Found this blog about Snap Benefits

[babycat42]

and it talks all about how impossible to survive only eating $4 of food each day.
For a single person I can see it. For a family it's much easier.
But reading the posts by all these different people made me wonder what is their regular grocery budget and What do they normal eat?
Here is a link to the first blog
http://desertchicaramblings.com/2012...ort-of-passed/
Here is a link to a bunch of blog posts by different people
http://cfbsnapchallenge.org/?page_id=13

I read some of these posts and I think that most of their hunger was poor planing.

[happysmileylady]

I think the comments and the way people went about it appears unrealistic. For example, they were talking about avoiding eating out and picking up starbucks and such....duh. SNAP doesn't cover Starbucks. But....that doesn't mean that everyone on SNAP is avoiding that stuff. They are just using their other cash to pay for it. Like the people who would come through my register at CVS, use their SNAP to pay for their Pringles and Mt. Dew snacks, then run a second transaction for their cigs and vodka. And that wasn't a rare occurence. Most people who rang up things on a SNAP card when I was working at CVS for sure didn't use SNAP as their ONLY food money. And, while I didn't like keep some sort of detailed accounting, I figure we had at least as many SNAP transactions as we had major couponers...maybe more.

Which maybe says something, I dunno...

The reality is that too many people in the US, in my experience, SNAP or not, regardless of what sort of income they have...just don't pay enough attention.

[peaches330]

I think $4 a day per person makes it really easy for a family IMO. It would be challenging, but doable for a single person. My grocery budget is less than that for my family and we eat a lot of organic food and we don't eat bad at all. Reading through a lot of their grocery lists, you understand why it was so hard for them. I think it would've been much easier with some planning. Also, I live in a high COL living area and seeing how much they paid for certain items makes me because I know I can find them cheaper (not what I would normally buy, because like I said, we eat a lot of organic food) but I could for sure find it cheaper to make the challenge work for myself. I also think doing the challenge for only a week makes it more unrealistic because if you have your entire monthly budget (which people on assistance would have) you can buy more at once, saving $. Like the girl who bought a $1.25 granola bar. You can buy a whole box of generic granola bars for like $3, but she didn't do that because she was only doing it for 5 days.

[sdavis514]

I personally think that the eating habits of most Americans does make it difficult. But that doesnt mean it is impossible. Just off the top of my head, with no sales or coupons, here is what I came up with for 5 days. Yeah there is no variety but it mostly healthy and has no junk in it!!!

Dozen eggs $2
Loaf of whole wheat bread $2
2 bags frozen broccoli $2
2-2.5 lb chicken pack $6
Bunch of 5 bananas $2
about 5 apples $2
Jar of PB $3
Box of brown rice $1

Not perfect but it was not too hard to think up

2 eggs, toast and banana for breakfest
PB sandwich and apple for lunch
Chicken, broccoli and rice for dinner

I do understand tho that people with food restrictions would have a harder time with it. I did recieve SNAP at one point for me and my son. I got $187 a month for 2 people - that is about $3.10 a day each. We ate AWESOME during that time!

I think it is easier if you combine $$ for a family. I recently upped our budget but for the last couple of years our weekly budget was $80 including non food purchases. We are a family of 3 so our SNAP amount would be $84. We were able to eat a variety of food for that amount too!

[My Sweet Blessings]

the thing with prices. every area has different prices for different things. it amazes me that some people can get a gallon of milk for $2. Right now, for me, a gallon of regular milk is $4.20 and that's a GOOD price! I generally pay $4.50 and up. ... even at wal-mart. I know for sure I can't get 5 apples for $2. lol that would be almost $4 for me. even buying the 5 lb bag would set me back nearly $5. On sale, maybe $4. We don't get the "good" sales, either. There is no such thing as doubling here and our dairy coupons are limited. A lot will say void in La. so annoying.

[misskira]

$16/day for my family is way more than our regular budget. I just found out we qualify for $550 in snap benefits. It boggles my mind as our current budget is $400.

