The October Food Stamp Challenge is considered in full effect immediately.
As of 12:01am on October 1, 2011, we are officially on a food stamp budget in the total amount of $279.18.
As mentioned previously, this amount is equal to one month’s average SNAP benefits for two Alabama residents, plus 10% added to make up for the sales tax that would not be charged on an actual EBT card.
The image to the left is a scan of the actual card and the receipt verifying the amount of the purchase.
This video is a short introduction to the challenge as well as what we hope to accomplish by taking it.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Actually living on food stamps can be a lot more of a challenge than these “food stamp challenges”. My family of 5 (6 when my oldest son is here and not at his dad’s) gets $161 a month for food stamps and we frequently can’t afford anything beyond that for food. I do it, but only cbecause I have to. If our budget got bigger, my grocery bill would expand with it because it is TIGHT!
For as long as we’ve known one another I’m more than a bit surprised by your reaction to this challenge. As for the amount of money we are using, I stated the very first time I mentioned this idea that amount is based on the average amount a food stamp recipient gets in my state. I feel for your situation, but this is an effort to make things better and negative commentary from people who I would expect more from does nothing to further the dialogue.
Is this supposed to be a challenge? $279 for ONLY 2 people?
As a family of 5 we spend about $150. $200 if we are splurging and replenishing our bulk food.
I’m shocked at the amount people pay for food. Yes, prices are up. Use coupons combined with a sale, stockpile at rock bottom prices, buy bulk, glean fields, go to u-pick, buy at produce stands, cook from scratch, eat leftovers.
The only thing we purchase from stores are fruits/veggies, cheese, and bread( I should really get my own garden, though). Cereal, milk, juice, or other snacks only if I can get for free with coupons.
I’d love to do this type of challenge. How much does a family of 5 get??
Must be nice for some people to get the luxury of spending $279 for 2 on someone else’s dime (please tell me that was a typo).
Molly, I don’t know where you got your information, but I never stated that we were doing this one someone else’s dime. I’m not justifying the dollar amount again because if you’re not going to read all of the information I’ve written several times on this topic there’s no reason to continue to speak to deaf ears. I’m happy that you can feed 5 on $150, that’s quite an accomplishment and one of which you should be proud. I am quite adept at using coupons and have been a frugal living educator for quite a few years, so you’re preaching to the choir on that topic. Of course since you know nothing about me OR this challenge I wouldn’t expect you to have realized that. We are doing the challenge this month as the average person on food stamps and many of them don’t use (or know how to use) coupons. They also don’t have many fields to glean in major cities like Birmingham, Alabama where food deserts make it impossible for many people in the city to even find fresh food locally.
As for your wise words on stockpiling (which has its own problems, by the way), u-pick & produce stands (again, an issue for city dwellers) and cooking from scratch (which I do and will do for most of the challenge), I appreciate the input and would appreciate it more if it weren’t presented in such a negative and attacking manner.
If you have a problem with what we are doing here you’re welcome to go elsewhere. If you don’t have something constructive to add to the conversation, you’re encouraged to go elsewhere.
I know you are not doing it on “someone elses dime”……….but since you are doing a “food stamp” challenge, I’m assuming other people get this amount. I personally don’t see it as a challenge.
Sorry if my post came out negative(really, I’m trying hard for it to not come out that way) and of course it wasn’t directed at you. I’m just a little frustrated by the time and effort I put into cutting my budget and watching other people I know not care. Anyone can choose to spend wisely and not willing to make wiser choices isn’t an excuse for some people to get more of other peoples money.
Sorry, I know that I sort steered off the actual point of your “challenge”
I’ll bow out of this conversation and look forward to seeing what you can come up with for $4 a day.
I can’t watch the video,due to something strange with my computer.But may I ask,what are your goals for this challenge? Is it to learn to live on that amount or something along that line?I do realize that food stamp amounts are different in every state,but also have you researched what an average household of 2 spends on groceries monthly?It would be interesting to see a comparison. Just curious is all. :)
The $279.18 figure is the average amount for two individuals (not a married couple) plus 10% added to cover sales tax. That’s not a typo, that’s the actual figures – $126.90/person based on information from the table I linked in the original post here.
