Living Lightly

As you know, I’ve been feeling a little guilty about not buying organic, cage free eggs during this Food Stamp Challenge since they cost more. Sometimes things work out in uncanny ways though. It just happened that one of our guests this weekend brought two dozen organic, cage free, local eggs as a hostess gift. Hurrah! At least some chickens are now freed.

We also got an assortment of snacks including chocolates, canned oysters, and fruit. Our guests were all from out of town and I don’t think any of them knew we were doing the Food Stamp Challenge. I thought we were the ones extending hospitality and here we’ve received so much – at least our little group of 12 dancers have been well fed. Even though I’m not eating desserts as part of this challenge during Lent, it would seem downright ungrateful not to indulge in eating the gifts, right? 😕

This not only makes me grateful for thoughtful friends, but reminds me of the social capital that we benefit from when the people we socialize with have the ability to help out feeding a crowd. Not everyone has that.

I got plain pizza instead.

I “toughed it out” at the last St. Francis DeSales fish fry by purchasing only the cheapest meal for $2. My son, who teaches at the school, gave me a hard time since it’s a fundraiser for the school. He said I could have made a bigger donation even if I didn’t eat more. He’s right of course. This week I plan to pay for a decent meal for Jim and me and then “pay it forward” by paying for a meal for the person in line after me. Where will I get this food money? From the $17 I won at the last fish fry “split the pot” raffle. I may even buy some more raffle tickets. Check out the Ted Talk by Nipun Mehta – Designing For Generosity for more on paying it forward.

PS: For the moment, I’m ignoring the Styrofoam cups. I know, I know, I could have brought my own cup but it takes awhile to make new habits and I’m doing this step by step.

Following are some food trifles and questions that trying to eat on $4.50/day have raised in my mind:

1. Apples: Jim had been gone for a few days and I had carefully rationed out the apples left for the week. The day he returned I went to the refrigerator to eat the last apple. It was gone! I knew the apple came out of our joint purchase, but still, I had counted on it. Sigh.
2. Burnt eggs: Jim was hard boiling some eggs but then took a phone call that distracted him – until he smelled something burning on the stove. At first he was going to put the burnt eggs in the compost, but I, the intrepid Food Challenge Enforcer, said “Let’s see if it’s still edible?” (When one doesn’t have eggs to spare, one is willing to experiment. J) In case you ever have need of this piece of trivia, Yes, burnt eggs are not that bad. I probably lost about ¼ of the egg in the peeling process, but I’m still alive. Jim ate the other egg.
3. How to count leftovers, staples, guests, and trips:

• Some of my food calculations have been complicated by not knowing how to count leftovers from one week to the next. Since Food Stamps are given on a monthly basis I figure it’s OK to be a little over one week and make up for it the next.
• I’ve been a little more ambivalent about using staples that had been in our pantry before Lent. Stuff like flour, sugar, and spices are pretty easy because they are basics and theoretically last a long time. The cost could be spread over several months. But what about foods like quinoa, popcorn, ketchup, pickles, mustard, salad dressing etc. that make eating more pleasurable but indeed cost more money. I haven’t been counting these in the budget because we’ve had them around the house as stock items. I realize this isn’t a pure experience of $4.50/day but it is making me more self-aware of my eating habits. I’m also aware from our experience of  a month of hosting a young family on Food Stamps that they move a lot and keeping a stocked pantry is not possible for many.
• We had 2 guests last week and will have another for several days this week. (Do we up our allowance adding in their $4.50/day or do we just buy extra for them?)
• Last weekend Jim was out of town and this weekend I will be at a conference for several days.  I deducted Jim’s “per diem” on the days he was away and will do the same for my conference. Of course I will get “free” peanuts and drink on the planes (at the low low price of a plane ticket). Once on the ground, however, I think I’ll just eat modestly and not worry about the cost when traveling. (Of course my sponsor will reimburse me for my meals but it doesn’t seem quite in the spirit of the Challenge to use this as a time to splurge.) Rationalization for eating out: Food Stamp recipients have soup kitchens and their kids get free/reduced school lunches, and Thanksgiving baskets. Don’t write to me about being insensitive; it’s irony.

