I can’t believe it’s September already! I’ve been planning to take the SNAP Challenge for months now, and today, September 1st, is day one.
What is 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 $4.50 per day, per person (the average allowance for food assistance programs), log their experiences, and reflect on the challenges and difficulties.
Why am I Taking the SNAP Challenge?
I’m taking this challenge to raise awareness about food insecurity (a topic close to my heart) and to hopefully destroy some of the stigmas surrounding people who need public assistance. Hunger spans across all races, ages, genders, locations, and education levels. Life can be unexpected and unpredictable and programs like SNAP are created to help people through the tough times and get back on their feet. While these programs aren’t the ultimate answer, they do provide temporary relief for millions of people. For more information about hunger in America and who it affects, FeedingAmerica.org has some great information and statistics. I really hope you check it out.
My other motivation is to just simply get back to my roots. When I started this blog I was in a really tough place—working a low paying job and drowning in student loan debt. At that point, I had no choice but to eat on less than $4.50 per day. Since that time I’ve gone back to school, gotten a much better job, and developed flourishing side career as a freelancer. As you can imagine, my spending (especially on food) has gotten really relaxed as my income has grown. I like the idea on eating on less than $4.50 per day, even when you don’t have to, because I think it’s important not to over consume (in all areas of life, not just food). I think this will help me refocus for the blog and, most importantly, be more thankful for what I have.
My Goals:
I plan to record everything I eat and drink throughout the day and calculate the total cost. I will be taking the challenge for the entire month of September.
I will be posting some new recipes, some old recipes modified to fit the challenge, and using some previous blog recipes just as they are. At the end of each week I’ll write a summary report for what I ate, how much it cost, and my reflections on the experience.
Because health is important to me, I’m going to attempt to incorporate as many fruits and vegetables in this plan as possible. Yes, that will be a challenge!!
My Expectations:
Planning is going to be the number one key. There is no way to casually eat on less than $4.50/day… unless I casually just eat half as many meals. Even with all of my years of blogging about the subject, I fully expect this to be a challenge. When I started the blog, $4.50/day was easy, but grocery prices have sky rocketed over the past 5 years, so it will be considerably more difficult.
I won’t be able to indulge in some of the luxuries I’ve gotten used to in the past couple of years, like my fancy coffee (beans, not pre-made drinks). Ooo, it’s going to be tough! My morning cup of joe is one of my favorite parts of the day, but when faced with money troubles, you have to make sacrifices. I’m doing this for real. No pretending.
Snacking will pretty much be off the table. $4.50/day is only $1.50 per meal, if you eat three meals… with nothing left over for snacks. Food for entertainment is not an option at that level. I will need to make the meals that I do have as filling as satisfying as possible to curb my cravings for snacks.
If food for entertainment is not an option, I will have to find new activities to entertain myself and new ways to enjoy spending time with friends. I remember that being one of the biggest challenges five years ago when I was very broke… what did I do to entertain myself instead snacking, going out to eat, or ordering a pizza? I learned about blogging and started a blog! I’d say that turned out well. :)
Stress. Stress is going to make this hard. When I get stressed, I want cheese… or pizza. In the month of September I’ll be closing on my first house and moving. The stress of this transition is going to make this TOUGH. I’m going to want to stuff my face. I know it. But, once again, when you’re faced with money troubles you are stressed. So, this is a very real challenge that people face every day.
So, that’s it for now! I’m excited to get started. I’ll be cooking my first batch of meals today, so look for a recipe tomorrow and a summary at the end of the week. Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. I want this to be a learning experience for everyone!
Read through my experience from beginning to end:
There’s been a good deal written here in Canada recently about our lack of food stamps and the need to rely on what is donated to food banks it’s very interesting. And not a little bit scary. It’s made me rethink my own donations to food banks. Here’s one that resonates strongly with me:
http://hofemergencyfoodassistance.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/mo-kd-mo-problems/
I’m looking forward to watching how this plays out. We went to the grocery store with a short list yesterday, and I couldn’t believe how much things cost! I can’t imagine $4.50 a day.
We don’t have food stamps in Canada, and our grocery prices are considerably higher.
However, I’ll join you in this, as best I can. I’m going to start tomorrow, however, since this is the first I’ve heard of it :P
So, if you’re interested in a Canadian perspective, and what we can whittle down to, let me know!
Hello Beth, I wish you much success in this adventure. As one who has to live everyday figuring what I have to eat today. There are day, where I have only popcorn to eat. I get to go to the grocery store about once in three to four months. I buy as much as I can on sale. Most of the time I may have a $100 to $125.00 to spend. I make a few $ from doing surveys which buys most of my dry goods from Walmat.com and Amazon.com. They are a life saver. They have allowed me to eat for less than 3.00 per day. But it’s getting harder as the thing gets higher in prices.
One of the dishes I fix is take a 25oz can of chili without beans, I mix pinto beans and 4 pints of unsalted popcorn with the chili. The dish will make me three meals. That’s cost me less than 2.00 per meal. Good Luck!
Thank you for sharing, Randall! You’re an inspiration. :)
Hi,
It’s such a great project !!! I didn’t know about it. I’m glad you mentioned it.
Good luck with your challenge.