Thanks for your reply, Molly. I’m sincerely glad I mistook your intent and apologize for my tone as well. This is an important issue for me and I share your frustration.
The goal is to bring light to the issues of hunger, food scarcity, food deserts and waste. It is to open a dialogue in which people can discuss these topics along with financial concerns and how to supplement our food budgets with everything from coupons and sales to growing and preserving our own food.
John and I have done extensive research on the topic (I write and speak publicly about food ethics and these very issues) and will be bringing a lot of information to the table throughout the month.
You are not going into your fully stocked larder to assist and supplement during the month,and the amt of money in your budget is about what~ 4.50 a day per person? This amount must provide 3 meals, snacks,and beverages . And I am sure during the month you will have a guest or 2 that will be dining with you so your dollars will be stretched even further.
I don’t think people are getting the full effect of what this challenge really is. This is such an excellent teaching tool!
It would be a lot simpler if you had plans to do starchy, high fat and processed foods but YOU are on a mission to prepare HEALTHY meals!
Kudos to John for doing his sub challenge. It would be difficult at best for me not to be able to grab that cup of java in the morning. That would more than take me over my daily allowance….
Good luck guys!
Rachael, the exact amount is $4.09 per person per day and no, we aren’t using anything from the larder except those things that might otherwise spoil if unused.
Thank you so much.
I’m sorry you took my comment as negative and/or an attack. It certainly wasn’t meant that way. I was just trying to add to the dialogue, to point out that the “average” doesn’t mean a lot to a lot of people I have a niece who gets over $500 for the 4 people in their household and they help her boyfriend’s parents with food PLUS I don’t even know how many times she’s asked family or friends to give her $20 cash and in exchange for $40 a food so she can buy cigarettes or alcohol. Another family I know gets about $400 a month for their family of 5 with very small children who don’t eat very much right now, and this family eats as frugally as they can, extreme couponing, in order to build up a balance on their EBT for a day they don’t get help. I applaud what you are doing here, but the reality of the system, the people that struggle to make it on less than the “average” number, and what some of the people who get more than they need do with the excess is a lot more complex than a lot of people understand.
I totally agree with you on all of these points and they are topics that we want to discuss this month. John & I have talked about these exact things as a matter of fact.
Thank you for responding, Chris. I knew I had to be misunderstanding what you said.
I think it is important to consider that food stamp benefits vary based on how much money, if any, is actually coming into the home on a monthly basis or not. A household with ZERO dollars coming in will receive more by way of benefits than a household bringing in $500 and a household bringing in $500 will receive more than a household bringing in $1000. It’s a sliding scale.
As far as the person purporting to feed a family of 5 on $150, I call bullshit. Sorry. Either that family is completely malnourished or the commenter is using hyperbole to make her point. Also, the tone of judgment (“on someone else’s dime”) clearly indicates to me that Ms. Molly doesn’t know the first thing about people who are trying to survive and find themselves using welfare benefits. That kind of judgment doesn’t help with the actual problems this country is facing that have to do with nutrition…and it’s way more than a hand full of recipients taking advantage of the system.
**CLARIFICATION** “It’s way more than a hand full of recipients taking advantage of the system” does not clearly say what I mean…which is, the problems we face regarding food and nutrition in this country are far, far more extensive than some people taking advantage of the system.
Daisy, would you like to see pictures and receipts of what I can buy with coupons/sales?
Would you like to see what I have in my freezer?
Here’s what we usually eat. rice/beans, rice/meat, rice fish, and fruits and veggies.
beans (bulk)
rice(bulk)
fish(dh fishes)
beef(we split a cow with family)
chickens/eggs(we raise…anyone with a small yard can do)
Fridge is full of grapes, pears, apples, cucumbers picked from my mom’s yard.
I baked a whole chicken Thursday….used it for leftovers of Friday…made chicken soup out of the carcass for today.
I know how to stretch my dollars and my food ;)
Molly brings up several good points here:
1. Fishing. John loves to fish and hasn’t had time, but that will considerably lower our food prices because store bought fish is expensive.
2. Purchasing bulk meat. We have discussed doing this as well, but for the purposes of this challenge it isn’t feasible to think of the average food stamp recipient spending money on half a cow.