4. Less food = higher gas prices: I filled up the car with gas at Kroger’s this week and found to my dismay that I didn’t qualify for even the 10 cents/gallon discount. In the past we always had bought enough Kroger groceries to at least get this discount. I guess buying less food means paying more for gas.

So, these are recent trifles that have caught my attention. Some of them would only be noticed by a person who has enough income (and a compulsion to calculate) to do the Food Stamp Challenge as a voluntary experience.

Lest we become self-righteous in calculating our virtue and sacrifices, I remind myself of this prayer, “Oh Lord, help me forgive those who sin differently than I do.”

pretzels & cottage cheese 🙂

Week #3 Grocery Shopping: Depending on how you figure it, this week we came in either $4.06 under budget or $5.06 over budget. We’re under budget if I figure just this week. We’re still a little over budget if I factor in the $9.22 we overspent last week.
Bottom line? It’s getting quite complicated to figure this all out. To summarize, I subtracted the 4 days I will be out of town but added the 5 meals that guests would be eating with us.
Lesson? It takes a lot of arithmetic to make this work. Most people who are eating hand to mouth probably just buy til their money runs out. Maybe they then go to a soup kitchen or buy less nutritious food to stretch their money.

Saved some money this week by buying:

1. More English muffins than we needed. They were two packs for the price of one. We’ll freeze them.
2. Green peppers for stuffed peppers since they were cheaper than the red or yellow ones. (I didn’t know the color affected cost.)
3. One onion (rather than a bag of onions). They were cheaper by the bag, but we didn’t need a whole bag.
4. A fresh pineapple. The “savings” part was because it was on sale. Otherwise it’s a splurge.
5. Medium (non-organic, non cage free) eggs. Apologies to all you caged chickens.

Things we didn’t buy but wanted to:
Red/yellow peppers, hamburg buns, Nutella, spices, jelly, yogurt, rice cakes, croutons, Coke

Insights:

1. We spent most of our week’s food allotment by the time we left the produce department. This was because we were determined buy nutritiously so as not to sacrifice our health – even for a noble experiment.
2. We were able to “win back” some of last week’s over-spending by not buying any meat. We’re not vegans (or even vegetarians) but we planned meatless dinners for this week.
3. Did you realize that bread & butter pickles sliced lengthwise for sandwiches are $2.69/jar while the little round ones are only $1.88? Ugh, I prefer the long sandwich style but we bought the cheaper ones – at least for this round.
4. Jim, smart shopper that he is, passed up the bottle of coriander spice saying it would be cheaper at the natural food store. Indeed it was half as expensive at Clifton Natural Food Store, BUT, it takes a car (which we have) and is way out of our way to get there. We decided to wait.
5. Although we feel bad for the chickens, we balanced out our moral compromises by packing our groceries in reusable bags. When the Challenge is over, we’ll go back to saving the chickens.
6. Splurges: In addition to the pineapple, Jim likes pretzels as a snack and sometimes eats cottage cheese for lunch (which I hadn’t factored into our lunch menu). Since we were saving money by not buying meat, I graciously granted these “whims.” After all, he bravely chose to forgo buying Coke. To stay within the Food Stamp Challenge and still eat nutritiously has meant giving up most “comfort foods” and any extras.

Normally I wouldn’t give the following things a second thought, but since I’m watching my food pennies and trying to be true to only spending $4.50/day I’ve started to stumble over trivial issues. For example:

• Being a good guest: Our faith community always has snacks after our meeting. Should I take a snack? (I decided to take some left over chips and salsa from the stock we had before Lent)
• Free food: Should I eat the snacks that others bring? Wouldn’t this be like taking advantage of free food so I wouldn’t feel the brunt of eating only what I could buy? I decided to refrain this time in order to have the full experience. (I don’t think anyone noticed, but I did have the company of one member who is a diabetic.)
• Fish Fry: I wanted to support the Lenten fish fry at our son’s school last Friday. I had, however, already overspent on our Food Stamp budget for this week, so I wasn’t sure if I should buy anything. I decided to buy the cheapest food they had, a slice of cheese pizza, and drink water. I chalked the cost up to the fact that we served lunch to a friend the other day out of our budget. Since I only spent $2 on the pizza I decided to splurge and buy some “split the pot” raffle tickets to offset my puny dinner donation for the school. Wouldn’t you know, I WON a whopping $17! Now, do I donate it back, buy some nutritious food, keep it…? What would a person on Food Stamps do?
• Pot Lucks: I’m going to a potluck dinner/dance tonight. There will probably be about 100 people there, so there will be plenty of food. I’m bringing the table cloths. Is that enough? I think I’ll take what our family calls “ants on a log” – celery sticks filled with peanut butter with raisins lined up on top. We have all these ingredients in stock, it’s cheap, and at least I’m contributing.

