Living on a Food Stamp budget Day 1

I began with breakfast.

I admit to eating first and calculating costs after.

1 very small pot of coffee .25
1/2 Pomegranate .99
2 slices rye bread .20
1 oz cheddar cheese .39

As you can see even this meager breakfast came to 1.83 and put me over budget. Since I am going out tonight I will have an extra 1.33 to play with so I can make my daily budget but already I have an idea of how hard this will be.

I must admit that this toasted cheese sandwich typically would include bacon, tomato and a poached egg to dip it into. This is not an option on a food stamp budget.


When lunchtime rolled around I was hungry. I learned just how expensive a tuna fish sandwich is.

I used tuna, onion, a few olives, lettuce and tomato from the garden, rye bread and 1/2 roast pepper.

The total cost of one sandwich...1.60 (Since even garden goods are not free I assigned a value of .10 for the lettuce and tomato).

It is a good thing I am not cooking at home tonight as I would have .23 cents to carry over into dinner.

Since I am eating with Lynda and her family I can carry over those funds into tomorrow giving myself 3.89.

What I have had prior to my free dinner contains less than 700 calories and except for vitamin C which is at 94%; it is not nutritionally complete.

Keeping in mind that I typically eat 2,200 calories per day, I am going to have to do some careful thinking and planning as I go on.

I have been using food stock that was in the house and calculating costs today. In a couple of days I will (except for oil and seasonings) be shopping for new food and keeping to this budget.

At Lynda and Tom's I cooked with the kids and we had an abundant dinner. Salad with radish and avocado, two portions of pasta with pistachio pesto, that was made with garlic, oil, parsley, arugula, basil and pistachios and ice cream with raspberries. This along with two glasses of excellent Cab. (Even just a passable glass of wine will end up being one dollar's worth of food so it will be a while until I see wine again)

I am stuffed.

2,026 calories for the day (most of them off budget)with a much better nutritional balance.

I wonder how many food stamp families are so fortunate as to be invited out for an abundant meal packed with nutrition?

Tomorrow I will be balancing calories, nutrition and costs, in essence the real challenge begins.

Living on a Food Stamp budget

On August 27th I will be doing a chef challenge marathon at St. Luke's church on Van Ness at Clay. Yesterday I met with Jessica at the S.F. Food Bank to discuss some of what we will be doing.

I learned that a family on food stamps has on average 1.33 to spend per meal. I decided to spend a month taking the food stamp challenge.

I went over the costs and what I spend and decided that if I wanted to use oil and seasonings that I would have to bring that number down to 1.22 per meal for fresh ingredients.

I will not be subjecting anyone else in the household to this experiment so I will be cooking for one which is an additional challenge.

Anything bought in bulk would have to be used before the end of the month. I will have to cook individual meals or one large meal and eat leftovers no matter how tired I become of them.

This is not unique; Many seniors live alone and struggle with cooking for one every day. This is also true of young mothers whose child is  breastfeeding or on formula.

I currently weigh 155 lbs at just barely over 5 feet 4 inches. My chest is 42 inches and my waist just under 30. I do work out and will continue to all month.

I offer this information so that I can see if I lose or gain or if the muscle to fat proportion changes.

I am also getting a blood test today to measure my blood sugar and blood sodium levels.  

My goal is to keep my health stable.

I am fortunate in that I spent a few months working as a teacher for Raw Satisfaction. The food budget was very small. I had to create a 5 course meal for 6 people for $30.00. That is 1 dollar per course. As you can imagine this was a difficult task. I found the cheapest stores in the city and you can imagine how often I bought natural or organic on that budget.

My current task is even harder in that all of those courses or one course has to be 1.22 and I will try to be nutritionally complete.

I will monitor my nutrition and caloric intake via http://www.fitday.com

I am also fortunate in that this month is my birthday and I have a lot of wonderful friends in San Francisco who will be inviting me over for dinner or taking me out. On those days I can spend my 3.66 on breakfast and lunch.

I will do my best to post daily or close to it. And I begin.

Breakfast.

Fusion On The Fly West Coast

Fusion on the fly West Coast events are coming soon. Watch this space for details.