Snap Challenge Day Three:

Well it looks like I have some catching up to do.  This doesn't surprise anyone :P

Friday was day three, and the day we broke.  I still made food that would fit the challenge and it was a challenge for sure.  I had worked in the garden all afternoon and for some ungodly reason it's still 85 degree in October.  So I was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than I cocktail.  The issue with that being the alcohol can't be brought with SNAP money.  So after calling my husband and thinking about it some I caved in.  So we had cocktails with dinner and I fell asleep on the couch at 8:45.

What we ate:
                    Breakfast: I can't remember, clearly unimpressive
                    Lunch:  Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Brown Rice, string cheese
                    Dinner: Homemade pizza with meat and veggies

SNAP Challenge Day Two:

Yesterday was calmer.  I did a bit more shopping, we magically ran out of milk in record time, and I found a sale on crackers.   All of us are STARVING by the time the next meal comes around, so hopefully the crackers with maybe some peanut or cheese will help.  We're also nearly out of fresh fruit and I can see that's going to be an issue come to the end of the month.

I have a bit of a tangent now, but one that I feel that is important.  We have friends over once a week for dinner.  The number can range anywhere from 2 extra people to 10!  I feed them a solid meal and we have a good time.   Folks came over on Wednesday, which was the first day of our challenge.  No problem, I thought, and for the first Wednesday it wasn't, but the last Wednesday could be an issue.  Now I believe this happens often to people on the SNAP program.  Humans are social creatures, and everyone I know likes foods.  The issue is the government doesn't gives two shit about our get togethers.  We can make dinner for extra people, but there isn't some hotline I can call and ask for more money.  Could you imagine,  "Hello, I'm having a dinner party tomorrow for 6 extra people, could you give me an extra 8 dollars"?  "Oh sure, it's in your account now, as well as free tuition,  and that pony you've always wanted".  Yea..... So I guess we'll carry on bravely, but I do have concerns for sure.

Ok, so back to day two and the food we ate.
Breakfast: Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Bake with Plain Greek Yogurt.
Lunch:  Turkey and cheese sandwich, carrots with hummus, string cheese
Dinner: Homemade Shake and Bake Chicken, Brown Rice, and Acorn Squash that I grew!
Dessert: On Sale Cookies, because without sugar last night, I would have killed someone!

All around filling meals.  This is the recipe for the Blueberry Banana Bake.  This girl rocks my socks off, and everything she makes is magic.

SNAP Challenge Day One: The Shopping Trip

Normally I love grocery shopping.  Walking down each aisle, seeing what's on sale, seeing what other people are buying, giggling at the college students trying to piece together a meal, it's great.  Yesterday was a whole different experience.  Let me start off by saying that I'm a fairly decent shopper and cook.  I don't like to buy processed foods, and enjoy trying to eat different foods.  I've been on a budget before, so I figured shopping with a hard number would be easy.  How wrong I was.
It started off poorly.  I couldn't find my list!  The list that I had thought about of a couple days.  The list that had the bulk of our food of the month.  Bad omens were afoot.  Listless I went, and started the usual wander.  Things actually weren't too bad.  I paid attention to prices, and brought things that could be used in several meals.  Then came the meat department.  Quick side note; I didn't portion our money by week.  I had 360 dollars and was going to use the bulk of it today.  Ok, so the meat department.  I wanted ground turkey, burger, chicken, and pork.  No chance in hell.  They didn't have ground turkey, and ground burger was nearly 4 dollars a pound for the crappy stuff.  So chicken and pork it is, and fortunately the prices were reasonable.  I brought what I hope is a months' worth of meat and carried on.