I know I’m probably being overly picky about these decisions (that’s what Jim says and he’s usually right) but it is certainly raising my consciousness and making me think. What about you?

comparing buns

Week #2 Grocery Shopping: Since we didn’t use up all the food we bought for Week #1, (we had enough leftovers from one of our meals for next week) we figured we could be a little more lenient about our food purchases for Week #2. This week we decided to buy food that we knew would be more nutritious even though it might cost a little more. Besides, we still had almost enough salad left to last another week (if the lettuce doesn’t spoil).

One complication, however, is that Jim will be out of town for two days. I’m not going to police his eating during this time, so I figured that I would just delete his portion of the food money for these 2 days.

Result? After deducting $4.50 in coupons we were still $9.22 over for Week #2. The biggest culprits were meat. We bought lean, organic ground beef ($3.89/lb on sale) and brats ($3.79 for 5). Both of these meals may produce leftovers, however, OR we may invite our son for one of the dinners. (If we were being super fastidious about this I figure we could subtract at least $2.50 as his food stamp dinner contribution.

Nutrition accommodations:

1. Jim found a manager’s special for whole grain buns (for the brats). It wasn’t that much more than the cheepo, white buns.
2. We did buy a higher quality of bread (for grilled cheese sandwiches).
3. We bought organic, fat free milk.
4. The aforementioned lean, organic ground beef

While we did splurge on upgrading the quality of some of our food, we still sacrificed some moral principles for the sake of cost.

Moral compromises:

1. Eggs: We bought the cheapest eggs ($1.59/dozen) instead of the organic ($2.49) or ideally, cage-free ($3.99) eggs. Sorry, Foghorn Leghorn.
2. The above eggs were packaged in unrecyclable Styrofoam. Sorry, Mother Earth.

Observations:

1. It’s hard to shop this way. It takes a lot of concentration, planning, and calculating.
2. It also takes longer to shop. (Part of this is because both of us go so we can push two carts – one for the items we’re counting for meals and another for things that aren’t food or are already counted in my breakfast/lunch calculations. I keep a running total on a calculator while Jim calls the price out to me. We consult. And then of course there’s the time to take the photo. J
3. Jim is a careful shopper, but he said this project cramps his style. He usually doesn’t plan out every meal but rather observes what looks interesting or is on sale and buys those  item or will pick something up for later use.
4. We’re not eating as much variety since we’re trying to use things up before buying another item.

Bonus: The store had free samples of guacamole and chips. I tested them. They passed

applesauce, corn bread, soup

Our first week on the Food Stamp budget is almost up. So far, so good. The hardest part so far has been all the calculating to figure out how much to spend and how to count the food we already had in the house. We tried to be pretty strict with our food purchases this week, just to see how it would go. Actually I was surprised that we ate pretty comfortably. I had cravings at times, but they weren’t really “hunger pains” but rather a desire to have a dessert, a pop, a glass of wine, or a snack. Since we weren’t sure how long our food would last, we cut out all drinks but water and a glass of OJ in the morning. We also didn’t buy snacks or desserts.

Although some of you have joined us in the Food Stamp Challenge, many have said, “It’s a good idea but for various practical reasons, we’re not doing it. We’ll be satisfied to learn from you vicariously.”

