Crossing the finish line: we wrap up the Mazon SNAP challenge

My husband and I took the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12. That means that during that week, we ate no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoid That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #6:  The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965. Sources:  US Poverty on Track to Rise to Highest Since 1960s, Associated Press, 7/23/12

Before we talk about this astounding uptrend in poverty, first, let's get through the bookkeeping.

Days 4 and 5, Thursday and Friday, were as uneventful as the previous days. Breakfast was the usual egg white omelet (Joshua's with cheese, mine with mushrooms), coffee with soy milk (Joshua still griped about not being able to use the Keurig), and a banana each.  We snacked on carrots, chummus and popcorn during the day (both days).  Lunch was split pea soup on Thursdays with my homemade croutons, garlic knots, Diet Coke (from MyCokeRewards, free and not part of the SNAP budget) and small romaine and tomato salads with Target Italian dressing.  Lunch on Friday was tuna, romaine salad, soda, and pineapple.

Dinner on Thursday night was baked salmon.

And here's where I cheated.

I have about four different ways of making salmon.  One of them is my citrus recipe, which calls for an herb rub and a sauce made out of orange and lemon juice.  Herb rub, no problem, since spices are "free" on the Mazon SNAP Challenge.  I completely forgot to buy lemon or orange juice or lemons or oranges.  Now, I did have some extra unspent money in my budget and I could have run out and bought some, but truth is, we were hungry and I was lazy. I had orange juice in the fridge and I just measured out a quarter cup, and yes, that was a cheat.  I did skip the lemons.

Here's my salmon recipe. It's very simple and very good.

Ingredients:

• 2 center cut salmon fillets (I use Costco frozen salmon fillets)
• 1/4 c. orange juice or the juice of two oranges
• dash of lemon juice
• lemons for garnishing
• herb rub:  combine a few shakes of basil, onion powder, garlic powder, onion flakes, sea salt, dill weed, parsley, celery seed, and paprika in a small bowl.
• olive oil cooking spray

If you are using frozen fillets, make sure they are completely defrosted before cooking or they won't cook through.  Wash and pat dry each fillet.  Line a pan with parchment paper or foil and lay the fillets down. Cover with the orange juice and lemon juice.  Rub the tops with the herbs, creating a nice herb layer.  Spray the herb crusted tops with a quick spritz of olive oil spray.  Put under the broiler and broil for about 20 minutes. If you are using parchment paper, make sure the paper is far enough away from the broiler element so that it doesn't catch fire (been there, done that). 

That's it.  The olive oil and herbs form a nice crust.  The orange/lemon juice mixes with some of the oil from the salmon and forms a wonderful, slightly sweet and acidic sauce.  Because the fish is sitting in a bath of juice, it never dries out, even if you overcook it.  It's pretty hard to mess this recipe up (oh, I've tried).  

Ok, back to SNAP.

Friday night (still on Day 5), I made a chicken soup with carrots, onion, dill, and chicken.  I cooked it for about 18 hours, and it was pretty tasty, even though I usually use turnips, parsnips, and leeks, none of which were in my SNAP budget.  I made challah with the remaining Rhodes dough, and we had grape juice for kiddush and drank seltzer from our SodaStream.  It was just my husband and me, and it was a quiet Shabbat meal. As I predicted, it was constraining not to be able to have guests for Shabbos.  We had cherries for dessert. 

On Day 6, Saturday/Shabbat, we skipped breakfast, as we usually do on Shabbos morning.  Lunch was substantial:  we ate a nice big salad of romaine, tomato, avocado, carrots, and shredded chicken that I had grilled on Friday.  I missed the roasted cashews and strawberries that I often use to top my grilled chicken salad.  I also could not use the balsamic vinegar and sugar that I usually put in the dressing.  No big deal.  We had the Rhodes dough challah, the grape juice for kiddush, SodaStream seltzer, and saffron rice.  We were too full to eat any dessert. 

For our light dinner (called "Shalosh Seudot"), we had the remaining brown rice, challah, carrots that I had parboiled and mashed up with pineapple (sort of a "tzimmes"). 

After Shabbat, my husband made Havdallah on the remaining grape juice, and we had some popcorn as a snack.

On Day 7, Sunday, I surveyed my leftover food.  I had saved some onion and mushrooms for my tofu stir fry, so that would be our dinner.  I make a mean tofu stir fry.  Breakfast was, once again, omelets, coffee and soy milk, and we split the remaining banana.  Joshua and I took the dogs and went for a drive, so we skipped lunch (or actually, just completely forgot to bring anything with us, not realizing we'd be gone for so long).  We were famished come dinner time. 

And for the second (and last time), I cheated.

My tofu stir fry absolutely must be made with soy sauce. No getting around that.  It's almost flavorless without it.  So I "stole" a few shakes of soy sauce, because I forgot to include it in my menu.  Guilty.  I actually know how much I paid for the bottle:  $0.19, because it was $1.19 and I had a $1 coupon (I bought 4 of them).  But ok.  A cheat is a cheat.  

Here's my tofu recipe.  Please keep in mind, my husband is a serious meat-n-taters kinda guy, and not the tofu type at all, and yet, he loves this.  So even if you are a little afraid of tofu, try this one out.  I had only a half of an onion and four mushrooms left, so I made do, but the recipe really calls for more.