Era: plus wic! I could receive wic for both our kids in addition to the snap. I can't even imagine howi would spend it all...

[keonli]

Originally Posted by babycat42 and it talks all about how impossible to survive only eating $4 of food each day. For a single person I can see it. For a family it's much easier. But reading the posts by all these different people made me wonder what is their regular grocery budget and What do they normal eat? Here is a link to the first blog http://desertchicaramblings.com/2012...ort-of-passed/ Here is a link to a bunch of blog posts by different people http://cfbsnapchallenge.org/?page_id=13 I read some of these posts and I think that most of their hunger was poor planing.

But aren't a large amount of people who are on government assistance lacking education and the resources needed to learn about proper nutrition and basic money management? Many complain about not being able to thrive on what the government provides, not realizing that SNAP is meant to supplement additional income.

[sdavis514]

Originally Posted by My Sweet Blessings the thing with prices. every area has different prices for different things. it amazes me that some people can get a gallon of milk for $2. Right now, for me, a gallon of regular milk is $4.20 and that's a GOOD price! I generally pay $4.50 and up. ... even at wal-mart. I know for sure I can't get 5 apples for $2. lol that would be almost $4 for me. even buying the 5 lb bag would set me back nearly $5. On sale, maybe $4. We don't get the "good" sales, either. There is no such thing as doubling here and our dairy coupons are limited. A lot will say void in La. so annoying.

I get what you are saying. I would assume that since I live in a high COL area in terms of housing( like a 2 bed room apt is atleast $1,000+ min here) , that our food would be on the more expensive side too. But I can always, even in off season, get a pound of apples for $2 or less. I can always find atleast one kind of fruit for less than $2 a pound, most of the time $1 a pound.

Wonder why food is so much more expensive where you are? I assume that since each state bases the SNAP benefit on their own food cost but idk.
Is your housing costs on the lower end? Then it would kinda even out, you know?

[My Sweet Blessings]

Originally Posted by sdavis514 I get what you are saying. I would assume that since I live in a high COL area in terms of housing( like a 2 bed room apt is atleast $1,000+ min here) , that our food would be on the more expensive side too. But I can always, even in off season, get a pound of apples for $2 or less. I can always find atleast one kind of fruit for less than $2 a pound, most of the time $1 a pound. Wonder why food is so much more expensive where you are? I assume that since each state bases the SNAP benefit on their own food cost but idk. Is your housing costs on the lower end? Then it would kinda even out, you know?

nope, our housing is pretty expensive, IMO. I am in a 2 bedroom condo/apt and pay $950 ONLY because it's owned by a friend of my FIL. Any of these other units can expect to pay $1200+. the first place we put money on was a 2 bedroom apt for $900. When we went to move it, there were roaches everywhere!!! We backed out and got our money back cause there was NO way I was moving in there! Thankfully we discovered this before even moving anything in, just went in to do my usual "my standards" cleaning.Landlord wasn't even surprised when I went in that office to tell him we wanted our money back because of roaches. So, yeah, $900 for a 2 bedroom roach apt After Katrina, we were stuck in Kentucky for 10 months. We paid about $600 a month for a 3 bedroom house in a nice lil neighborhood. I dream of moving back there LOL Their milk is under $3

[Ducko]

I think that's totally do-able for a family. I live in a higher COL area. WA food stamps take into account our state's cost of living. So in some areas it's tight but other areas it's very very generous. Our state gives $200/month for a single person. I think that's totally doable. For our family if we qualified (family of 4) it would be $668/month.

I spend $300-340/month on food to feed our family. I make a large portion of our food from scratch. It's a big stretch to do my budget in this area. But I'm totally able to do it. For $400/month I wouldn't really even have to think about what I'm buying on sale/not, just if it's processed or not. Processed food and ready made food/freezer foods just costs a LOT. I think that's why the majority of people have a hard time with govt food budgets.