Best regards
I did the SNAP challenge two years ago when my husband was unemployed. It wasn’t really so much of a challenge as our new way of life. I just did the calculation: $4.50 per day x 6 people x 30 days = $810. We got a bit over half of that because he was getting unemployment. Even though we had a little “income” coming in, our only grocery allowance was food stamps. We were able to pull it off and I don’t remember it as the worst time of my life. I actually remember it fondly and often wish we could go back to that summer. Even now, as a family of 7, we spend about $600 a month on groceries. About $150 of that is produce. I am looking forward to your assessment of your adventure. :-)
Thank you for sharing your experience! I hope that being more vocal brings attention to the issue.
The worst part wasn’t how to get what we needed, but rather the emotional issues and the shame from relying on it.
Beth,
Not sure you heard about this now-closed kickstarted, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/490865454/good-and-cheap, but her recipe book is a free download. Same passion – learn to make wise choices and cook good food on SNAP dollars. Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day by Leanne Brown.
Yes, I haven’t read it yet, but I did help spread the word about the kickstarter via social media. It’s a great project!
I’m really excited to read about your journey. Hopefully it will inspire us to rethink how and how much we eat. With excess income comes a sense (or comfort?) that we can eat excessively. Food costs have been on the raise and our budget is being squeezed. Best wishes and kudos!
Beth, I think you’re pretty inspirational-thank you.
I have a pantry that’s decently stocked. Do you count the cost of stored food? (I assume, ‘yes’ but wanted to clarify). And if you are using stored food, when making calculations, do you use today’s cost of that item, or… I totally have no idea how much I paid for some of my canned goods/dried beans.
Anyway, this seems like a great challenge.
Yes, I’m definitely going to include the cost of my pantry items that I use, because they certainly weren’t free. :) Luckily, because of the blog, I have a running tab of how much each item costs, so it’s really easy for me to go back and see. Most of my stuff is fairly new, so I’m just going to use the price that I purchased it at.
I find these SNAP Challenges fascinating. As a family currently using SNAP, I marvel when the average is 4.50/person. Ours works out to be about $2/person per day. There are 10 of us here at home…including 5 boys ages 15 down to 6. It is so hard for me to make our benefits last the entire month. Often I am dipping from some other place so we can eat healthy at the end of the month.
I love your blog(s) and can’t wait to see what to see what you do with the challenge.
Wow, thank you for sharing that, Rebecca! That’s really heart breaking. One of my first reflections was “I’m a small person, what would someone twice my size or with a very physical job do? They’d need twice as much. Teenage boys definitely fit that category as well!
I study food insecurity for a living (in part), so I’m thrilled to see you mention stress: this is really HARD. it requires a lot of mental/financial gymnastics to feed a family on this type of budget: it is work, in itself. Often this type of work is invisible to other family members and to society on a larger scale, so it isn’t calculated when considering how much time the person in charge of food work spends on their role. It far, far exceeds the time to simply prepare food and shop for it. Often, the populations in this category are already strapped for time and under significant stress that isn’t food related all, which has a compounding effect. Planning, in itself, is a bit of a luxury.
Thanks for helping call attention to this, especially the aspects of food insecurity that are often excluded from the conversation.
Agreed! That was one of my first thoughts, too. Not only do I have the time to plan, but I have a lot of knowledge, practice, and training in doing so. The average person would have a very hard time with just that step.
Super excited to see how this goes! Your blog was a gateway to me cooking and paying attention to how much I spent during grad school on my teeny budget! And now that I’ve started a business and gotten married, I’m back and keeping count again!
I am very excited to read these posts! I do have some questions: are you single? do you have children?
My family and I were more recently than not on SNAP. I was the primary breadwinner, and I was laid off. We were over the limit while I was receiving unemployment, but when that ran out and I still didn’t have a new job, we qualified for the full amount we were allowed for a family of 3… and that was not $4.50/person/day.
It was a challenge to stay within our monthly SNAP allowance, especially since we like eating produce a LOT. We don’t buy pre-packaged foods, but to help cut costs, we did eat a lot of rice-based meals.
Leftovers, I think, will be your saving grace. Make a big pot of soup, homemade bread and a huge salad and this will stretch a long time! Bakery thrift stores for sandwich bread is a good option (bread without HFCS is there); we ate a lot of PB and Js with homemade jam we made the previous summer. Breakfast was a lot of eggs from Nana’s chickens (or organic from the store if we were out) and a fruit smoothie made at home.
Meals were simple and portion control helped stretch everything.
Good luck and God bless!
Yes, I am single with no children and I think that is going to be my biggest advantage. I just don’t know how families do it! Bless you for keeping it together. :)
I am really excited to follow your journey! I love your recipes and your approach to food. I used to work at a social service agency with a food pantry and so I saw first-hand how tough it is for people to make ends meet. I applaud you for taking this challenge and I’ll be supporting you the whole way!
I was all set to try this challenge. Then I did the math for my family of 6, and realized that we already feed ourselves (and buy toiletries) for over $100/month less than the $4.50/day/person max. I have house guests until late September anyway, but October is definitely going to be grocery budget challenge month after the costs of feeding 4 extra adults for a month.
Great job!