I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today, but my inbox gave me the answer. First, I need to explain some background. This website, and most websites, contain “affiliate links” of various kinds. I make (a currently small amount of) money with my websites: This one, W0IS.com, and richardclem.com. These affiliate links are links to other websites, such as amazon.com and WalMart.

If I need a picture of the Pillsbury Doughboy, I simply go to Amazon, find one that I like, and Amazon takes care of hosting and providing the image. And if anyone clicks on the picture and buys something from that site within a certain time period (usually 24 hours, in the case of Amazon), my company gets a commission on the sale. The commission is generally 4-6%. This is all explained in legal mumbo-jumbo in my site’s privacy policy.

I use these links in a number of ways. First of all, if I need a picture of something, Amazon is an extremely convenient place to find it. They sell almost anything imaginable, and they have at least one picture of everything they sell. The pictures are hosted on their site, so I don’t need to worry about copyright clearances, uploading, or anything else. And occasionally, people will click on the pictures, perhaps out of idle curiosity. A certain percentage of those people will buy something from Amazon, and we get the commission.

Occasionally, I’ll talk about, or even recommend, a certain product. For example, I have a page about RV power adapters. People come to that page trying to figure out how to plug their camper in at home, I show them what adapter they need to buy, and I even tell them that they can get it at their local hardware store. But I also provide a picture and links, courtesy of Amazon,  WalMart, and other online retailers. Even though I tell my visitors that they can buy the needed part at a local store, many of them go ahead and buy it online from one of these links.

Links of this type are used on many websites, and also in e-mail marketing. For example, I’m on the opt-in mailing list of MyPoints.com. Every day, I get a few pieces of spam e-mail from them. I open these spams, because they contain a link, and when I click on the link, I get 5 “points”. I never even bother reading the page that opens. I’m just concerned about getting my 5 points, because I can eventually redeem those points for cash. Every few years, I get $50 in my PayPal account as a result of all of this spam. Obviously, that money has to come from somewhere, and I assume it comes from those advertisers paying MyPoints for my click. In my case, they don’t get anything for their money, since I generally don’t even read their ad.

I’ve noticed a few charities advertising with MyPoints. Often, these are charities to which I am actively opposed, so I’m actually glad that I’m able to take a couple of cents out of their pocket. But it seems to me that paying people to click on a webpage is not a good use of charitable dollars. I realize that even legitimate charities have fundraising expenses, but the use of affiliate links just rubs me the wrong way. I have absolutely no qualms about telling people about a product that will suit their needs, and then getting paid for providing that service. And I have no qualms about using pictures from Amazon, knowing that they’ll make sales as a result, and that I’ll even get paid for referring those sales to them. But I can’t bring myself to say something good about a charitable organization, encouraging people to give their hard-earned money to that organization, and then getting some of that money myself. Yes, I suppose there’s a case to be made that this is a legitimate fundraising expense. But I wouldn’t feel right taking it. If I encourage you to buy stuff from Amazon, and if you do so, it will put money in my pocket, and I’ll feel good about it. But I wouldn’t feel good about it if I took some of your charitable dollars, so I don’t do that.

Later in this challenge, I’ll give you some ideas of organizations that can help people struggling with hunger. But rest assured that I won’t be providing any affiliate links.

I initially heard about the SNAP Challenge from media reports, such as those detailing the infamous $1.08 hard boiled egg. Upon doing some research, I found that one of the originators of the challenge is Feeding America, and I signed up for the challenge on that organization’s website. I did a bit of research, and it does seem to be a well-run charity. It’s a network of food banks, including one local one to which I have donated. It appears to be a very efficiently run charity, and the relevant statistics can be viewed at Charity Navigator. In particular, its fundraising expenses are listed as 1.5%, with administrative expenses of 0.4%, both extremely low.

I was very surprised this morning to get the following e-mail from MyPoints:

By clicking on the link, I would receive 5 points. And if I went on to make a donation through the link, I would receive the following:

Once you get to Feeding America, make a one-time/initial donation of $15 or more and earn 1,000 Points.

Sign up to make recurring monthly donations of $15 or more and receive up to 4,000 Points.

Those points would eventually result in cash back in my pocket, and that money needs to come from somewhere. I assume that the charity needs to pay for the advertising, which means that the money coming back to me would come from the charity. Again, I realize that charities have legitimate fundraising expenses. And, in fact, Feeding America’s expenses are extremely low. It’s also possible that these points are a donation from someone else, such as MyPoints itself. I doubt it, but it’s possible. It seems most likely that the points are paid for by Feeding America.

Again, there’s a strong argument to be made that this is a legitimate fundraising expense. But it just rubs me the wrong way. I should note that even though I normally click on these links, I won’t be doing so in this case. As far as I can tell, Feeding America does use the vast majority of its resources for its charitable purposes, and I’m not going to take a couple of cents from them. But normally, I would have. I would have taken a couple of cents from hungry Americans without even thinking about it. In the process, I wouldn’t have paid too much attention to the ad. But I would have seen the name on the screen for a split second, and my mind probably would have filed it away as one of those charities that does affiliate marketing. I don’t think that’s a good use of charitable dollars. In my case, sending the ad to me would have done more harm than good.

