$29/Week SNAP Food Stamp Challenge – Week 2 – Days 1 & 2
Welcome back to my series about living on a food stamp budget of just $29 per week.
It is a challenge I have taken upon myself to see how my mindset towards food changes when I can only have so much.
I have learned that I now use half of things, such as half a banana. This is something I would not to if I did not limit myself to such a tight food budget. Nope, I would have just gobbled up the whole banana without a second thought.
Luckily, careful stewardship of the first week's food supply has created a large surplus. I now have much more ingredients to create a larger variety of meals.
Of course, I will try to keep them relatively healthy. It would not be much of a challenge to eat just Ramen noodles and a multivitamin.
So let's dig in!
WEEK 2 DAY 1 BREAKFAST - $0.30
Peanut butter sandwich, with half a banana, and some cold soaked oatmeal.
LUNCH - $0.75
Leftover bacon carbonara pasta with a strawberry and 3 cookies.
DINNER - $1.34
I made a nice tomato sauce pasta. It includes mushrooms, onions, diced tomatoes, garlic, and chorizo meat. It cost me $1.87, but it is two portions.
To this, I added a cup and a half of pasta, two pieces of margarine covered bread, and a strawberry.
WEEK 2 DAY 2 BREAKFAST - $0.55
When I was making the pasta last night, I also cooked some brown rice.
In the morning I cooked a slice of bacon, dropped in the rice, and cracked two eggs. I made an egg fried rice and bacon breakfast! Yum, it really filled me up for the day ahead.
LUNCH - $1.22
The other portion of the pasta dinner, plus three cookies.
DINNER - $1.88
I didn't feel like cooking much, so I made a nice spinach salad. It includes a sliced tomato, toasted bread croutons, albacore tuna, and an avocado & oil dressing.
I also sliced up three potatoes and made french fries in my T-fal Actifry! They looked, and tasted, amazing. Plus I had some sriracha ketchup to dip them into.
The actifry makes such great fries, I was so lucky to find one in the thrift store! If you like fries, think about getting one of these. It uses just a tablespoon of oil to make a whole batch of'em!
CONCLUSION
Day 1 total: $2.39
Day 2 total: $3.65
I am really happy to start off this week with so much! I think I was always worried about running out of food, so I held back. Now I know that my 'held-back' is where I should be normally. This food stamp budget challenge is really going to help me out financially going forward. Yes, after I finish the challenge, I will increase my food budget but I know it will be lower than before.
So food savings will turn into investments which will be out there working to help propel me into financial freedom.
If you know you are spending too much on food, think about trying this challenge of living off of $29 per week per person.
Keep it up buddy! I gave your challenge a shout out on the show this week and let people know you were posting about it.
Much appreciated Scaredy :D
Again, this is such a fantastic challenge! I am inspired. It is so true we eat too much. I also like the challenge as a way of cutting down on food wastage, which always seems wrong to me.
Yeah, I haven't wasted any food because it is all precious to me! Every time I pick out a strawberry, I look at them all and pick the ones that look like they haven't much time left, haha!
You gotta be kidding me man, that shit looks better than MCDonalds.
I want to eat fries now :-)
Wow, thats seems so delicious yet very cheap. You can save your $$$ for that and just use your money in more profitable way.
Thumbs up @getonthetrain!
You just made a very affordable budget but a delicous meal for you. Nice post buddy!
Appreciated Elizah! You are right, it is (mostly) delicious and super cheap too! More money to invest :D
@getonthetrain wonderful photos all the recipes are my favourite recipes and easily we can prepare.
What can you add while making pasta to make it more tasty?
I always add onions, red or green peppers, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and minced meat to mine.
ummmm great i got it dear thanks for reply
Wow talk about being economically efficient! It would be cool to know which places you shop and everything. Thanks for the post!
I created an extra challenge, that being I can only shop at the 99 Cents Only store. This is not a full grocer, it basically sells everything for $1. I did it to simulate those people on a real food stamp budget that have no local supermarkets. Living in what is known as a 'food desert'.
The 99 Cents Only store has some great deals, and also plenty of lousy ones where you can get stuff cheaper at a normal market. They also have no fresh meat and just a limited selection of produce.
Ya I remember grabbing some dried pineapple package awhile back from my local dollar tree. It wasn't half bad. They have some tuna and crackers as well. That is cool best wishes getonthetrain!!
This is a brilliant idea! Followed
Thanks, @pinkstream!
Great post thanks.
Food looks gourmet to me. Well done
Haha, some more gourmet than others I bet. :D
I enjoyed reading your post. There is a lot of good stuff.
Thanks for the post and very nice