Ingredients:

• 1 block (19 oz.) extra firm or firm tofu (I use the Costco brand, which is a huge bargain at $2.29 for 38 oz.)
• 2 onions, diced
• 8 mushrooms (any variety), sliced.
• a few shakes of soy sauce (I use Kikkoman low-sodium)
• spices:  garlic and onion powder, basil
• extra virgin olive oil for frying

Cube the tofu by hand. I use this amazing chopper, which is, without a doubt, my most used kitchen tool, and makes the chopping and dicing go by in minutes. (Don't put the tofu in the food processor, or you'll end up with paste.)  After you cube the tofu, saute it in a little bit of olive oil for about 10 minutes until it has a slight crust. All the while that you're cooking, keep your spoon moving. Add the diced onions, and keep frying until the onions are translucent.  Add the sliced mushrooms last and cook them until they are lightly browned.  Keep the oil hot.  Add a few shakes of soy sauce, a few very liberal shakes of garlic, and light shakes of the basil and onion powder.  Cook for a few more minutes, and keep stirring things around.  Keep the olive oil sparse and hot and if you overdid it, drain the stir fry on paper towels before you serve it.

Voila.  Tofu stir fry.  You can also toss in bamboo shoots, almonds, pine nuts, brocolli crowns and rabe, water chestnuts, etc. (none of which were on my SNAP budget).  I served this once on Sukkot to a vegan friend and he told  me it was the best tofu dish he'd ever had.   I take that as high praise.

  

We inhaled the tofu stir fry, washed it down with seltzer, and had the remaining cherries and pineapple for dessert.

That pretty much wrapped up our SNAP week.  I had $8.70 left in my $63 budget, and soy milk, brown rice, half a pot of chicken soup, half a brick of cheddar, and salad dressing left.  I cheated with some orange juice and soy sauce.  

Did we feel deprived?

I'm sort of hesitating on whether or not I should return the answer that I know everyone expects to hear, or the brutally honest answer.  I'm going to go for honest.

No, we did not really feel deprived.  We missed a few things like our Keurig coffee, cashews in the salad, etc. but we didn't really eat all that differently than the way we usually eat.  I could have used some more lettuce and a greater variety of fruit.  I definitely missed being able to invite guests for Shabbat.   Just being restricted felt, well, restrictive.   But focusing strictly on the food, we missed very little and we ate healthy and well.

Does this mean that SNAP recipients have it made in the shade?  Of course not.   

• I look for sales and use coupons.  It's my thing.  If I would have gone to the store and just spent the $63 thoughtlessly and without a plan, no doubt we would have eaten poorly.  But I'm convinced, having been exposed to the huge blogosphere of SNAP recipients, and hearing via email about some of the experiences of my readers that used to be on food stamps, that many of them are smart, resourceful, frugal and go to extraordinary lengths to use their ingenuity to eat healthy and well.  Not all, but many.  Most people living below the poverty level in the US have at least one car and a computer (a surprising fact), and have access to the same frugal resources that I do.  Can you eat healthy on a SNAP budget?  Looking through my own personal lens, my answer would have to be a definitive yes, but it takes some effort, strategy and planning. 
• The Mazon SNAP Challenge is an artificial situation.  It doesn't really ask you to "be poor" for a week. The challenge is to try to eat well on a small budget for a week.  That's different.  While we took the Challenge, every other aspect of our lives remained in the middle class.
• We ate on a $63 budget as a challenge.   SNAP recipients don't have a choice.  The $31.50-per- person-budget is their reality.  I think that's a game-changer in understanding those living in poverty.  

Just today, this shocking article came out from the Associated Press:   US Poverty on Track to Rise to Highest Since 1960s.  It's shocking because until the last few recent years, poverty levels have been mostly steady or slightly declining, especially after President Clinton's welfare reforms.   No more. "The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century..."


I'm going to break away from my usual chatter and do something a little different.   I ask every single one of you reading this to take a moment out and give something (the amount is unimportant, but something), to your local food bank.  We just wrote out a check for Tomchei Shabbat of Denver, an organization that provides kosher food for Denver families living in poverty.  If you don't have a favorite local food bank, please make your donation to TS online here (via paypal) or send your check to:

Tomchei Shabbat of Denver
EDOS
198 South Holly Street
Denver, CO 80224
(tomcheishabbatdenver@gmail.com)

These are the toughest economic times that our country has seen in years. Millions are unemployed and underemployed.   If you can help, even a little, please use this opportunity to reach out, even if it's just a little bit.  


People like you and me are truly suffering and are out of choices.     

Days 2 & 3 of the Mazon SNAP Challenge: what we ate and discovering the blogature of those living in poverty

My husband and I are taking the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  That means that during this week, we will eat no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoid That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #5:  MYTH:  You can only use food stamps to buy "basic" foods, like milk, vegetables, bread, meat etc. REALITY: Households can use Food Stamps to buy any food or food product that is made for human consumption. You can also buy seeds and plants for use in home gardens to produce food. Households CANNOT use Food Stamp benefits to buy: alcoholic beverages, tobacco, lunch counter items or foods to be eaten in the store, hot foods, soaps, paper products, toiletries, vitamins, medicines, pet foods, any non-food items (except seeds and plants). Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, ice cream, seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are food items and are therefore SNAP eligible. Any change to the current definition of "food" covered by SNAP would require action by a member of Congress. Several times in the history of SNAP, Congress had considered placing limits on the types of food that could be purchased with program benefits. However, they concluded that designating foods as luxury or non-nutritious would be "administratively costly and burdensome." Some restaurants accept Food Stamp benefits from some homeless, elderly, or disabled people in exchange for low-cost meals.  Food Stamps cannot be exchanged for cash. Sources:  SNAP4Seeds, The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, USDA Study:  Implications of Restricting the Use of Food Stamp Benefits

Interesting Factoid, huh?  I actually strongly support the freedom of choice of food that is given to SNAP recipients.  I think it restores some dignity and control to those of us who are forced to rely on a government program for much of our food.


