What do you spend on food? (food stamp challenge)

[Alex Franke]

I read about this so-called "food stamp challenge" in which you see if you can live off of what you'd get if you used food stamps for all your food. They say that people get $21 a week (or $1 per meal), but that's actually a myth, so I went to http://www.foodstamps-step1.usda.gov to see what my family of four would actually qualify for if I didn't have any income -- it was "from $508 to $518" per month apparently.

Then I went to my bank records and added up all the grocery store expenses (which actually included non-food items) and all the charges for Domino's and Jersey Mike's and the bagel shop that we sometimes go to. The monthly total was about $450 or $113 per person per month. This times 0.23 turned out to be $26 per week or $1.24 per meal.

So I guess it seems like the "food stamp challenge" isn't much of a challenge at all... at least for us. Probably because we cook a lot from scratch, don't eat of lot of meat, and don't go out that often...

So what do you all spend on food every month, per person? Could you live off of food stamps if you needed to?

(Remember to keep politics out of this discussion.)

[Knottscott]

Hi Alex - We've still got 6 kids living at home including 3 boys between 13 and 21 who will eat anything and everything that won't eat them first, and I never seemed to get past that phase! Fortunately my wife and one of the girls eat like birds, and the other two are average eaters, but we still manage to down 8-9 gallons of milk a week, and 9-10 loaves of bread, 10-15 boxes of cereal, couple dozen eggs, 4-5 # of lunch meat, along with quite a bit of PB &J. We rarely go out, don't order much pizza, and most of our meat is chicken or beef mixed in with a casserole. It's hard to say what the totals are because we tend to make 3 or 4 trips per week, but I'd estimate in the range of $800-$1000 per month...we shop at Aldi's and Sam's Club as much as possible, use coupons, and stock up on bargains that make sense too.

[Ed62]

It's just my wife and me now. I guess we spend around $500.00 or so per month. But that includes bar soap, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, window cleaner, and other items that are not covered by food stamps.

We have an adult family member who is disabled, and can not hold a job of any kind (typically fast food). He gets $165.00 per month in food stamps. Since he has a very limited ability to cook, most of the things he buys are things like frozen pizzas, or other things you can just pop into the oven. His food stamps last 2 - 3 weeks. My wife and I usually help him out with food at the end of the month.

Ed

[dlminehart]

I wonder how food prices vary around the country. We eat very little meat besides chicken, make almost everything from scratch, have few snacks around the house besides a jar of peanuts and a bag of tortilla chips with salsa, don't buy wine or beer, get sodas in bulk at Costco. But we do buy the better quality milk, cheese, and sliced turkey or ham (for an extra $7/week apiece), and buy the better quality fruits or veggies when in season and not outrageously priced. Still, $250 apiece for about 80 meals, or $3/meal, seems normal here in the Bay Area.

[crokett]

My wife spends about 100.00 a week on food. Add in the eating out we do and we are at ~520.00 for the month. So I think we could do it.

[jonmulzer]

Me and my gf spend about $350 a month or less. We are thrifty shoppers and prepare most everything from scratch though. And that includes a dinner or two per month where we invite over a half dozen friends and serve a HUGE meal. We also rarely eat out, take our lunches to work unless the company is buying and do not waste much in the line of leftovers.

[Alex Franke]

Hi Alex - We've still got 6 kids living at home including 3 boys between 13 and 21 who will eat anything and everything that won't eat them first, and I never seemed to get past that phase!

LOL - I remember that well from the teen years -- and if our fridge started getting too empty, we'd just go over to a friends house and eat their food! It's amazing what it takes an active kid to grow -- my 3.5 year old son already eats about twice as much as my wife.

...but we still manage to down 8-9 gallons of milk a week, and 9-10 loaves of bread, 10-15 boxes of cereal, couple dozen eggs, 4-5 # of lunch meat, along with quite a bit of PB &J.

Maybe my wife is right -- two kids is just fine

We have an adult family member who is disabled, and can not hold a job of any kind (typically fast food). He gets $165.00 per month in food stamps. Since he has a very limited ability to cook, most of the things he buys are things like frozen pizzas, or other things you can just pop into the oven. His food stamps last 2 - 3 weeks. My wife and I usually help him out with food at the end of the month.

Yeah, I had the same situation for a while until she moved into an assisted living facility. You make a really good point here -- many see prepared/frozen foods as a (usually more expensive) convenience, but to many on food stamps they're a necessity. . . .and that makes living a lot more expensive.

[Alex Franke]

...We are thrifty shoppers...

Speaking of thrifty shoppers, my sister-in-law has the whole coupon game totally figured out -- it's down to a science. She knows which stored to get what from and when -- when the coupons are doubled (or more) and at what stores, when the items with coupons go on sale, and which of 2-3 stores to go to for each type of item. She *frequently* sees savings of 50-75% off the total bill -- literally. And I don't think she's paid for a toothbrush in years. Her only advice is that you can't be picky about what you buy.

At first I didn't believe her. Then I saw the receipts.

We use coupons, but we haven't mastered "the game" like she has. It's unbelievable.

[Ed62]

I don't think she's paid for a toothbrush in years.

No teeth? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ed

[Knottscott]

No teeth? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ed

We buy them all the time...the trick is getting the kids to use them!

[Rslaugh]

It's down to just LOML & me at this point. We used to spend probably $800 + /month but that included a lot of eating out. With gas at $4/gal and an hour commute we decided to make some changes. We have a discount grocery store near us that gets end of runs and overstocks, stuff near expiration dates etc. Except for the deli they never have the same things for more than a few weeks. So we go once a week and buy a bunch of whatever we normally use. Their deli is very nice, everything is fresh and at least half the price of the big name chains. Name Brand Virgian baked ham was $3.59/lb this week. We spend 50-60 there and then maybe 10 more on milk - 1 qt per week, half and half - 3 qts per week and some fresh fruit. Eat out maybe once per week.