WHAT I ATE TODAY

Now that my daily political rant is out of the way, we’ll get to the details of how well I’m eating.  After posting last night, I decided to bake some cookies.  Once again, I turned to Joy of Cooking for ideas.  The simplest recipe I could find called for vegetable oil, but I decided I could substitute melted margarine.  It also called for vanilla and cinnamon or nutmeg, which I simply omitted.  Finally, of course, I substituted my trusty self rising flour for the flour, salt, and baking powder.  I divided the recipe in half and came up with the following recipe, which netted about 20 cookies:

SELF-RISING ONE TUBE RADIO MARGARINE SNAPS

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 5 TBSP melted margarine (about 15 seconds in microwave).  Beat in one medium egg.  Pour over 1-1/4 cups self rising flour and mix until consistent.  Shape into balls and roll in sugar.  Bake on lightly greased (with margarine) cookie sheet at 375F for 12 minutes.

I snacked on a few of the cookies last night and during the day today.  The downfall of most of the challenge takers seems to be the failure to account for the fact that most Americans are accustomed to snacking during the day.  Having something on which to snack really does make the process relatively painless.  The cookies can be seen in my lunch and supper pictures below.

Breakfast consisted of the last of the pancakes and two sausages, along with syrup and coffee.

Lunch was pretty good, if I do say so myself:

BISCUITS AND ONE TUBE RADIO GRAVY

Chop 2 cooked sausage links.  Warm in skillet.  Add 1/4 can Progresso Creamy Parmesan Basil Recipe Starters Cooking Sauce and about 1/4 cup grated cheese.  Simmer over low heat until cheese is melted.  Add about 1 TBSP milk.  Serve over biscuits.

I served this with some of the vegetables, Kool-Aid, coffee, and cookies for desert.

MORE SHOPPING

I did need to get a few more items, so I went after lunch.  My first stop was Family Dollar.  Despite the name, this is not a “dollar store”.  In fact, almost universally, the prices were higher there than at either Rainbow or Dollar Tree.  But this is even closer to my house, so I decided to check it out.  I’m glad I did, because I scored myself 11.3 ounces of “Family Gourmet” coffee, which will be more than enough to get me through the rest of the week, for $2.25.  I wish I had shopped here first, since this amount, with some conservation, would have gotten me through the week, and I wouldn’t have had to buy the little 7 ounce bag of Dollar Tree coffee.  When I checked last night, I had four ounces left, so I would have had to buy more anyway.  I think I have enough of a cushion for the luxury, so I bought myself the $2.25 brick of coffee.  The first thing I did after getting home was making myself a luxurious pot.  Between the brick and my remaining four ounces, I can now afford to splurge.  I can drink as much coffee as I want, something that I’ve never heard another SNAP Challenge participant say.  I have no idea whether you can buy coffee with SNAP benefits.  As far as I’m concerned, you ought to be able to.  If it’s not currently allowed, then that’s a reform whose time is due.  How can we expect anyone to work if they don’t have coffee?

I also splurged by spending $1.00 on a 40 ounce bottle of Sunny Delight.  I can get by with the Kool-Aid, but I do want a beverage that’s a little bit more portable.  I did also get two more envelopes of Kool-Aid for 20 cents each.

This weekend, if the weather cooperates, we’re going to go camping in order to get the camper winterized.  We also have a couple of Cub Scout events.  Since those events include food that I’m not allowed to eat, I’ll need to bring something portable.  Therefore, I went back to the supermarket to get some sandwich materials.

I’ll probably run out of bread if I make a bunch of sandwiches, so I got more.  For a change of pace, I got 12 ounces of hamburger buns for 88 cents, even though a 16 ounce loaf of bread was the same price.  I also got a small package of ham lunch meat for 69 cents.  After putting those items in my cart, I found myself emboldened from having gotten free salt and pepper in my last visit to the store.  I headed over to the salad bar and nonchalantly tossed a little of package of mayonnaise and one package of mustard into my cart.  Once again, the friendly cashier put them in my bag without a second thought.  So I’m good in the sandwich department.

Finally, to round out my meat for the week, I purchased a package of hot dogs for $1.15.  I debated this purchase for a few minutes, since the exact same hot dogs are 15 cents less at Dollar Tree, which is right on the way home.  Perhaps I’m being overconfident at this point, but I decided I was willing to pay 15 cents for the convenience.

My total bill for the day (including 10 cents tax, apparently on the coffee) was $6.47.  My total expenditure so far is $26.01, meaning that I still have $5.49 to work with.  I’ll probably need more milk, and I might need more margarine or oil.  The worst case scenario is that I’ll need more flour.  Even if I need all of those, I’ll still have 50 cents in reserve.  So I think I’m in good shape, especially since I now know that my caffeine needs are taken care of.

While the rest of the family worked on the crock pot full of stew, I used the hot dogs to make “wiener winks”, a staple of the school lunches when I was growing up.  It consists of a hot dog and cheese wrapped in a slice of bread and toasted for a few minutes in the oven.

If you Google the phrase “for the cost of a cup of coffee“, you get about 1,390,000 results. And starting today, with the addition of the phrase to this page, you’ll get about 1,390,001 results. According to most of those results, you can save the world for the cost of a cup of coffee.

As you might have guessed from my seven cups of coffee yesterday, this phrase resonates with me. But it resonates in a bad way: Most of the people using this phrase are out of touch with middle class Americans. The price of coffee does seem to be a hot-button issue. According to Feeding America, what I’m  encouraged to blog about today is: “What have you cut out of your routine to stay on budget (e.g. COFFEE)?” My seven ounces of Vietnamese coffee from the dollar store isn’t half bad, but it’s not what I normally drink. I prefer the good stuff:

I normally get this coffee at WalMart for $2 a can.  (Actually, I usually buy the large can  for an even lower per ounce cost.) With the small can, I can probably make about a hundred cups of coffee. In other words, for me, “the cost of a cup of coffee” is about two cents. (I’m actually spending more this week, because the $2 coffee isn’t available within walking distance.)  While there are probably worthwhile things I can do with two cents, I probably can’t do what the other 1.39 million web pages think I can do, namely, save the world. This is why this particular phrase resonates poorly with me: It tells me that the person spouting the phrase is out of touch with middle America. Those 1.39 million web pages probably assume that I buy my coffee at Starbucks. I don’t know exactly how much a cup of coffee costs at Starbucks, but it’s considerably more than two cents. And at those higher prices, you probably can save the world. At the very least, you can save more of the world than I can for my two cents.

