Food Stamp Challenge, Day #6

I officially went over my allotment Monday, when I topped out at $86.83.  There are still two days left in the week, and I don't have any money left to spend. I didn't think I was going to be able to pull this off, with this particular challenge set this way.  I typically spend $100/week for groceries, and I buy things on sale.  So, I'll stock up on items as they come up on sale.  I am able to build up my pantry and plan meals based upon what I have on hand.  (Hence why I bought two pork roasts for the price of one.  We ate one, stretched it through two meals, and the second one is in the freezer.)

For the sake of argument, I went out and purchased things for this week.  I didn't pull from our supplies at all.  But, since I was over my budget to the week, dinner has been Chicken Soup pulled from the freezer, split pea soup, and lunch sandwiches consisting of ham that I picked up after Easter - daughter is going to eat peanut butter and jelly as she's a vegetarian. 

Another thing to note is that I made a point of our continuing to eat lots of vegetables.  Even with the astonishingly low price of $25 for a box of produce, we still ended up buying produce to finish out the week.  We're fortunate in that we live in farm country.  Produce is cheaper for us than for those who live further away from cities.

We are fortunate, we have the ability to buy in bulk, and the space to store what we buy until we need it.  Some months we spend more on groceries than other.  Some years, I'm able to grow vegetables in my back yard, which means that I spend even less on groceries as we eat the goodness that we grow.  While I did not grow my own vegetables this year, I did hit up produce stands this year.  I also have set aside $30 this week to pick up a 50 pound bag of potatoes and a 20 pound bag of onions.  We'll be using those potatoes and onions through the end of the year. 

I know it is possible to take the cost of your groceries down further with coupons, but the biggest problem I've found with coupons is that they are mostly for highly processed foods, and I really don't want to eat highly processed foods - I'm not sure it's good for our long term health. 

As far as living on $4 of food per day... I don't know that it's possible anymore.  We successfully did this a few years ago - but the cost of living has gone up since then.  It's difficult to pull together healthy meals for just $4.  That's $1.33 per meal per person. 

How much do you typically spend on groceries in a week?