I was nearly done, the cart was getting full, and the I had a panic!  "Oh my God, I have no idea how much I'm going to spend today!  What if I go over?  What will I put back, I need everything!"  Suddenly an activity that brings so much pleasure was a chore, and the checkstand was a mortal enemy.  The cupboards at home had nothing so I persevered.  I had an entire belt full of groceries, mainly consisting of meat proteins, canned goods, and staples;like Bisquick, eggs, and some veggies and frozen fruits.  I would build this up to be super climatic, and that the checker rang me up to a total in which I would have to take a second mortgage on my home, but it was nothing like that.  We chatted pleasantly about the screaming child that had just left, and how nice it was outside.  The total bill wasn't bad, very doable in fact.  I spent 202.58!  I've spent way more than that without even trying, so I felt I was doing pretty well.
Some things I will have to restock, like dairy, and fresh fruits and veggies, but overall not too bad.  I t was alarming to me how stressful it was though.  I was EXHAUSTED when I got home!  So there we go, major shopping done, mission accomplished!

Other than my shopping and worry things were fairly normal for us on Wednesday, though all three of us were absolutely starving before each meal,  We couldn't get dinner in us fast enough, and all went back for seconds.  We had friends over, but I think I'll write about that a bit later since this is God awful long already.

So we ate:
Breakfast:  Sally and Josh, bowl of Cheerios, banana, coffee  Katherine, Cream of Wheat, banana, coffee.
Lunch: Peanut butter and Jelly, carrots, goldfish.  I didn't have goldfish I had string cheese
Dinner:  Turkey Nachos with the fixings(I already had the turkey, it was deducted from the budget)
We all thought the nachos were the greatest thing known to mankind and will be made again for sure!
There you have it!  A long winded description of my day and now we are on to day two!                      

SNAP Challenge.

Holy cow, I can't believe this thing is still here!  Way to save me the time of making a new blog internet; 20 points to Gryffindor :)  New post, which not surprisingly involves food.

Most of us have had the experience of little or nothing in our fridge and cupboards.  You groan and go to the store for the necessary things.  Most don't even think about how taxing this can be on the psyche.  Now picture that you go to the cupboards, find them bare and don’t have the money to buy more food.  You spent your allotted amount the government has given and won't receive more money until the next month.  The date is determined by the last digit of your SSN, so potentially you could have to wait until the 9th of the month. This scenario could be the case for over 1.2 million people.  For quite some time Congress has argued whether 4 dollars per day per person is enough to live on.  Many say yes, and in fact that amount should be cut.  Simply by googling “governors taking SNAP challenge” I had a page worth of articles.  Most realized very quickly that having a pastry and large coffee every morning wasn't going to fly, but then came the more basic needs of fresh fruits and veggies.  Was there enough money for those?  What about good lean proteins?  They experienced first-hand; though for only a month what it was like to live on 4 dollars a day.  The term “SNAP challenge” was born.  I along with my husband and roommate have decided to take on this challenge. So, here we go!

Players:  Josh, male, 29 years
              Katherine, female, 23 years
              Sally female, 28 years

Scenario:    We're playing by the governments SNAP rule which are here.   In Oregon the average amount given is 127.43 dollars per person per month.  I'm going to shoot for 120 per person.   I do LOTS of canning, and we'll use some of those cans, especially those with the food that I grew myself.  This will be a thirty day challenge.  I or someone in the house will make all the meals.  3 meals a day, thirty days, my math says that comes out to about a dollar and thirty three cents per meal.  A small latte at Starbucks cost most than that!
I'm not going to throw away any food that I have already, it would probably make my head explode.  I've put it in a separate cupboard, and if we use it, I'll deduct it from our food bill if we use it.

Predictions:  I can already feel the anxiety about this.  I’m looking forward to this, but feel that pressure to make foods my family is use it, within our new budget.  Coffee is also a HUGE vise for us, me especially so we'll see how long it takes before I break.  Or will I?  Am I willing to dip into our budget for a luxury item?  We’ll see, I guess.  Alcohol, is another item that food stamps doesn’t support.  When I told Josh this his thoughts were “I'm getting student loans, I'll use those to buy the stuff”  I have to wonder how often this happens.  I also believe we will feel the pinch of no fresh fruits and veggies.  It’s the off season that there isn't a lot of fruit on sale, so frozen it is.

Ok so there it is.  Day One is October 1^st.