I strongly suspect that most of the 1.39 million people using the phrase probably wouldn’t even dream that the actual “cost of a cup of coffee” for most middle-class Americans is two cents. (Or perhaps it’s closer to five cents, since most middle-class Americans are probably not quite as cheap thrifty as I am.) Those of us on the right wing of the political spectrum take this attitude as very condescending. We normally forego the expensive Starbucks coffee, and instead opt for a good nickel cup of coffee. We strongly suspect that most of the 1.39 million do not make the same choice as we do. Perhaps we’re wrong, but when you tell us what we can do “for the cost of a cup of coffee”, we believe that you are drinking your $5 Starbucks coffee, feeling a bit guilty about it, but scolding us for drinking our own five cent cup of coffee. Well, if you want to score any political points with us, that attitude won’t serve you very well. Please don’t tell us how we can save the world with our five cents. We’re not going to listen to you.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, during the course of this week, I plan to offend just about everyone, and I believe I have done so with respect to my friends on the left. Don’t worry–I’m sure I will also offend my friends on the right. For those of you on the left, allow me to ease my conscience a bit and confess that the SNAP Challenge is, indeed, somewhat challenging. I seem to be doing better than most who took it. I have been careful not to buy Honeycomb cereal, popsicles, and $1.08 hard boiled eggs. If I make mistakes like those too often, I’ll go hungry. And as I look at my bag of self-rising flour, I realize that it’s possible I’ll run out. I might lament the fact that I didn’t spend 7 cents more to get a bag of regular flour and a can of baking powder. If I run out now, I’m stuck buying another bag for $2.99. If I had spent the extra 7 cents in the first place, I would now have the option of buying a bag of regular flour for only $1.77. Yes, there are decisions to make, and there are consequences for making bad decisions.

Low-income Americans and middle class Americans make these decisions every day. Many of my friends on the right find the SNAP Challenge to be condescending because the implicit assumption is that these kinds of decisions are faced only by those receiving government assistance. And, especially after we conclude that you are among the 1.39 million who spend $5 a cup for coffee, we also suspect that you rarely make these decisions yourself. You make it seem that budgeting for food is something new, and something faced only by those receiving government assistance.

If there’s a point to why I’m taking this challenge, it is to point out that budgeting is not something new, nor is it a necessity faced only by the poorest of the poor. It’s something that most Americans, whether or not they receive government assistance, do on a daily basis.  We don’t have any choice in the matter, since we can’t simply vote to increase our debt ceiling.  The only thing that I’m doing differently this week is documenting the process and making the process slightly more difficult than it would normally be.

Most Americans face similar challenges on a daily basis. And it’s not just food. Many middle class Americans are one paycheck away from disaster. A million things can go wrong. People get laid off from jobs, usually through no fault of their own. And if they have a job and the transmission goes out on the car they use to get there, then they’re faced with a huge expense and no money to pay for it. If they own a home and the furnace stops working, then they’re faced with another huge expense and no money to pay for it. Please don’t tell these people that they can save the world for the cost of a cup of coffee, because they can’t save the world for five cents.

As part of this challenge, I’ve discovered that food can be expensive. Actually, I already knew that. So when the taxpayers are asked for a few million dollars to help people in need, there is certainly a very strong argument to be made. My friends on the right will be quick to point out cases of fraud and abuse with the SNAP program and other forms of government assistance. I’m sure that many of those cases are true, but I also believe that most people receiving government assistance are receiving it only because of need, and most of those people are making the same kinds of wise decisions that I’m trying to make this week. In fact, I suspect that most of them are probably much better at it than I am. They’re probably laughing at how much I’m going to hate my self-rising flour by the end of the week.

So I am not opposed to spending a few million dollars of my tax money on the SNAP program, because, as you will correctly point out, there are people who need the assistance, and food is expensive. And this argument gets even more compelling when it’s pointed out that the money spent on programs like SNAP pales in comparison to the trillions of dollars that have been spent on corporate bailouts. Surely, if we can give Citibank trillions of dollars, then we can give needy families a few hundred dollars to buy food.

If you are saying that, then you are absolutely right. But that doesn’t solve the problem. You correctly point out that food is expensive, and we gave trillions of dollars to banks and corporations. But you need to take that realization one step further: Food is expensive because we gave trillions of dollars to banks, insurance companies, and others who didn’t deserve it. This money had to come from somewhere, and it came from a printing press (or the digital equivalent thereof). This has caused inflation in the price of basic commodities such as food.  Of course, the government statistics tell us that there is no inflation. But a trip to the supermarket tells us that those statistics are wrong.  In other words, the government is lying to us when it says that there is no inflation.

The problem is compounded by the fact that this new money never made it into general circulation. It’s sitting on the sidelines, doing nothing.  It’s not even earning interest, because the government can’t afford to pay interest on the national debt, and has conveniently set interest rates at zero percent.  None of this money is actually finding its way into the hands of consumers. Prices have gone up, and this is obvious to anyone who has visited a supermarket. The prices have gone up because those who have commodities for sale know that there are trillions of new dollars ready to be released into the economy at any second. But the holders of those trillions of dollars have not released them into the economy in the form of higher wages.  Of course, they don’t have to pay higher wages, because for those of us without a trillion dollars, there’s a Depression in progress.

