Living on food stamps

[MomToOne]

In the past on the DisBoards there were sometimes threads about how cheaply people could eat, with shopping lists and menus included, but almsot every time I felt the menus were very low on fruits and vegetables.

TP

You can't determine that from the types of meal plans I've seen posted. I know that when you look at my meal plan, if you assume when you see "green beans" or whatever that it's just a standard single portion size, then you'd think we were low. But in reality, we have what is considered 2 to 3 servings of that item with our meal - I load them onto the plate LOL. Same with our other meals. It's just the way things work best for us. And as long as you have variety in the vegetables you eat over the week, doing it that way is fine.

But the thing is, while you criticize posters for that (either by posting or just in your head), others are criticising for not enough protein. Or whole grains. Or whatever. But truthfully, we eat a balanced diet of all of those things. Do I cook a ton of protein? No, but we have what is supposed to be a proper serving size in that case (1/4 lb per person or so), not much more. Do we eat only whole grains? No, but we eat plenty (bread, cereal, etc) and with that and all the beans and vegetables we eat, we get plenty of fiber. Dairy? Same thing. I focus completely on "balance" - not too much of anything, but appropriate amounts of the stuff we need to be healthy, and a few treats thrown in here and there for good measure without going overboard - you tend to just feel too restricted without any of those and eventually binge if you don't.

 

[Granny square]

You can't determine that from the types of meal plans I've seen posted. I know that when you look at my meal plan, if you assume when you see "green beans" or whatever that it's just a standard single portion size, then you'd think we were low. But in reality, we have what is considered 2 to 3 servings of that item with our meal - I load them onto the plate LOL. Same with our other meals. It's just the way things work best for us. And as long as you have variety in the vegetables you eat over the week, doing it that way is fine.

So true. We usually only have one veg for dinner, excluding starchy ones. But we vary. Then I went to the grocery today and the only decent fruits were apples and strawberries. That is it for this weekend!

 

[JessB320]

For me, healthy eating means maximizing our intake of fruits and vegetables. I aim for at least seven servings of those per day, preferably nine or ten.

We are vegan, so don't eat meat, eggs or cheese. We save money that way and I believe (although I am sure some disagree) that this is a healthier way to eat. We also try to minimize the foods made with flour, especially those with white flour, regular potatoes, and rice. We rarely buy bread; I do make some bread at home using sourdough starter and whole wheat flour, and I make any treats (cookies, etc.) at home. We eat oatmeal made from steel-cut oats and use some grains in cooking such as barley, millet and quinoa.

When canned beans are on sale, I stock up. (We use dry beans too but those rarely go on sale, it seems.) I do buy some frozen fruits and vegetables when they are on sale but we prefer fresh produce even if it costs a bit more - I find my family will eat more of it and that's important to me!

In the past on the DisBoards there were sometimes threads about how cheaply people could eat, with shopping lists and menus included, but almsot every time I felt the menus were very low on fruits and vegetables.

TP

I would love your whole wheat sourdough bread recipe if you are willing to share

 

[Granny square]

This.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

You can't determine that from the types of meal plans I've seen posted. I know that when you look at my meal plan, if you assume when you see "green beans" or whatever that it's just a standard single portion size, then you'd think we were low. But in reality, we have what is considered 2 to 3 servings of that item with our meal - I load them onto the plate LOL. Same with our other meals. It's just the way things work best for us. And as long as you have variety in the vegetables you eat over the week, doing it that way is fine.

But the thing is, while you criticize posters for that (either by posting or just in your head), others are criticising for not enough protein. Or whole grains. Or whatever. But truthfully, we eat a balanced diet of all of those things. Do I cook a ton of protein? No, but we have what is supposed to be a proper serving size in that case (1/4 lb per person or so), not much more. Do we eat only whole grains? No, but we eat plenty (bread, cereal, etc) and with that and all the beans and vegetables we eat, we get plenty of fiber. Dairy? Same thing. I focus completely on "balance" - not too much of anything, but appropriate amounts of the stuff we need to be healthy, and a few treats thrown in here and there for good measure without going overboard - you tend to just feel too restricted without any of those and eventually binge if you don't.

I agree, it is hard to tell. But at one point on a thread people were giving their grocery shopping lists (so they included the amounts of the food) along with the menus. And those certainly seemed to me to be very low on fruits and vegetables.

And I certainly agree that people differ on what they feel is healthy. I was just explaining my idea of a healthy diet.

TP (and I will try to remember to post the sourdough bread recipe tomorrow....)

 

[Granny square]

Oh, well that is a different matter. And thanks for the possibility of the recipe.

 

[happycorgi]

As a summer homeschooling mom and on food stamps this is what I do.

