Tuesday, June 1, 2010

June Food Stamp Challenge


The non-consumer advocate is having a great challenge this month starting today. Non-Consumer Advocate readers (and Surviving and thriving on pennies readers!) attempt to feed their families on the amount they would receive if they were food stamp recipients. Some of us already meet this description, while others do not have to budget for our family’s food needs. This can be a great way to save money and donate to a local food shelter program or maybe you just need to start saving money.

How much can I spend?
Depends on how many people live in your household. Go here and find out how much you can spend. You can stay within that limit or give yourself a limit.I have 6 people in my family so I have a $952 limit which really makes me giggle. My budget right now is $600 per month for everything we need from food, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. But everyone has their own budget so i'm sure many people can get some use from this. I think I will try to cut my budget a tiny bit more. One point I must add is I buy 95% of my household items organic, fair trade, homemade or made from recycled materials. So no excuses! If I can do it, you can do it!

What do you think of this challenge? I know this is for Oregon Food Stamps and each state is different but the same rules apply to each person. What do you think of this challenge? Wanna join? Add your name to the list and join the challenge!

2 comments:

Attila said...

I'm in the UK so don't really know how much that is in £, but I usually find, whenever I look at "thrift" articles in the mainstream press, that we are already, like you, at or below what they suggest we could get down to! And this is despite the fact we have to spend more on specialist foods like wheat free pasta, wheat free flour and have to avoid (cheap) things like potatoes (because of food intolerances). I sometimes wonder what people do spend their money on?! Gold plated big macs?

Surviving and thriving on pennies said...

lol to funny Attila. People here think its more expensive to eat organic and healthy. But honestly its really not. If you don't buy unhealthy sodium filled crackers, chips, cookies, soda, etc then you save a ton of money. THis way you can spend it on more important things like organic produce and organic milk. I find that when I do buy organic milk, we dont go through it as much. They will drink more water or homemade lemonaid. So its a matter of balance.
Im sure America would buy gold plated big macs. They eat anything as long as its fried.