At this point, it would be convenient to blame a faceless group such as “The Wall Street Bankers”. But I don’t know if it’s fair to blame them. They’re doing exactly what I would do if the government gave me a trillion dollars–I would hold on to it.  I wouldn’t spend it all at once. But if I go into the store to buy my bag of self-rising flour, and the seller knows that I have a trillion dollars in my pocket, then I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the price has gone up.

So yes, we probably have to spend a few million dollars to help low-income Americans deal this mess that we’ve created. But it is even more important that we clean up the mess. No, we probably shouldn’t cut SNAP benefits.  But it is critically important that we do cut the trillion-dollar bailouts. Unfortunately, once we’ve handed out newly printed dollars to corporations that are too big to fail, it’s probably impossible to get them back. But we have to stop doing it.  If a business is at risk of failing, then we need to realize that even though there might be short-term hardship, the failure of a business means that those assets could be better used by someone else. The bankruptcy courts have expertise in re-allocating those assets, and they should be allowed to do their job. But they’re not able to do their job if we print trillions of dollars and hand them out to failing businesses. Doing so will ease a little bit of short-term pain, but it will take a business that is already too big to fail and make it even bigger.

Now that I’ve offended my friends on the left, I’ll tell you that you are absolutely right when you say that we shouldn’t begrudge the poor a few million when we’ve already bailed out corporations with a few trillion. But your conclusion is wrong. The answer to the problem, at least in the long term, isn’t to give the poor a few more million. In the long term, the only solution to the problem is to stop giving trillions to the rich. Most of my left-wing friends probably agree with that philosophy. But unfortunately, you have failed miserably in implementing this policy. When the next failing company comes to you asking for trillions of dollars, you need to go with your knee-jerk reaction and tell them no. And you need to say no even though other left-wing politicians have rationalized why you need to do it just this one time.

What I Ate Today

Well, now that the political rant is over, you can read about what you came for, namely, what I ate. Last night, I made some muffins following the basic recipe in Joy of Cooking. That recipe called for flour, salt, and baking powder. Of course, I substituted the now familiar self-rising flour for all three. Also, where the recipe called for butter, I used margarine. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.I ate a few of those muffins last night. I don’t normally eat a large breakfast, and this morning, I had some more of them for breakfast. I was a bit better prepared this morning, and was able to make my first cup of coffee early. I poured it into the travel mug and had the first of my many cups as I drove the kids to school.

For lunch, I decided to do something with the hamburger. I browned a third of it, and put the remaining ground beef in two packages which I froze for future use.

CREAMY BASIL HAMBURGER ONE TUBE RADIO SURPRISE

Prepare 6 oz. (1/2 box) pasta according to package directions. In skillet, brown 1/3 lb. ground beef. When brown, reduce heat and add 1/2 can Progresso Creamy Parmesan Basil Recipe Starters Cooking Sauce (or other condensed cream soup). Add one slice cheese, broken up. Simmer until cheese is melted. Drain pasta and combine.

I ate about half of this for lunch and put the leftovers in the refrigerator. It was a little on the bland side, so I’m glad I thought to take the salt and pepper from the store. I used about half a little packet of each.As you can see, I served this with some of the canned vegetables, some biscuits, Kool-Aid, and, of course, coffee.

For an afternoon snack, I warmed up two of my frozen pancakes in the toaster and had them with peanut butter.

Panera CEO Ron Schaich‘s  downfall, in addition to neglecting the importance of his coffee, was to rely on a single box of Toasted Oats cereal for his snack needs for an entire week. The box of cereal probably provides only about a thousand calories and set him back $2.59.

On the other hand, my bag of flour contains a whopping 7300 calories, and the bag of sugar contains 6610, for a total of 13,910. In other words, assuming 2000 calories per day, the flour and sugar alone will take care of my caloric needs for the entire week. It’s just a matter of turning them into food.  Making a diet balanced and palatable requires additional ingredients.  But my basic caloric needs for the week are taken care of for $4.76 (or, as some might say, for about the cost of a cup of coffee).

As the rest of the family has beef stew from the crock pot for supper, I made myself

a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and warmed up the rest of the ramen noodles from yesterday.  The Kool-Aid was starting to get low, so I added about a pint of water and some more sugar before pouring myself a glass.  I really couldn’t tell the difference.

My SNAP Challenge actually began last night.  I was thinking of a before bedtime snack, and realized that it was already after midnight, and the challenge had begun.  I did note the absence of any easy convenience foods, and instead made myself a peanut butter sandwich.  Still finding myself hungry, I got out a couple of the biscuits and ate them.

The morning, after getting the kids to school, the first order of business was coffee. The package of Dollar Tree coffee proclaims that it will produce 50 cups. In reality, I think it will last me about 3 days. I do need to conserve the stuff. I decided that the best way to make it would be in a French Press. I started the day making a cup with two heaping teaspoons of the coffee. As the day went on, I used the old grounds, and added a little bit. The seventh cup wasn’t particularly good, but I suspect there are a few caffeine molecules floating around in it. As you can see from the reviews at Dollar Tree, this coffee isn’t particularly bad. Some reviewers, however, compare it to burnt cardboard, so I suspect the quality might vary by batch. Panera CEO Ron Shaich found that he couldn’t afford coffee, which I’m certain made it a horrible experience for him, one which I didn’t plan to repeat. The dollar store coffee will be adequate to get me through the week. According to the package, it’s from Vietnam. It’s not particularly tasty, but it seems to contain enough caffeine. The French Press seemed to conserve the precious substance fairly well. More ideas on coffee preparation are available at my how to make coffee without electricity page. The press I have is similar to the one shown below. You can also see it in my breakfast picture below.

