Oh woe is me. . . . . apparently.

I usually let Tim handle the political stuff for our household, but today I'll be on the soapbox. 

There's an article in our local paper today about folks taking a "Food Stamp Challenge."  As I quote from the paper, "From Saturday through June 8, participants will learn whether it is possible to eat healthy on an average food stamp budget by surviving on a weekly allotment of $32.91 per person."  That works out to about $1.50 per meal.

So being the number geek that I am, I crunch the numbers.  Um, for a family of 5, that's a weekly budget of $164.55.  Wow, such poverty and starvation!  Pay attention people, my grocery budget for a family of 5 people, one large dog and 4 cats is:  $150.00 - that's food, pets, toiletries, paper products - everything we buy at the store in a week.  My outrage is that the article makes it sound like such a sacrifice to drop down to this $32.91 weekly budget.  I want to know what the participants were buying and spending prior to the challenge.  My goodness, if I got to spend that amount on only food - we'd be living like kings!

One of the participants "has a plan" the article said, "She plans to eat three meals a day throughout the course of the challenge, relying on rice-based dishes and basic salads with homemade dressing to get her through the week".  This same participant is quoted as saying that coffee and cheese are expensive, "It's interesting to see what you will skip"  It's quite simple miss participant, you skip the luxuries and the wants, you purchase the needs.  If you keep that in mind, the $164.55 will be plenty.  It's just that the country is awash in rampant consumerism and no one can even remember the difference between a want and a NEED. 

We buy store brand and generic foods with very, very few exceptions.  We only buy a few convenience foods - I keep one frozen family meal on hand for days that go crazy and dinner plans have to be changed to quick and easy.  I also buy three small frozen entrees to take for my lunch at work.  I buy our meat marked down and use it or freeze it quickly - and I usually only put in half the meat required for a recipe whenever  can get away with it (obviously, meatloaf wouldn't work for that, but any noodle or rice dish is a perfect candidate.)  We plant a garden and can/freeze the harvest.  We eat leftovers and I cook meals from scratch mostly.  Summer vacation is harder though because the kids are home from school.  That means I need to provide easy things for them to make for lunch.  I have splurged and bought Pizza Rolls for one of their choices.  But I also told the that this is a splurge and if they are all gone in one or two days, or if one person hordes them - I won't buy them again.  There is ham, turkey & bologna from the deli for sandwiches, and soups & ravioli in cans.  Of course there is always peanut butter and jelly, with lots of choices of home canned jelly flavors too!  No one will starve, they may complain, but they won't starve!

I plan to follow this story in our paper and read more about what the participants have to say after completing it.  Then maybe I'll gather up a month's grocery receipts and compare my observations with theirs.

Frankly, if we quit allowing food stamps to be used in convenience stores like Circle K for candy bars and soda -- forcing them to be used for GROCERIES in a grocery store, that might help a lot.  And of course, we could drug test those who apply/receive food stamps (that could save us millions right there!)  But that's a whole other soapbox, LOL.