So, here are some things we learned so you won’t have to go to the trouble:

1. It helps to have a pretty well-stocked kitchen to begin with. Jim made chicken stir-fry tonight. I wouldn’t call it a gourmet meal but it certainly wasn’t mac & cheese either. He was able to do this because we already had soy sauce, Korean pepper paste, ginger, and salad dressing supplies (vinegar, oil, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, onions, cilantro). We didn’t count these staples and spices in last week’s shopping trip.
2. It helps to have cooking vessels like a wok, a Foley food mill (to make applesauce), large pots and a blender.
3. It helps to have knowledge about nutrition and a computer to look up recipes for the ingredients you already have. We also get a paper with coupons in it. Many families on food stamps don’t have these resources.
4.  Since we didn’t want to waste food, we allowed ourselves to use up the cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and other perishables that were in the refrigerator already. Jim tried to convince me that the one pop he sneaked came under the category of “Use it or lose it.” I let it pass this  time and he eventually admitted that unopened pop bottles won’t spoil. Now he’s trying to tell me that it’s OK to have a beer because you can’t buy alcohol with food stamps anyway. Tonight he’s having a snack of popcorn because “Corn is like a staple and it was in the house anyway.” Aren’t you glad you don’t have to negotiate all these little decisions? At least it’s voluntary and temporary sacrifices for us. We know there’s an end in sight.
5. This week I almost cried over spilled OJ. It’s a pain to clean up, but since I had only allotted myself 2/3 cup a day, it made a difference.
6. It’s easier not having kids to feed. Kids can be picky eaters and whiners. Even though we had nutrition rules when our kids were young, still they could be picky and it would be hard to enforce no cookies or snacks.
7. So far we have been pleasantly surprised that we’ve eaten quite sufficiently on our $63 this week and even have food left over, The mac & cheese made two meals and so has the soup. The chicken stir-fry might make another meal – or at least a couple lunches.
   

   chicken stir fry, rice, salad

8. Having a car and time to drive to different stores is a help both for bargains and specialty items. Today we were at a natural food store and I thought Jim was only going to get soup stock. Well, he saw these roasted edamame nuts and checked about getting them. I said it looked like a snack food. He said, “Hey, we’re doing better than we thought since two of our dinners are going to stretch into next week. Why don’t I take it out of next week’s $63.” He got them. Then we discovered they’re wasabi drenched edamame. We like spicy, but wow! Won’t be eating a lot of those.

Stay tuned.

Week 1 Grocery Shopping: Well, today Jim and I went grocery shopping with the goal of buying one week’s worth of food for $63 ($4.50/day for each of us for a week). Our self-inflicted Food Stamp Challenge starts Wednesday. Our total bill was only $ .81 over the limit but we took a few liberties with the process. For example:

1. Since both of us work at home and eat almost the same breakfast and lunch every day (homemade granola, milk, and OJ for breakfast and a sandwich and apple for lunch for me and something roughly equivalent for Jim) I figured out how much this would cost for 6 weeks so I could buy and prepare the granola in bulk. (Store bought granola would not be nearly as good and cost a lot more.) I, therefore, calculated that each of us spends about $2/day for these two meals meaning that we together spend $28 for breakfasts and lunches in a week (plus treats).
2. That leaves $35 to spend for a week’s dinner for two. We aren’t fancy eaters but we picked some of our cheapest meals for this week:

• Wednesday: macaroni & cheese, carrots, tossed salad
• Thursday: chicken stir-fry, rice, beets, applesauce (homemade)
• Friday: soup (probably vegetable), bread, asparagus, tossed salad
• Saturday: Omelets with bits of ham in it, muffins, carrots, applesauce (left over)
• Sunday:  Left-over chicken-stir-fry, rice, beets, tossed salad
• Monday: Spaghetti with sausage, garlic bread, broccoli, tossed salad
• Tuesday: Broccoli sandwiches, carrots, tossed salad

3. We bought some things in bulk that will last more than one week (because it was cheaper per meal) and calculated the price of some ingredients that we already had at home. (The per serving price of these was also less than buying just one serving of rice or spaghetti noodles. Since Food Stamps are received in monthly intervals, buying some things that would last a month or more seemed legit.
4. We used our Kroger Plus card and several coupons which totaled $11.64 in discounts.
5. We’re not counting miscellaneous staples that we have around the house anyway like, spices, condiments, oil, sugar.

