Is it really that hard?

[moolie]

Social Assistance/Welfare in Canada is a total monthly cheque amount, out of which you need to cover all of your expenses--housing, utilities, food etc.

I don't know how I'd find out what our family would qualify for, and I'm pretty sure that our current monthly mortgage payments are higher than whatever welfare we'd receive.

So for me to play by the same rules as everyone else, I'd need someone to give me a food budget amount to work with.

 

[Denim Deb]

What's the rate of exchange, and how do your food prices compare to ours? Either tonight or tomorrow morning, I plan on making up 2 different weekly menus based on the prices from the 2 stores I went in to today. I'll be including the price of each item. That should maybe give you an idea.

 

[pinkfox]

it seems the average benefit per person is $35 a week USD (some states lower and some higher but the average seems to be $35 so for anyone wanting to try it id say aim for a $35 or lower per week per person type budget.
Im realy impressed that people are willing to give this a try and i decfinatly think for stocked up folks, using the average supermarket cost for the items you already have on hand would be more realistic for said experiment.

i think everyone interested in doing this shoudl start a seperate "my month on a food stamp budget" type journal, write down what you "bought" (if you already had it in stock pretend like you bougth ti with an average price) and what meals your making, how many portions it makes ect...
might also be a great way for those of us actually living on that type of budget regularly to get some new ideas...i know i like variety but sometimes i realy grow short on new ideas for the same basic ingredients lol.

im liking how this thread has turned, most "welfare" threads tend to turn into whine fest about how people that use benefits like food staps are just lazy leeches and instead this has taken such a swing in an interesting direction.

Personally given my small budget and cost of gas i tend to do 1 big shop at the beginning of the month i plan my trip to include the 2 grocery stores and walmart who are all within just a mile of one another as GAS definatly plays a part.
then once a week or so i hit 1 local grocery for any perishabled (ie milk) the local store is more expensive, but i have budgeted $50 a month for gas for the car and thats it so frivolous trips to walmart/larger groceries with better sales just dont happen unless i HAVE to go up there for something else. so i think while the experiement could include multiple groceries, id set yourself a "milage restriction" in temrs of miles betwen the stores as anyone on food stamps would (assumably) also have a tight "go juice" budget for gassing their car.

 

[moolie]

The Canadian dollar is on par today, and has been (give or take a few cents either way) for a few years now. So let's call it par.

Grocery prices are definitely higher here, we drove down to California over spring break and the prices we saw in Montana, Idaho, Utah and California were way lower.

Typical grocery store pricing that I know off the top of my head:

$4.99-$5.09 plus 10c recycle fee /gallon of milk
$1.99 /dozen eggs
$1.99 /unsliced store-baked loaf of 60% whole wheat bread
(my parents buy this, which is how I know, a nice whole grain loaf would be more like $4-$5)
79 cents /lb for bananas
$1.99-$2.50 /lb for apples
$2 /can of tuna
$2 /head of lettuce
$2 /5 lb bag of carrots
$4-$6 /5lb bag of potatoes
$5 /kg regular peanut butter (we buy the natural kind, 500g for $3.79)


I will have to go on a fact-finding mission to find out more pricing, if you are sticking to one store I will as well

 

[pinkfox]

moolie, other than milk everything else doesnt look that much more expensive (head lettuce at $2 is about right unless were talking iceburg which is closer to $1, and our average price for banannas is .69c/lb

 

[Bettacreek]

Hmm, so $35/person per week? I can handle that budget, but try to go as low as I possibly can, without buying a bunch of garbage food. Or is it $35/week per household?
Ramen noodles IS to be expected in my budget, because no matter how much money I have, I still love my spicey ramen noodles!

I also think that my area is very different... Our food seems to be lower on many things, and one person here actually gets about $50/mo. We also have many bulk stores that accept stamps, whereas many other areas might not have the availability that we do for food stamp purchases. So our area is incredibly blessed!

 

[moolie]

Personally given my small budget and cost of gas i tend to do 1 big shop at the beginning of the month i plan my trip to include the 2 grocery stores and walmart who are all within just a mile of one another as GAS definatly plays a part.
then once a week or so i hit 1 local grocery for any perishabled (ie milk) the local store is more expensive, but i have budgeted $50 a month for gas for the car and thats it so frivolous trips to walmart/larger groceries with better sales just dont happen unless i HAVE to go up there for something else. so i think while the experiement could include multiple groceries, id set yourself a "milage restriction" in temrs of miles betwen the stores as anyone on food stamps would (assumably) also have a tight "go juice" budget for gassing their car.

Gas is definitely a huge hit to the budget, Hubs takes transit, and that's $90/month for his transit pass but I drive my kids 4 miles to school and back every day, total of 16 miles every day, to save the cost of a $50 youth transit pass for each of them each month.

Gas is currently $1.13/L here at the moment, but last summer went over $1.21/L (multiply by 3.78 to get the per gallon cost). They could, and would like to, ride their bikes to school, but we live on the edge of the city and they need to cross 2 major roads to get to school and I'm not comfy with them doing that in rush hour traffic.

I only shop for groceries when I do the morning school run (rather than making an extra trip) to save on fuel, and hit the farmer's market and Co-op grocery store the same day--they are near each other.

 

[moolie]

moolie, other than milk everything else doesnt look that much more expensive (head lettuce at $2 is about right unless were talking iceburg which is closer to $1, and our average price for banannas is .69c/lb

I was quoting iceburg. Those are the lowest prices I know of, they vary by grocery store. Cool that you have similar prices, that will make it easier to compare our various experiences during the experiment

 

[moolie]

Hmm, so $35/person per week? I can handle that budget, but try to go as low as I possibly can, without buying a bunch of garbage food. Or is it $35/week per household?

$35/per person per week is totally doable for us, I will also try to go as low as possible--I'm pretty sure we can do $100 total per week.

$35/week per household would be really tough for us, but I do realize it's a reality for many people.

My kids (16 and 15 yo girls) love challenges and I have been teaching them about grocery shopping lately, so I will also commit to taking them shopping during the experiment--and letting them make some of the decisions each week as we plan meals and buy our groceries.

 

[Bettacreek]

Hmm, so $35/person per week? I can handle that budget, but try to go as low as I possibly can, without buying a bunch of garbage food. Or is it $35/week per household?

$35/per person per week is totally doable for us, I will also try to go as low as possible--I'm pretty sure we can do $100 total per week.

$35/week per household would be really tough for us, but I do realize it's a reality for many people.

My kids (16 and 15 yo girls) love challenges and I have been teaching them about grocery shopping lately, so I will also commit to taking them shopping during the experiment--and letting them make some of the decisions each week as we plan meals and buy our groceries.

That's what I was thinking... $35/wk/person is definately doable for us, but $35 TOTAL per week, for my family of three, would be difficult. I'm pretty sure it's per person though, so I can contend with that, and see how close to $35/week we can get, lol.