With that necessity out of the way, it was off to breakfast, which consisted of two sausages and some of the pancakes. The syrup is in the red squeeze bottle. Other than the color being wrong (clear instead of brown), it did the job. I did notice that it had crystallized overnight, so I did need to warm it up in a pan of hot water.

I had a few errands to run and wasn’t sure I would be back before lunch.  Therefore, in addition to a cup of coffee, I brought a couple of the biscuits, which I thawed in the microwave before leaving.

My late lunch consisted of more biscuits,  and ramen noodles (half the package) with some of the canned vegetables added.  I also made a pitcher of the Kool-Aid.

For supper, I made pizza for my family, and I made myself some as well.  There’s was better than mine, I’ll admit.  Theirs consisted of pizza crusts from Dollar Tree (two for a dollar), a little oil, shredded cheese from the supermarket, pepperoni (one package for a dollar at Dollar Tree) and a half can of spaghetti sauce.

I had different ingredients to work with.  For the crust, I used flour tortillas, which actually work very well.  I didn’t have any oil, so I lightly greased the tortillas with margarine.  Instead of the spaghetti sauce, I used the 29 cent can of tomato sauce, with one of the little packages of pepper added for a little seasoning.  The topping was a breakfast sausage, one for each of the two pizzas I made.

The “cheese” I used was somewhat interesting.  I’ve bought it before, and realized that it wasn’t particularly good.  But a dollar for 8 ounces of shredded “cheese” is a good price, and I made do.  Upon closer inspection of the package, I realize that the word “cheese” appears nowhere, including in the list of ingredients.  There’s also a disclaimer on the package that the product is not formulated to melt.  But it did melt somewhat, and formed a passable pizza:

I

I made two of these pizzas, and I was actually full after eating the first one and one slice of the second one.  I have three slices in the refrigerator for a snack in the future.  The total cost for two pizzas was about $1.44:  Almost a dollar for the cheese and tomato sauce, ten cents each for the tortillas, and about 12 cents for each of the sausages.

I’ve used almost a full stick of margarine.  And since I made the first batch of biscuits with the grease from the sausages, I would have used more.  So I’ll almost certainly run out.  I’ll need to give some thought to whether I want to buy a bottle of cooking oil, or simply get more margarine.  I think the margarine is the better bang for the buck, but I’m not positive.

I did note the absence of any desert items, so I’ll try to figure out whether I can make some cookies or muffins.

After the first day, I see little difference from my normal routine.  I spent about the same amount of time as usual preparing meals (after having spent an extra hour or so last night making the sausages, biscuits, and pancakes).  The main time difference seems to come from making each cup of coffee individually.  Joe DiMaggio’s method of making coffee is much more convenient, but I don’t think I can get as many cups out of each ounce of coffee that way.  Since lack of coffee seems to be the factor that has doomed more takers of the challenge than any other, it is one area where I need to be extremely careful.

 

I decided that there’s no time like the present, so I decided to start my shopping today, do some cooking tonight, and start the 7-day SNAP challenge tomorrow.  I do have two events this weekend where food will be provided, so I guess I’ll need to forego that food and bring my own.

I drove to the store, so I guess I can be accused of cheating from the very start.  I could have walked to both stores, but I didn’t.  I did get quite a bit today, and it would have required two trips (one for each store).  But all of the items I purchased at either store would have fit easily into a backpack.

My first stop was the supermarket, Rainbow Foods.  I decided that would be the best starting point, since I have a good idea of what’s available at the Dollar Store.  Therefore, for those items, I know not to pay more than a dollar.  Here’s what I bought at Rainbow, and the actual prices.  (Minnesota doesn’t charge sales tax on most food items, and all of the basic foods I bought are not taxable):

1. 16 ounces pasta  $0.79
2. 4 pounds white sugar  $1.77
3. Mixed vegetables, 16 ounce can  $0.65
4. One loaf bread  $0.89
5. Tomato sauce, 8 ounce can  $0.29
6. Ramen noodles, one package  $0.22
7. Two packages of Kool-Aid   $0.40
8. 5 pounds Self-rising flour   $2.99
9. 1 pound ground beef  $2.29
10. 1 pound margarine  $0.77

Total:  $11.04

I did have a few decisions to make, since I need to watch every penny.  The store brand flour was on sale for $1.77.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have self-rising store brand flour.  But baking powder (enough to last for months) was on sale for $1.29.  I toyed with the idea of buying both, since the extra 7 cents would give me more versatility in the long run.  But since I’m on such a tight budget this week, I decided to go with the original plan, which saved me 7 cents, and kept me one cent under budget on the flour.  I was quite lucky to find both the sugar and flour on sale, however,  It turns out that I could have done better, though.  At the dollar store, I found two pounds of sugar for one dollar.  Since that will probably be enough for the week, I could have saved 77 of my precious cents.

The original plan was to buy ketchup for use in things such as pasta.  But the cheapest bottle was over a dollar.  So instead, I bought a small can of tomato sauce, although I’ll probably need more later in the week.

When I saw the sign that ground beef was on sale for just over $2 per pound, I was initially quite excited, until I saw the fine print that this applied to packages of 3 pounds or more.  But then I noticed that some of the smaller packages were also marked with the lower price.  Tonight, I’ll divide the ground beef up into 3 or 4 packages and freeze some of them.

On the way to the supermarket, I did check the sign at Walgreens to see if they were advertising milk or eggs on sale.  Sadly, they were not.  Milk at Rainbow was $2.99 per gallon, which exceeded my budget.  Eggs, even though on sale ($1.99 for 18) were out of my budget.

