Look at this article I found! I would call it awesome, but it's not really - more just extremely locally and topically relevant:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/301574_grocerygap29.html
Also, yet another person doing the food stamp experiment - nice to see that so many others have given this a whirl:
http://elb.typepad.com/halfchangedworld/2005/02/one_month_on_th.html
Today's food:
Breakfast: whole wheat bagel, cream cheese = estimated 75 cents, orange juice = estimated 35 cents, Earl Grey tea with soy milk and sugar = estimated 40 cents
Late lunch/early dinner: small veggie pho at Pho Than Brothers (damn, will I miss eating there for a while) = $4.20
Late dinner: homemade burrito with cheese, beans, sprouts, sour cream, salsa = estimated $1, small glass of Naked juice Green Machine = free to me (probably 25 cents value)
Total spent: $4.20
Total cost: $6.70
Total value: $6.95
Monday, April 30, 2007
OMG - only one hour left!
and i'm totally unprepared.
crap.
i don't even know where i can buy groceries. does anyone know if TJs is allowed? i'm pretty sure my tops grocery had a sign...
but no more quick jaunts to my neighborhood bodega. nix.
today was a 5 dollar sandwhich and
free: sweet sweet coffee from the office. and tea. and dinner with matt.
so a 5 dollar day. kinda.
i'll be more official. starting TOMORROW!
crap.
i don't even know where i can buy groceries. does anyone know if TJs is allowed? i'm pretty sure my tops grocery had a sign...
but no more quick jaunts to my neighborhood bodega. nix.
today was a 5 dollar sandwhich and
free: sweet sweet coffee from the office. and tea. and dinner with matt.
so a 5 dollar day. kinda.
i'll be more official. starting TOMORROW!
Monday (last day of normal food buying habits).
Breakfast:
Cheerios and milk and a banana. About 50 cents.
Snack at eleven: Half of a chocolate muffin, lots of water, all left overs from last Fridays meeting at work. Free. (Also pretty gross).
Lunch- Half of a ham sandwich, grape juice from the corner store. 4.95. A mocha from cupcake royale. 4 dollars. (Four dollars?!?)
Snack at work to deal with being stressed out- sunflower seeds. Mike bought them last week for our trip to portland. No idea what he paid for them. I'll say I ate probably 15 cents worth.
So far, having not eaten dinner, it's been about ten dollars.
*****
So, also, I was thinking- if we were really on food stamps, we'd get one lump sum of money at the beginning of the month, and would have to budget from there. I'm thinking about doing a large grocery shopping thing on my way home from work. 37 dollars times 4 weeks worth of groceries. But- so risky. What do you think?
Breakfast:
Cheerios and milk and a banana. About 50 cents.
Snack at eleven: Half of a chocolate muffin, lots of water, all left overs from last Fridays meeting at work. Free. (Also pretty gross).
Lunch- Half of a ham sandwich, grape juice from the corner store. 4.95. A mocha from cupcake royale. 4 dollars. (Four dollars?!?)
Snack at work to deal with being stressed out- sunflower seeds. Mike bought them last week for our trip to portland. No idea what he paid for them. I'll say I ate probably 15 cents worth.
So far, having not eaten dinner, it's been about ten dollars.
*****
So, also, I was thinking- if we were really on food stamps, we'd get one lump sum of money at the beginning of the month, and would have to budget from there. I'm thinking about doing a large grocery shopping thing on my way home from work. 37 dollars times 4 weeks worth of groceries. But- so risky. What do you think?
starting to get nervous about all this. I tend to use food/drinks as a reward for myself. now that I realize that for at least a week there can be no spur-of-the-moment convenient purchases of treats (none of my current frequent haunts/work locations are within a quarter-mile, or maybe even a half-mile, of a grocery store, never mind the fact that hot coffee is not a food-stamp item), I am starting to care.
I will have to tote around plenty of tea bags and Emer-gen-C so I don't become obsessed with the idea of buying a cup of coffee, because even though I can easily go a week without coffee, it will be forbidden fruit, and then I won't be able to stop thinking about having some.
Even thinking about this experiment is revealing a hell of a lot of weird behaviors and thought patterns I have about food, health, taking care of myself, and being satisfied. I'm sure there's lots more to come.
