SNAP Challenge Day 1

Today we spent a total of $49.27 on food.  I thought it sounded pretty good until I did the math.  If I have $174 to feed us for the week, I should only be spending$24.85/day.  I was wayyyyyy over budget.  Sheesh that was easy.

Here’s how it broke down…

Breakfast – $6.45

CJ & Kylie went through 1/2 box of Cinnamon French Toast Stix from ALDI- the box costs $1.99 so their breakfast was $1.00.  They each drank water.

Jack had mini pancakes – he probably ate 1/2 of the box by himself.  It’s amazing how skinny he is considering the way he eats, but I digress.  The pancakes are also from ALDI.  The whole box was on special for $1.69.  He added pancake Syrup which we had on hand but I’ll add $.50 for that…making his breakfast total $1.35.

Quinn and I had Smoothies- Milk ($2.19/gallon – you have to go to ALDI for milk, no hormones and the cheapest anywhere), ice, banana ($.15) and frozen strawberries ($2.69 for the bag, we used 1/4 of the bag) in a blender.  $1.50/each

Jeff had cottage cheese which I got with a coupon deal for $.45 for the container, apple sauce ($.99/jar) and a banana ($.15). $1.10 total

Snack – $1.50

Jeff and I snacked on corn bread which I made from a Jiffy box .$45/box plus eggs and milk.  I’ll say the cornbread cost $1.50/total.

Lunch: $4.20

I am not counting the kids lunch in my calculations because if we were truly SNAP recipients, they would be getting free.reduced lunch.  However, I am homeschooling my oldest so I will count his lunch which was frozen chicken nuggets ($3.99 for the bag)  – he had a lot so I’ll count it as $2.00

I had salad from a bag- $2.99/bag & salad dressing and more corn bread.  $2.oo

Jeff had chili and corn bread. (remember the $.2o cans of chili I snagged?) $.20

Afterschool snack – $13.32

Quinn was making cookies for a party and we all had quite a few of those cookies which were not only off my diet but clearly out of budget.  I don’t  have the energy to figure out what the individual ingredients totaled (and I have not even yet finished day 1, try to imagine how I’d cope if I had to be this diligent all the time).  I will go with $10.

I spent $2 on snacks for CJ & Kylie at our after school activity and I bought myself a diet coke for $1 – $3.

I also drank crystal light iced tea all day which cost $4.99/container but I got it for a B1G1 – each package has 8 powder mixes – $.32 for the pitcher.

Dinner – $25

Jack made pancakes.  We were at Walmart and spent $25 on groceries which included the ingredients for the breakfast ingredients Jack was making for dinner as well as $10 worth of snacks that I had to buy for Kylie’s softball team.  I will have to account for Kylie’s snack somewhere so it might as well be with today’s dinner.

I’d like to reiterate I really thought this would be easy and that I would come in under budget.  OOOPS!  I now have only $124.73 left for the rest of the week.  OH SNAP!

Oh SNAP!

Have you heard of the SNAP Challenge?  I just learned about it and starting today, my family and I will attempt it.  SNAP is the fancy name for the food stamp program.  It stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  The SNAP Challenge is a way to see what it is like for the millions of low-income folks that are on food stamps.  The idea is that for one week, my family will live on the same food budget that a SNAP recipient does.  We will learn firsthand about what it is like to try to get by on the average SNAP benefit.  I will need to budget carefully and keep in mind that if I run out of money by Friday, we will just have to go hungry until the next Monday morning.  Obviously, we will not truly understand the daily difficulties that SNAP recipients face.  But this challenge will give us a little but of insight.

I found the guidelines for the SNAP challenge on the Chicago Food Depository website –

Challenge Guidelines

1. Each person should spend a set amount for food and beverages during the Challenge week. That amount is $35/week or $5/day for all food and beverage. (I have seen this amount online as low as $29/week)
2. All food purchased and eaten during the Challenge week, including fast food and dining out, must be included in the total spending.
3. During the Challenge, only eat food that you purchase for the project. Do not eat food that you already own – this does not include spices and condiments.
4. Avoid accepting free food from friends, family, or at work, including at receptions, briefings, or other events where food is served.
5. Keep track of receipts on food spending and take note of your experiences throughout the week.
6. Invite others to join you, including co-workers, reporters, chefs, or other elected officials.
7. Share your SNAP Challenge story. Post updates on Facebook and Twitter and tag them with #SNAPchallenge.

I learned that there are some things you can’t buy with your SNAP allotment.  Off limits are paper products, medicine, alcohol, cigarettes, energy drinks, magazines or hot, prepared food.  You can buy meat, produce, canned items, baby food, cereal, milk and microwaveable meals.

