure all veggies and meat are cooked beforehand.) Bake for 11 to 14 minutes.

7) Remove pizza from oven, closing the door quickly to retain heat. Top pie with cheese. Stick it back in the oven for another 4 to 6 minutes.

8) Let pizza sit for five minutes.

9) Eat. Rejoice. Drink beer.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per SLICE
255 calories, 6.7 g fat, $0.35

Calculations
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast: 35 calories, 0.6 g fat, $0.86
1 cup lukewarm water: negligible calories and fat, FREE
1 teaspoon sugar: 16 calories, 0 g fat, $0.01
1 teaspoon salt: negligible calories and fat, $0.01
2 tablespoons vegetable oil: 247 calories, 28 g fat, $0.18
3 cups flour: 1365 calories, 3.8 g fat, $0.27
1/2 – 3/4 cup your favorite tomato sauce: 90 calories, 3 g fat, $0.44
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella: 288 calories, 18 g fat, $1.00
TOTAL: 2041 calories, 53.6 g fat, $2.77
PER SLICE (TOTAL/8): 255 calories, 6.7 g fat, $0.35
NOTE: Calculations are for a plain pie. Toppings will change the numbers.