Some cost saving decisions we wrestled with at the store were:

1. Do we buy the bigger, cheaper garlic bread or just the size we need which is more nutritious?
2. We usually buy organic bananas and eggs. This time we didn’t.
3. We totally skipped the snack, dessert, and frozen food aisles. (Normally we would buy desserts but fortunately 😕 we’re not eating desserts during Lent. Arrgh, this is going to be hard!)
4. We bought a head of iceberg lettuce instead of the mixed organic greens that we often buy. (Later Jim went back and got some since it looked like we were a little under our limit.)
5. Decided not to buy couscous since it was a whopping $7.

We didn’t count toilet paper, bandages, etc. since those items wouldn’t be covered by food stamps anyway. We also realized that we saved money by buying in larger quantities (to be saved and pro-rated over the month. We needed the up front money to take advantage of buying in bulk.) I cleared out the right side of our refrigerator for this week’s groceries. I guess we’ll feast on the left side today since it’s Mardi Gras.

Since next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday – the day we start the Food Stamp Challenge – I figured that I only had a few days left before I wouldn’t be eating desserts (and a bunch of other beloved foods). In the spirit of Mardi Gras I made my favorite dessert – mousse – and portioned it out to have just enough to last me till February 22. (Jim, don’t you eat any more.) Since I usually give up desserts for Lent anyway this isn’t technically part of the Food Stamp Challenge but it will make it a little more palatable to keep to my $4.50/day allowance.

$4.50/day (or $31.50/wk.) is the national average food stamp allotment for about 49 million Americans. Could you do it? I’m pretty frugal and my husband, Jim, (who does most of the cooking in our family) is a careful and health conscious grocery shopper. We decided to try to do it as part of the National Food Stamp Challenge. I am passing the challenge on to my readers.

Several background articles are: Interfaith Groups Kick Off National Food Stamp Challenge and The Food Stamp Diet and How It’s Different from Being Poor, and a You Tube video about grocery shopping.

The problem is that often the healthiest and most socially responsible way to eat can cost more money and time to buy local, organic, fair trade foods, and avoid fast foods. Eating out quickly busts the budget. Jim and I have been moving in the direction of eating healthier for a while. We’ve reduced meat, increased organic, and drink more water than juice; but we’re not purists. (I love my chocolate and it’s not all dark.)

Although the most recent National Food Stamp Challenge took place the week Oct. 27 – Nov. 6, 2011, I thought that this would be a valuable Lenten experience. We will start on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Our goal is to do it for all of Lent, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my health for an awareness raising experience. It may be that we only do it for a week if we find it insane and unhealthy to continue.

Although I won’t be starting for another week, I can already see several questions that I will need to decide soon.

1. Can we supplement with food that we already have stored in the house?  Hmmm, probably not (or only minimally with staples like flour, sugar, and salt), if it is to be a true experience.
2. What about eating out?  That would probably blow the budget in one meal.
3. What if people bring us food, invite us over for dinner, or offer a snack at a meeting?  We’ll have to find a way to calculate that in. Any ideas?
4. What about eating while traveling?  Eating is so much less expensive when you cook at home, but we have several trips planned during Lent. How should we count this necessary eating out?
5. What about economy of scale?  Cooking for two means we have $9/day to spend. (Cooking for six would mean we had $27/day.) Food goes further when you buy in bulk.

Logistics:

• The purest way to do the Food Stamp Challenge would probably be to shop for a week’s worth of food, store it separately, and only eat this food for a week.
• Since we’re aiming for six weeks, however, we have the advantage of buying in larger quantities (thus making it cheaper per serving). The disadvantage is that calculating the use of staples that we have on hand (or that will last us more than six weeks) is a trial for my math challenged mind and may take more record keeping and receipt checking than I care to do. We’ll see.

Lent may be too long. Heck, we may find that one week is too long – or too complicated to keep track of. For an ordinary family it may be enough to try it for one day. Whatever you do, it will be enough if your heart and wallet become more open to the reality of our fellow Americans – and those are just our neighbors close to home. Let me know if you try it. I’ll blog more frequently during this Lent since I think I’ll be thinking about food  a lot and have ideas to share and questions to ask. Stay tuned.