Since there are 6 of us in my family, my weekly allotment would be $174.  I used the $29/week amount since I live in Georgia and I am assuming since the cost of living is less here than in Chicago, the SNAP allotment will be less too.  As of this writing, the amount does not seem too bad to me particularly now that I am a coupon fiend.  I usually spend about $150 – $200/week on groceries.  It just depends on the week.

However, I have the freedom that many people don’t have. If I need to spend more in a week for whatever reason, I do, without even thinking about it.  And that is the difference.  I do have weeks where I spend much more.  Maybe we are having a party, or I’m just really hungry.  Who knows why?  The thing is that I can.

Except, this week, I won’t.  This week, I am committed to not going 1 penny over the $174.  This week, I am going to get a sense of what it means to truly be on a restricted food budget and I am going to see how hard it is to feed my family healthily.  And since I can’t use all of the things I have stocked up on by couponing, this may be a bit more difficult than I imagine.

Wanna join me in this challenge?

Pumpkins on the Cheap

We first moved to GA three years ago.  I wanted to make our first Halloween here special for the kids as they had been upset by the move.  We went to a wonderful pumpkin patch with all kinds of rides and a corn maze.  It was a blast.  Before leaving I let each of my children pick out their own pumpkin.  My oldest, 11 at the time, picked out the largest pumpkin he could carry.  He slowly and carefully carried it over (possibly even rolled it over) to the scale to be weighed and was so proud of his obscenely large squash. I was not as pleased especially when I saw it ring up for $19…. FOR ONE PUMPKIN!

Needless to say, we no longer purchase our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.  We still go and take part in all the pumpkin games.  We just purchase our pumpkins at ALDI….and look at these beauties.  I got them for $3.49 each!

HUMPH – Sought but Couldn

I did not find that much to donate this week besides the deal for Wolf chili at Kroger and I have to say that my husband has been eying those cans…Football season seems to bring out the chili fiend inside him.  Nonetheless, we will be donating the five cans I purchased for that very reason…well myabe 4 cans, I left him home alone today for lunch.

I found the following freebies for Publix at couponmom.com but I was not able to find either the coupons or the items at the store.  Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

Here is the list:

Barilla Pasta 13.25-16 oz — Buy 1 Get 1 Free -Sale price is $.62; final price is after the $1.50 off Barilla Pasta and Sauce coupon on the Publix Make Your Home Italian Tonight coupon sheet or printable coupon link. – You end up with a profit of $.13 – Sadly, I couldn’t find the Publix Make Your Home Italian Tonight so I didn’t pic up this deal.

Swanson Flavor Boost 4 pk – Sale price is $1.50; final price is 0.00 after the $2 off 4 Publix coupon in the yellow Advantage Buy flyer and 4 newspaper coupons.  Somehow I missed this one completely, when I headed out to Publix on Thursday.

EAS Lean 15 Nutritional Bars, single- Sale price is $1.39; final price is $0.09 after the $0.55 Publix coupon in the green Advantage Buy flyer and printable coupon (which you can find on the coupon mom site)

So, I feel like a bit of a coupon failure this week 😦  Hopefully I will have better luck next week.  Can’t wait to see what the Sunday ads for Kroger turn up.

Peace Out Coupon Scout,

Kate

Halloween Decorations on the Cheap

This really isn’t meant to be a how to be frugal blog.  There are so many of those and I am really not trying to jump on the bandwagon.  My purpose with this blog is to highlight some freebies you can pick up to donate each week and motivate folks to help others in a simple way that doesn’t cost much time or money.

But I just can’t help showing off my super inexpensive and easy to do Halloween mantel decorations.  This cute little get up only cost me $11.

Here’s what I bought:

• 4 leaf garlands
• 4 foam pumpkins
• 2 large spiders
• 1 spider web

I purchased everything at The Dollar Store.  I had spray paint and the 2 large candles on hand which helped me stay super frugal.  I spray painted 2 of the garlands and 2 of the pumpkins black and I sprayed the other 2 pumpkins cream.  Everything I painted got 2 light coats of spray paint.  Then I just plopped it all on my mantel (after waiting 24 hours for everything to dry of course) and Voila! A seasonally decorated mantel!

I suppose in order to make this fit in with my blogs purpose I could suggest that you pick up a few of these items and donate them somewhere in order to help an organization create their own seasonal decorations….or I could just admit that I just wanted to show off my cute mantel!

 

 

 

 

Kroger Freebies This Week

This is not such a good week for freebies at Kroger but there are a few things worth tossing in your cart to donate.  If you are going to be at Kroger anyway, you might as well pick these few things up and add them to your give away stash.

