Tuesday, May 1, 2007
exposing the liberal bias of the media
newsbusters said that gov was pulling a "media stunt" and used low figures. they posted a table from the usda with 35 for a household of 1. we're kosher.
gov of oregon joins us!
the governor of oregon is doing it too! http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/us/22oregon.html?ex=1178251200&en=e77c14265acfde87&ei=5070
except he's doing it on $3/day, which is the average amount a resident of oregon receives. are our figures too high?
except he's doing it on $3/day, which is the average amount a resident of oregon receives. are our figures too high?
grocery shopping + starting stash
Went grocery shopping this afternoon with Jesse. Figuring out my food expenditures is a little more complicated because when I am here we tend to split food - so the list that follows is adjusted for that, to reflect only my portion of whatever he or I bought. Hopefully I can lay all this out there and then not have to do such a detailed list every day. (What Blogger needs is LJ-style cuts, we're going to have some long posts...)
Summary
Total bought today: 31.45
Total value of available food: 52.84
Bought today:
At Trader Joes:
eggs = my half was .50
plain yogurt = 1.99
cheddar cheese block = 2.18
marinara sauce = 2.29
black, white kidney, and garbanzo beans = 2.07
kidney beans (organic, it was all TJs had) = .89
sour cream = my half was .85
chocolate mint UFOs = 1.69
can of corn = .69
vegetarian deli slices = 1.99
shepherd's bread = 2.49
rice milk (all out of fortified soy, oh no!) = 2.69
frozen stir-fry veggies = my half was 1.00
potatoes = my half was 1.00
salsa = my half was 1.50
coconut milk = my half was .50
pasta = my half was 1.50
At Safeway:
lettuce = 1.00
cabbage = 1.28
tortillas = my half was 1.35
ice cream = my half was 2.00
Total purchased:
Already have:
3 servings of a bag of frosted mini-wheats = 1.00
part of a soy milk carton = .50
8 teabags = 1.00
6 Emer-Gen-C packets = 1.50
can of tomato soup = .89
butternut squash soup, partial container = 1.00
cheese = 2.50
tofu = 1.00
juice = 8.00 (here I am totally cheating - there is no room in the fridge here for another carton of juice, but we have a preponderance of frozen bottles of dumpstered Naked juice. so... I am going to cheat in the following manner - a 64 oz container of Naked juice will run you around 8.00 (and we have such a container) and I'll carefully monitor how much I consume.)
Thai green chile sauce base = 1.00
onions = 3.00
and various and sundry condiments, no specific value.
Summary
Total bought today: 31.45
Total value of available food: 52.84
Bought today:
At Trader Joes:
eggs = my half was .50
plain yogurt = 1.99
cheddar cheese block = 2.18
marinara sauce = 2.29
black, white kidney, and garbanzo beans = 2.07
kidney beans (organic, it was all TJs had) = .89
sour cream = my half was .85
chocolate mint UFOs = 1.69
can of corn = .69
vegetarian deli slices = 1.99
shepherd's bread = 2.49
rice milk (all out of fortified soy, oh no!) = 2.69
frozen stir-fry veggies = my half was 1.00
potatoes = my half was 1.00
salsa = my half was 1.50
coconut milk = my half was .50
pasta = my half was 1.50
At Safeway:
lettuce = 1.00
cabbage = 1.28
tortillas = my half was 1.35
ice cream = my half was 2.00
Total purchased:
Already have:
3 servings of a bag of frosted mini-wheats = 1.00
part of a soy milk carton = .50
8 teabags = 1.00
6 Emer-Gen-C packets = 1.50
can of tomato soup = .89
butternut squash soup, partial container = 1.00
cheese = 2.50
tofu = 1.00
juice = 8.00 (here I am totally cheating - there is no room in the fridge here for another carton of juice, but we have a preponderance of frozen bottles of dumpstered Naked juice. so... I am going to cheat in the following manner - a 64 oz container of Naked juice will run you around 8.00 (and we have such a container) and I'll carefully monitor how much I consume.)
