Food Stamps Challenge #2

A long time ago, I tried a food stamps challenge in California.  The goal was to eat completely and totally within the range of the typical food stamps allocation.  I need to save up a little money for a new roof on this house anyway, so I thought I would try it yet again, but this time in Georgia!

A couple notes about the challenge:

• Food stamps in Georgia for a 1-person household are median $134/mo.  That's in the ballpark of about $31/week.
• Yes, I could get by on 30 trips through a drive through dollar menu each week.  That's $4 a day, at about 250 calories per dollar, which gets me to 1000 calories.  I'd definitely lose some weight, but it would take me about a year to fully starve.
• Yes, I could eat only rice from the Sprouts bargain bin at $0.69/lb.  That's about 6.5 lbs or rice per day, and at each pound of rice coming in at about 1700 calories, well, I'd have a little left over.  I could even do beans AND rice, and butter, and an occasional pack of bacon, and still GAIN weight.
• The GOAL is to eat healthily, with an abundance of home prepared meals and fresh fruits and veggies, meeting most nutritional needs, and once I get good at this I might try adding in the nutritional info for macronutrients, and then eventually even micronutrients.  That sounds wicked hard right now, I don't have the hang of this yet.

A couple notes about how I am cheating:

• I don't actually suffer from food insecurity or poverty.  That takes a lot of the stress out of this, and a main way we counter stress is via seeking out comfort foods, even if they are expensive.  I'm not fighting fair here.
• I also have a fully stocked kitchen, pantry, a large fridge, and a stand-up freezer.  I have the luxury to buy in bulk and store the surplus for when I need it later.  This takes single one-time ingredient investments (doubangjiang, dou-chi, Shou-xing cooking wine, a handle of good soy sauce), and one-time equipment investments (wok, rice cooker, immersion blender) and reduces them to mere pennies in my budget.  Someone actually on a food-stamps budget would be getting by with the $15 non-stick skillet kit from Walmart, have no way to store nearly as much surplus as I have, etc...  If you are on a food stamps budget, you definitely don't have the space to store 25-lb sacks of three different varieties of rice.
• The refrigerator / freezer space also means I have the luxury to prep time-intensive recipes once, and eat them spread out all week or month.  Someone living in poverty would not have this luxury.
• I also have a car and a seemingly unlimited gas budget, so I can shop around for the best prices on food and travel to places remote from MARTA stops that have good deals.  If I was on foot, in a food desert, and every trip cost money for MARTA or an Uber fare, I'd have a LOT harder time of this.

Okay, let's see how Week #1 of the 2019 Food Stamps Challenge is going so far!

The Plan

Back in California, where there was so much random seasonal fluctuation in prices, I rarely went to the store with a plan.  Here in Georgia, I have some idea of what will be cheap and what won't, because the local microclimate doesn't fluctuate nearly as much as the annual seasonal variation.  Therefore, I actually made a plan before embarking on this adventure.

First Step: Inventory

Since food waste will be the enemy of this challenge, I first had to check my fridge for perishables that would need to be consumed before they go bad.  I've been on a lot of travel, and had already done a decent job of eating down my surplus, so here is the list of "use it or lose it" items that made it into the plan:

• 1 c hot and sour soup
• 2 c cooked rice
• 1 large stick ginger
• Carrots (about 8 lbs, actually, I usually buy 5-lb bags and then had a house guest who also eats a lot of carrots, and she didn't know I already had a 5-lb bag so added a 10-lb bag to the cart)
• 2 slices pizza
• 5 oz hummus
• 2.5 chicken thighs, marinated and cooked Thursday night
• 1 dozen eggs (the remainder of a pack 30-ct pack purchased prior to house guest influx, so a commodity to be used quickly, not spread out)
• 1 box leftovers from a cheese and charcuterie plate gotten at a restaurant, where, oddly enough, the initial plate would have more than blown my entire week's budget
• 1 large flour tortilla
• 2 oz random trimmings of nice cheeses
• 1 6-ct package of Babybell individually wrapped cheeses (starting to get old, gotta take care of that, too)

The other consumable inventory includes a lot of non-refrigerator things, like dredges of chip bags, jars of nuts, random chocolates, etc..  Again, these luxury items are on-hand, and I will count them in my budget when I must replenish them, but in order to get an overall weekly average, we're going to have to ignore those expenses for now.