1. I am involved with a homeschooling co-op, that why we can share need items.
2. When holidays and birthday comes around, family and friends always ask what we need or what the kids want, I tell them a membership to the local museum, zoos or a special event that is coming up.
3. We have internet, I get a lot of work pages, homeschooling info plus to help out with budgeting plus it saves on gas to pay bills.
4. We have the library to go to for research and other projects.
5. as for menus I have a budget for each kid (like $20) and they have to plan out 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) a day.They have to plan for 3 days. They do the research on on much it will cost per meal and that is the budget the have to stick too. My kids love it because they love to see what type of meals they can come up with to be able to make desert at least on night. They also combine their money to get more items.
6. Most of all don't stress everything will work out. This the web site that my kids use for meal planning. http://www.mealsmatter.org/

 

[DisneyWalle]

To the OP, I just wanted to say I think this is a great mini study -- we homeschool as well. My 12yr old son, in 8th grade, will begin several mini studies after his American History curriculum finishes in 2 weeks. They include the Depression, WWI and WWII. For these studies, he will interview people, research and participate in projects. My mother is excited to tell him about granny's Hoover Buggy. He will also have a "Victory Garden."

I have been discussing money and budgets with him since he was young. Changing the discussions as he matured. We live on a limited budget out of choice. He understands what is a need compared to a want. I truly believe this is a lesson many people need to learn in today's society. This Spring, we will have goats, sheep, ducks and a garden to lessen our grocery budget even more. He watches me go through our grocery ads every Wednesday, hunt coupons and then plan a menu based on what is on sale. Our grocery bill is approximately $200 a month. (I never buy eggs as my sister has chickens and a local diary has milk for $2 a gallon) In the next 3 months, he will budget, plan and shop on his own with help if needed. Now, what you need to know is that I don't buy junk food (guess thats what makes Granny's house so nice) but I do make a homemade dessert once a week. He has already realized that homemade/from scratch meals are usually cheaper than boxed prepared meals. I have made sure that he understands we have resources available to us which others might not have due to regional restrictions.

I have also found these lessons valuable to teach my son (doesn't like them all but he knows how to do them) laundry, top to bottom house cleaning, cooking, carpentry, care for farm animals, and fence maintenance. Over the next year and a half, he will also learn small engine repair. These are all in addition to his normal studies. And before anyone says anything, his only regular chore is to feed and water our cats and pigs. But if needed, he is fully capable of helping in the house and on the farm. Right now, he thinks he wants to have a farm once he is grown -- so all of these skills are practical for him.

I truly believe in hands-on activity studies (he loves them) -- I think much is learned thru them and it makes learning interesting. We too have done a study on Ancient Egyptians, Civil War, Pirates, and Medieval Times just to name a few. My son still talks about studies from 5 years ago.

I wish you great success in this study and your future ones. Please share how things go. I would also be curious to read what your activities will be for the WW study.

 

[pocomom]

