SNAP Challenge Day 3

Remember?  Yesterday Chris bought a 10 lb bag of rice?  So we only had $6 to spend on day 3. 
Chris and I both had yogurt for breakfast.  Lunch was leftover from the night before, so we had the whole $6 to spend for dinner. 

So we went to Chinatown to purchase cheap goodies.  Chris had a plan to make feijoada.  We already had black beans, so we bought pork belly, pork shoulder, onion, and green bell pepper = $6.30.  I thought we did pretty well. 

Mustard green in the picture is from a jar in the pantry. 

We shopped at Hong Kong Supermarket.  When you are watching your budget, it's a good place to go.  They have everything!

 Hong Kong Supermarket
157 Hester St
(between Elizabeth St & Bowery)
New York, NY 10013

SNAP Challenge Day 2

I stayed home today, so my day was a little easier than Chris's day.
Chris had drinkable yogurt and I had my yogurt for breakfast.  These are the items that we had purchased on Saturday, so we are not counting them as part of our budget.

For lunch, Chris had leftover from Saturday and I had soba from the pantry.  Therefore, we still didn't spend any money for lunch.

For dinner, Chris went to Chinatown for shopping, which is probably still the cheapest place to buy vegetable.  Chris bought a 10 lb bag of rice, which made us go over budget - today we spent $14 total, which means we only have $6 to spend tomorrow.  But remember, rice goes a long way.  10 lb rice will probably last 2-3 weeks depending on how much I eat, considering I consume most of the rice in this household.

Besides rice, he purchased, bokchoi, green beans, carrot, broccoli, and some Chinese Spam like item.

As I am writing this Chris is making Hayashi rice - from the pantry.  

The biggest problem today was hunger pain we both had.
Chris normally has snack at work, which he didn't.  And I didn't have snack until close to 7PM.

As we are doing this experiment, we are realizing how much money we normally spend on food.  Just doing basic calculation (without any receipts) we came up with the amount that we think we spend on food a week - that's breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the restaurant expenses - that comes out to be about $400 a week for two of us.  We don't go to expensive restaurants all the time, but we don't normally worry about how much we spend and we don't stop from ordering delivery.

After this experiment, we decided that we should come up with the budget a week and stay within budget.  It will be more than $10 a day but we would like to spend less on food in the future. 

This was our dinner on Day 2 - Hayashi rice. 

SNAP Challenge Day 1

I just wanted report on what we had for dinner last night - our SNAP Challenge Day 1.
Chris made pea soup.  Garnish is from the fridge.

SNAP Challenge Day 1

I was inspired by Cory Booker who is on SNAP Challenge this week.  SNAP stands for The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as Food Stamps.  According to the below website, New Yorkers are allowed $321 a month for two people living together, which comes out to be $10.35 a day for two of us.  As of today, we are starting our #SNAPchallenge. 

The above is what we purchased today (actually including a few things we bought yesterday, which are yogurts, and Shin Cup.  We already went over budget - $10.99.  But beans and peas will be used in soup which will be consumed for a few days.

OK.  We will cheat a little bit.  We will not count the things we already have.  So it's time to clean out the pantry and what's in the fridge.

A lot of Americans have never experienced hunger.  I have.  I have been there - surviving with yam and plain rice on a good day.  The only way to appreciate what you have, is to experience having nothing. 

Also, most importantly, Food Stamp system is not a government handout.  It's really not enough to feed the family.  There are those who want to cut the program.  Let's stand for the people who really need this kind of assistance. 

http://www.cidny.org/food-stamps.php

http://frac.org/initiatives/snapfood-stamp-challenges/

 

Here is story on Cory Booker:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/cory-booker-food-stamps_n_2251934.html