What Meals Look Like On ~$2 Per Day In America

To put myself into the shoes of those that have no choice, I have embarked upon a personal challenge to live on a SNAP food stamp allotment of $29 per week. This is my journey.

I started off this week in a really great position. I had only used approximately $13.34 of my first week’s purchase. That meant I had a lot of ingredients to work with.

Well, something threw a wrench in my plans at the end. But first, let’s see how I ate this past week.

 

For anyone new to my challenge here, I have additional rules to more closely simulate living on a food stamp budget.

• I will only shop once per week, and only at the 99 Cents Only (not a full grocer, just dollar store type stuff) store – to simulate being in a ‘food desert’.
• No using the oven or microwave to cook – a deeply impoverished family might not have a working oven or microwave.
• I will start from absolute scratch – nothing but what I purchase with my weekly $29 can be used.
• This challenge will last for three weeks. Normally people only do this for one week. I will extend it to get a full picture. I can’t do one month as I am going on a trip soon.

If you want to catch up, here is the link to my initial post and here is the link to the week 1 recap.

 

 

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LEFTOVER FROM WEEK 1

WEEK 2 PURCHASES

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission – at no additional cost to yourself – if you end up buying the product or service offered.)

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FOOD STAMP BUDGET LIVING WEEK 2 DAY 1 – $2.39

• Peanut butter sandwich, with half a banana, and some cold soaked oatmeal – $0.30
• Bacon carbonara pasta with a strawberry and 3 cookies – $0.75
• Penne in a chorizo with mushrooms, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes. With two pieces of bread and a strawberry – $1.34

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DAY 2 – $3.65

• Egg fried brown rice with a slice of bacon – $0.55
• Leftover pasta dinner from the night before – $1.22
• Spinach salad with sliced tomato, albacore tuna, toasted bread croutons in an avocado and oil dressing, plus thick-cut fries with sriracha ketchup – $1.88

I made these fries in my made french fries in my T-fal Actifry! The Actifry makes such great fries, I was so lucky to find one in the thrift store! If you like fries (or just fried things in general), think about getting one of these. It uses just a tablespoon of oil to make a whole batch of’em! The small amount of oil makes these things much healthier.

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DAY 3 – $2.00

• One chorizo, bean, rice, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito – $0.49
• Same again for lunch (pictures show two, but I only ate one each meal) – $0.49
• Noodles and fried fake spam cubes in a cream of mushroom sauce with asparagus. Also, two cookies and a strawberry – $1.02

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DAY 4 – $2.61

• Two peanut butter sandwiches, half a banana, and some cold-soaked oatmeal – $0.48
• One portion of the noodles & fake spam in the cream of mushroom sauce along with three cookies and a strawberry – $1.05
• Spaghetti in a chorizo and bacon tomato sauce with half a Mexican squash. There was also bread w/margarine, a strawberry, and a cookie – $1.08

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DAY 5 – $1.90

• Fried fake spam in egg fried brown rice – $0.40
• Leftover spaghetti from the night before and a cookie – $0.96
• Half grilled cheese sandwich with thick-cut fries in that sriracha ketchup – $0.54

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DAY 6 – $1.86

• Bean, egg, and rice breakfast burrito with half a banana – $0.47
• Peanut butter sandwich, half a cheese sandwich along with half a banana and a cookie – $0.46
• Noodles with fake spam in a cream of mushroom sauce, plus my very last strawberry! – $0.83
• (Not pictured) Half a pack of Ramen as a late-night snack – $0.10

Let me explain the lunches for days 6 and 7. It was the weekend and I was attending a seminar. I needed something that required no heating up. The pictures are from when I made it in the morning.

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DAY 7 – $1.41

• Avocado toast(!) and an egg on toast (I actually just made this into a delicious sandwich) – $0.41
• Cheese sandwich and a half peanut butter sandwich along with a cookie – $0.45
• Beans, rice, chorizo, and a diced potato – $0.55

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Food Stamp Challenge Stats

Week two total: $15.82

Cumulative food price of meals over two weeks: $29.16

Average daily cost over two weeks: $2.08

Average daily cost this week: $2.26

The average cost per meal this week: $0.75

All the food I still have left

I ate for just $15.84 in week two. Now it’s time to go shopping!

Wait.

There. Is. Nothing. On. My. EBT. Card.

I thought I would simulate a government error. I know, I know. The government never makes mistakes. But just this once let’s pretend that something went wrong and my EBT card didn’t get reloaded. I get in contact with them and they tell me they will look into it and I can expect it to take a week before it gets funded.

I have no EBT money to buy food!

What would you do? That is the money you were expecting to feed yourself. You would just have to make whatever you have work.

This is what I am going to do.

A strange thing happened though. I was walking down the street and spotted two limes next to the curb. So I picked them up, they are scratched a bit but not cut. I’ve added them to my supply.

At least I won’t die from scurvy. Arrgh!

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