She is conducting a month long Challenge for June called The June Food Stamp Challenge. She is attempting to keep her food spending for her family at the federal food stamp(or as it's known by the moniker of SNAP) benefit level for a family of 4. Well, she is using the figure of $101 per person actually to make it simpler. You can read the whole premise of the Challenge HERE.
I thought I would play along too. You can find links to other bloggers who are trying this as well, on Katy's website(or at the link above directly).
So first thing I need to do is figure out how much food money I will have to spend. As assorted teens will be here and not be here at various times in June, I really need to do a per day break down for them. $101 divided by 30 days is $3.36 per day. The combined days for all 3 teens is 57, plus we had a live-in guest for 5 days in June, so that's 62 days--or 2 whole persons worth+2 days. $202.00+$6.72=$208.72.
Add in a full $101 for myself and hubs and we get a grand total of..........
$410.72 for 4.06 people, which is technically how many I will be feeding. 8-)
Anybody who has been a longtime reader of my blog knows that I regularly spend less than that every month on food--including toiletries, cleaning, pet food and the few paper goods that I buy. I may have to throw some other obstacles into my take on this challenge to, er....challenge me more.
Plus I am in eating down the freezer mode so I don't plan on spending much in June(once the kids leave!lol). If I am using what I have, then I am not buying and it is silly for me to buy things that I already have here and eat that and not use the older items in the freezer or stockpile.
So to make this more challenging for me, when I use something I have in the freezer, I'll purchase the same item to restock my supply and count the cost of that even though I am cooking/serving the older already bought item OR I'll deduct what I paid for the already bought groceries that I use this month. Since I have all my grocery receipts this won't be hard to find the price paid and add into my spending. I hope that makes some kind of sense..... ;-)
I am off to do my first real grocery shop for June......I'll check in tonight!
Sluggy
I think this is a great challenge, but I've opted out this time. For one thing, I just did something similar to this when Shane was laid off, and wrote about it. I think it's too soon for me to write about it again.
ReplyDeleteFor another thing, since we bought the grill this that came with $134 in free groceries, that will really skew our June numbers.
Lastly, I already know I can spend less than $101 per person per month. For January through May, I spent $155.77, $214.51, $101.53, 208.95 and $233.36. That's an average food-only amount of $182.82 for my entire family of three, which is 40% less than the $303 we'd be allotted per Katy's scenario in Oregon. So while I'm in full support of the idea, and think everyone should give it a go, it's really no challenge for me.
I'll be following closely, because I DO find it interesting. I may also try to find out what the average benefit amount is here in Missouri. It may be a lot different than in Oregon or other states.
I will be watching closely too. It's very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great challenge! I will be looking forward to your reports.
ReplyDeleteI was already reading along over on Katy's site, so now I'm gonna have double fun reading yours, too :) I have no doubt you'll meet and beat this challenge!
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