Challenge Week: Day 1

Day 1 of the food stamp challenge is over. Here’s what I purchased this weekend to last us through the week, for a grand total of $114.24:

At Target:

At Woodman’s:

Complete lists are at the end of this post. A few notes on the shopping:

• You might notice that there is a LOT of pasta here. I had debated whether to buy it at Target or at Woodman’s, and by mistake, I bought it at both places! (If we end up with extra boxes of pasta at the end of the week, we’ll eat them eventually, or maybe I’ll donate them to Second Harvest in the spirit of the challenge.)
• After I got it all home, photographed, and put away, Eric asked, “I guess you’re not including the dog in the challenge, are you?” Hmm . . . I hadn’t even thought about the dog. No, her expensive prescription dog food was not included in my challenge budget. But that’s something else to think about, anyway: Not everyone who might enjoy the companionship of a pet can afford to feed one.
• As Rabbi Biatch of Temple Beth El noted in his post about shopping for healthy groceries, all of this shopping and planning requires access to the supermarket in the first place, while many people on limited incomes live in food deserts, without easy access to a full-service grocery store. To me, it seems that Madison’s Freshmobile (covered in this article in the Wisconsin State Journal) may offer one promising strategy to address this problem. While finding the link to post here, I learned that the Freshmobile is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. I’m adding it to my donation list.

Day One: Our Meals

• Breakfast: granola cereal mixed with plain puffed millet cereal to “stretch” it; milk; banana for Eric and 1/2 banana for each kid; coffee for the adults. Note: This will be our breakfast throughout the week.
• Morning snacks for kids were provided at religious school (supplied by parents on a rotating basis; I should have budgeted an allowance for this as I did for the preschool snacks, but since we came in about $1 under the total, that should take care of it) and Tots ’n’ Tunes (free food, but I’m not being so strict with the challenge as to not allow my kids to eat what the others are eating!).
• Lunch: whole wheat peanut-butter banana pancakes (some are left over for kid snacks and lunches later in the week); honey instead of syrup on the pancakes; one grapefruit sliced and divided up among us; water to drink.
• Afternoon snack for everyone: yogurt and apple slices.
• Dinner: “pockets” made with whole wheat pizza dough, stuffed with cheese, broccoli, and great northern beans and, for adults, seasoned with chili powder; mix of frozen corn and green beans; orange juice or water. Some pockets are left over for two school lunches and for Eric’s dinner on the run that he will have to eat on Wednesday.
• Evening “munchies” for grownups: plain popcorn (popped in a paper bag in the microwave).

All of these are things I've made before, but I don’t usually cook from scratch this much in one day!

Also, as I mentioned before, I will not be using our existing spices and condiments except salt, pepper, and possibly ketchup. (I purchased the chili powder at Woodman’s to make our meals this week more appetizing.) 

Packed Lunches for Monday

For the kids:

This is a leftover pocket, corn and peas (straight from the freezer, they thaw by lunchtime), and raisins and walnuts (raisins and popcorn for the other kid).

Eric and I will each have a mix of rice, beans, corn, and peas, seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili powder; an apple; and, for Eric, yogurt. Fortunately, he has a refrigerator and a microwave available at work. (Not everyone does, which would make lunch packing more difficult or would mean resorting to PB&J.)

Grocery Shopping Details

Target:

diced tomatoes, 4 cans	$1.22 each (minus one coupon for $1 off)
brown rice, three 1-lb bags	$0.92 ea
100% whole wheat pasta, 4 boxes	$1.17 ea
pasta sauce, 2 jars	$2.49 ea
coffee	$2.99
cereal	$3.29 (minus one coupon for $1 off)
yeast (3 packets)	$1.14
banana chips (this will be one child’s class snack contribution)	$1.39
walnuts, 8 oz bag	$3.84
vegetable oil [note: olive oil was not within the budget!]	$1.92
(credit for bringing 2 of my own bags)	(0.10)

Target total: $29.77

Woodman's:

black beans, two 1-lb bags	$1.39 ea
raisins, organic, 15 oz	$2.65
100% whole wheat pasta, 3 bags (16 oz versus Target’s 13.25 oz)	$1.59 ea
puffed millet cereal	$1.29
lentils, 1 lb	$0.99
great northern beans, 1 lb	$0.95
Hodgson Mill 100% whole wheat mac and cheese, 3 boxes	$1.59 ea
chickpeas (garbanzos), 1 lb	$1.29
whole wheat flour, 5 lb	$3.69
honey, 12 oz	$3.09
chili powder	$0.89
chunk light tuna, two 6.4-oz pouches	$2.39 ea
popcorn kernels, 2 lb	$1.59
baking powder	$1.09
peanut butter, 12 oz	$2.69
chicken, “Just Bare” brand, whole, 4 lb	$6.99
carrots, organic, 2 lb	$1.69
apples, Braeburn organic, 3 lb	$3.49
3 small yellow onions	$0.31
5 grapefruit	$0.40 ea
avocado	$0.69
19 bananas ($0.45/lb)	$2.99
eggs, organic	$3.69
milk, 2 half gallons of 2% (they didn’t sell gallons of the nonorganic but rBGH-free milk I wanted) and 1 half gallon of 1%	$2.19 ea
cheese (rBGH-free monterey jack)	$6.92
frozen broccoli, two 1-lb bags	$1.09 ea
frozen corn, two 1-lb bags	$1.09 ea
frozen green beans, organic, 1 lb	$2.29
frozen peas, 1 lb	$1.09
frozen orange juice concentrate, 16 oz	$1.79
yogurt, 32 oz vanilla (rBGH-free)	$2.79 (minus a coupon for $0.50)

Woodman’s total: $84.47

Grand total: $114.24 

(The remaining $2 goes toward my budgeted amount for school snacks that are provided by parents on a rotating basis.)