I also priced some items for possible purchase later in the week:

• Macaroni & cheese:  47 cents
• Cans of fruit, $1
• Canned chili $1.15
• Refried beans, 79 cents
• Tuna, 99 cents
• Vegetable oil, 1 pint, $1.89

As I was getting ready to check out, I had a flash of genius.  As I mentioned in another post, I don’t want to purchase things like salt and pepper.  Even though they are inexpensive, they are sold in quantities much larger than would be used in a week.  As I looked at the tomato sauce in my cart, I realized that some sort of spice would be good to have.  So I went over to the salad bar, and sure enough, there were little packages of salt and pepper just lying there.  I tossed three of each into my cart, wondering whether there would be any charge.  It turns out there wasn’t.

I then went to Dollar Tree to continue my shopping.  There, I purchased:

1. One quart, Parmalat whole milk
2. 4.5 ounces of Jif peanut butter
3. Breakfast sausage
4. 7 ounces coffee
5. 8 ounces shredded cheese
6. 9.6 ounces cheese slices
7. Flour tortillas (I think about 8)
8. Medium Eggs, package of 8
9. Progresso cooking sauce

The total bill at Dollar Tree was $8.50.  The last item on the list was an impulse item, and was only 50 cents.  I was considering buying some sort of gravy, and was lucky enough to find these cans on sale.  I was also lucky to find the Parmalat milk in the store today, which means I was able to get a full quart for a dollar, rather than one of the 20 ounce cartons in the refrigerated section.

I couldn’t find the popsicles, but both root beer and Honeycomb cereal were available.  Neither one seemed like a good use of my limited resources, although if I have money left over at the end of the week, I might treat myself to a bottle of root beer.  The Honeycomb cereal came in small boxes containing only “3.5” servings, for a total of 455 calories per box.  It didn’t seem like a wise use of resources, since I got thousands of calories for the same money by purchasing the sugar.

I did note that Dollar Tree had both rice and oatmeal.  At Rainbow, the least expensive package of either one was more than a dollar, so if I decide to buy these items, it will be at Dollar Tree.

The peanut butter was a bit of a disappointment.  I expected to find a jar of 8 ounces or so.  But all I could find was a 4.5 ounce package.  I decided to buy it, even though I could have bought 18 ounces at Rainbow for only $1.99.  In other words, I would get four times as much for only twice the price.  But I had budgeted only $1 for peanut butter.  Three peanut butter sandwiches might be appealing in a few days, so I decided to buy the small package, even though I was getting less than I expected.

My total expenditures today were $19.54.  I still have $11.96 to work with and still stay under my budget of $31.50.  There are still things that I need to buy, and I’ll probably be close to the limit before my week is over.

Tonight, I’ll start turning some of those ingredients into actual food, in a process known as cooking.  To get by on this budget, it is necessary to actually cook the food oneself.  Some convenience items are available at a low price, but there’s no way that I can match the value of a bag of flour or a bag of sugar.  And that means that I need to turn them into food myself.

I should point out that I’m not a chef.  I’m a lawyer, and I graduated from high school at a time when boys did not take home ec.  For a brief golden age thereafter, both boys and girls were required to take it.  Then, at some point, it was decided in most school districts that nobody should have to take it.  In other words, there was a time when girls learned how to cook and boys didn’t.  Someone noted the inequality and decided that boys ought to know how to cook.  But then, someone else decided that equality was best maintained by making sure that nobody knew how to cook.

Fortunately, cooking isn’t rocket science, and it is possible to learn the skill.  And fortunately, I got a few rudimentary skills along the way, from Scouting and elsewhere.  But even those with no skills can read about how its done with a cookbook.  There are probably other good cookbooks available, but the one I’m familiar with is the Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer. It contains thousands of recipes, but more importantly, it explains the basics. If you don’t know how to boil water, there’s a section covering it. A book like this one is indispensable if you need to prepare food on a budget. The copy I have is the 1985 edition.  There are more recent editions, but this older one is more than adequate. The book has been in print since the 1930’s, and I’m sure that even older editions are quite useful. Used copies are available on Amazon for around five dollars, including shipping. Copies are probably available at thrift stores for even less.

Within the next week or so, I plan on taking the SNAP Challenge. The challenge is to experience what millions of low-income Americans do, by having to feed themselves on $4.50 a day, which is the average amount provided by the SNAP program, formerly known as Food Stamps. Numerous politicians and others have done this recently. And frankly, many of them come off as condescending, if not out of touch with reality. For example, Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida famously spent $1.08 for a single hard boiled egg and then bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have enough money. On the other end of the political spectrum, an aide to Texas Congressman Steve Stockman attempted to debunk the SNAP Challenge by going to a local store and buying a strange assortment of products, including Honeycomb cereal, root beer, and popsicles. There was no indication, however, that anyone actually tried to subsist for a week on this unusual diet. In short, there seems to be quite a bit of condescension on both sides of the aisle, as politicians and others attempt to make a political point by taking this challenge.

One recent example of someone taking the SNAP Challenge was Panera CEO Ron Shaich. I would say that he approached the challenge in good faith, but made some rather unwise buying choices. This New Hampshire blogger seems to have done a much better job of rising to the challenge. Under the rules of the challenge, I’m allowed $31.50 to purchase food for one week. During the week of the challenge, I’m allowed to eat only that food. (In some versions I’ve seen, the participant is allowed to use things such as spices that are on hand, but I don’t think I’ll take advantage of that option.) I’ll be doing this challenge by myself, rather than with my family, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it would take a bit more planning to make sure that the food we eat at different locations (school lunches, lunches at work, etc.) is all accounted for. With one person, the logistics necessary to make sure that I’m not “cheating” are simpler.

