Day 2...

So I am eating dinner as we speak. I decided to reheat the mashed potatoes and stuffing I ate yesterday because I had leftovers. It's basically thanksgiving dinner (minus all the good food and desserts). 

This morning I had class at 8, so I ate oatmeal again but I was rushed so I didn't get to finish it. I have class until 12:15, but was hungry in my 11 o'clock class so I ate the pop tarts I brought with me. I had to work until 5, which left me with only a package of crackers to last me until I got home. I ate those at work and managed to last. 

My main issue so far hasn't been hunger necessarily and I still have plenty of food, but it's affecting the rest of the things I do. Like I can't eat lunch on campus and I have to make sure I bring something. If I don't bring enough, I'm screwed. I can't stay on campus any later than dinner time to study or do anything else. It'll get worse as the week goes on. 

Also, this 99 cent bread is awful! I made toast and it's basically cardboard. Ugh. 

Also just realized I ate the exact same thing as yesterday minus the ramen, which I don't think I can eat. Anyone want 3 packs of ramen noodles??? 

Bland Food

Well so far I have noticed that the foods I chose to buy are all very bland. Eating bread, peanut butter, pasta, and pretzels is already boring by day 3. I know that I can make myself eat these foods for one week, but only because I know that when day 8 rolls around I can finally "reward" myself with some fast food. I don't feel bad about making myself eat the same thing over and over again, but if I had a family and kids I was expected to feed, I can see myself feeling pretty guilty. I probably would have spent more time planning a more cheap, diverse menu if I was worrying about feeding someone else. As a future social worker, I think this week is going to help put into perspective what many of my client's will be going through living off of SNAP benefits. I know only experiencing this for one week can not open my eyes to all of the struggles faced, but I hope it will help me see some of them first-hand.

Studying on an Empty Stomach

So far, this SNAP Challenge has been exactly what it's called-- a huge challenge. I've been pretty hungry yesterday and now today. Like Alex said, it's tough because I know I have food, but I don't have MUCH food, and if I eat too much today, will I have enough in a few days?
This week I have 3 tests.. It's hard to focus on studying or schoolwork when my stomach is growling. But, if I'm hungry after just a day and a half of the challenge and finding it so hard to focus, how do kids do it everyday? Some days all they eat is the meal provided at school. If I'm finding it this hard to focus on school, how much harder is it for them to hear the teacher's words over their own hungry thoughts? This week is definitely showing me how grateful I should be for the abundance of food normally available to me everyday and how hard it can be to live on so little.

Day 1 Reflection

I think I'm going to run out of food. When you go to the grocery store with $29 it feels like you buy a lot of food. But then I realized during the first day that seven days is a long time. I had to pay a lot more attention to how much I ate. I only put a few pieces of my roast beef on my sandwich, and wasn't sure how many grapes were too many to eat. I was hungry during the day yesterday, even though I ate lunch and dinner. It's just weird; it's weird to be hungry even though you know you have food to eat, but you don't want to eat until your full because that could mean not having enough food to last through the week. All these fears of running out of food will only get worse as the week progresses. I mean, that was day 1. What am I going to be saying on day 5?

First Day on the challenge!

So... my day hasn't been too bad. I had oatmeal for breakfast, which isn't out of the ordinary for me at all. I eat it almost every day. Then for lunch I had a cup of ramen noodles, which wasn't too bad but I don't know if I can eat them again. I had poptarts and some crackers for a snack. I eat probably every 3 hours, so I was worried about that! I am now at home and trying to decide what to eat. It will either be a frozen pizza or I'm thinking some boxed mashed potatoes and stuffing, which I love. One thing about the food I bought is that I do not have meat, fruits, or vegetables so not very healthy obviously. I was going to stay on campus to study but I was just too hungry and I knew I wouldn't be able to eat fast food, so I went home! The highlight of my day was the piece of chocolate someone gave to me! They were being nice so of course I had to take it! :)

How's everyone's day going?

Longest grocery trip ever

Last night I took my $29.96 to the Dillon's down the street from my house. After a lot of price comparisons and bargain hunting, I spent a total of $25.79. For hardly spending much money, I spent the most time ever on that one shopping trip. I definitely realized how much meal planning would be necessary to live on this type of budget every week! 
As for what I bought, I tried to keep my purchases healthy. I hear a lot of arguments that eating healthier is too expensive so this week I'm challenging myself to not only live on a budget, but also continue to eat healthy. I purchased bananas, apples, and carrots fresh, some frozen vegetables, frozen strawberries, bread, milk, peanut butter, greek yogurt, cheerios, animal crackers and fresh chicken-- my splurge for the week since it was $5.23! 
I portioned out my food as soon as I got home too, since I normally eat a LOT and couldn't risk eating all of my food in one day! It's definitely going to be a challenging week and I'll probably get bored of eating the same food everyday, but I'm excited to give this challenge a try! 

Expectations for SNAP Challenge--Day 1

Expectations of SNAP Challenge

I really have no idea what to expect this week, living on $29.96 this week. I feel like it is something I can manage pretty easily. Last night at the store I bought two loaves of bread, peanut butter, 2 pounds of grapes, a box of pop-tarts and some processed meat. I came in about $3 under budget. This being said, I really wanted to buy deli meat, because 1) it is much healthier and 2) it tastes much better. However, it was just too expensive for my limited budget. I also realized when I left the grocery store that I did not buy salt, pepper, milk, eggs, or cooking oil. Which means if I was doing this more than 1 week I'm not sure how I would make it without milk. There is a part of me that wants to try this challenge for a month long, because knowing I only have to use a limited budget for a week makes a huge difference. I am excited to see what perspective this week will bring to me; I will either gain a deeper appreciation for those who live SNAP check to SNAP check and realize the money provided for these checks are not substantial enough or I will find that $4.28 is enough money. Again, I have no idea what to expect this week, so here goes nothing. 

--Alex Miller