Tuesday night I went to King Soopers (Denver's Kroger affiliate) to stockpile some more $0.50 Vitamin Water (which we aren't drinking this week) and while I was in the store, I checked out the Bakery Markdown rack.

Now before you go all snobby on me and say "Ew. Stale bread," let me just clarify that King Soopers does not sell day-old bread.  The stuff that's on the Bakery Markdown rack is hours old.  I find the markdown merchandise to be totally fine, and when I'm buying baked goods to store in the freezer, why would I care if it's a few hours out of the oven?  Most of the items on Markdown rack are half-price or less.  Our local King Soopers has excellent kosher supervision in their bakery and we can choose from a great selection of delicious artisan breads and baked goods.

I had a few bakery coupons in my purse.  I was tempted to buy some heavily marked-down Udi's bread, which would have been $0.50 after my $1 Udi's coupon, but I decided to leave those loaves to customers on a Celiac diet who actually need gluten-free bread.  Instead I found this Ecce Pannis Semolina loaf that was marked down from $2.99 to $0.99.  I had a $0.75 coupon (which wasn't doubled because it was a Catalina).  The Semolina loaf cost me $0.24, which I view as a huge bargain.

So, I decided to take the $0.24 expenditure out of our $8.94 surplus (now reduced to $8.70) and make croutons out of it, since we are eating split pea, carrot-ginger and chicken soup this week.  Making your own  soup croutons is so easy, it's barely a recipe.  Cube the bread (use a long bread knife instead of a paring knife and it will take very little time), spread it out in a pan lined with a parchment sheet and spray it with a blast of olive oil cooking spray.  Sprinkle with garlic powder or onion powder or both (not too heavy) and then a green spice. I use basil; I'm a basil junkie.  A friend of mine uses parsley.  I've also used pre-soaked rosemary with success. Bake it at 350 for about 10 minutes until it's lightly browned.  Voila, croutons.

Since I didn't have to dip into my 3 lb. bag of Rhodes dough to make the much-needed soup croutons, I decided to use half a loaf of the Rhodes dough for garlic knots instead.  My super-easy recipe for Rhodes dough garlic knots is here.  Sorry about recycling the picture from that post; we had already eaten some, and I froze the rest before I thought about snapping a picture.

So, what did we eat these past two days?  I had jury duty on Tuesday, which lasted until about 1pm, so my breakfast was just coffee and a banana, and my late lunch was a giant romaine salad with a half-can of tuna which I inhaled when I got home.  Joshua had his usual breakfast, coffee, egg white omelet with cheese and a banana, and for lunch, he had the other half of the tuna, carrot sticks, romaine and tomato salad with a little cheese shredded on top.  For dinner, we essentially had the same thing we had on Monday plus croutons, with cherries and pineapple for dessert.  We snacked on about a quarter cup of popcorn as well.  


On Wednesday, we had egg white omelets, coffee, organic soy milk, and bananas for breakfast, and Joshua had a little cheese as well.  For lunch, brown rice and some leftover chicken from dinner, romaine, tomato and carrot salad with Target Italian dressing, and pineapple.  Dinner was again, the same thing we had on Monday, except I swapped out rice for the potato, put croutons in the last of the carrot-ginger soup, noshed on a few garlic knots and had popcorn for dessert.  We also dug into our free (thanks to MyCokeRewards) Diet Coke stash.


Are we hungry? Admittedly a little.  It's restrictive to keep to this "diet," even though I feel that our food selection is actually liberal.  I think it's the very fact that we are restricted, rather than the restriction itself, that keeps me thinking about food.

I received a wonderful email a few days ago from reader Max S.  Besides her much-appreciated expression of support, Max also pointed me to a fantastic blog, Food Stamps Cooking Club.  I spent a few hours trolling through the recipes, tips, comments, etc. and I was fascinated. Then, on the blogroll, I found a link to a blog called I am the Working Poor.  I went there and I was hooked. One blog led to another and I discovered a massive online library of blogs written by those living below the poverty line.


I was completely unaware of the HUGE online Food Stamps community.  I don't know why I was surprised.  Why wouldn't 47 million people with common issues share ideas, thoughts, advice, etc. online?  What I discovered was that, contrary to the misconception that all Food Stamps recipients are helpless victims, many of them are strong-minded, capable people who rely on their ingenuity, resourcefulness and just overall smarts to stretch their meager budgets.  Some of them are completely focused on pulling themselves out of their dire straits and back into the economic middle class.  


I went back to some of the first posts on the I am the Working Poor and found this paragraph.

While leaders propose "austerity measures" to pull their countries through the recession, so do we individuals propose our own plans to our families to pull through tough times. Some of us plant fabulous gardens, others coupon, some subsist on lots of bean and rice dishes, and many just go without certain things that others take for granted. 

Food Stamp recipients don't really think too differently about food than I do.  The difference is, they don't have most of the choices that I do.   