Thai green chile sauce base = 1.00
onions = 3.00
and various and sundry condiments, no specific value.
first day!
nutrition is a trick. upon close inspection my beloved perogies are just vegefiber getting pushed through my gut. with the value of carbs. which are oh so easy to come by.
today:
lunch: 1 burrito from TJs: 1.80
i made one quiche for dinner:
cheese .80
spinache 1-
1/2 onion .75
5 eggs .80
crust 1.70
dill .10
italian .10
milk .10
=5.35/2 (gann had a piece, i had two)= 2.68 (i'll have the rest tomorrow)
oj - .50
Total Cost: 4.98
Free: one cup tea from work and one cup milk and ice cream from gann.
today:
lunch: 1 burrito from TJs: 1.80
i made one quiche for dinner:
cheese .80
spinache 1-
1/2 onion .75
5 eggs .80
crust 1.70
dill .10
italian .10
milk .10
=5.35/2 (gann had a piece, i had two)= 2.68 (i'll have the rest tomorrow)
oj - .50
Total Cost: 4.98
Free: one cup tea from work and one cup milk and ice cream from gann.
First Day
I hadn't gotten around to shopping last night, so I was preparing for a very hungry day, since all I had was the cheerios that I had purchased and planned on finishing up (stale cheerios in June? No thank you!) and the house milk that we (Cait and I) decided to continue using, as it would be a silly thing to let it go to waste.
However, my office is being fumigated, so I've come home. As soon as I'm done with my work, I can run to the grocery store, and get my staples!
This morning, I felt strangely much hungrier than I usually do, so instead of the one bowl of cheerios with milk that I usually have, I ate 2 bowls! Walking to work, I realized that I was overful, leading me to think that I was pre-emptively compensating for anxiety about going hungry/deprivation.
Since being home I've had a lot of water and tea. I'm pretty ravenous, which is a lame way to go shopping- my impulse will be for the super quick to fix, high caloric things that are not going to help me stretch my budget.
I think since I am doing this for the month, or aiming to, I'll go shopping with a budget of 70.50 cents. (THat is double my weekly budget minus for weekly milk expenses and the cheerios I've already purchased and the tea bags). My goal is to get lentils, rice, whole wheat bread and pasta, spaghetti sauce, tuna fish, peanut butter, bananas, oatmeal, etc. I think frozen vegetables on sale will have to compensate for fresh vegetables. I also think that I'll want to get some frozen entrees for work.
The real challenge (as Cait and I discussed yesterday) will not be trying to get calories, but trying to get meaningful calories. As it is, I struggle to get enough of the B vitamins, Iron and protein in my diet. And mygeneral desire to avoid heavily processed foods and foods that have a high fructose/corn syrup content will really be challenged. I anticipate organic fruits and vegetables to go out the window.
I think I'll try to get those large cans of V8 juice, which are pretty high in sodium but also in lots of vegetables, minerals and vitamins.
Anyway, I also do want to save some money for this weekend- I'll need to bring something for my friend Anna's birthday and something for a Cinco De Mayo celebration- once again, the role that food and being able to spend relatively freely on it in my socialization is really being highlighted for me!
(And on that note: last dinner of non-food stamp times? Cait and I went to the B&O- we each had a lasagna and a hot cocoa- meal with tip was twenty dollars each. We went out with a bang!)
I hadn't gotten around to shopping last night, so I was preparing for a very hungry day, since all I had was the cheerios that I had purchased and planned on finishing up (stale cheerios in June? No thank you!) and the house milk that we (Cait and I) decided to continue using, as it would be a silly thing to let it go to waste.
However, my office is being fumigated, so I've come home. As soon as I'm done with my work, I can run to the grocery store, and get my staples!
This morning, I felt strangely much hungrier than I usually do, so instead of the one bowl of cheerios with milk that I usually have, I ate 2 bowls! Walking to work, I realized that I was overful, leading me to think that I was pre-emptively compensating for anxiety about going hungry/deprivation.
Since being home I've had a lot of water and tea. I'm pretty ravenous, which is a lame way to go shopping- my impulse will be for the super quick to fix, high caloric things that are not going to help me stretch my budget.
I think since I am doing this for the month, or aiming to, I'll go shopping with a budget of 70.50 cents. (THat is double my weekly budget minus for weekly milk expenses and the cheerios I've already purchased and the tea bags). My goal is to get lentils, rice, whole wheat bread and pasta, spaghetti sauce, tuna fish, peanut butter, bananas, oatmeal, etc. I think frozen vegetables on sale will have to compensate for fresh vegetables. I also think that I'll want to get some frozen entrees for work.
The real challenge (as Cait and I discussed yesterday) will not be trying to get calories, but trying to get meaningful calories. As it is, I struggle to get enough of the B vitamins, Iron and protein in my diet. And mygeneral desire to avoid heavily processed foods and foods that have a high fructose/corn syrup content will really be challenged. I anticipate organic fruits and vegetables to go out the window.
I think I'll try to get those large cans of V8 juice, which are pretty high in sodium but also in lots of vegetables, minerals and vitamins.