But more importantly, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge if four people were involved. With four people, we would be allowed $126 for a week’s worth of groceries. As conservative critics have pointed out, this is more than we normally spend on groceries most weeks. In other words, feeding a family of four with the “challenge” amount wouldn’t be a challenge at all, since it’s what we normally do. In the future, I might repeat the process and document how a family of four can feed itself for $126. But in the meantime, I think that would be the height of condescension.

On the other hand, without some economies of scale, it does seem to be a fair challenge to feed one person for $31.50 a week. In some ways, it’s not a fair challenge. For example, I already have most of the items I’ll be buying in the house. Therefore, I could actually feed myself at no additional cost. And since I bought most of those items in larger quantities, the cost was in many cases less than what I’ll be spending now. On the other hand, there are certainly people in a situation where they don’t have a single scrap of food in the house, and they need to get by on only what they are able to buy with very limited funds. Therefore, I will do my best to duplicate that experience.

Also, it is quite true that many people have a very limited choice of where they can shop. As I plan my menu, I realize that I can get a better price by driving to a store across town, waiting for a sale, or even ordering online. But for many people, that’s not an option. If you don’t have a car, then you need to shop at stores within walking distance, or on the bus line. Therefore, I’ll shop only at stores within walking distance of my house. If my schedule permits, I’ll do some of the shopping by walking to the store. But even if my schedule requires that I drive, I’ll shop only at stores where I could have walked, and buy only quantities that I could have carried home by walking or by taking the bus.

In my case, I’m fortunate enough to have one full-service supermarket within walking distance. Rainbow Foods is less than a mile away. On average, other local supermarkets are a little less expensive, but the prices are generally reasonable. Dollar Tree is somewhat closer. As the name implies, everything there is a dollar or less. It has a fairly good selection of groceries. Many, but certainly not all, of the prices there are lower than the supermarket. Dollar Tree has an interesting assortment. It often has products for which a dollar is an extremely good price. These tend to change on a daily basis. Other products are there on a regular basis, and would usually cost about the same price at another store. Some of these are packaged in unusual sizes to keep the price point at a dollar. For example, milk is sold in 20 ounce cartons, and eggs are sold in packages of 8 rather than the customary 12, all in an attempt to keep the price point at exactly a dollar. Walgreens is also within convenient walking distance and has a modest assortment of groceries. Many of these items are on sale any given week, often at very good prices. There are a few other stores within walking distance, but I think I can do all of my shopping at these three.

There are some restaurants within walking distance, and I would be well within my rights to spend my $31.50 at any of them. But I doubt that will be a wise use of limited funds, and probably won’t take advantage of them.

You’re probably wondering what political point I intend to make as a part of doing this challenge. I’ll let that come out naturally. You’re probably best off it you wait to criticize me until I actually make that political point, since it will probably disappoint you, whether you happen to be on the left or on the right. And more importantly, I don’t know exactly what that point is going to be. There have been those on both sides who have been quick to criticize, and I’m sure I will have some criticism to offer. But it’s really not fair for me to offer that criticism until I actually do it myself. After all, I might conclude that buying a hard boiled egg for $1.08 was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Or I might conclude that buying Honey Comb cereal and root beer was actually the best way to approach the challenge. I won’t know until I try it myself.

It’s clear that some advance planning is necessary. I don’t have a rigid shopping list, because prices might change, and there might be some errors in my planning. But here’s the rough draft of my shopping list, and the approximate amounts I have budgeted for each item. If one item goes over budget, I will, of course, have to eliminate that item, or make a reduction elsewhere.

SNAP Challenge Shopping List

Here’s my tentative shopping list, with estimated prices:

• STAPLES
  • Flour $3.00
  • Oatmeal $1.00
  • Sugar $2.00
  • Eggs $1.00
  • Ketchup $1.00
  • Rice $1.00
  • Margarine $1.00

  $31.50 is a tight budget for food, and to produce filling and somewhat nutritious meals, I will need to do most of the cooking myself. The ingredients shown above should be sufficient to provide the majority of my calories for the week. The budget constraints also prevent a great deal of variety. For example, when shopping for the sugar, I would prefer to get three different items: White sugar, brown sugar, and pancake syrup. However, to keep within my budget and buy all three, I would need to buy fairly small portions, which probably wouldn’t give me enough to last the week. $2, on the other hand, should buy me a five pound bag of white sugar, which will probably last me more than a week.

  Similarly, I would prefer to get a bottle of vegetable oil in addition to the margarine. However, there’s no way that I can buy both for a dollar, so I’ll need to settle for one. Of course, I assume that butter is out of my budget. It’s possible that I’ll need more oil. If the margarine starts going faster than expected, I’ll buy a bottle of oil later in the week. But to start, the margarine should take care of most of my oil needs. The sausages I plan to buy will also offer the bonus of free oil.

  The flour presents a problem, since it really can’t be used without additional ingredients. In particular, it requires some sort of leavening agent, such as baking powder, baking soda, or yeast. Ideally, I’d like to buy all three. However, buying any of them would put me over my budget this week, even though what I buy would last me much longer than a week. For example, a can of baking powder (which would probably last me weeks or months) is about $1.50. I plan to solve this particular problem by buying so-called Self Rising Flour. It doesn’t cost much more than regular flour, but it comes pre-mixed with the baking powder, and some salt. (Salt is also out of my budget, since I don’t want to risk spending 50 extra cents for a pound of salt, even though it would last me months.) The self-rising flour should allow me to make pancakes and biscuits, which should take care of most of my bread needs.

