SNAP Challenge, Day 1

Note: I am not following all the SNAP Challenge rules. You are not supposed to use anything you already have, and start clean with the groceries you buy with your allowance. This would cause me to waste the things I already purchased, and buy things I already have, so instead, I am just calculating cost per serving from what I paid for the items when I got them. I do a lot of my shopping at BJs, which may be a luxury most people on food stamps would have trouble with due to package sizes, but I believe that this exercise is still educational to me and any readers, even without following the rules completely

Day one of the challenge: What I ate:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with blueberry yogurt and a cup of coffee. Total cost: $0.74
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich on Whole Wheat bread, and sweet potato chips with hummus. Total Cost:$0.78
Dinner: Honey Spice Chicken Thighs via this recipe. Egg noodles with butter and salt. Corn and a Small Spinach salad. Total cost:$1.34
Dessert: A bunch of grapes. Total Cost:$0.28
Day One Total: $3.13

Overall, day one went alright, and I actually came in under budget, which is great. I got a great deal on Chicken thighs($0.99/lb), which made dinner super reasonable. Since I generally only drink water an a cup of coffee a day, this helps to keep my daily costs down a lot. Also, i think my meals were all fairly healthy, which is something people always say is hard to do on a limited budget. The sweet potato chips are just sweet potatoes and oil(so nothing nasty in there). I used frozen corn, which is all I ever buy, because I find corn on the cob to be too much work. Eating frozen vegetables is a good way to keep costs lower while still eating healthy. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some more fresh produce in, but if not, any vegetables are better than no vegetables!


Complete cost breakdown
Breakfast
oatmeal 1/4 cup 0.05
yogurt 0.36
coffee, k cup 0.33
total 0.74
Lunch
sweet potato chips, 1 ounce 0.29
hummus, 1 tablespoon 0.15
bread, 2 slices 0.11
peanut butter, 2 tablespoons 0.14
jelly, 1 tablespoon 0.09
total 0.78
Dinner Egg noodles, 1 serving 0.22
butter and salt 0.05
corn, 1 serving 0.20
spinach salad 0.23
honey spiced chicken thigh 0.64
total 1.34
Grapes 0.28
Day One Total 3.13

Back! And the SNAP challenge

Well Ladies and gentlemen, after over a year, I am back to blogging! I never intended to take that long of a break, but frankly, life happened and I just couldn't get around to blogging. Quick update: I am not a stay at home mom to a beautiful little girl, Madeline. She turned 7 months last week.


Now for the SNAP challenge! The SNAP Challenge is a yearly event hosted by Feeding America to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity in America. Participants are challenged to eat on no more than $4.25 per day, per person (the average allowance for food assistance programs), log their experiences, and reflect on the challenges and difficulties. I have decided to take part in the challenge, and will be sharing exactly what I spend my food allowance on. I plan to do this for a week, but may stretch it to two, depending on how things go. For large meals(dinner), I will be splitting the price per recipe to servings and only keep track for myself, since my husband is too hard to keep track of throughout the day. I started this morning, so tomorrow I will share my food for today, along with how I feel thus far. Hopefully this will be an eyeopening experience for me, and for all you readers out there.