For a recent MSNBC article Eating well on a food stamp budget, chef and restaurateur Bill Telepan accepted a challenge to live on a food stamp budget. Telepan didn't sacrifice his values (organic, unprocessed foods), but he also came in $20 over budget.
This made me wonder how well I could feed my family on a food stamp budget. We try to eat organic when we can, but it's not all the time. I shop the sales, use coupons, and usually don't shop at the more expensive stores like Whole Paycheck.
At the end of 2009, the national average food stamp benefit for a family of four was $68.88 per week, or $17.22 per person. Food stamp officials make sure to explain that the program is "meant to supplement a household's food budget, not be its only spending", but I'm planning to try to stick to a budget of $86.10 per week ($17.22 x 5 family members) just to see how healthy we can eat on that amount.
If you'd like to see just what you can do on a food stamp budget, join me in the challenge. I'm heading it up over on the Living Simple & Green message board on iVillage. We'll be sharing our troubles, triumphs, advice, recipes and meal plans and we'd love to have you along for the ride!
7 comments:
Love this idea, though I don't know how accurate things would be right now...I'm determined to clean out my freezer before the veggies come in full force!
I seriously would like to know how a family is supposed to live on that budget... Maybe it is time congress (et al) lived on that same food budget!
My sister who lives in England recently did a £2 a day challenge for her and her husband (£4 a day total). For a week, they ate on £28 (~$42). She included a LOT of organic and local foods.
On her blog, she includes recipes, photos, and a break down of all costs (including cost per serving of each meal!).
http://lessandlessandmore.wordpress.com/category/2-a-day/
I am going to try it to see how we do. I'll be the same amount as you since we have 5 in our familia!
We live off of far less than the $172.20 we would be allotted. I get 2 big boxes of door to door organics fruit and veggies for about $70/week. I buy flour, sugar, yeast, honey, meat, cheese and beans in bulk. My issue would be the way the money is distributed. I spend about $2000/year on 1 1/2 cows, 3 pigs, and 40 chickens, but that is a one time lump sum expense. I buy organic flour in $250 increments, but my flour costs are about $ .50/pound.
We spend an additional $120/month on milk. I guess adding everything up, we spend about $165/week on food. So perhaps we are not much under the budget after all. However, I could save money on veggies and fruit and I will this summer at farmer's markets. Also, our big garden will cut those fruit and veggie costs way down too.
Katie
Hi,
I like this post because it is informative and helpful to all readers. I would like to revisit this post.
Thanks,
Green Certified
Hi,
This post is very important because it has content which is useful to all.
Thanks,
Green Certification
Post a Comment