Second Step: Initial Menu Plan

Of course this will change as the week goes on and based on what I find at the supermarket.  Since I'm starting with a plan, I thought it worthwhile to detail it here.  As you can see, I'm planning "large prep" meals on Saturday and Sunday, and lower-prep meals during the week.  I've also tried to make week-day breakfasts meet my schedule - on days when I know I will be running out the door as soon as I wake up, I have easy-prep or prep-ahead breakfasts like cheese and apple and nuts, or yogurt and fruit.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Saturday	Fried rice, using 1 c rice and 0.5 chicken thigh from leftovers, 1 carrot, and 2 eggs	Pizza	Sichuan boiled fish, with rice	Fruit and something from the larder
Sunday	Rice pudding, using 1 c rice from leftovers, coconut milk from pantry, and trail mix from larder	Leftover fried rice from Saturday, hot & sour soup from leftovers	Vegetable korma focusing strongly on carrots, with rice	Larder raid + fruit
Monday	Steamed egg and fruit smoothie	Greek salad, with green lettuce, carrots, leftover chicken and hummus, cucumber, ranch, green onions	Ramen noodles with ramen egg, leftover chicken, cabbage, and carrots	Cheese & charcuterie leftovers
Tuesday	Cheese, apple, nuts	Leftover ramen	Rice noodles with cabbage, carrots, and a poached egg	Carrots and hummus
Wednesday	Scrambled egg and fruit	Salad with 2 boiled eggs and ranch dressing with carrots	Leftover Sichuan boiled fish with a side salad of lettuce and cabbage	Fruit, Babybell cheese
Thursday	Yogurt and granola	Bento leftovers*	Leftover vegetable korma	Carrots and hummus
Friday	Cheese, nuts, and apple	Greek salad repeat	Turkey and rice and carrot soup (leftover turkey scraps and stock in the freezer)	Cucumber and ranch

*Note: Bento leftovers = any time there are very small quantities of a leftover item, I pack it carefully in a little lunch-scale bento box procured in Japan.  One layer is for things to reheat, the other layer is for things to eat cold.  This allows me to cut down on food waste and have an adorable little lunch.  Bento day is ALWAYS my favorite day - I have a cute little cloth that I wrap it carefully in with a little bow that has the chopsticks stuck in, and I unwrap it as though it were a little present, laying out the cloth as my placemat and really enjoying every second of the experience.  I planned the bento for Thursday, as I can often with with someone on that day, and while private bento unwrapping is fun, it's even more fun with another person.

**Also note: After the horror of the ranch dressing incident of 2013, I no longer eat pre-packaged ranch dressing and insist on making it myself.  There is no excuse for a creamy food product left in a jar in a car in the hot California sun for a month while I was in Iceland all July to come out as though no time had passed.  That stuff has to be toxic for nothing to have colonized it.

Third Step: The Shopping List

Again, I know this will change when I get to the store.  Something will be cheap, something will be expensive.  Substitutions are allowed.  Overages are allowed (they will just get bundled into the consumables for next week, on average after 10-15 weeks, we should be able to finally get a handle on actual weekly expenses).

Here was the initial list:

• Fruit (4 servings)
• Sour cream (for making non-toxic ranch dressing)
• Parsley (for the ranch)
• White fish, unless there are no inexpensive white fish and then tofu is okay
• Garlic 
• Green onion (1 pack of 5)
• Cabbage (smallest, cheapest head)
• Iceberg or other lettuce, 2 heads total
• Cucumber (1)
• Tomato (1)
• Jalapeno (1)
• Apple (2)
• Heavy cream (1 cup)
• Yogurt (enough for 1 serving)
• Lemon (I like lemons)
• Lime (I also like limes)

Fourth Step: The Shopping Trip

My weekly budget is $31.  My monthly budget is $134.  If I go over or under a little, that's cool.  I should attempt to get the best deal on anything that won't go bad within a single week, as I only do shopping once per week as would someone on a limited gas budget (also I'm on a limited time budget).  To note, I do all my food shopping at Nam Dae Mun these days, unless I'm looking for a specialty item.  

Let's see how we did:

