So Tim asked me if I planned to keep this blog going now that I had proved to myself that we could live on a food stamp budget. To tell you the truth, I don't know. I really never expected to achieve "success" in just one month. I figured I would go way over budget the first month and spend a few more months tweaking our shopping patterns and menus.
But while we were a little careful, we largely shopped the same way we always do. We made a bit more bread than normal and paid more attention to prices but the changes were minor. Mostly, we just operated the way we do all the time.
As for writing, I'll have to decide. I've enjoyed sharing recipes and I hope you've liked reading and possibly trying them. Certainly, my kids find my food photography hilarious. "Look! Mom is taking pictures of dinner again!"
Either way, thanks for coming along with me this month.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
In the End
When I started this blog, I was immediately questioned by a number of people close to me with inquiries ranging from "so you're writing about being cheap eh?" to "What are you up to?" And truthfully, I was up to something. First, a little background.
This winter, we had a two hour delay for our kids' schools. When I went out to try to drive them to school, our driveway and street were still covered in ice. My complaints to the Superintendent were not answered but the reason for opening school when some student's roads were unsafe was later made clear in a quote from Rita Bishop (superintendent) in the newspaper. She expressed her desire to keep school open because the students needed and were dependant on school breakfast and lunches. She detailed a heart wrenching call during which a student begged her to open the school that day because he was so hungry.
I smelled BS.
First, I spend a fair bit of time at the kids' schools and, regardless of income level, I don't see ANY starvation. Quite simply, there appears to be rampant childhood obesity.
My next question to Tim was, if these families are so poor and hungry, shouldn't they qualify for food stamps? This led us to a multitude of google searches and some downright fascinating information. A family of five can receive a maximum of $793 per month in SNAP benefits (seems "food stamps" is an outdated moniker.) So we started to think about our own food budget. Did we spend more than that? It seemed like more than enough to keep a family of five from being so very hungry that they had to beg for the schools to be open in order to eat.
It can be done, we thought. Easily. But being one not very fond of failing, I thought we would give it a try before calling our shot. And, as I noted, there were those suspicious.
We started tracking our purchases. By and large, we did not significantly change the way we shopped. We paid more attention to cost but were not overly restrictive (see steak, fresh veggies and fruit, goat cheese, and large amounts of pork.) We ate well. Certainly, we were not eating Kraft mac and cheese and canned tuna every night.
So we tracked and posted. We ate awesome meals. When we got to the end of the month, I totalled it all up. Some things we had on hand but I gave it a fair estimate, generally rounding up. Do you want to know what we spent?
$725
And let's not forget that total includes items that would carry over to the next month. We have tons of flour left. The sugar and brown sugar are unopened. We have lots of salsa, ketchup, olive oil, goat cheese, and Parmesan. There were still granola bars and Cheerios left. We have a full, unopened jar of nuts and tons of raisins. We have two pounds of frozen taco meat, three pounds of bolognese sauce, and several pounds of chicken in the freezer.
Then there is what we ate. I am constantly reading about how the poor cannot afford fresh fruits or vegetables. We bought tons of both. We ate lots of protein. We even had lots of splurge items like M&Ms. Not to mention, any family qualifying for the maximum amount in food stamps would also be eligible for free lunch and breakfast at school for their kids. For a family of five, that is six meals a day, all of which we provided in our food budget.
So tell me again how people are starving.
Don't get me wrong, I am not necessarily calling for a wholesale revocation of such benefits. But I am looking for some critical analysis of how well they are working. Just last week I received a flyer from school asking me to send in snacks for the "snack cupboard" to feed the (seemingly) starving kids. And I chaffed a bit. My family and I are living on the equivalent of what they receive from the government, (read: us, our tax dollars,) why can't they? How is it that my family is eating fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, and meat on a budget that is below that which other families, described as starving and underprivileged, receive?
It leads to some pretty hard questions, the type that are not very popular when asked. At exactly what point are we going to realize that the problem is not the amount given? When will we decide that it isn't additional money needed? That the problem might lie with the receiver. When are we going to say, you know what, I can live on less, far less, than you get for free. I don't have to give anymore. You need to take some, just the itty bitty tiniest bit of responsibility for your life. Your children have no reason AT ALL to call the school superintendent and say they are starving. That is, unless you are mismanaging the funds given to you to ensure they are not starving.