Day 1 of the Mazon SNAP Challenge: what we ate and what I'm thinking

My husband and I are taking the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  That means that during this week, we will eat no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoids That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #4:  Nearly half of SNAP participants are children. Forty-seven percent of all participants are less than 18 years old, and about half of all households include at least one child. Households with children receive 71 percent of all SNAP benefits. About 56 percent of the households with children are single parent families.  Many SNAP participants are elderly or disabled. Eight percent of all participants are age 60 or older, 73 percent of whom live alone. About 16 percent of all households include an elderly member, and about 20 percent include a disabled member. 75% of American households living below the poverty line owned one or more working cars in 2009.  Source: Building a Healthy America: a profile of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (issued by the USDA, 4/2012),  and the US Census

Day 1 of the Mazon SNAP Challenge was uneventful.

Breakfast was coffee with organic soymilk (sadly, NOT made with our Keurig....Joshua is still grumbling), egg white omelets...Joshua had his with a little Cabot cheddar cheese and I had mine with 2 mushrooms, salt and pepper, and a banana each.

Lunch was tunafish with a little mustard and organic grated carrots, tossed salad (very simple, just romaine and tomato) with a little fat-free Italian dressing,  and a cup of split pea soup (split peas, water, garlic, onion powder, basil, salt and pepper).  The soup was plentiful (enough for at least three more meals) and tasty but boring  and textureless, so tonight I'm going to bake some of the Rhodes dough and make some garlic croutons out of the bread.  Admittedly, I was hungry between lunch and dinner and had a snack of coffee and some pineapple.  

Dinner (pictured above) was roasted chicken with a cherry glaze (made with a handful of mashed cherries, ground cloves, nutmeg and boiling water, surprisingly delicious even without sugar, grilled organic carrots, a shared baked potato, a salad of romaine lettuce, razor thin tomato slices and avocado chunks with fat-free Italian dressing and spices, and bowl of carrot/ginger soup (carrots, ginger, cardamom,  and a tiny bit of onion, all boiled and liquified with my immersion blender.)  No complaints from the husband (except for the endless Keurig gripe), but I do think we could use some more snack food.

I'm thinking popcorn.  We have enough in the budget to afford it. We bought a huge 8 lb. jug of Orville Redenbacher plain kernels from Costco a few weeks ago for $11.99.  I might just take about a half pound of that for our Challenge week...that would take away $0.75 from our surplus of $9.78, leaving us with $9.03.  My favorite way to make popcorn is in a brown lunch sack in the microwave.  

I'm also adding a bottle of Kraft barbecue sauce to our SNAP stash, as it's on sale for nine cents at King Sooper after a doubled coupon is applied.  That will leave us with $8.94 in our surplus.

Been ruminating quite a bit about the SNAP Challenge, about both the wonderful support as well as the not-so-nice emails that I've received about the challenge.  As a blogger, you've got to embrace the bad with the good when it comes to reader input, and not run out of the room screaming every time your inbox catches fire.  I understand the controversy surrounding food stamps and I understand that some people would call me a hypocrite because I'm a Republican. I'm actually okay with that now (after some friends talked me down).  I didn't want to bring politics into this challenge at all; I want this to be about sharing an experience with those who have so much less than we do, and seeing if I was up to the challenge of eating healthy, tasty foods on a minimalist budget.  That's all.  I didn't want do this in order to feel sympathy for the poor; I already did before I started the Challenge, and what compassionate person wouldn't feel bad for those who are living in poverty?  I want to feel empathy with the poor. That's a whole different ball of wax.

More on this as the week goes on.  Please share your comments (good and bad) below.

Our SNAP Challenge: final shopping trip for the week (I hope). Whew. Let the eating begin....

My husband and I are going to take the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  That means that during that week, we will eat no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoid That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #3:  Vegetables, fruits, grain products, meat, and meat alternatives account for most of the money value of food used by SNAP households. These food groups account for nearly three-quarters of the money value of food used at home. Lower-cost red meats (7.8 %) and milk and yogurt (7.6 %) account for the largest shares of food at home. SNAP participants were somewhat less likely to consume fruits or vegetables than other Americans. Most SNAP participants have adequate usual intakes for most vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients, with the exception of vitamin C, vitamin A, magnesium, and vitamin E. The goal of SNAP Nutrition Education (SNAP-Ed) is to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for SNAP benefits will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate. The Federal Government spent $375 million for SNAP-Ed in fiscal year 2011. Source:  Building a Healthy America: a profile of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (issued by the USDA, 4/2012)

I'll talk more about my impressions of eating on a SNAP budget as the week progresses and we actually start eating.  Until now, it's just been shopping and planning.

So here's the final shopping haul for my SNAP week:

• Costco has Kirkland Organic Vanilla Soymilk for $13.99 for 12 quarts. We'll drink a quart during our Challenge week, so that's $1.17.

• Sadly, (very, very sadly), I think our beloved Keurig is not going to be used this week. Sigh. I will miss my K-cup coffee, and my husband (who calls the Keurig "the replicator"), who has not balked at a single SNAP restriction so far, is not a happy camper about this. And so it goes. So, we're going to revert back to a box of 19-count Folger's coffee singles, which we bought back here for $3.90.