• Fruit (4 servings planned) - Fruit is always where my plan falls apart.  
• Strawberries: Fresh strawberries looked amazing and were only $0.99 a pound.  I got 3 lbs.  I will freeze 2 lbs for smoothies and eat the other 1 lb fresh.  That's $2.97 in strawberry expenses.
• Nectarines: These were on sale for $0.99/lb.  They looked so good, and you never just get one nectarine because you could be sorely disappointed if the first one goes bad.  $0.60 in nectarine expenses.
• Navel Oranges: These were either $0.59 each, or $1.00 for two.  Oranges take a long time to spoil.  I got two.  $1.00 in orange expenses.
• Sour Cream - 16 oz for $2.29, being the entire expense for that item.  This is an ingredient for ranch dressing, and it doesn't spoil quickly, so this will still be in the fridge next week.
• Parsley - I couldn't find the parsley.  This was for the ranch dressing, and I can make do without it.  Take this off the list.
• White fish or tofu - Tilapia was in the bargain ice bucket (pick it and clean it yourself for a discount) at $1.99/lb.  Tofu was $1.49 for 14 oz.  I was feeling kind of lazy and had a fever after getting my TDAP booster yesterday, and didn't know if I would feel up to the challenge of cleaning the fish in time, so I got both.  $2.67 in tilapia, $1.49 in tofu.  One of these will carry over to next week.
• Garlic - I only wanted a single 5-head pack, but it was on sale for 2 for $3.00.  Total garlic expenses $3.00, and some of this will definitely carry over to next week.
• Green onion - They had a 4-pack special for $1.00, but 4 packs is more than I can use before it goes bad, also I have green onions in my garden if I need to supplement, so I just got the one pack of 5, at a total expense of $0.39
• Cabbage - Cheapest was either kohlrabi or green cabbage at $0.79 / lb, and I didn't want to put the extra work into shredding kohlrabi, so 1.21 lbs for $0.96 is cabbage expenses.
• Lettuce - Iceberg at $0.99 / head, same for green leaf.  One of each means $1.98 total lettuce.  WORST $$/ Calorie ratio EVER!!
• Cucumber - Just needed one, but 2 for $1.00 beats $0.69 each, and I will totally eat these.  $1.00 total cucumber expenses.
• Tomato - Roma was cheapest at $1.19 / lb, just got the one, $0.37 total tomato expense.
• Jalapeno - I got this really cheap - it isn't on my receipt.  Would have been about $0.13.  Errors happen, if I had noticed during check-out I would've said something, but in the grand scheme of things, this isn't that big a loss to the checker nor the store, nor a great gain for me, so I probably won't be storming back in there tomorrow demanding they take my 13 cents.
• Apple - Gala looked good and were $0.99 / lb, which was in line with the cheapest of the apples today.  I got two at 0.95 lbs, or $0.94 total apple expense.
• Heavy cream - I got exactly 1 c at $1.99 total expense.
• Yogurt - I was supposed to get a single-serving container.  However, just one single-serving container was $1.19, while a full pound was $2.99.  You know what I selected.  It'll be a little extra work to package it up for daily use, but honestly, if I can't be bothered to scoop yogurt into a container, then I don't deserve to eat yogurt.  One pound of Gopi Indian-style full-fat yogurt for $2.99.
• Lemon - These really make the Greek salads amazing.  Deal was 3/$1.00, so I got three, total lemon expense $1.00
• Limes - These really make pho-style noodle dishes amazing.  Deal was 4/$1.00, so I got 4, total lime expense $1.00.
• OTHER - this is where we SHOULD be trying to limit purchasing.  These are unplanned purchases that do not have a pre-determined dish that will be eaten to consume them.  This is how someone winds up with tri-color quinoa in her cupboard that she forgets about.  THIS IS BAD.
• Tomato Sauce - Okay, actually this one is okay.  It didn't make it onto the original shopping list because usually I have it in my pantry, and I checked just before departing and saw I needed to add it.  $0.89 for cheap ass, probably not very tasty, canned tomato sauce.
• Onions - Well, this is again another staple, and I thought I had them but didn't, and I will need an onion for the salads and the korma.  I got 3 at $0.79 / lb, or $1.98 total.
• Baby bok choy - it was on sale and I use it in a lot of ways.  It makes a wonderful side for all kinds of things, and doesn't go bad very quickly.  $0.66 total.  This is a relatively minor expense that will also carry to next week.
• Korean Kimchi - Whoops.  $3.99 total indiscretion, this is why you shouldn't shop when you're hungry....  There went more than 10% of my budget!!  WOW!!

The Evaluation

I needed to spend somewhere in the $31 / week range to meet the challenge.  I over-bought some key items that will carry over week to week (sour cream, yogurt, lemons, limes, fruit).  I also spent $3.99 on kimchi, which was a totally unnecessary purchase given the menu for this week - also given that I have two boxes of kimchi in my fridge.  I just really wanted kimchi to munch on during the only 22-minute drive home because I was starving.

• Budget: $31.00
• Expenses: $34.84
• Total: I'm in the red by at about $4.  That means next week I should look to spend $26 max.

Commentary

Huh.  I went over by $3.84.  Had I skipped the kimchi, sure, that was an impulse purchase out of hunger, and everyone has those, so let's leave that there.  Had I cut back and not saved overall cash by purchasing in smaller numbers (skipped the 3 pounds of strawberries, for example), I could have easily kept it within that range, but I would have missed out on what would be a wise financial decision overall.  It's not easy doing the food stamp budget if you insist on eating a widely varied diet, but it is possible, even in Georgia, especially if you cheat (see above).  I'll keep trying to do it and keep posting!