King’s Hawaiian Rolls 4 Ct are on sale for $1.  If you get All You Magazine you can use the $1 off coupon from the June magazine. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit, I will not be donating these.  My 14 year old son loves these rolls!  He will down the entire package of 4  in less than 5 minutes which is one reason why I only get them when I can pick them up for free or super cheap.

I will however be donating the Wolf Brand Chili I can pick up for just 20¢/can.  Just pair with the 40/1 Wolf chili coupon from the  Smart Source Coupon booklet that was in the 9/16 paper…so long as your Kroger doubles the coupons like mine does, this is a great item to donate.  Sure it costs some change but you can get 5 cans for a dollar so it’s definitely worth grabbing 5.  For less than a cup of coffee, you can provide someone with 5 meals.  Yahoo!

Have you found some deals that I missed, if so please let me know.

Peace Out,

Kate

 

How Did I Do This Week?

This is what I got to donate this week  – I think I did pretty well:

4 boxes of Truvia 40 count (I actually picked up 5 boxes but I am keeping one)

2 boxes of Heinz Ketchup Dip & Squeeze 10 packs

10 cans of RoTel sauce

5 tubes of Poligrip

The Poligrip was really the coup this week.  They are on sale at Kroger for $1.99 a tube.  The coupon was for 1 free.  I assumed that meant I would get the $1.99 credit BUT the coupon scanned in  for $2.60/tube which ended up giving me a credit of $.61/tube. I actually made $3.05.  The best part about that was that I wasn’t trying to get a credit.  I was just grabbing the Poligrip to donate.  Go Me!

Of course I did have to pay tax for the above.  The government always gets their money.  I don’t know exactly how much I spent in taxes but I am sure it was less than $1.  And if you figure in my accidental profit from the Poligrip….well lets just say my good deed paid off this week….

Were you able to find some good freebies to donate this week?

Couponing for Dummies

I have watched Extreme Couponing and there is no way I have the time, energy or patience to coupon the way those people do.  While I am more than impressed with anyone who can get $1200 worth of groceries for $.50 cents, I do question their sanity.  Those folks spend 12 hours in the grocery store to do that and they need another 20-30 hours to prepare for that shopping trip.   I have a job, kids, a house to clean and a husband who expects at least a little attention.  There is just no way I have that kind of time.  Plus I don’t know a newspaper delivery person who will deliver 250 Sunday papers to me each week-end for free.

So, I have to settle for a kinder and simpler approach.  Here’s what I do (and just so you know I manage to save at least 50% on each shopping trip).  I buy 5 Sunday papers each week (my couponing hero Elizabeth buys 6 – the number is really up to you).  I organize the coupons from each paper by date in an accordion file.  Then I go to SouthernSavers.com and Couponmom.com and I see what these ladies have listed as the great deals for the week.  Why should I recreate the wheel?  These websites will set forth all the deals and will make special note of the freebies and super good deals.  The entire process of organizing and looking through the papers to collect my coupons probably takes me 1-2 hours per week.

I live in GA so I head to Kroger on Mondays because their sales start on Sundays and Publix on Thursdays because that is when their new sales start and Thursday is the penny item day at Publix…at least here in GA…and I LOVE penny item day.  The websites I linked to above also show the great deals and many other stores including CVS and Walgreens.  I avoid CVS and Walgreens like the plague because they do all of those rebate dollar things and it just confuses me.  I am not the sharpest tool in the shed.  I manage to save about 50% weekly at Kroger and Publix.

Now that I am couponing for charity, I just add the freebies or super good deals to my list each week, even if they are not things my family uses.  Then I put them in a bag until it gets full.  Once the bag is full it goes to the food bank….See it’s easy peasy.

What do you think?  Wanna be a Coupon Scout and Coupon for Charity too?

Peace Out Coupon Scout?

I just began to seriously  coupon about 6 months ago.  Often I see things I can get for free or close to free with my handy dandy coupons…but sometimes they are not things that I want or need…things like baby food (so glad I am done with those days) or poligrip (so glad I don’t need that yet).  Sometimes, there are things for free that I already have so much my husband will call Hoarders for an intervention if I bring any more home- Always Pads and toothpaste for example-they can be found for free almost Always. (sorry, couldn’t help it)

My good friend, Klare, a fellow couponer had a brilliant idea…why not get those things for free, since they are well….free…and donate them to our local food pantry.  I love this idea.  It allows me to humor my inner bargain hunter and help others all at the same time. Just doesn’t get much better than that.

I am going to share what I find for free or almost free on this site and hope I motivate some other folks to Coupon for Good too!!  Who knows? Maybe if we all toss a few extra freebies in our shopping carts each week, we can make the world a little better.  We can sure have some fun trying!

Please share any freebies or great deals you find too!  Sharing is what this is all about.

Until next time…Peace Out Coupon Scout!

Kate