One Dollar A Day Diet/Food Stamp Diet

[me&thegals]

Right now, my family of 4 is making it each week on approximately $40 for groceries.

However, we get our milk free (husband works mornings at a dairy farm), therefore, butter, yogurt and ice cream, too. We swap eggs for grains and apples from the same farm. My husband hunts for most of our meat, and we grew most of the rest through meat chickens, selling enough to cover all the costs. So, ours is technically free. We have an enormous CSA garden, so we don't buy fruits or veggies from approximately May through Nov. Plus, a LOT gets dried, canned and frozen. We have chickens for eggs and meat. We now even have hives for a bit of our honey and tap our trees for a little maple syrup.

Food stamp recipients probably do not have access to all this, or they probably wouldn't be on foodstamps. I know that is oversimplifying, but I could not be doing this without a healthy husband, tractor, rototiller, friends and family to barter with, my own strong, healthy body, lots of land, a computer with Internet connection, a part-time job that gives me this much free time, etc., etc.

As to the basic question, yes we usually live on that much per week. Sometimes, we invest a big chunk of $ for something such as 6 bushels of fruit or tons of strawberries, but our typical consumption is much less conspicious.

 

[farmerlor]

A friend of mine is on food stamps here and gets just a little over 5 dollars per day. Now I'm thinking that if I were single and had absolutely nothing to start with 5 dollars a day would be tough, doable but tough until I got some staples built up. Just saying this because my friend is starting with absolutely nothing, no salt, no dishes, no cooking utensils, no toilet paper.....you get the idea. On the other hand 5 bucks per person for a family MY size would be WAY cool. Especially since the kids are in school now and eating free lunch there. But I know that I could and have, on occasion fed the family for a dollar per person per day. Omelet night alone is a great example, home canned soup or spaghetti, don't tell anyone but I even indulge the kids with junk food once in awhile and what we call "cardboard pizzas" at the store when they're on sale will feed all the kids for a little less than 2 bucks total.

 

[me&thegals]

Hey--don't feel ashamed of junk food! We, unfortunately discovered that our local Aldi's carries really good tortilla chips and Frito-type chips for only $1/bag. Guess what hubby brought home today? Goes great in our chili and for eating up all that salsa!

Farmerlor, you bring up an excellent point. I remember when I was first married and setting up a kitchen for only the 2 of us. It took 100s of dollars just to get all the staples set up that first time. Yikes! Now that I'm fully stocked in spices, grains, and all those things you use for baking and canning, I can go really cheap.

Another thread on hunting brings this up, too. All the initial costs are huge, but eventually you are getting nearly free meat.

Same with freezers, rototillers, canning equipment, tractors and all those things that allow us to eventually have "cheap" food. In my case, my husband and I use both for our businesses, so they are written off. For purely private gardens, that would have to be factored in.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

And if you have a garden, which most food stamp recipients (That I know personally) don't grow a single tomato plant, much less a full out garden.

I think that's really sad! Not trying to cut up your entire post, but I hate that more foodstamp recipients don't try their hand at gardening.

I don't know about there, but I know here foodstamps can be used to buy food producing vegetation and seeds. Vegetable seeds, blueberry bushes, raspberry vines, grapes vines, rhubarb roots, strawberries, seed potatoes, asparagus roots, tomato plants, etc.

People who get f/s can buy all those seeds/plants and have an outrageous garden! Preserve it, dry it, eat it fresh, etc...and eat like kings all winter!

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

My husband was a plumber, before all the military stuff, and was generally laid off from november-march. There were months when he couldn't get enough side work to pay the rent, and we had to borrow money from my mom. We, at point of lowest income, got about $600 a month in food stamps, for 5 of us. Which comes out to about $4 a person, per day. It was hard, because at the end of the month, we'd be out of EVERYTHING, butter, salt, flour milk etc., and lots of times, the last 4 or 5 days would be when we'd wrangle an invitation over to our inlaw's houses, and they'd send the leftovers home with us. Foodstamps are different than welfare, which, even at our brokest, we didn't qualify for. Another option, at least in vermont, is the WIC program for women, infants and children,but they stressed me out, and the blood tests etc. that were required made me insane. We've 'shopped' at the foodshelf too, a few times, and really, the selection (at least at the local one) is really bad. when things are going better for us financially, I totally intend to donate some stuff to the foodshelf, better than dented cans of peas, something that people would be happy to cook for their family, and excited to eat. Now, we're able to buy groceries, but I still limit it to 600 a month, including gas and other incidentals, so I think we're down to about 2 or 3 dollars per person per day. If I make pancakes, it's cheap, eggs? squirting out of my chickens every day (mostly)... home made pizza, home made burritos etc. Flour is our main staple, and while it's not low carb, it works for us.... and it's cheap!

 

[farmerlor]

And if you have a garden, which most food stamp recipients (That I know personally) don't grow a single tomato plant, much less a full out garden.

I think that's really sad! Not trying to cut up your entire post, but I hate that more foodstamp recipients don't try their hand at gardening.

I don't know about there, but I know here foodstamps can be used to buy food producing vegetation and seeds. Vegetable seeds, blueberry bushes, raspberry vines, grapes vines, rhubarb roots, strawberries, seed potatoes, asparagus roots, tomato plants, etc.

People who get f/s can buy all those seeds/plants and have an outrageous garden! Preserve it, dry it, eat it fresh, etc...and eat like kings all winter!

When we were fostering we knew a lot of people on food stamps and for the most part they lived in cheap apartments, hotels, and small rental houses. Remember the enormous start up costs of a garden? Or getting a landlord to agree to allow you to tear up a back yard for a garden? Heck, even the outlay for a really big container, and dirt to grow a tomato plant on a porch would make for some pretty expensive tomatoes for someone on food stamps. I'm sure that there a LOT who could but don't avail themselves of the opportunity to grow some of their own food but for the most part the people I knew wouldn't have been able to if they'd been willing.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Good point, farmerlor. I wasn't thinking about people who didn't have the means to garden.

 

[DianeB]

There is another women that ate for $1 a day. She thinks that it is possible and still be healthy. However, her portions were very small. Whole foods are still more expensive then junk food
Here is the video link.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7062440&page=1&page=1 Check out the dollar on the display table its not Washington's face. Here is her blog http://lessisenough.wordpress.com/2009/02/

 

[Dace]

That is what is so sad is that if these people had the ability to do better/more they likely would. But when you are barely keeping a roof over your head and food in your stomach, the investment in a garden just isn't practical.

Now if cities cleared out vacant lots and established community gardens for those who were in need.....that would go a long way.

 

[farmerlor]

That is what is so sad is that if these people had the ability to do better/more they likely would. But when you are barely keeping a roof over your head and food in your stomach, the investment in a garden just isn't practical.

Now if cities cleared out vacant lots and established community gardens for those who were in need.....that would go a long way.

Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? I donated some seeds a couple of years ago to a garden at a retirement center. I just loved thinking about all those old folks out there puttering around with their tomatoes and cucumbers and eating fresh vegetables for supper.