3. Raising Chickens. I’ve done it and we will be doing it again eventually, but again, not feasible for the average suburban or city dweller on food stamps.
and in response to this(against my better judgement…I know I should ignore),
________
“Also, the tone of judgment (“on someone else’s dime”) clearly indicates to me that Ms. Molly doesn’t know the first thing about people who are trying to survive and find themselves using welfare benefits”
________
I know there are some* who truley need the help. I believe in hand-ups not hand outs.
I would rather there be classes teaching these people the skills they need to survive, not be dependent. Maybe classes to teach how to save, budget, cook, coupon, garden.
We’ve been affected by this economy like everyone else and have had to adjust. I’ve slashed our grocery bill, I’ve downgraded my internet, going to say bye-bye to my iphone, and have drastically cut down on our electric bill(goal is to get it down to $50-$75 a month). So I think I DO KNOW about trying to survive ;)
Molly, what do you mean by “these people” who you say need to be educated? As I mentioned, my family (also of 5) gets $161 a month in food stamps, plus we get WIC, with its dubiously “nutritional” food. My husband works full time, including as much overtime as he can possibly get, and goes to school full time and I take care of the kids, homeschool the children, tend the garden, keep the house, make our food, make many of the other products (cleaning, personal care, etc) we use, and write for some supplemental income. Our bills are cut as far as they can go (yes, we do “need” internet at home since I use it to make money and my husband goes to school online). My husband is required to have a cell phone for his job and we have no land line. We know plenty about budgeting, gardening, cooking (in fact, I teach people about these things on my blog), and couponing doesn’t do us any good (even though I know quite a bit about that as well, at least in theory. Don’t have much of a use for them in practice) since it is extremely rare anything we buy has coupons, since it is almost entirely bulk, generic, or very basic ingredients. My groceries this week at the grocery store was a bag of flour. Literally. My husband hunts for our meat, we get eggs from a relative (since chickens aren’t allowed) where we live, and I grow a substantial portion of our food on my trailer park lot. The way your comment reads, it suggests that our family would be some of “these people”, since we get food stamps, but when we go for our WIC “nutritional education” program, it is frequently the “educators” that learn something from me! Despite all this, if we didn’t receive help, we’d be in serious trouble. I’ve had to go two weeks or more with only $25 to feed our family on more occasions than I’d like to think about. Even though you may know something about surviving, your statement about “these people”, of which apparently I’m one, leads me to agree that you most likely know nothing about the people that find themselves using welfare benefits. In many cases, such as ours, people do everything “right”, even by your apparent standards and still need help. Even the cooking lessons you mention may not help a lot of people, since not everyone that receives food stamps even has a stove!
Wow Chris K! Why are you so defensive?
“These people” was not meant to be offensive. Do you have a less offensive word I should use?
Also, I should have stated some* of these people. Obviously I wasn’t talking about YOU.
I was merely offering suggestions, possible solutions to a problem. I guess that’s not pc either.
One thing that bothers me is when people criticize or complain without offering any solutions.
Sorry my suggestions offended you.
I know plenty of people on assistance. Many have mentioned that they wish they knew how to coupon. It’s not rocket science and I’ve offered to teach, but most people are not interested once they realize how much time it involves.
I’ve gone 2 weeks without spending $25, mostly because I don’t live near the store. My next trip will be next Friday while passing by a produce stand (estimated cost $30 and I can’t wait for some nectarines!)
My husband hunts too :0) (he’s actually on a hunting trip right now)
Out of curiosity I checked out the snap program for our state. I can potentially qualify for over $700. I find that shocking!
To Molly, my apologies for going straight to bitchy and snarky. I think this challenge that The Garden Rock Star is doing is an excellent way to open up important dialogue about the food issues we face as a culture and I totally dropped the ball on contributing to reasonable discourse on the subject. So I’m sorry for attacking you personally.
I do have some points I’d like to mention after reading your posts and some questions, too, but I would like to do a little more research before I get into it all, plus I really am procrastinating finishing a big job (because it’s big and overwhelming and obnoxious), so I must snap myself into gear and get back to work. I will return though…
I live in a household of two in NC. I check the link Michael posted in another post to see what our state’s allotment per adult is and it’s $128.24. That’s about what we spend per week at the store – but that includes provisions like toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, dish liquid. We usually buy one of those items a week.
