The Food Stamp Experiment

Could you eat for a week on $33.04?

In California, the average person on food stamp assistance gets $4.72 per day…that is just $33.04 to buy all the food and beverages that they will consume in 7 whole days.

I know that I am blessed…I have a good job, a roof over my head and I don’t have to rely on state assistance to buy food. But what if I did? Could I make it on $33.04?

If you’ve read my blog, like, ever…you know I’m a busy girl and I’m usually eating on the run. It’s that eat-for-convenience kind of mentality that got me into trouble with my weight initially (well, that among other things). I make better choices when it comes to take-out food than I used to, but here’s the other thing about eating out all of the time: It’s expensive. OY! I know that I am definitely going to have to put in some effort if I want to take on this Food Stamp food-budgeting challenge.

I’ve decided to rise to the challenge…I am going to eat this week on the same budget that the average Californian on food stamp assistance does–$33.04.

First, I had to decide on THE RULES:

1. I would have exactly $33.04 to spend on food for the next seven days: Monday (today) through Sunday, November 20th.
2. I can incorporate some of the pantry items that I already have at home, but I would need to count them at the current store price.
3. Condiments (salad dressing, ketchup, soy sauce, spices) don’t count.
4. Eating clean and healthy is important—plenty of veggies, fruit, whole grains and lean protein. No processed junk!

With those rules in mind, I went grocery shopping yesterday after Sunday morning services. I ended up stopping by four different stores: Food Maxx, Safeway, Whole Foods and the Entenmann’s Oroweat outlet store.

Food Maxx is a discount grocery store here in Sonoma County. I’m not sure if there are other locations or not, but there are many similar chains. I thought they might have good prices on produce, and they’re really close to the Center for Spiritual Living so I headed there first. I bought most of my produce there (some items were half the price of Safeway, or less), plus some chicken breast.

From there I went over to Whole Foods because I had some coupons for items that aren’t carried in my regular grocery store.

After that, I headed a couple of blocks away to Safeway for a couple of miscellaneous items, and also to price out some items that I would be using out of my pantry at home.

Later in the day, after stopping by Mom’s shop and working on some stuff there for a couple of hours, I stopped by the Entenmann’s Oroweat outlet store in the same shopping center. This is a bakery outlet shop that sells bread, pastries and other baked goods that are a couple of days old and they sell them for cheap…often just a dollar or two for a loaf of bread that would cost $4-$5 at Safeway!

Here is my grocery haul for the week:

• 1 bunch of kale: $0.98
• 1 bunch of mustard greens: $0.98
• 1.35 lbs of broccoli crowns: $1.03
• 4 medium zucchinis: $1.31
• 1 bunch of cilantro: $0.50
• 1.5 packages of romaine hearts: $2.99

• 1 pineapple: $2.98
• 2 lbs of carrots: $0.88
• 1.61 lbs of Honeycrisp apples (a splurge—but I LOVE these apples!): $2.87
• 1.62 lbs of red seedless grapes: $3.21
• 1 avocado: $0.77
• 1 jalapeño pepper: $0.05

• 1.4 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast: $3.46
• 1 tub of Sabra roasted garlic hummus (regular $3.99 but I had a coupon for $1 off): $2.99
• 1 block of Neufchatel cheese: $2.00

• 1 loaf of Oroweat whole wheat bread: $1.00 (Got to love the bakery outlet!)

Now there are some items that I already had at home, and priced out according to the current prices at Safeway:

• 1/2 gallon of fat free milk: $2.00 (I have a gallon jug in my fridge that is about 1/2 full, a gallon costs $3.99 at Safeway right now)

Some staples I had on hand, which I purchased previously from the Whole Foods bulk bins and priced out according to today’s prices:

• 1.5 cups (or about 10 ounces) of black beans: $1.24
• 5 ounces of lentils: $0.64

An onion and some leftover mushrooms, which I also had at home—I weighed them on my food scale and priced them out according to the current price at Food Maxx where I bought my other produce:

• 1 yellow onion: $0.42
• 3.5 ounces of mushrooms: $0.66

And now here is where things get a bit tricky.

I had a stash of coupons that I got at our Fitbloggin’ Local Breakfast Summit and at the Foodbuzz Festival. While getting free boxes of cereal and crackers didn’t seem to be fair at first, since they were going above and beyond the $33.04 total…I decided that most everyone has access to coupons one way or another. You can get them online, or in the paper, or…fluttering around on the sidewalk maybe. Anyway, they might not all be for completely free items, but coupons can be stretched a long way regardless. (Ever seen that show Extreme Coupons? Or whatever it is called? Try not to watch it…it’s like a train wreck…you just can’t look away. And then you’ll find you spent half an hour watching people shop on TV for things they don’t need with a zillion coupons and you’ll feel like a total time-wasting loser. Just trust me, they make coupons work.)

ANYWAY…back to my coupons. Here is what I scored with some free coupons at Whole Foods:

• 1 box of Erewhon raisin bran cereal (regularly $4.99): FREE
• 1 box of Uncle Sam cereal (regularly $2.49): FREE
• 1 box of New Morning organic graham crackers (regularly $4.19): FREE
• 1 Attune probiotic chocolate bar (regularly $1.39): FREE

And last, but not least, I have two dozen eggs in my fridge that Farmer John delivered to the office last week. These were also free to me.

• Backyard farm fresh eggs from Farmer John’s chickens: FREE

And that’s it! That is the food that I am going to make last for 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners and a few snacks.

The GRAND TOTAL I spent…..$32.96. Eight cents shy of my limit.

My initial thoughts are that I didn’t plan this out very well. I am terrible at meal planning and I did not go to the store with a list. I think I over-bought fruit and under-bought protein and grains. I should have saved part of my budget for some rice or quinoa or something. Too late now…I’ll be eating pineapple and apples and grapes instead.

I will be documenting my meals on the Daily Eats tab here on the blog…I’ve been really bad about doing that for the last couple of weeks but I’m back on the wagon effective immediately…and I’ll be doing a general check-in too just to let you know how it’s going.

It could surely will get interesting.

Tagged as: challenge, experiments, food stamp, grocery shopping, Nutrition