It is not a politically correct thing to point out, but mismanagement of food stamp money is widespread. Maybe we need to recognize that these benefits are sometimes squandered - sold for pennies on the dollar in order to buy non SNAP approved items. And as heartbreaking as it may be, maybe we need to realize that until these parents care enough about their children to sacrifice, nothing we do and no amount we give will matter.
So, you might be thinking, while I really do enjoy your ramblings Katie, what's your point?
As you can imagine, and if you were lucky enough to be my husband, you would get to hear all the time, I have lots of points. But what I am driving at here is that as a society, we need to engage in more critical thinking when it comes to governmentally backed charity/redistribution of wealth. When Government Program A fails to achieve its goal of eliminating hunger, maybe the best response IS NOT to rush into setting up Government Program B to address the same issue while increasing the funding to failed Program A.
And just maybe, we need to question the premise a bit. How can a nation that has a downright alarming rate of morbid obesity be starving at the same time? You have to admit, it doesn't make much sense.
As for our family, we'll continue to live quasi-frugally. (We love steak just a bit too much to be wholly frugal.) We will also continue to give charitably. But when I read about the plight of those on food stamps, I'll remember their food budget exceeds my own.
This winter, we had a two hour delay for our kids' schools. When I went out to try to drive them to school, our driveway and street were still covered in ice. My complaints to the Superintendent were not answered but the reason for opening school when some student's roads were unsafe was later made clear in a quote from Rita Bishop (superintendent) in the newspaper. She expressed her desire to keep school open because the students needed and were dependant on school breakfast and lunches. She detailed a heart wrenching call during which a student begged her to open the school that day because he was so hungry.
I smelled BS.
First, I spend a fair bit of time at the kids' schools and, regardless of income level, I don't see ANY starvation. Quite simply, there appears to be rampant childhood obesity.
My next question to Tim was, if these families are so poor and hungry, shouldn't they qualify for food stamps? This led us to a multitude of google searches and some downright fascinating information. A family of five can receive a maximum of $793 per month in SNAP benefits (seems "food stamps" is an outdated moniker.) So we started to think about our own food budget. Did we spend more than that? It seemed like more than enough to keep a family of five from being so very hungry that they had to beg for the schools to be open in order to eat.
It can be done, we thought. Easily. But being one not very fond of failing, I thought we would give it a try before calling our shot. And, as I noted, there were those suspicious.
We started tracking our purchases. By and large, we did not significantly change the way we shopped. We paid more attention to cost but were not overly restrictive (see steak, fresh veggies and fruit, goat cheese, and large amounts of pork.) We ate well. Certainly, we were not eating Kraft mac and cheese and canned tuna every night.
So we tracked and posted. We ate awesome meals. When we got to the end of the month, I totalled it all up. Some things we had on hand but I gave it a fair estimate, generally rounding up. Do you want to know what we spent?
$725
And let's not forget that total includes items that would carry over to the next month. We have tons of flour left. The sugar and brown sugar are unopened. We have lots of salsa, ketchup, olive oil, goat cheese, and Parmesan. There were still granola bars and Cheerios left. We have a full, unopened jar of nuts and tons of raisins. We have two pounds of frozen taco meat, three pounds of bolognese sauce, and several pounds of chicken in the freezer.
Then there is what we ate. I am constantly reading about how the poor cannot afford fresh fruits or vegetables. We bought tons of both. We ate lots of protein. We even had lots of splurge items like M&Ms. Not to mention, any family qualifying for the maximum amount in food stamps would also be eligible for free lunch and breakfast at school for their kids. For a family of five, that is six meals a day, all of which we provided in our food budget.
So tell me again how people are starving.
Don't get me wrong, I am not necessarily calling for a wholesale revocation of such benefits. But I am looking for some critical analysis of how well they are working. Just last week I received a flyer from school asking me to send in snacks for the "snack cupboard" to feed the (seemingly) starving kids. And I chaffed a bit. My family and I are living on the equivalent of what they receive from the government, (read: us, our tax dollars,) why can't they? How is it that my family is eating fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, and meat on a budget that is below that which other families, described as starving and underprivileged, receive?
It leads to some pretty hard questions, the type that are not very popular when asked. At exactly what point are we going to realize that the problem is not the amount given? When will we decide that it isn't additional money needed? That the problem might lie with the receiver. When are we going to say, you know what, I can live on less, far less, than you get for free. I don't have to give anymore. You need to take some, just the itty bitty tiniest bit of responsibility for your life. Your children have no reason AT ALL to call the school superintendent and say they are starving. That is, unless you are mismanaging the funds given to you to ensure they are not starving.