Also, I’m a vegetarian and I use cruelty free products, he is not. So we don’t use the same soap. So some of our groceries are “duplicated.” But I’d say we’re probably similar to the average two person household that shops together.
Michael, do you make your own laundry and cleaning supplies? Does your challenge include paper products?
This challenge is for food only, as non food items cannit be purchased on food stamps. We do make our own laundry detergent and some cleaning supplies. The instructions for the detergent are here.
I thought you made your own. Thank you for the link. I am going to try that.
I’d like to point out to some folks above that not everyone is allowed to own chickens.. In my home I am lucky to be allowed to have my dogs!
I am allowed the area “behind” my house to plant a garden. No more. It is not to be visible from the street. Fine.. Oh yea, in the morning there is no sun because of the fence and in the afternoon there is no sun because of my home. Oh yea, and the overhead straight down heat of noon burned holes in everything I had. My garden was a complete and total flop. Even the things I tried to grow inside didn’t do anything. :( Perhaps that it was because I couldn’t afford even the CHEAP soil so I used the soil from outside? That’s my husband’s theory. So all the money we DID spend on what little dirt we DID buy, the seeds (hey, did you know you can buy those on food stamps??) and the food we bought for the plants was all wasted. Nice :( I also can’t find anyplace that takes foodstamps where I can buy half a cow. Farms out here don’t take food stamps. Neither do most of the vendors at our Farmer’s Market, though a few do. Back home the Farmer’s Market took WIC.. here no such luck :( (There were special FM vouchers of $18 a year given at the beginning of the season). It was nice.. Not an option here :(
What a great Challenge…I’m here to see what I can learn from this. I’m so glad my children are grown and on their own…My best suggestion or what I do..is I shop by sales..always have..We raised 5 kids by knowing the prices…We’re lucky that we don’t need food stamps. I pick up my sales paper buy our meat that is noticably on sale..when frozen veggies are on sale ..I try to buy an extra bag..or and extra package of noodles or can of tuna…I make my own soap..and use baking soda. and vinegar for most cleaning…we grow a garden..I cann my own fruits and veggies..we raise our own chickens..and sell or barter the eggs…theres only one store here in our lil town..we don’t have a Walmart or dollar store..well 2 1/2 hours away..So I basically buy on sale and try to buy a lil extra..and almost everything I make is from scratch…its hard but I can remember how hard it was to feed and clothe our 5 ..not counting daycare…and extras?…nah we couldn’t afford those..we never went to movies once a year we went to the fair..but we didn’t eat there we brought our own. so its possible..but is it fun..not always…we didn’t have internet then nor cable…and no extra tv’s in the kids room..we were lucky to be able to cut wood for heat..we didn’t use an AC who could afford that we never used a dryer in the summer either..*L* 5 kids was alot of hanging out of clothes trust me,,…..thanks I hope something I said helps…
I think education in budgeting, cooking, couponing, shopping, etc can go a long way to helping people help themselves! Of course it won’t help those who don’t want to be helped. For some hands-on experience (actually planning, checking sales, and shopping for a meal) would be much more beneficial than just sitting through a couple of classes. There certainly is no one-size-fits-all solution to the food crisis in this country.
Wow – kudos – I love the way you are focusing the conversation and keeping it positive. Thank you!
I love that you did this. I will never understand why the general public put such a negative stigma on needing help to simply purchase food. I only read a few comments and I became agitated because I never will understand why people have (in my opinion) such short and negative capacity to understand the struggles of those that HAVE to get food stamps. Stop thinking that most are lazy and have more children than they can afford. Yes there are those that do take advantage but most are self respecting people would, of course, prefer to be able to support themselves but have fallen upon what I like to call LIFE and need help for a period of time to get back on their feet.
Great to hear so many are able to live so frugally.
The frustration I feel about people on FS, is many don’t seem to even try to serve a meal. Instead they heat something up.
They seem to have money for smokes, alcohol, intertainment, and drugs.
Hair salons, makeup and nails.
Some people say, well they are entitled to a life….well, I always say, if you can afford the “treats” you have been given too much in benefits.
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