Anyway, I also do want to save some money for this weekend- I'll need to bring something for my friend Anna's birthday and something for a Cinco De Mayo celebration- once again, the role that food and being able to spend relatively freely on it in my socialization is really being highlighted for me!
(And on that note: last dinner of non-food stamp times? Cait and I went to the B&O- we each had a lasagna and a hot cocoa- meal with tip was twenty dollars each. We went out with a bang!)
First shopping trip
So because of my weekend camping trip, I had $27 to begin with. Minus $1 for milk (what we calculated we pay through our milkman) and $2 for coffee (what Jay and I estimated we would spend; right now we make coffee for the two of us every morning from the stash I brought from Uganda, and it seemed silly to brew two separate pots, that's $24 I had to work with. I didn't want to spend it all in case I had a major craving at the end of the week: craving contingency money is important. So I did my shopping at Safeway. Here's what I got:
Cheerios (on sale) - $2
Grape Jelly (on sale) - $1.69
Peanut Butter (on sale - also non hydrogenated! woo!) - $2.00
1 bag lentils - $0.69
1 bag brown rice - $0.69
Big bag of spaghetti (on sale) - $1.25
2 Oriental Ramen (I know you can get em way cheaper elsewhere)- $0.50
1 can tuna (on sale) - $0.66
2 yogurt (on sale for 50c ea) - $1.00
Safeway crushed wheat bread (on sale) - $1.50
2 oranges (on sale) - $1.30
3 bananas - $1.08
1 roma tomato (on sale) - $0.33
2 fuji apples - $1.74
3 carrots - $0.55
a few celery stalks - $0.41
plus 1 jar of tomato sauce i'm carrying over from tj's - $2.00
Total: $19.39
Surprises: I was really happy to see there was an alternative to Adam's super expensive peanut butter for simple, just peanuts, non-hydrogenated peanut butter. I was dismayed at how impossible it is to get cheap jam that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. As it is, I'm eating 100% more high fructose corn syrup now than before. The main tragedy for this week is NO CHEESE. I will probably go back later and buy some with my contingency moneys. Cheese is one of the most compelling arguments for sharing food. Cheese in the 2lb bricks is, I think, more than twice as cheap per pound than in the smallest quantities. I could spend 3 dollars on a teeny amount of cheese, or 6 on four times as much. Also, I am appreciating vegetables and fruit way more right now than I do when I get them through the free organics box. I mean, I gave up cheese before I would give away one of my oranges or apples.
Food today:
cheerios & coffee for breakfast
pb&j sandwich, spaghetti and sauce, half a carrot for lunch
plus i brought a bunch of teabags so i'll be drinking tea all day instead of coffee
How's everyone else's first day going?
Cheerios (on sale) - $2
Grape Jelly (on sale) - $1.69
Peanut Butter (on sale - also non hydrogenated! woo!) - $2.00
1 bag lentils - $0.69
1 bag brown rice - $0.69
Big bag of spaghetti (on sale) - $1.25
2 Oriental Ramen (I know you can get em way cheaper elsewhere)- $0.50
1 can tuna (on sale) - $0.66
2 yogurt (on sale for 50c ea) - $1.00
Safeway crushed wheat bread (on sale) - $1.50
2 oranges (on sale) - $1.30
3 bananas - $1.08
1 roma tomato (on sale) - $0.33
2 fuji apples - $1.74
3 carrots - $0.55
a few celery stalks - $0.41
plus 1 jar of tomato sauce i'm carrying over from tj's - $2.00
Total: $19.39
Surprises: I was really happy to see there was an alternative to Adam's super expensive peanut butter for simple, just peanuts, non-hydrogenated peanut butter. I was dismayed at how impossible it is to get cheap jam that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. As it is, I'm eating 100% more high fructose corn syrup now than before. The main tragedy for this week is NO CHEESE. I will probably go back later and buy some with my contingency moneys. Cheese is one of the most compelling arguments for sharing food. Cheese in the 2lb bricks is, I think, more than twice as cheap per pound than in the smallest quantities. I could spend 3 dollars on a teeny amount of cheese, or 6 on four times as much. Also, I am appreciating vegetables and fruit way more right now than I do when I get them through the free organics box. I mean, I gave up cheese before I would give away one of my oranges or apples.
Food today:
cheerios & coffee for breakfast
pb&j sandwich, spaghetti and sauce, half a carrot for lunch
plus i brought a bunch of teabags so i'll be drinking tea all day instead of coffee
How's everyone else's first day going?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)