It is not a politically correct thing to point out, but mismanagement of food stamp money is widespread. Maybe we need to recognize that these benefits are sometimes squandered - sold for pennies on the dollar in order to buy non SNAP approved items. And as heartbreaking as it may be, maybe we need to realize that until these parents care enough about their children to sacrifice, nothing we do and no amount we give will matter.
So, you might be thinking, while I really do enjoy your ramblings Katie, what's your point?
As you can imagine, and if you were lucky enough to be my husband, you would get to hear all the time, I have lots of points. But what I am driving at here is that as a society, we need to engage in more critical thinking when it comes to governmentally backed charity/redistribution of wealth. When Government Program A fails to achieve its goal of eliminating hunger, maybe the best response IS NOT to rush into setting up Government Program B to address the same issue while increasing the funding to failed Program A.
And just maybe, we need to question the premise a bit. How can a nation that has a downright alarming rate of morbid obesity be starving at the same time? You have to admit, it doesn't make much sense.
As for our family, we'll continue to live quasi-frugally. (We love steak just a bit too much to be wholly frugal.) We will also continue to give charitably. But when I read about the plight of those on food stamps, I'll remember their food budget exceeds my own.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Cinnamon Bread
While not as cheap as regular bread, we did half the cost.
$0.40 Flour
$0.30 Eggs
$0.30 Sugar
$0.21 Milk
$0.48 Butter
$0.20 Cinnamon/Salt/Yeast
$1.89 Total
And as you can see, it is awesome. Eion sat at the counter as I took it our and waited for it to be cool enough to eat. All three kids had some right away. Maggie told me, "Wow Mom. This is really good." When I asked if it was better than store bought, she said, "Oh yeah!" It was time consuming but I think it could easily be made in bulk and frozen. I think we may have to do just that as we have spoiled the kids for commercial bread!
Simulcast
[For those reading both, this is the same post as the one at my other blog. It was largely about cooking and I thought it belonged in both places. I'll get you some pics of the cinnamon bread and financial breakdown when it is done!]
As part of some general cost cutting measures, coupled with a desire to pare down the number of processed foods in our lives, we dramatically cut back (read: stopped buying) cinnamon toast bread. This is huge as my kids, especially Eion, can be categorized as complete addicts. And at $3.99 a loaf, their habit was running us $12 a week or more.
But this morning Eion, who was nearly in tears at breakfast, begged that we might have it again. So I commenced to baking. I am following a recipe from a blog called Pioneer Woman who did a lovely job describing and photographing the process so rather than duplicate or replicate, I'll just send you there!
I got started about 8:15 and all was well until I went to add yeast. Tim mentioned yesterday we needed to get more but he certainly didn't raise the "Holy crap! We are down to our last teaspoon of yeast!" which would have prompted an immediate trip to the store. Instead, I figured this out in the middle of warming butter and milk when it was too late to turn back. Off to Kroger.
Once my dough was rising and Tim, who is working nights, was off to sleep in the basement, complete and utter boredom set in. That boredom, and the 3 1/2 pounds of hamburger meat that needed to be dispositioned very soon (I had somehow grossly overestimated the amount of meat we would need this week,) set me off to several hours of cooking. Morrigan, while too picky to eat many of the things I make, was more than happy to help cook. We turned on the Mozart channel on Pandora and commenced to cooking.
I don't like to freeze raw ground chuck because I dislike the taste of hamburgers made from thawed meat. (And overall, not a huge fan of frozen beef.) So Morrigan and I took two pounds of hamburger and made taco meat, which is perfect to freeze and use at a later date. We also whipped up a three pound batch of pasta bolognese (yeah - more freezer meals,) baked a loaf of plain bread and got the cinnamon bread ready for its second rise. We topped off our cooking morning by making lunch for Maggie and Eion.
Sadly, this brings us to only 12:45 and I am bored again. Time to clean out the closets!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Mashed Potato Soup
After a week or so of weather that was downright fantastic, things have turned cold and winter like again and I was hankering for soup. It will come as no surprise that our soup recipes are as loose as everything else we make. I'll outline what I made tonight with apologies in advance for the rough estimates on content amounts. Really, soup has so much room for improvisation that it is a perfect clean out the fridge meal!