• We bought a SodaStream in April at Kohl's for $40.99. That was a GREAT investment in frugality and has paid for itself many times over. We're going to drink a ton of seltzer this Challenge week. Cost: $0.00.
• I'm pretty sure that food stamps cannot be used toward diet soda (can anyone confirm?) and I don't intend to spend a penny of my budget on soda. But, I do have 8 MyCokeRewards coupons for free 20 oz. Coke products sitting in my purse, and I will be cashing them in this week and we'll be drinking the free products. My rationale is that 1) MyCokeRewards is a free program that is accessible to everyone and 2) I am not spending nor counting these items towards our $63 budget.  In the interest of full disclosure, I did want to let you know that we'd be drinking these sodas.
• I can't eat most dairy products, but my husband is a major cheese lover. We bought two cases of Cabot kosher cheese back here, and he'll be eating one 8 oz. brick this week, for which we paid $3.63.

  

• I got 1 lb. of Walmart Great Value Brown Rice for $0.78. This is actually the rice eat normally, and it's really good.

    

• I also got a small bag of Mahatma Saffron Rice for $0.77. If you've never tried this, it's one of the best bargains around. Delicious stuff.

• I bought 1lb. of Great Value Split Peas (soup!) for $1.08.

    

•  I don't have the time or the patience to bake, and I don't have the budget to buy all the ingredients. We're going to use a 3 lb.package of one my favorite products, Rhodes frozen dough. Half will go to making challah for Shabbat, and the rest will work as our bread during the week. Walmart had a 3 lb. bag for $2.98 and I had a coupon for $0.50, so this will cost us $2.48.

   

• I bought Sabra chummus for $2.99 with a $1 coupon, $1.99.
• We do need grape juice for Shabbos, and we have a ton of Kedem 96 oz. bottles stockpiled in our basement. We bought about a dozen 2-packs of these bottles for $9.49  , or $4.25 each around Passover time at Costco. I don't think it's fair to count an entire 96 oz. bottle's worth, when we really only need about about a quarter bottle (if that) for two kiddushes and havdalah, so I'm only counting this item expense as $1.07. 
• Target Market Pantry fat-free Zesty Italian dressing is one of our staples. Delicious, kosher and cheap. $1.39  

Here's our total list:

Item	Purchased at:	Amount
5.62 lbs. of grass-fed  Empire chicken	Target	$7.62
14 oz. Costco salmon (2 portions)	Costco	$4.59
6 cans of Bumble Bee  chunk light tuna in water	King Soopers	$3.54
19 oz. Kirkland tofu	Costco	$1.15
Kirkland egg beaters, 16 oz.	Costco	$1.55
4 lbs. of organic carrots	Target	$1.29
6-pack romaine hearts	Costco	$3.29
2.29 lbs. of cherries	Sprouts	$3.41
3 Hass avocadoes	Sprouts	$2.31
0.34 lbs. of Roma tomatoes	Sprouts	$0.26
2 Del Monte pineapples  (sliced and frozen)	King Soopers	$0.50
1.82 lbs. yellow onions	Sprouts	$0.91
8 oz. mushrooms	Target	$1.79
3 lbs. bananas	Costco	$1.39
1.55 lbs. potatoes	Walmart	$1.36
Kirkland Organic vanilla soymilk	Costco	$1.17
19-count Folgers Singles	Amazon	$3.90
Seltzer	SodaStream	$0.00
8 20 oz. Diet Cokes	MyCokeRewards	$0.00
8 oz. brick of Cabot Sharp cheddar cheese	Cabot	$3.63
1 lb. Great Value brown rice	Walmart	$0.78
Mahatma Saffron rice	Walmart	$0.77
1 lb. Great Value green split peas	Walmart	$1.08
3 lbs. Rhodes frozen dough	Walmart	$2.48
Sabra chummus	Target	$1.99
20 oz. Kedem grape juice	Costco	$1.07
Market Pantry fat-free ZestyItalian dressing	Target	$1.39

Grand total $53.22.  That leaves us $9.78 (about 15% of our $63 budget) to spend. I'd rather just hold this amount aside for now and see how the week goes.  

Stuff I'm not including in this total:  all spices (I'm going to be using a ton of them) and olive oil cooking spray.

Overall, this shopping experience hasn't been the slightest bit stressful, but it has been rather unusual for me.  I don't normally shop this way. With the exception of produce, I don't buy food when I need it.  I buy food that I need when I get it very inexpensively, usually with a sale, or with a sale and a coupon.  I stockpile it (not hoard, but stockpile) and we eat from our fully loaded pantry, fridge or freezers.  My husband and I are mostly creatures of habit, and I know what we will eat, so I rarely run out of things.  I shop as things we need become available at good prices.

Buying a week's worth of food at once was a little strange for me, but I couldn't think of any other way to really account for all of the expenditures.  Frankly. buying this much food for this little money was not that challenging; it's my thing.   The challenge lies ahead of us, when we start eating.


Ladies and gentleman, allow me to introduce you to 85% of our SNAP budget ($53.22 worth of food):

   

Our SNAP Challenge Week: will we be able to eat enough fruits and vegetables?

UPDATE:  I forgot the bananas!  (Don'tcha hate when that happens?)

My husband and I are going to take the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  That means that during that week, we will eat no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoid That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #2:  Think it's easy to maintain a diet of lean, healthy foods when on a food-stamp budget?  Think again. Jay Zagorsky, a scientist at Ohio State University, in a study that spanned 14 years, has calculated that, controlling for socioeconomic status, women who received food stamps were more likely to be overweight than non-recipients. They also gained weight faster while receiving assistance than when not and their BMI increased more the longer they were in the food-stamps program.  Source:  Ohio State University Research Calorie-dense, high-fat, processed foods tend to be less expensive than pricier healthy choices.  But with a little planning and strategic shopping, you can still buy healthy, nutritional foods on a SNAP budget.

