Food Stamps Challenge Day 5 and 6

This is a series for the Food Stamps Challenge. 

You can read Day 1 here and Days 2, 3, and 4 here.

Our remaining Food Stamps balance from day 4 was $22.34.

Day 5 and 6 Breakfasts

We had coffee and tea, as usual for both days. I had one fruit leather strip for .50 We really aren't huge eaters in the morning.

Total for breakfast: .50 
Remaining Food Stamps: $21.84

Day 5 and 6 Lunches

On day 5 for lunch we had leftover cabbage soup (FREE).

On day 6 we had leftover cucumber salad (FREE).

I am seeing how great leftovers can be and soups really seem to stretch the best. I like this idea!

Day 5 and 6 Dinners

Dinner for day 5 was cucumber salad. We bought enough cucumber salad to feed eight people. The cucumbers were $2 (.50 each x4). The rest of the ingredients were condiments which don't count toward our total. We also had rice (one bag for $1.49) and still have rice leftover for tomorrow.

Dinner on day 6, we splurged. We feel a little guilty but we needed something junk food like. So we had gluten-free cheese pizza. The dough mix was $3.79, the sauce was $2.39 and the cheese was $3.99 for a total of $10.17, which isn't as bad as expected since the cheese was on sale. I felt like I ate a horse! It was very good!

My friend made chicken Parmesan and I have to tell you, that was hard! I stared at it longingly and wandered back up to my apartment knowing I couldn't eat it. I love her chicken Parmesan! *sniffle*

Total for dinners: $13.66
Remaining food stamps: $8.18 (OUCH!)

Overview of the Food Stamps Challenge so far

I am really noticing that, compared to other people, we don't eat a lot of food. I think if we ate like most of our friends, this would be a lot harder. The hardest part so far is not buying ice cream, hummus and chips, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, soda, canned tea and other foods that are our junk foods. 

I will have to retry this without the kids too because I think it would definitely be more of a challenge on one person because of the way foods are priced. I did see broccoli on sale today and I am definitely going to buy some for tomorrow.

I noticed I am looking at foods for the lower prices and paying attention to sales more. With our limited diet though, this has been interesting because, in a few cases, I have had to step outside my comfort zone (like cucumber salad for dinner).

I am also rationing my coffee much more carefully and I am hoping it makes it to Sunday without having to buy more or skipping coffee. I would die without my coffee!