I will have to tote around plenty of tea bags and Emer-gen-C so I don't become obsessed with the idea of buying a cup of coffee, because even though I can easily go a week without coffee, it will be forbidden fruit, and then I won't be able to stop thinking about having some.
Even thinking about this experiment is revealing a hell of a lot of weird behaviors and thought patterns I have about food, health, taking care of myself, and being satisfied. I'm sure there's lots more to come.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friday, finished:
Met with Mary and Natalie to catch up at a Mexican Food Restaraunt. Mary paid for me, but if i had paid, it would have been 6.50. I had an enchilada from the a la carte menu. And lots of water.
After that, Mary and Natalie and I went to Dilletentes- I had a steamed milk with almond in it, and we split a slice of cake three ways. The cake was 8.00, the milk was two dollars. Mary and Natalie both had mochas that were about four dollars a piece. Mary and I treated Natalie to this and split the total bill two ways.
Total expenditure for Friday was, in terms of amount eaten, fifteen dollars, amount expended, 12 dollars and fifty cents.
Saturday I spent the night at Sophias, and babysat for fourteen hours. All the food I ate that day was food I ate sort of on the job that was paid for me by Irene, Sophia's mom, and food that I would have access to were I on food stamps.
Breakfast- we made pancakes from scratch. No idea. I had coffee from across the street, which cost 2 dollars, but Irene had left money specifically for me to get coffee.
Lunch- We ate at the pad se ew place (?) where Irene takes Sophia on Saturdays. Irene gave me the exact amount of money to buy the exact thing that she buys Sophia every Saturday. It came to 15.75 with tip, and there was enough food for the two of us to split easily, and to take home for Irene.
Dinner was Pizza- again, Irene left the exact amount for us to get a large cheese Pizza from Zeeks. 17 dollars.
Total food spent for my food consumption: 17 dollars. Total food I spent on myself: 0 dollars.
(I had forgotten how low my food costs were as a nanny!)
Sunday (Today)
Skipped breakfast totally, had some finger snacks at church (swedish meatballs, crackers with goat cheese (that I assure you was a total accident/mistake), sliced apples, coffee. Free to me and I have no idea how I can figure out how much that food actually cost. Maybe let's say three dollars worth of food I ate?
Mike and I went for one last fling of eating out for a late late lunch/early early dinner at Cedars. We split Nan, Chicken Tandori, Coconut Curry. I had a chai tea. It came to 26 dollars, we split it between us.
Total food spent on myself today: 13 dollars.
I've really really really used eating out as a mood of social interacting a lot recently. That will be a big challenge for me to deal with, the sudden change in that. Also, I'm really beginning to appreciate that one of the ways that I am personally quite priveleged is that people are generous to me, and that I have a lot of social relatonships in which food is purchased for me. (I noticed, also, that i purchase a lot of food for other people- I haven't been tracking money that I spend on food for other people as a food bill that would be covered for food stamps. Should I?)
Overall, I'm averaging spending about 13 dollars on myself per day. With a food stamp budget, it will be about half than that. Also, I do frequent coffee shops so much- my gosh, I am personal friends with the coffee shop owners in my immediate vicinity! So that will also be a challenge, too.
Met with Mary and Natalie to catch up at a Mexican Food Restaraunt. Mary paid for me, but if i had paid, it would have been 6.50. I had an enchilada from the a la carte menu. And lots of water.
After that, Mary and Natalie and I went to Dilletentes- I had a steamed milk with almond in it, and we split a slice of cake three ways. The cake was 8.00, the milk was two dollars. Mary and Natalie both had mochas that were about four dollars a piece. Mary and I treated Natalie to this and split the total bill two ways.
Total expenditure for Friday was, in terms of amount eaten, fifteen dollars, amount expended, 12 dollars and fifty cents.
Saturday I spent the night at Sophias, and babysat for fourteen hours. All the food I ate that day was food I ate sort of on the job that was paid for me by Irene, Sophia's mom, and food that I would have access to were I on food stamps.
Breakfast- we made pancakes from scratch. No idea. I had coffee from across the street, which cost 2 dollars, but Irene had left money specifically for me to get coffee.
