Is it really that hard?

[FarmerChick]

I think someone on about $35 per week per person is stretching their dollars far. I don't think the masses are out buying total crappola for their meals.
sure some are buying junk, but I think most would be trying to do it right and still find it hard.

 

[Bettacreek]

My meats I always try to buy on sale. London Broil went on sale at $1.99/lb, so I bought about 20lbs of it. That's enough to last us at least a year (we don't eat steak often, since it's usually really expensive). Ground beef is one that I rarely buy... It's just expensive and I rarely use it. Ground turkey used to be cheaper, but now it's the same damn price. For chicken, I don't even buy whole chickens ($0.99/lb), I buy the leg quarters at $0.50/lb. I think you get more meat that way anyways. For the other stuff, it's mostly bulk. I buy a lot of my bulk dry food from an amish store. I've also started hitting the poultry auction again. I can get a dozen eggs for $0.25-$0.50. Beats any price you can pay anywhere else, that's for sure!

 

[mlynd]

Mostly I just make due or without somethings, every yr DH gets two deer and we are on a list of road kill deer LOL so the police call us if a deer gets hit and we go get it , I never turn down any good deal at the store I coupon when I can we also have a local food pantry I go to every now and then and the garden and if I don't have it well we don't alot of meals have been with out meat or with out vegs it has not been easy during school yr the kids qualify for free breakfast and lunches so I stock up on things and DS is now out of the house so we do feed one less but it is still hard

 

[Wannabefree]

I can live on $35 a week per person. We've been doing it forever. Even before the truckloads of produce which I can take a bit of for us, and before we gardened a whole lot. OTOH, when we were out of town and on the road constantly, I'd do good to make it on that for 2 or 3 days a week, much less a whole week, and we grilled a lot outside the hotel rooms and travel trailer. Convenience foods are very definately a problem when on a budget. I see folks on food stamps piling Monster drinks into their buggy at about $2 a can. Of course it's not enough if you don't PLAN A BUDGET and use it WISELY.

 

[pinkfox]

also rememebr the benefit amount is location based.
i looked into it and right now here in TN i would be given $22 a week based on a yearly wage of around $7500 (yes folks you read that right)
milk is right around $4 a gallon and i go through a gallon a week.
that igves me $18 to come up with all my meals, 5 small meals per day, thats 35 meals...(not granted of those 35, 14 are small "snacks" generally a peice of fruit and soem cheese or a yogurt)
going off 3 squares a day i would have 85 cents per meal, going of 5 smalls im looking at feeding myself for about 51 cents per meal...
right now i try to budget $25 a week for food and i can tell you, i dont buy junk food, soda is a rare treat for me (and then its whatever generic has the cheapest brand) and i dont buy packaged type meals...
but i can tell you that $25 doesnt go very far when you also have to add in taxes (some tax is forgiven when on food benefits, but not all of the tax is forgvien you pay about 90% of the actual tax owed)

i focus on sales, buy alot of "eat or freeze me today" meats ect...I clip coupons when i can (but lets face it i dont have an extra buck and change + gas money each sunday to go buy a paper) and most of the coupons i see are for household goods or named brands (which generally still end up being more expensive after coupons than the generci/store brands)
its tough though, especially when you want HEALTHY foods, graps are almost $3 a lb, want LEAF lettuce youll pay triple the cost of iceburg, want something other than chicken thighs as your main meat source be prepared to pay triple the per lb price ect.

and even if you do manage to do it eaisly when you look at what your eating it tends to be the same thing every night because those are the things that are cheap.
unfortunatly with coupon clipping and such things like chips, crackers soda and tv dinners do tend ot be cheaper than full meals...

it BUGGS me when i see people using a food bennies card for lobster and filet minon...
it bugs me worse when i see people using a food card then buying a carton of cigs and case of beer.

there was actually a reporter who did a "live off food stamp amount for a month" bit, ill have to try and find it...
but even he said he thought it would be easy but by the end of the month he was so sick of rice and beans and didnt think it was quite so easy anymore.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea Pink you are right.

repetative food gets old fast. eating the same old thing. while I know people won't starve, it is great that they have food, it is a given that at some point you gotta have something different. Here you can't buy cigs/beer on any food relief. I have seen them try and cashier won't do it. what I see is they buy food on stamps and then use cash for cigs/beer...lol

and price of spices. Holy cow. if someone wants to change the spice taste to change up the meal it costs alot of money to have those spices on hand.

food costs are high. no doubt about it and stretching $25 or $35 doesn't go far at all. and costs are rising so that dollar isn't buying as much at all.