  I don’t have any specific plans for the oatmeal and rice, but they’re also a low-cost source of carbohydrates, and I’ll undoubtedly make use of them.

  I didn’t originally plan on buying the ketchup. Instead, I was planning to buy some spaghetti sauce. However, when I looked at the labels of the two products, I realized that a dollar’s worth of ketchup provides about 800 calories, whereas a dollar’s worth of spaghetti sauce is only 300 calories. The ketchup seems to be the clear winner in value for the money, and it’s probably almost as versatile.

  For my $1, I’ll get either 8 or 12 eggs. Walgreens frequently has a dozen large eggs on sale for 99 cents. If I’m lucky, they will be available this week. If not, Dollar Tree always has 8 medium eggs for $1, and I’ll get those
  instead.

• DAIRY
  • Milk $2.00
  • Cheese $2.00

  I’ve budgeted $2 for milk, although I’m not certain how much I’ll be able to get for that price. Walgreen’s frequently has milk on sale for $1.99 a gallon.  Therefore, if I’m lucky, I’ll have a full gallon to work with. The worst case scenario is that I’ll need to buy milk at Dollar Tree. They normally have 20 ounces for a dollar, and 40 ounces should be enough for cooking. More likely, they’ll have quarts of shelf-stable UHT milk available. They don’t always have it in stock, but they frequently have quarts or liters of milk from Parmalat or other brands.

• MEAT/PROTEIN
  • Hamburger or Chicken $3.00
  • Sausage $2.00
  • Hot Dogs $1.00
  • Peanut Butter $1.00
  • Beans $0.50
  • Meat Spread $0.50
  • Tuna $0.75

  If I’m lucky enough to find it on sale, I’ll get a pound of hamburger. If not, I’ll get some kind of chicken. Ideally, I would like to get a little of both, but they generally aren’t available in small enough portions.

  I plan to get two packages of breakfast sausages at Dollar Tree. In addition to eating them for breakfast, I can use them in other recipes. And I can use the grease in other recipes. A package of 8 hot dogs can also be eaten by themselves or in other recipes. For additional sources of protein, I plan on buying items such as canned beans, peanut butter, meat spread, or tuna, depending on prices.

  If I wanted to economize further, I would probably buy dry beans and cook them myself. But that’s rather time consuming, and outside of my skill set.

 

• BREAD
• Bread $1.00
• Tortillas $1.00
• Pasta $1.00

I’m quite sure that I have enough carbohydrates with the flour, rice, and oatmeal. But there is just enough in the budget to add a little bit of variety with a loaf of bread, a small package of flour tortillas, and about a pound of spaghetti or other pasta.

• VEGETABLES
  • Canned Vegetable $1.50

  As you can see, I’m skimping somewhat on vegetables, and I’m sure the dietitians are aghast. If there are any fresh vegetables on sale, I’ll probably see what’s available. If not, I’ll get about three cans of vegetables, such as green beans, peas, carrots, corn, or sweet potatoes. This would allow me about a half can of vegetables per day. I can eat them alone or in other dishes.

• BEVERAGES
  • Coffee $1.00
  • Drink Mix $1.00

  I am budgeting a dollar for the luxury of coffee. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a necessity. However, I will have to skimp to stay in budget. Normally, I would purchase an 10.5 ounce can of Master Chef Coffee at Wal-Mart
  , where it is routinely available for $2.
  It’s more than adequate, and that can would last me more than a week. Unfortunately, there is no Wal-Mart
  within walking distance, and the equivalent cheap coffee would be almost $4 at the supermarket. Therefore, I’ll need to buy one of the 7 ounce packages of Coffee at Dollar Tree. I usually keep one of these in the house in case of emergency, but they’re not particularly good. I think these generic packages of coffee are the “transition” between blends. When the coffee factory switches from one blend to another, there’s still flavoring from the last one in the machine.  Until the machine gets cleaned out, the coffee goes in bags that wind up at Dollar Tree. If I’m careful, 7 ounces should last me a week, but there’s always a chance that I’ll need to buy a second package.

  There’s not much money left over for other beverages, other than water. But I’ll buy a few envelopes of Kool-Aid, and I can make use of my excess sugar.

• CONVENIENCE FOOD
  • Burrito $0.50
  • Ramen Noodle $1.00

  I understand that there might be situations where I need a convenience food.  If I have money to spare, I might buy a TV dinner for a dollar. But I’ll probably get one frozen burrito, and a few packages of Ramen Noodles for emergencies.

• TOTAL $30.75

 

Yes, I have a kitchen

Undoubtedly, some skeptics will be quick to point out that I have a kitchen full of modern conveniences. And they have a very valid point. I own, and plan to use, a stove, an oven, a refrigerator, a freezer, a microwave oven, a toaster, an electric coffee maker, and probably other modern conveniences that I haven’t given a thought to. And I fully realize that this gives me an advantage that some might consider unfair. For example, someone with 50 cents to buy a can of beans wouldn’t be in a very good position if they didn’t own a can opener. I’ll be using many devices that didn’t exist a hundred years ago, and that many people in the world would rightly perceive as luxuries. And this is probably a fair criticism.

But, on the other hand, most Americans (but yes, certainly not all) have access to these same luxuries. I can’t duplicate every hardship faced by every possible person. And I certainly can’t duplicate other hardships of poverty.  This particular challenge is to subsist on a particular food budget. I do have resources that I will use to meet that challenge. If you have other challenges you wish me to consider, please let me know what they are and I’ll see if I can give them a fair try. But for now, I’m concentrating on one thing, and that’s feeding myself for a week for $31.50.

In a few days, I’ll do my shopping for the week and begin this challenge.