I'll admit, this factoid surprised me.  I would think that people with a very limited food budget would be both undernourished and underweight.  But the two don't always go hand in hand, and one doesn't need to be on a food-stamp budget to realize this.  How many times in my own non-SNAP experience have I bought unhealthy prepared food because it was cheap, quick to prepare at the end of a long day at work, and tasted good? (Sadly, lots of times.)

I think this Challenge week will be good for me on multiple levels.  Not only am I going to try to slip into the shoes of a SNAP recipient, I'm also thinking long and hard about my own buying patterns and purchases.  Do I ever sacrifice quality in food for convenience and cost?  You betcha.  But not this week.

So now, I've got a little bit of inspiration to make our SNAP Challenge menus a little healthier.

I've been reading (and enjoying) what actor Joshua Malina has been experiencing in his Challenge.  One of his concerns is that he's not getting the necessary healthy amount of fruits and vegetables on his SNAP budget (see his 7/11/12 entry).  I want to make sure that we get ours.  Yesterday I laid out my plans to spend 30% of our $63 Challenge budget ($18.90) on protein foods. Originally, I had planned on spending 20% or $12.60 on produce.  I changed my mind:  I'm going to raise our produce budget to 25% or $15.75.  Joshua and I do eat one large salad a day and we rarely skip it.  We also snack  heavily on fruits and veggies, especially during the summer.  How much of our regular produce will we have to sacrifice because we can't afford them on the SNAP budget?   Let's see.

We tend to scarf down tons of carrots during the day and I plan on using them in my chicken soup on Friday night, so I loaded up on them.  Target has an ongoing sale on Earthbound Farms organic carrots.  A 1lb. bag is just $1.09 and with this $0.75 coupon, just $0.34.  I bought four bags for our Challenge week for a total of  $1.36.  Using my Target RedCard gave me an instant 5% discount and dropped that price to $1.29.  

I bought my usual six-pack of romaine hearts at Costco for $3.29.  While I usually use one head of romaine per salad, I'm going to have to stretch these 6 heads into 7 salads.

While cherries are often a pricier luxury fruit, Sprouts has got cherries on sale for $1.49 per lb. this week.  I bought 2.29 lbs. for $3.41.  

They've also got Hass avocadoes for $0.77 each; I bought 3 for $2.31. Roma tomatoes are $0.77 per lb.;  I bought 4 tomatoes for $0.26.

Sprouts has also got yellow onions for $0.50/lb.  I bought 3 large onions, which came to 1.82 lbs., or $0.91.


Two weeks ago, King Soopers (Denver's Kroger affiliate store) had Del Monte pineapples on sale for 4 for $5 or $1.25 each.  I printed two copies of this $0.50 coupon which King Soopers doubled to $1, so I was able to get two pineapples for $0.25 each or $0.50 for both.  I cored, sliced and froze the pineapples (thanks to these uber-helpful instructions from Whole Foods), so we'll have them for our SNAP Challenge week.  I think I'm going to grill some of the pineapple and toss it in our chicken and romaine salad for Shabbat lunch.  Yummers.

Target has 1/2 lb. of mushrooms for $1.79 (a so-so price, but ok). With my Target RedCard, I got 5% off, so these cost me $1.70.

UPDATE:  I also bought 3 lbs. of bananas at Target for $1.39.  (Please forgive the crummy iPhone picture.)

UPDATE:  I bought 4 potatoes at Walmart at $0.88/lb. for $1.36.

Summary of my produce purchases so far:

• 4 lbs. of organic carrots, $1.29 (purchased at Target)
• 6-pack romaine hearts, $3.29 (purchased at Costco)
• 2.29 lbs. of cherries, $3.41 (purchased at Sprouts)
• 3 Hass avocados, $2.31 (purchased at Sprouts)
• 0.34 lbs of roma tomatoes, $0.26 (purchased at Sprouts)
• 2 pineapples, $0.50 (purchased at King Soopers)
• 1.82 lbs. yellow onions, $0.91 (purchased at Sprouts)
• 8 oz. mushrooms, $1.79 (purchased at Target)
• 3 lbs. bananas, $1.39 (purchased at Costco)
• 1.55 lbs. potatoes $1.36 (purchased at Walmart)

Grand total:  $13.76 or 22% of my $63 budget  $15.15 or 24% of my $63 budget,  $16.51 or 26% of my budget.  I exceeded my $15.75 produce budget by $0.76.  That's ok.

We usually eat apples and oranges as snacks, and it looks like this week, we'll have to do without them.  My salads are going to have to do without my usual sprinkling of cashews or pine nuts.  I'm thinking about turning some of those carrots into a ginger/carrot/onion soup to extend them a bit.  I've been thinking a lot about soups and stews, because water is free and a great extender.  I might just dust off the crock pot, which I've put away for the summer. Stay tuned.

Without question, if I had just gone out there and bought fruits and vegetables without coupons, sales or comparison shopping, my tab would have been double or more.  As I do before any shopping trip, I spent about 20 minutes strategizing my purchases (going through circulars and my coupons) before I set foot in any store, and I consider it time well spent.

I've gotten some emails questioning whether it's fair that I'm using Costco items for the SNAP Challenge week.  My response is:  absolutely.   If there were any figures out there about Costco membership and income levels, I'd have some numbers to fall back on, but unfortunately, there are none.  But here is my rationale:  a basic Costco membership is $55 per year.  That comes to roughly a dollar a week.  It's open and available to everyone.  You can also shop without a paid membership by going shopping with a friend who is a member.  So as far as I'm concerned, Costco is fair game. 