 

[pinkfox]

FC absolutly, prices are going up but the average wage isnt matching speed...the 2 are so different from one another that even families making a deacent amount an find themseves struggling.

the beer/cigs part, thats how they do it here and why it bothers me...
if youve got $50 to spend on cigs and beer each week WHY are you haveing to buy your groceries with food stamps? thats the kind of stuff that bugs me.
seeing a food stamper buying tv dinners, soda and chips...not so much of a bother...
seeing a food stamper buying tv dinners, soda and chips then shelling out CASH for beer, cigs, lottery tickets, ect...that grinds me the wrong way.
seeing a food stamper with a cart full of apples and lettuce and fresh meat and then not having enough on their card to buy it all...that makes me realy sad...because at least that person is trying.

 

[Bettacreek]

Even lettuce is cheaper purchased "raw". We can get romaine lettuce at $0.99/lb, or pay $2.99/12oz of prepped romaine. Grapes, the boys LOVE them, but I try to only buy them at $0.99/lb. Bananas suck too, and they never go on sale. $0.42/lb is the usual around here. Baby spinach is more expensive, at about $3.99/12oz bag. I have seeds for lettuce and spinach, just need to get some free compost (for cost of gas) and I think I might try growing it in one of those under the bed storage containers and around the house. The spinach should do ok in that tub, since I plan to harvest at a very young stage. Plus if I toss some spinach outside and just let it go, I can hopefully collect seed so that I don't have to pay the $1.19 for the seed packet next year. I also like doing berry harvests. Our neighbors at my mom's place let us pick blackberries. In two hours, I can collect at least a gallon size bag of fresh blackberries, which makes 6-7qts of jelly. By purchasing dutch gel in bulk, and sugar in bulk (I have to go get another 50lb bag of raw sugar at $35), I can really cut costs and still have a somewhat healthy product. Well, healthier than what you buy in the store anyways... Lotta sugar so it's more of a treat than a health food, IMO. I also make thinner jelly (first time was pure accident) to use as a sauce... I LOVE thin blackberry "jelly" in cottage cheese.

Another thing, when buying bulk, never purchase more than you can use in the time before it expires... Otherwise this is just wasted food and wasted money. Once I get the birds going again, they'll be my garbage disposals. I HATE scraping small amounts of food into the garbage, but when I had birds, it always went to them, so I didn't feel like it was as much of a waste. I am not the kind of person to put half eaten food back into the pot. It's one thing to save half a plate and put it in the fridge for that person to finish later, but I don't like the idea of transfering germs between people (even if they are family members, you can still spread illness).

 

[so lucky]

I've seen several people comment on the high price of ground beef lately. What are you paying? I buy the "family packs" and freeze it in almost 1 lb packs. It only costs 2.29 per lb and is the best I have ever found. Small grind, no pieces of vessels, very little fat. I buy it at the Sav-a-Lot in our area. I know that isn't a national chain, just around the St Louis area, I think. The package says USA beef. I tried other store's beef, but some of it was downright nasty. Particularly W---Mart.
As a matter of fact, I think Sav-a-Lot beats the socks off W---mart in pricing meat, dairy, canned goods, frozen. They can't compete with the fresh produce most of the time, tho. If you have a no-frills (bag your own) grocery store in your area, you can find some good bargains. We also have a "Dents Make Cents" store, where you can buy short dated, out dated and damaged-package groceries. Some really good bargains there. Great buys on pet food, if you aren't picky.

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't normally buy ground beef any more because it IS so expensive. And, while we do have a Save A Lot near us, it's in a town I don't normally go in. However, it's probably a good town to shop in. There's an Acme and a Shoprite for full service supermarkets. Then, there's a Bottom Dollar and a Save A Lot. All of these stores are w/in a 1/2 mile or so of each other.

Then in another town, there's a Shoprite, an Acme, an Aldi's and a large Dollar Tree w/a cold section in it. I know when I do shop for food, I check the circulars to see what is on sale, and then plan my meals accordingly. I know others who plan their menu, then shop regardless of the price. And, if you're on a limited budget, that makes no sense to me.