For those of you who don't live in the USA, foods stamps are vouchers that you can get from the government that you can exchange for food.
Although, now they are electronic debit cards instead of paper vouchers. They changed the program name to SNAP also, which stands for “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”.
What is a food stamp/ SNAP challenge?
Oh it’s easy. Pretend you are on food stamps and only buy food on the budget you would have if you were actually receiving food stamps.
How much is that?
For the Houston Food Stamps Challenge, introduced to me by my writing friend, Michy, that is only $4 a day per person.
But I have a tiny advantage. I am actually on food stamps. My family of three gets $526 a month for food and most of the time, that is all we have for a food budget.
I did the food stamps math
$526 a month X 12 months = $6312 a year for food
$632 a year for food / 365 days a year = $17.26 a day for food for three people.
OR $5.76 a day for one person to feed themselves 3 meals a day (assuming you eat three meals a day)
OR $1.92 a meal per person. Hungry yet?
Well good! Because my oldest son and I are going to do the food stamps challenge Houston style. Our meal budget will be $1.33 a meal!
The Food Stamps Challenge Rules
From the Houston Food Bank SNAP Challenge page, the guidelines are
SNAP Challenge Guidelines
Considering that we are two people doing this challenge together, our weekly food budget is $56. This includes all drinks and food bought, even eating out. We don’t eat out, so that isn't problem.
- Each person should spend no more than a total of $28 on food and beverages during the Challenge week.
- All food purchased and eaten during the Challenge week, including fast food and dining out, must be included in the total spending.
- During the Challenge, only eat of that you purchase for the project. Do not eat food that you already own (this does not include spices and condiments).
- You may not accept free food from friends, family, or at work, including at receptions, meetings or parties.
- Keep track of receipts on food spending, and take note of your experiences throughout the Challenge week.
So what’s the catch?
Here’s the part that will throw us. We have many food allergies, so we can’t just buy top ramen and call it good. We still have to plan our meals around foods we can eat.
Wait? There’s more?
AND In the spirit of the challenge, we are going to shop only locally. Usually we buy some foods locally and do a lot of our shopping out of town. But I know from my friends around here, that people can’t always afford to drive out of town to buy cheaper food.
We will be shopping at our local stores, on $4 a day per person, and posting our experiences throughout the week with menu plans.
Who’s with us? Want to try the Food Stamps Challenge?
3 comments:
I like how you added the local part to it. I'm considering limiting my trips to the store to once per week, because folks on food stamps can't always drive all over the place to multiple locations to get good deals (or maybe they only have one car and they can't just run to the store when they want), and I won't be using farmer's markets or my grass-fed beef farm and my raw milk farms because they don't take food stamps, so I wouldn't be able to do that on food stamps.
It's just one month, right? LOL
I have to say, food stamps challenge SUCKS when you don't leave town. I am missing a lot of good food (and cheaper food). At least we don't have big appetites LOL. That's a plus, right?
My husband and I eat for approx $50 each week, and we are not on food stamps. We eat very well.We eat meat everyday.We don't have a garden or chickens.We don't go 'grocery shopping' we go hunting for bargains, specials,and reduced food. We don't plan our meals in advance, but instead base our meals on the food we are able to obtain, and fill in our grocery list with required ingredients.We substitute whenever possible.We make our bread in a bread machine for pennies.We make a lot of food from scratch. We buy a lot of whole chickens and have the first couple of meals as roast dinners, then a simmersauce and rice meal,sandwiches, and then finally we make a soup with the carcass (this last for days). A roast pork will do the same thing. Cheap steak/pork makes a great stew. Add dumplings.
Buy fruit/vegs in season.
The best thing you can have is a positive attitude. Don't see it as derivation, but as a first step to gather control of your life.
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