You may have noticed that my weekly Food Stamp Challenge posts have been missing.   That’s because I’m lazy.  Since my husband isn’t working right now, we went into a sort of “super challenge”; also, God always provides and the way He has provided to us isn’t conducive to breaking down costs and numbers.   At the end of October, we qualified for WIC (Women, Infants, Children nutrition program), though we are still waiting for our Food Stamp application to be approved.  Our local office takes two months to process applications, in violation of federal law. We’ve actually always qualified for WIC, but didn’t need it until now.

But, financially we are in about the same place.  I’ve managed to get just enough work writing and helping cast a tv show, not to mention material help from our generous benefactors, to make up the difference between husband dear’s salary and his unemployment.  We’ve been having one long vacation with Daddy home everyday!

But back to the Food Stamp Challenge.  I had hoped to do if for a year, and include Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.  Life happens though, and we’ll be stopping at week 40 (which does include Easter, birthdays, and summer barbecues!)  I’m glad I did this challenge, and I hoped it’s helped any of you who are tightening your food budget.

My original goal was to spend $2 per person, per day on food.  At the beginning of the challenge, I was pregnant and had gestational diabetes.  So, I figured $140 per week (2 adults and 8 children, one unborn).  My oldest son is on a Feingold type diet, and cannot have food colorings, artificial sweeteners, or MSG.  He can’t eat many processed foods (and truthfully, I think that helped our budget.  We make salad dressing, we make soup, we make barbecue sauce, all because we can’t buy it off the shelf, generally.)

I found that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought.  In fact, we came in under budget, spending $111.43 on average per week – that’s slightly less than $1.60 per person per day! We ate plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the diet wasn’t nutritionally deficient.  I think we probably eat more fiber than most Americans, actually.

How did we stay in budget?

• We didn’t eat meat every day, and used dry beans instead of canned.
• We saved where we could on produce.
• We shopped many stores, and shopped to restock the pantry and a month’s food supply, rather than buying food just for the week.  This way we could stock up on the cheapest food.
• We did the math.  Calculation helped figure out the best value on cuts of meat, and coupons and pricebooks helped us to get the best price on most of our purchases.

My goal with the Food Stamp Challenge was to show families that it is not impossible to feed a family well on a small budget.  I hope you found it useful!

If you have any questions about the challenge, recipes, or anything else, ask away!