Friday, June 08, 2007
Food Stamp Challenge: Day Six
Well, the Cornflakes are gone. I guess I'm having rice and broccoli for Breakfast tomorrow.
Suprisingly, it wasn't too hard to do, and tomorrow is the last day. I still have one box of mac and cheese, one chicken leg, plenty of rice, some pasta, the can of beans and a bit of broccoli left. It was incredibly monotonous, and I was ravenously hungry most of the day. Dinner, which was chicken or maybe the beef and mac with broccoli or spinach were the only really satisfying meals.
Breakfast would have been better with some fruit along with my cornflakes, and the soup for lunch would have been greatly enhanced with a sandwich.
I did cheat a bit. My cherry trees were fruiting, and so I grabbed an occassional handful of cherries. Technically, it wasn't cheating because I didn't pay for the cherries, but it made me feel guilty, as how many people on foodstamps have access to a cherry tree?
Suprisingly, it wasn't too hard to do, and tomorrow is the last day. I still have one box of mac and cheese, one chicken leg, plenty of rice, some pasta, the can of beans and a bit of broccoli left. It was incredibly monotonous, and I was ravenously hungry most of the day. Dinner, which was chicken or maybe the beef and mac with broccoli or spinach were the only really satisfying meals.
Breakfast would have been better with some fruit along with my cornflakes, and the soup for lunch would have been greatly enhanced with a sandwich.
I did cheat a bit. My cherry trees were fruiting, and so I grabbed an occassional handful of cherries. Technically, it wasn't cheating because I didn't pay for the cherries, but it made me feel guilty, as how many people on foodstamps have access to a cherry tree?
Labels: food stamp challenge, hunger
Friday, June 01, 2007
Food Stamp Challenge
You may recall that I wrote about the Food Stamp Challenge some days ago, and that it might be an interesting experiment to see what some poor people have to live on, which amounts to about three dollars a day according to the Challenge.
So, I'm going to start the Challenge tomorrow, June 2, and see what its like to subsist on three dollars a day.
Today, I made a trip to the Gian' Iggle, and here's what $21.00 bought me:
One box of store brand cornflakes, $1.99
One gallon of milk, $3.55
One 16oz box of pasta, $1.49
Two boxes of store brand mac & cheese, $.50 ($.25 apiece)
One 16oz bag of white rice, $.89
Five cans of store brand condensed chicken noodle soup at $.43 apiece, $2.15.
One whole chicken, $5.17
One 10oz box of frozen broccoli, $.79
One 10oz box of frozen spinach, $.89
One pound of ground round, $2.56
One 15.5oz can of kidney beans, $.65
Total cost: $20.63
I figure I can get four dinners out of the chicken, use the carcass to make soup which I can have with the pasta or rice, mix one box of mac and cheese with the kidney beans and the other with the beef for at least four more meals, use the canned soup for my lunches at work, cereal for breakfast, and the veggies with dinners.
None of this fits with my diet, but its just for one week and I was thinking on how to stretch things out. Normally, I spend about $40 a week on food, so the cash savings are going to the food bank.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
Labels: food stamp challenge