I hesitated to check in on this post because it was so contentious to begin with, but I thought some might find it informative/helpful/interesting . The kids and I settled on a budget and rules, we could use whatever we had in stock, but we had to devote some of our budget to replenishing our stock of things. We started at $140 for our family of five a week , which is $ 4 a person per day. We decided for us that WOULD include all our “other” expenses we buy at the store – Since I think a large amount of our previous bills over $140 ended up being “other” purchases – a magazine here, toy there,cleaning supplies etc. Nutrition is very important, and as this was part of our nutrition unit, we decided if we truly could not buy enough healthy food on that budget we would alter it. We also decided it wasn’t fair to make certain sacrifices- Dh drinks a lot of soda – but the man works hard and if he wants soda I’m not going to stop buying it for him. I did find myself making special coffee drinks for him, and bringing him glasses of water in an attempt to stretch the soda. Likewise my 3 year old son is fond of a particular expensive organic yogurt smoothie and drinks one every morning, I attempted to make homemade versions but he liked the ones he always has, so we did find a cheaper way to buy it -The first two weeks we barely made it. We ran out of milk once on Thursday because the kids drank big glasses with some homemade cookies- we buy organic and it only comes in half gallons in our local store – which means our weekly milk bill can be $15 alone. Normally, I would have just run out and bought more (along with a few other things) but for the game we waited it out until Sunday. A few other times I needed to make substitutions and I found I was unwilling to make too many new recipes because what if everyone didn’t like them. We did a lot of scratch cooking, and the kids and I talked about how possible this would be for the working poor. I gave the kids each $20 and took them to the thrift store and a department store and challenged them to some up with an outfit at each. It was a real eye opener, but they saw how much more effort it took to find something at the thrift store here, too. We’ve done a lot of math, and had lot of discussions about marketing, advertising, education, geography. My older dd even helped a lady out in the store by letting her know the medium size of juice was actually cheaper. And they love giving out extra coupons in the store. By the third week we got more in our groove and took advantage of some good sales- the last two weeks our bill was right at $100 and our pantry is growing. We’ve decided to stick to the grocery budget for this month- we have some unfinished projects like a price book we’re working on. Next week my oldest dd is attempting to do the planning all by herself. Youngest dd has really been thinking about the value vs. cost of things. She decided to use some of her own money to buy dessert (Dove bars on sale) for everyone one night. It was an interesting dilemma for her because she knew you could get more of a cheaper ice cream but they are so good- she decided it was better to have a small but delicious dessert once than have multiple desserts- and for that purchase I agreed!
Here was our menu : what we call “restaurant night “ is our leftovers for dinner night (I make up a little menu and the kids circle their choices) and it repeats at least once a week
Breakfast is typically a hot or cold cereal, waffles, pancakes, fruit and yogurt or homemade premade breakfast burritos
Lunch is normally leftovers, or some kind of sandwich – we made homemade black bean and veggie patties in the freezer for quick burgers , or soup/salad.
Homemade snacks included cookies, muffins, banana nut bread (I admit to cutting back on the nuts for the sake of the budget) and of course the usual fruit and veggies
Dinners were:
Sesame Tofu, stir fry and edamame
Leftover’s Restaurant (everyone picks from our leftovers)
Black Bean quesadilla and chipotle sweet potatoes
Veggie burgers /Black Bean burgers
Pierogies and cabbage apple slaw
Penne Pasta Primavera Italian Bread and salad
Soup in bread bowls
Whole wheat pizza
Stir fry , cabbage wraps
Fritata and veggie tray
Baked Potato Bar and Salad
Ziti, Bread and Salad
Fajita’s and corn salsa
Breakfast for dinner -French toast or waffles, fruit and eggs
Veggie “meat”Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and salad
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup +Fresh Veggies
Chili and Cornbread
Appetizer’s for dinner – deviled eggs, veggie and cheese tray, baked potato skins
Rice and beans
Sushi and Miso soup
Tacos – Taco Salad for the veggie lovers
Spaghetti and focaccia
Quiche and broccoli
Hot dogs, beans and slaw
Veggie fried rice and dumplings

 

[happygirl]

I hesitated to check in on this post because it was so contentious to begin with, but I thought some might find it informative/helpful/interesting . The kids and I settled on a budget and rules, we could use whatever we had in stock, but we had to devote some of our budget to replenishing our stock of things. We started at $140 for our family of five a week , which is $ 4 a person per day. We decided for us that WOULD include all our other expenses we buy at the store  Since I think a large amount of our previous bills over $140 ended up being other purchases  a magazine here, toy there,cleaning supplies etc. Nutrition is very important, and as this was part of our nutrition unit, we decided if we truly could not buy enough healthy food on that budget we would alter it. We also decided it wasnt fair to make certain sacrifices- Dh drinks a lot of soda  but the man works hard and if he wants soda Im not going to stop buying it for him. I did find myself making special coffee drinks for him, and bringing him glasses of water in an attempt to stretch the soda. Likewise my 3 year old son is fond of a particular expensive organic yogurt smoothie and drinks one every morning, I attempted to make homemade versions but he liked the ones he always has, so we did find a cheaper way to buy it -The first two weeks we barely made it. We ran out of milk once on Thursday because the kids drank big glasses with some homemade cookies- we buy organic and it only comes in half gallons in our local store  which means our weekly milk bill can be $15 alone. Normally, I would have just run out and bought more (along with a few other things) but for the game we waited it out until Sunday. A few other times I needed to make substitutions and I found I was unwilling to make too many new recipes because what if everyone didnt like them. We did a lot of scratch cooking, and the kids and I talked about how possible this would be for the working poor. I gave the kids each $20 and took them to the thrift store and a department store and challenged them to some up with an outfit at each. It was a real eye opener, but they saw how much more effort it took to find something at the thrift store here, too. Weve done a lot of math, and had lot of discussions about marketing, advertising, education, geography. My older dd even helped a lady out in the store by letting her know the medium size of juice was actually cheaper. And they love giving out extra coupons in the store. By the third week we got more in our groove and took advantage of some good sales- the last two weeks our bill was right at $100 and our pantry is growing. Weve decided to stick to the grocery budget for this month- we have some unfinished projects like a price book were working on. Next week my oldest dd is attempting to do the planning all by herself. Youngest dd has really been thinking about the value vs. cost of things. She decided to use some of her own money to buy dessert (Dove bars on sale) for everyone one night. It was an interesting dilemma for her because she knew you could get more of a cheaper ice cream but they are so good- she decided it was better to have a small but delicious dessert once than have multiple desserts- and for that purchase I agreed!
Here was our menu : what we call restaurant night  is our leftovers for dinner night (I make up a little menu and the kids circle their choices) and it repeats at least once a week
Breakfast is typically a hot or cold cereal, waffles, pancakes, fruit and yogurt or homemade premade breakfast burritos
Lunch is normally leftovers, or some kind of sandwich  we made homemade black bean and veggie patties in the freezer for quick burgers , or soup/salad.
Homemade snacks included cookies, muffins, banana nut bread (I admit to cutting back on the nuts for the sake of the budget) and of course the usual fruit and veggies
Dinners were:
Sesame Tofu, stir fry and edamame
Leftovers Restaurant (everyone picks from our leftovers)
Black Bean quesadilla and chipotle sweet potatoes
Veggie burgers /Black Bean burgers
Pierogies and cabbage apple slaw
Penne Pasta Primavera Italian Bread and salad
Soup in bread bowls
Whole wheat pizza
Stir fry , cabbage wraps
Fritata and veggie tray
Baked Potato Bar and Salad
Ziti, Bread and Salad
Fajitas and corn salsa
Breakfast for dinner -French toast or waffles, fruit and eggs
Veggie meatLoaf, Mashed Potatoes and salad
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup +Fresh Veggies
Chili and Cornbread
Appetizers for dinner  deviled eggs, veggie and cheese tray, baked potato skins
Rice and beans
Sushi and Miso soup
Tacos  Taco Salad for the veggie lovers
Spaghetti and focaccia
Quiche and broccoli
Hot dogs, beans and slaw
Veggie fried rice and dumplings