More coming up.

UPDATED: What I've already gotten out of the Mazon SNAP Challenge and how I'm going to spend our money on protein next week

UPDATED 7/15/12: Now that I've done some actual shopping for the SNAP Challenge, I can start dealing with real numbers and not estimates.

My husband and I are going to take the Mazon SNAP Challenge from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  That means that during that week, we will eat no more than $63 worth of food, which is the same budget allotment as two individuals receiving food-stamps (now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).

SNAP/Food-Stamp Factoid That I'll Bet You Didn't Know #1:  With certain exceptions, able-bodied adults between 16 and 60 years of age must register for work, accept an offer of suitable work, and take part in an employment and training program to which they will be referred by the SNAP office in order to qualify for SNAP assistance. Generally, able-bodied adults aged 18 to 50 who do not have children and are not pregnant can only get SNAP benefits for 3 months in a 3-year period unless they are working or participating in a work or workfare program. There are a few exceptions.    Source:  USDA website

Joshua and I are not going to start our Mazon SNAP Challenge of eating only $63 worth of food until next week (7/16/12-7/22/12), but it's already put me in such a new mindset in thinking about poverty and food stamps.  I've been following along actor Joshua Malina's Challenge, talking to friends and my co-bloggers Mara and Chaviva, reading the comments on their blogs and Facebook pages.  If I walk away from this Challenge with one thing and one thing only, it will be this.

Gratitude.

I'm extraordinarily grateful that in spite of many economic ups and downs that we've gone through these past few years, I've never been forced to turn to any sort of public assistance program.  I say this with a full heart, because I am truly, truly grateful and appreciative.  We are fortunate and we are blessed. There are millions (literally, millions) of people out there who are suffering and struggling through one of the worst economic downturns in our nation's history.  I take so many things for granted and tend to see only the things we don't have, when I should be appreciating the many things that we do have.  A home.  Jobs.  A full refrigerator, a full pantry, a full closet.  Cars that run (most of the time).  Nice furniture.  Each other. I'm grateful to God, truly grateful.

Ok, back to planning the Challenge.

I haven't shopped for next week yet, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about how to spend our $63.  Here's what we won't be doing. We will not be eating out, though with one kosher restaurant in Denver, that's not exactly much of a stretch for us. We won't be buying any Starbucks either (again, not much of stretch) or prepared foods.  And we won't be having guests on Shabbat; that actually is kind of an effort to us and also made me realize this:  people who live off of food stamps don't have much of a budget for socializing in their own homes.  That must be difficult and isolating.

So that's what we won't be spending.  What will we be spending our $63 on?

I'd like to spend 30% of our total budget, or $18.90, on protein.  I think the protein part of our menus will be the most difficult part of meeting our Challenge budget, so I'd like to plan for it first, since I'll be building our meal menus around the protein portion.  


According to the rules of the Challenge, we can use something that we've bought previously, as long as we know the price and can add that to our limit.  Earlier this month, one of the Denver Targets had a great sale on grass-fed Empire poultry, along with a bunch of "peelie" coupons that lowered the price to about $1.35 per lb. which is an excellent price for kosher, grass-fed poultry.  I stocked my freezer.

If you click on the image above, you'll be able to make out the prices.  These three packages of chicken come to $13.61 for 5.62 lbs. of chicken, less the three $2 coupons, which lowers the total to $7.61 .  I'm going to make a chicken soup out of two chicken bottoms, which will be our main dish for Friday night Shabbat dinner.   I'll grill and shred two pieces for a cold chicken and romaine lettuce salad for Shabbat lunch.  The rest of the chicken will be our dinner on Monday through Wednesday.

Thursday night kicks off the Nine Days, which is part of the Three Weeks of national Jewish mourning that takes place before Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of both ancient Jewish Temples in Jerusalem.  The Nine Days before and including Tisha B'Av are an intensified period of mourning, and we do not eat meat or poultry during that week, except on Shabbat. So starting with Thursday evening, our dinners will be meat-free.  For the purposes of the challenge, that affects Thursday night and Sunday night dinner.

Luckily for us, Costco has just come out with a new coupon for their frozen salmon (thanks to DC reader Caroline B. for alerting me to it).  A three lb. bag of salmon normally costs $19.99, but they are discounting it by $4 per bag, which drops the price to $15.99.  There are 7 individual portions in each 3 lb. bag, so each portion costs $2.29.  Joshua and I will have one portion each on Thursday night, so that's another $4.58.

Tuna fish is a staple in our home.  We tend to have it for lunch, pretty much every single day.  I rarely never buy it at full price.  We joined the (free) Recyclebank program  a few years ago, and one of my favorite Recyclebank rewards is a coupon for $1 off any 2 cans or pouches of Bumble Bee tuna.  King Soopers, the Denver Kroger affiliate, almost always has Bumble Bee Chunk Light tuna in water on a running sale for $0.89  $1.09 (price went up) per can.  With the coupon, I get two cans for $0.39  $0.59 each.  I'm allocating 6 of these cans to the Challenge week (lunch every day but Shabbat).  That's another $2.34  $3.54

Costco has got a great deal on Tofu, but I don't remember the exact price, $2.29 for a double-pack of 19 oz. packages. I believe it's about $1.50 per package, but I'll check later and update my tally with the exact price.   One of those packages will be our main for Sunday night dinner, at the cost of $1.15.  This is a fantastic deal on tofu, btw, as these 19 oz. packages are about 50% more than the size of a regular package of tofu (usually 12 oz.) at a comparable price.

