Food Stamp Challenge?

After thinking about it a bit, I have decided to kind of do a food stamp challenge, but kind of not. Let me explain.

As I said before, we usually budget $400 for two weeks worth of groceries and toiletries, so spending $308.22    (half of what my family would receive for the month if we received full benefits) for just food wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Marty and I did our budget today and we budgeted $310, instead of $400. We also budgeted a separate amount for *K-cups and toiletries/medication.

So basically, I am doing the challenge because we already spend about that much anyway, and I am not doing it because I am not counting my beef and coffee.

I think I will update weekly with what we ate and what we spent. Any money that is left over at the end of the two week period will go in to savings.

(Random Chef. Isn't he cute?)

A word about what we eat. We are a gluten free house. Two of us have Celiac Disease and once we were diagnosed, the rest of the family decided that it would be easiest to just keep gluten out of the house. I have other food issues, and as a result tend to eat pretty Paleo/Low Carb. I can occasionally have rice, oatmeal and other grains in very small doses, but I tend to just stay away from them. With the exception of Alex having to be gluten free and Marty and Ethan's banana and walnut sensitivity/allergy, there are no other food restrictions. We will have meals like tacos, where I will either eat my taco fixings on a bed of lettuce or wrapped in a lettuce leaf, while Marty and the boys use corn tortillas.

I am trying to figure out how to grow some food on my balcony. I had originally planned to make 1 foot Square Foot Garden boxes (like the second picture here. We eventually attached a PVC and netting trellis) but it looks like it isn't going to happen. I just don't get enough sunlight. I have one spot where I can hang a Topsy Turvy (or most likely a homemade version ) and am thinking about trying this. I'm just not convinced that my neighbors won't complain.

I am also trying to figure out  a way to to teach menu planning/budgeting and cooking skills to people who may need it in my area. I happen to live in the state with the highest percentage of the population who receives SNAP (20.7% Washington DC is at 21.9%, but they aren't a state. :-p ) so I think it is important to try to do what I can to help.

If you get a chance, check out the comments to my Food Stamp Challenge post. Great stuff in there!

*A word on the K-cups - we are not giving up coffee and we are not going to not use K-cups. I am constantly on the lookout for cheaper cups, but until I can find a wholesale source, I will continue to buy them at Sam's for $38/80. Our standing rule is that I buy one box and then if they use all of them, they fill the reusable filter with bulk purchased coffee grounds for a make our own K-cup cup of coffee. I thought about just buying ground coffee and making them use the refillable filter, but that seems to defeat the purpose of the Keurig. Of course, I hate the idea of tossing out all of those cups, so I may eventually make them do it anyway, but for now, this is our compromise.