I don't know many people on food stamps who could afford what you have got. Appetizer really ?? and sushi??

 

[CrAzY4DL]

Sushi is actually really cheap to make.

 

[pocomom]

I don't know many people on food stamps who could afford what you have got. Appetizer really ??

eggs were on sale for $.99 for a dozen (and I bought several) potatoes in a 5lb bag were 2.98 and we had plenty left over. Veggie and cheeses were from other meals, but only a dollar or two worth... actually that would be a cheaper (and quick)meal for us- close to a dollar a person.

I do agree that some people on food stamps would have trouble getting these meals- we have ample storage, time to cook, plan etc. and as much as I hate our local grocery stores we do at least have them. And of course we don't have the stress... for us it was/is optional. All points of discussion for my kids and I.

 

[mks18412]

I am also a HSing mom. This would be a great life lesson for my 4th grader.

Ok, just looked up my state and they would give a family of four $668 a month. This is way more than I usually spend. Not much of a challenge!

 

[HelenePA]

I am also a HSing mom. This would be a great life lesson for my 4th grader.

Ok, just looked up my state and they would give a family of four $668 a month. This is way more than I usually spend. Not much of a challenge!

that is the MAX a family of 5 would get.. not many people get the max.

 

[HeatherC]

$668 a month for five people? That is like $167 a week. More than I spend on our family of five with three teens and we eat very well. Is that number really the case? What am I missing?

 

[Jenny3]

Are you vegetarian? Just noticed there is not much meat in your menu, which would add to the budget

 

[HeatherC]

Actually just checked for our state and the max for five people is $793. I realize that most people do not get the max, but that is WAy more than we spend.

I was always under the impression that you were starving if you got food stamps because it was barely enough to get by. This was eye opening.

 

[Marionnette]

$668 a month for five people? That is like $167 a week. More than I spend on our family of five with three teens and we eat very well. Is that number really the case? What am I missing?

Yes, but you're probably shopping sales, stocking up a bit on the stuff you buy often and cooking from scratch. The typical food stamp user won't have the space to stockpile even a little bit. They don't shop sales because it's not their money, so why bother? And they often do not have convenient grocery store chains nearby and have to pay more at a small local grocers. The numbers are based on those people.

Of course, there are exceptions to that. Some food stamp users live in suburban settings where you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a large grocery store, have plenty of space to create a stockpile, eke every last cent of value from the benefits and actually manage to go to Disney World every year.

I could feed my family of 5 quite well on the $952/month that the state of PA would give us if we qualified. I cannot imagine spending close to $240/week on food for the 5 of us! But then, I coupon like mad and usually save 60%-80% on my groceries. I probably wouldn't do that if someone else was paying for my food.

 

[smokeyblue]

I had a teacher in high school tell us to never write a paper on abortion, you'll never change anyones mind and you will always piss someone off. I'm feeling the same way about food stamp threads.

 

[drinkme]

To the OP:

I think this was a great lesson for your kids. Glad you stuck with it. Once summer is here, will you be starting the Victory Garden? Is this something you'll do every year? My kids want to start a veggie garden, but the rabbits & other animals in the area will just eat it up. Maybe we'll try it anyway this summer & put a tall fence around it and see what happens.

You'll have to share your vegetarian recipes!!