First, I’d like to set the record straight about the near-demise of this challenge. As was stated earlier, things happened that left us trying to figure out how to save the integrity of the undertaking at all, and because those things were largely health and stress-related, we made the decision at the time to discontinue what we were doing.
John has ongoing flare ups from a previous back injury that has prevented him from sleeping through the night for the majority of this month and I have had issues with stress and my body that left me unable to eat for the better part of two days. We didn’t stop the challenge because we wanted to go back to normal, it was because we weren’t eating at all and that may have been mistaken as a way to skew the results of the challenge itself. For that reason, we have picked up with Day 11 two days later and things will go on as planned, with a finish line that’s two days further away.
Now, to address the question about what our point is with the challenge. We’re not trying to prove that you can live on a food stamp budget. Why should we when people all over the country have been doing it for years? As we stated at the start, we’re doing this as an illustration of how difficult it can be even for people with extensive experience in nutrition, bargain shopping and food preparation to eat a reasonably healthy diet on this type of budget.
The real goal here is to bring people to the table to talk about the issues that surround the topic. Conversation and good hearted debate are food for the soul, and your involvement in this process is what has spurred us on when things were pretty low for us.
Finally, to add a bit of reality to this, I put in excess of 2 hours per day into everything required to make these daily posts, and that’s not something that the average food stamp recipient would do. We do this to bring awareness to a sensitive and very personal topic for many of us, and the many supportive comments we have received are all the proof we need that this is a talk we all need to be having now more than ever.
PURCHASES
| ITEM | SIZE | PRICE | UNIT | PRICE/ UNIT |
| eggs | 4 doz | 3.25 (C, P) | each | .07 |
| tomatoes | 3 pack | 1.09 (P) | each | .36 |
| packaged salad | 18 oz | 3.27 (P) | 4.5 oz portion | .82 |
| apples | 3 lb bag | 2.49 (P) | each | .25 |
| granulated sugar | (2) 4 lb bag | 4.32 (P) | cup | .27 |
| frozen broccoli | 16 oz bag | 1.07 | 4 oz portion | .27 |
| all purpose flour | 5 lb bag | 2.12 | cup | |
| tea bags | 24 count | 1.68 | 2 bags | .14 |
| spaghetti | 16 oz bag | .89 | 4 oz portion | .22 |
| salt | 1 lb box | .48 | ||
| yeast | (2) 3-packs | 1.52 | each | .25 |
| C: Coupon | P: Price Match | R: Reduced | D: Damaged |
NOTE: The 12 oz package of turkey bacon was price matched incorrectly to a 6 oz package at another store and will be returned to the store where it was purchased.
MEALS
DINNER (previous night) $4.22
homemade “public school” pizza
w/ sausage & red pepper
pitcher of tea: $ .60
BREAKFAST: $.80
coffee
sugar
creamer
toast
LUNCH: $0.00
leftover pizza
DINNER: $1.64
chili (Day 5)
salad
TOTALS
- Consumed Today: 7.26 [+1.74 for the day]
- Consumed To Date (week): 20.96 [+15.04 for the week]
- Consumed To Date (month): 48.09 [+50.91 for the month]
- Spent To Date: 159.59
- Remaining Balance: $119.59
QUESTION OF THE DAY:
If you caught an error on your grocery store receipt that was in your favor, would you report it?