Costco also has a great price on Kirkland "egg beaters."  (By this, I mean that pure-egg-white concoction that actually tastes good.)  It's what we have for breakfast each morning.  I'll have to check the price at Costco and update this post.  A six-pack of 16 oz. cartons of Kirkland "egg beaters" is $9.29.  We'll use one of those cartons this week for breakfast, so the cost will be $1.55.  For now, let's say I budget $3.50 for one package of Tofu and one container of egg whites.  


That brings my protein budget for the Challenge week to $18.03.  I'll update this figure as I do my actual shopping.


UPDATE:  now that I've done my actual shopping, here's my protein summary:

• 5.62 lbs. of grass-fed Empire chicken, $7.62 (purchased from Target)
• 14 oz. Costco salmon (2 portions), $4.59  (purchased from Costco)
• 6 cans of Bumble chunk light tuna in water, $3.54 (purchased from King Soopers)
• 19 oz. Kirkland tofu, $1.15   (purchased from Costco)
• Kirkland egg beaters, 16 oz., $1.55   (purchased from Costco)

Grand total:  $18.45 or 29% of my $63 budget.

Next up is produce.  I'd like to allocate 20% of our $63 or $12.60 to fruits and vegetables.  Can we still buy some organic veggies on a food stamp budget?  I think we can.  Stay tuned.

Daily Cheapskate is taking the Mazon SNAP Challenge next week

46 million Americans are the recipients of food stamps.

That's a pretty astounding figure if you take into account that there are 314 million people in the United States.  That means that 14% of our populace, or 1 person in every 7, is in the federal food stamps program, more formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).   Truly astounding.  In January 2009, a little less than 32 million people received SNAP.  That's a staggering 44% increase of 14 million recipients in the last 3-1/2 years.  This is a very tough economy folks, and people are truly suffering.

What does this have to do with Daily Cheapskate?

Yesterday, I saw a very interesting Facebook post.  Mazon (a national Jewish organization "dedicated to preventing and alleviating hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds") invited people to step into the shoes of SNAP recipients by joining the Mazon SNAP Challenge:

Participating in the SNAP Challenge is simple: eat for one week using only the amount of money you would have if you relied solely on SNAP to pay for your food. By taking the SNAP Challenge, you will directly experience the struggle that nearly 1 in 7 Americans – including nearly 25% of all American children – face every day. You will learn first-hand how difficult it is to afford nutritious foods, avoid hunger, and stay healthy without adequate resources. 

I loved the idea of developing true empathy for food stamp recipients by virtually becoming a food stamp recipient for one week. So that's right, my dear readers, my husband and I will be eating off a food stamp budget next week, from 7/16/12-7/22/12.  How much is in that budget?  $4.50 per person per day, or $31.50 per person per week, for a total of $63 for the two of us for the entire week.  It doesn't sound like much, does it? 


Here's the surprise.  My regular food budget is about the same as that.  I generally allow for about $300 per month to buy food for my husband, myself, and our Shabbat guests.  That comes to an average of $10 per day for the two of us, or $5 a day for each of us, which is not far off from SNAP's $4.50 per day.  So we've been living on close to a food stamp budget through my normal, everyday frugality, and yet, I don't feel like we're missing anything.  Interesting, huh?  


I'm taking the SNAP Challenge as part of a team effort, together with my co-bloggers and friends, Mara Strom from Kosher On a Budget, and Chaviva Galatz from Kvetching Editor.  We thought it would be interesting to see how a family with kids (Mara) would meet this challenge, as opposed to a married couple (me), as opposed to a single (Chaviva).  Chaviva has the additional challenge of eating a vegan and gluten-free diet.  All three of us keep strictly kosher.  This should be an interesting week-long journey.


Naturally, I will be stretching that $63 budget by using coupons, paired with grocery sales, along with some very strategic meal planning.  


Here are the SNAP Challenge rules, verbatim:

1. Each person can spend a total of $31.50 on food and beverages during the Challenge week. This budget translates to $4.50 per day, or $1.50 per meal.
2. Keep all receipts and track all your food and beverage spending. Any food or beverages purchased and eaten during the Challenge week must be accounted for in your budget. For the purposes of this Challenge, you must include in your budget any amount you spend dining out.
3. During the Challenge, eat only food that you purchase specifically for the Challenge. Do not eat food that you already have in your pantry or refrigerator (excluding spices and condiments).

I did clarify with Mazon that if you would like to eat something you've already purchased, you can, but you need to know the cost and include it in your total.  That will help me out tremendously, since it will allow us to eat out of our stockpile of frugally purchased foods.


Our goals in participating in this Challenge? 

1. To build awareness and engender empathy for those among us living in poverty and receiving food stamps, who have no choice but to spend only $31.50 per person per week on food. 
2. To demonstrate that with a little effort and strategizing, one can eat well and healthily, while still being frugal.

We're going to be blogging about our SNAP Challenges all through next week.  We'd love it if you joined us in our team venture!  Please let me know (comment below) if you decide to try the Mazon SNAP Challenge too.  Join Mara, Chaviva and me next week and see if you too can live on a food stamps budget for a week. Follow along with us as we work our way through this venture.

(Actor Joshua Malina is also taking the SNAP Challenge this week.  You can follow his efforts on his Tumblr blog here.)