First, boil about 2 lbs peeled potatoes in salted water. When they are soft, drain and add butter (don't be shy) and heavy cream (with a generous pour) and mash. Then add chicken stock - homemade if you have it, if not, commercial will do. I used about 32 oz and ended up with a thin soup. Add about 10 oz shredded cheddar cheese and a teaspoon cayenne pepper. I had some leftover broccoli so I threw that in too.
Let simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for about a 1/2 hour. Then enjoy!
But as ever, this is just a starting point. Feel free to add whatever you like: onions, mushrooms, peppers etc. Meat if you really want it!
In addition to being a magnet for left overs, soup is a great value:
$1.79 Chicken stock
$0.76 Potatoes
$0.50 Heavy Cream
$0.30 Broccoli
$1.47 Cheese
$0.10 Butter
$4.92 Total and I made a big pot of soup - about 11 cups at $0.45 each.
If you are like me and come from a family not quite as enamored with soup as you are, freeze it in 2-4 cup portions. Perfect for when a rainy or snowy day comes along.
First, boil about 2 lbs peeled potatoes in salted water. When they are soft, drain and add butter (don't be shy) and heavy cream (with a generous pour) and mash. Then add chicken stock - homemade if you have it, if not, commercial will do. I used about 32 oz and ended up with a thin soup. Add about 10 oz shredded cheddar cheese and a teaspoon cayenne pepper. I had some leftover broccoli so I threw that in too.
Let simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for about a 1/2 hour. Then enjoy!
But as ever, this is just a starting point. Feel free to add whatever you like: onions, mushrooms, peppers etc. Meat if you really want it!
In addition to being a magnet for left overs, soup is a great value:
$1.79 Chicken stock
$0.76 Potatoes
$0.50 Heavy Cream
$0.30 Broccoli
$1.47 Cheese
$0.10 Butter
$4.92 Total and I made a big pot of soup - about 11 cups at $0.45 each.
If you are like me and come from a family not quite as enamored with soup as you are, freeze it in 2-4 cup portions. Perfect for when a rainy or snowy day comes along.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Last Shopping Trip of the Month
Sadly, no picture this time. My kitchen was a train wreck.
$3.98 HUGE jar of salsa
$10.98 Mixed nuts (times 2)
$3.39 Milk
$6.88 Ketchup (3 bottles)
$6.98 Peanut butter
$9.98 Chicken nuggets
$4.48 Sausage
$6.98 Ham (lunchmeat)
$7.98 Breakfast sausage
$21.12 Steak
$15.04 Hamburger
$13.04 Chicken
$8.78 Bacon
$8.37 Rice Krispie Treats
$1.54 Bananas
$3.79 10 lbs potatoes
$4.76 Mushrooms
$5.48 Grape Tomatoes
$4.18 Tortillas
$5.76 Cheerios
$7.74 Raisins
$9.48 Granola Bars
$5.98 Pretzels/Popcorn
$4.98 Asparagus
$2.48 Celery
$3.98 Baby Carrots
$1.98 Hamburger Buns
$3.57 2 18 pack eggs
$6.98 Clementines
$10.48 Chocolate
$6.97 Goat Cheese
$13.23 Parmesan Cheese
$242.32 Total
$3.98 HUGE jar of salsa
$10.98 Mixed nuts (times 2)
$3.39 Milk
$6.88 Ketchup (3 bottles)
$6.98 Peanut butter
$9.98 Chicken nuggets
$4.48 Sausage
$6.98 Ham (lunchmeat)
$7.98 Breakfast sausage
$21.12 Steak
$15.04 Hamburger
$13.04 Chicken
$8.78 Bacon
$8.37 Rice Krispie Treats
$1.54 Bananas
$3.79 10 lbs potatoes
$4.76 Mushrooms
$5.48 Grape Tomatoes
$4.18 Tortillas
$5.76 Cheerios
$7.74 Raisins
$9.48 Granola Bars
$5.98 Pretzels/Popcorn
$4.98 Asparagus
$2.48 Celery
$3.98 Baby Carrots
$1.98 Hamburger Buns
$3.57 2 18 pack eggs
$6.98 Clementines
$10.48 Chocolate
$6.97 Goat Cheese
$13.23 Parmesan Cheese
$242.32 Total
Pizza Night
A few nights back we had pizza and I neglected to take pics. So go back to Strawberries and Slacking for recipes, but here are some pics from tonight's pizza!
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