Lunch- We ate at the pad se ew place (?) where Irene takes Sophia on Saturdays. Irene gave me the exact amount of money to buy the exact thing that she buys Sophia every Saturday. It came to 15.75 with tip, and there was enough food for the two of us to split easily, and to take home for Irene.
Dinner was Pizza- again, Irene left the exact amount for us to get a large cheese Pizza from Zeeks. 17 dollars.
Total food spent for my food consumption: 17 dollars. Total food I spent on myself: 0 dollars.
(I had forgotten how low my food costs were as a nanny!)
Sunday (Today)
Skipped breakfast totally, had some finger snacks at church (swedish meatballs, crackers with goat cheese (that I assure you was a total accident/mistake), sliced apples, coffee. Free to me and I have no idea how I can figure out how much that food actually cost. Maybe let's say three dollars worth of food I ate?
Mike and I went for one last fling of eating out for a late late lunch/early early dinner at Cedars. We split Nan, Chicken Tandori, Coconut Curry. I had a chai tea. It came to 26 dollars, we split it between us.
Total food spent on myself today: 13 dollars.
I've really really really used eating out as a mood of social interacting a lot recently. That will be a big challenge for me to deal with, the sudden change in that. Also, I'm really beginning to appreciate that one of the ways that I am personally quite priveleged is that people are generous to me, and that I have a lot of social relatonships in which food is purchased for me. (I noticed, also, that i purchase a lot of food for other people- I haven't been tracking money that I spend on food for other people as a food bill that would be covered for food stamps. Should I?)
Overall, I'm averaging spending about 13 dollars on myself per day. With a food stamp budget, it will be about half than that. Also, I do frequent coffee shops so much- my gosh, I am personal friends with the coffee shop owners in my immediate vicinity! So that will also be a challenge, too.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
anticipated challenges
1. For the first week-ish of this experiment, I'll be staying at Slant (I have a temp job in town and this is so much easier than commuting from Lake Stevens/east Everett every day, plus I get to hang out with rad people). So I should be able to do pretty well for the first week.
2. I have just discovered that my favorite lunchtime at-work frozen meal (TJ's spinach lasagna, $1.89) is not big enough for lunch on its own, AND that it tends to give me heartburn. Bummer.
3. Not consuming dumpstered juice, bread, or produce will be pretty difficult for me. I understand the value of not taking this way out for the experiment - nevertheless, I love avoiding waste and dumpstering is one of the ways I do that.
In short, my biggest challenge is not the amount of money I have to spend - I have successfully eaten off a food-stamp sized allotment for much of my five years of adult life. It will be avoiding spending the money on things that are not food-stamp approved (like coffee from a coffee shop - I'm working quite a bit next week, and I'm going to require caffeine), and forcing myself to buy things that I would normally dumpster. Also, I am trying to gain a few pounds, and eating much more than I normally do may be difficult on this budget.
Today's food breakdown:
Breakfast: Frosted mini-wheats knockoff, soy milk = estimated 50 cents, coffee from coffee shop = $1.48
Lunch: TJ's spinach lasagna = $1.89, mango Naked Juice = free (valued at $3.29 or so)
Snack: 2 Emer-gen-C packets = estimated 50 cents, rye Triscuits = estimated 50 cents
Dinner at my parents' house: homemade pizza on pre-made crust = my share, estimated $3
Total paid by me: $4.37
Total cost: $7.87
Total value: $11.16
Wow. That was a lot more than I expected. My cocky comments above should be disregarded.
2. I have just discovered that my favorite lunchtime at-work frozen meal (TJ's spinach lasagna, $1.89) is not big enough for lunch on its own, AND that it tends to give me heartburn. Bummer.
3. Not consuming dumpstered juice, bread, or produce will be pretty difficult for me. I understand the value of not taking this way out for the experiment - nevertheless, I love avoiding waste and dumpstering is one of the ways I do that.
In short, my biggest challenge is not the amount of money I have to spend - I have successfully eaten off a food-stamp sized allotment for much of my five years of adult life. It will be avoiding spending the money on things that are not food-stamp approved (like coffee from a coffee shop - I'm working quite a bit next week, and I'm going to require caffeine), and forcing myself to buy things that I would normally dumpster. Also, I am trying to gain a few pounds, and eating much more than I normally do may be difficult on this budget.
