SNAP Challenge: Conclusion

Well gang I have some sad news to report. I can’t find my June receipts! They are all sitting together tucked away in a notebook or cookbook that I’m not able to find. I don’t know exactly how much we spent, but I was keeping a running total in my head. So I know we had like $10 dollars left to play with. I think we'll make a donation to the Jimmie Hale Mission. One of our local grocery stores has a system where you can "buy meals" for the soup kitchen. Easy peasy.

I will say that Dennis and I did not give up going out to eat and that I get free meals at work. Some people may not have that advantage, but we’re a young couple. We want to have fun, and we can. I am perfectly convinced that I could make the small budget work. Earlier this year we ate in most of the time and I was keeping us to a budget.

I got really panicked after the first week when Dennis and I went a little crazy. Automatically, $118 was taken out of our budget for my weekly vegetable box. I was not willing to give up that produce. I could have easily given more room in our budget by buying conventional produce from ALDI, but I just couldn’t do it. I believe in eating locally and I am working hard to get my diet as local as possible.

What ended up happening is that we ate very simple meals using up what I had on hand and in the pantry.

Sorry that I didn’t blog much about this challenge. Truly, our regular budget so closely resembles the proposed one that I was really just documenting what I normally do. For those who are merely stopping by to glance at my Food Stamp Posts, I encourage you to come back often. A year from now, my blog should be filled with month by month seasonal recipes. One of my main goals for this blog is to find recipes for two that use everyday ingredients. Sure, I definitely will play with cuisines and flavors, but I usually restrain myself to what I can do with my box. If I can afford to do it, then so can you.

Besides reducing the amount of meat you eat, eating seasonally is definitely the most food budget friendly thing you can do. You don’t even need a CSA box to do it; you can simply learn food schedules and buy accordingly.

I have been participating in the June Food Stamp Challenge issued by Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate. To see more about this challenge, visit her blog where she updates daily on her progress.