I read an interesting article in our local paper about eating for $25/week (per person). That is how much people living on food stamps are given..that is less than $4/day. My family would receive $643/month.
So, the Illinois Food Bank is challenging people to try to eat for $25 next week, Sept 22-28, The $25 Challenge. If you don't want to take the challenge, consider donating $25 to the bank or make a food donation. The challenge is not to just eat for $25, I think I could do that easily, but eat healthily...that is a challenge.
There is a symposium entitled "Running on Empty: Hungers Impact on our Community" Tues night at 730pm at the Champaign Public Library.
I love food-related challenges so I think I might try it for us (although Monday is a birthday here, so we have restaurant plans). I will try to blog about it here but you can read other participants here.
Please feel free to post your frugal eating ideas and recipes here!
For more information, click over to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.
Information on:
Food Stamps (LINK program)
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
WIC for the Farmer's Market
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3 comments:
You can go a long time on rice and beans/lentils. I'm no vegetarian, but meatless eating is (or can be) way cheaper.
The problem with things like this is what counts toward the $25 cost? Is it just what you buy fresh for the week, or are any pantry staples usable?
One of the strengths of knowing recipes from places like India is the ability to add lots of flavor from spices & things you can always have around with a little meat, potato, or other veg added in for variation. Now if all the spices counted toward the $25...
I thought about while reading the food bank's blog. If I buy a pound of coffee, for example, really I should be able to spread out that cost over the 20 cups it provides. That goes for so many items. I would price it out.
Beans and lentils are a great cheap and healthy eat.
I could absolutely do this. Our food budget is $300 a month for 4 people. That is everything that we buy during that month. Something roll over. For example, I wouldn't use an entire container of garlic powder every month so I wouldn't have to buy one every month. But it also includes all of our paper goods (something food stamps wouldn't pay for)like paper plates, paper towels, toilet paper, etc as well as cleaning products (again something food stamps wouldn't pay for). I would say that once you factor those things out, my actual spending runs around 200-250 a month.
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