Today's food breakdown:
Breakfast: Frosted mini-wheats knockoff, soy milk = estimated 50 cents, coffee from coffee shop = $1.48
Lunch: TJ's spinach lasagna = $1.89, mango Naked Juice = free (valued at $3.29 or so)
Snack: 2 Emer-gen-C packets = estimated 50 cents, rye Triscuits = estimated 50 cents
Dinner at my parents' house: homemade pizza on pre-made crust = my share, estimated $3
Total paid by me: $4.37
Total cost: $7.87
Total value: $11.16
Wow. That was a lot more than I expected. My cocky comments above should be disregarded.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday:
Breakfast- cinnamon toast crunch plus milk. The cinnamon toast crunch was 2 dollars a box, with about ten servings per box, so I'll estimate, what- 20 cents per serving? With hormone free milk delivered to our house- I think that is, maybe, another ten cents? So that would be about 30 cents a serving? Cereal, clearly, will constitute a huge part of next months meals.
Lunch- an apple (75 cents apiece, according to our little organic food slip), a v8 juice for 1.50, a mocha for 2 dollars, and lots of water (free, from work). So that was- 4.25
Dinner was really late: I went out with Mike, Justin, Susan and Patrick. We ordered alltogether a lot of food- a pizza and a half, an order of meatballs, a salad, an order of garlic bread, an order of cannolli and an order of spumoni. I think our total came to 67.oo- that includes drinks (which I don't know who had what- I had water) and doesn't include dessert, which was free. I paid 12.oo dollars. That means my total for yesterday was 16.55. (Mike and I were sort of in feast before famine mood, even though I ate probably half a slice of pizza, a meatball, and a bite of spumoni. It was really strange how much I wanted the option of eating a lot of food, even though I wasn't even remotely hungry.)
I don't remember doing it, but this morning my mouth tasted strongly of grapefruit juice, so I think in my sleep I went upstairs and had grapefruit juice. Who knows how much. So that's an additional- what- maybe thirty cents? so 16.85 total for yesterday.
Friday (so far)
Breakfast was a work meeting, where food was provided. I had a croissant, some little baby quiche, several cups of coffee, some strawberries and some grapes.
Lunch has been oatmeal. Approximately 50 cents.
Dinner I think I'm eating at home, then going to meet friends, so there might be dessert or drinks afterwards.
Breakfast- cinnamon toast crunch plus milk. The cinnamon toast crunch was 2 dollars a box, with about ten servings per box, so I'll estimate, what- 20 cents per serving? With hormone free milk delivered to our house- I think that is, maybe, another ten cents? So that would be about 30 cents a serving? Cereal, clearly, will constitute a huge part of next months meals.
Lunch- an apple (75 cents apiece, according to our little organic food slip), a v8 juice for 1.50, a mocha for 2 dollars, and lots of water (free, from work). So that was- 4.25
Dinner was really late: I went out with Mike, Justin, Susan and Patrick. We ordered alltogether a lot of food- a pizza and a half, an order of meatballs, a salad, an order of garlic bread, an order of cannolli and an order of spumoni. I think our total came to 67.oo- that includes drinks (which I don't know who had what- I had water) and doesn't include dessert, which was free. I paid 12.oo dollars. That means my total for yesterday was 16.55. (Mike and I were sort of in feast before famine mood, even though I ate probably half a slice of pizza, a meatball, and a bite of spumoni. It was really strange how much I wanted the option of eating a lot of food, even though I wasn't even remotely hungry.)
I don't remember doing it, but this morning my mouth tasted strongly of grapefruit juice, so I think in my sleep I went upstairs and had grapefruit juice. Who knows how much. So that's an additional- what- maybe thirty cents? so 16.85 total for yesterday.
Friday (so far)
Breakfast was a work meeting, where food was provided. I had a croissant, some little baby quiche, several cups of coffee, some strawberries and some grapes.
Lunch has been oatmeal. Approximately 50 cents.
Dinner I think I'm eating at home, then going to meet friends, so there might be dessert or drinks afterwards.
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