SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 2-4 Reflections

Not eating free food at work is hitting Bo pretty hard.  At first it was just candy and cookies that he couldn't touch, but today his employer provided Papa John's Pizza for everybody.  Well, everybody except him; he had to graciously decline.  It did give him a chance to share about the Hunger Challenge and for that I'm so proud of him.  Still, he's frustrated.  To make matters worse, tomorrow is Friday, when all his co-workers always to out to eat together and he will have to stay at work and eat what he's packed.  He's not thrilled about that. He wonders if the SNAP challenge is extra hard because he's not surrounded by other people in the same boat, experiencing the same struggles.  Though this is a simulation, I'm sure that are real people who experience this real isolation on a daily basis.  No one should have to face this.

For me, I thought the hard part would be not going out for lunch most everyday, but that part is not so bad.  The worse is not enjoying the frills.  I like freshly grated parmigiano reggiano on my pasta.  No can do on a SNAP budget.  I've been trying to prioritize healthy, fresh, local foods if I can, which leaves little money for treats.  It makes be feel guilty about spending money on a sweet treat when I could be filling my and my family's tummies with something more nutritious.  So I made Jello and have rationed that for the week with a loss of only 50 cents.  

On a happy note, I've fallen even more in love with squash soup than I was before.  I made organic butternut squash soup for about $5.60 (not including the cost of dry spices) and it was enough for two dinners for my kids, 1 dinner for each of us adults, and one lunch for me.  Because my kids love it so much we'd already been eating it about once week, but I"m even more convinced that it needs to be a staple in our dinner rotation.  Though next year, we're growing our own squash, so we can save even more money.  

I hope that my next post will be a compilation of ideas that have come from this enlightening experience.  I won't lie, I can't wait for this challenge to be over, but much good has already come of it.

SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 1 Reflections

This is hard. Not so much the feeling full part, but feeling satisfied. I'm also probably eating too much, but we've decided to not fixate too much on keeping track of every cent, but being very aware of being as frugal as we can.

PB and Pekara is good - The peanut butter sandwich for lunch was delish and filling. Even Bo only used one slice of honey wheat bread from Pekara because it's pretty large and dense (4.59 for a loaf). I may be sold on bulk peanut butter from the Co-op too ($4.49 a lb).

Living without the frills is the biggest challenge - Poor Bozie managed to survive without his free Starbucks coffee from work, which has apparently become a staple for him over the past couple months. He was also bummed to have to turn down homemade baked goods that coworker brought to the office and as well as candy on someone's desk. I had the same issue with the candy. It kinda helped that it was Dove chocolate, and I could not rationalize how someone on SNAP would have free access to that. At dinner, I also skipped on the freshly grated REAL parmigiano reeggiano that usually makes my pasta look like a blizzard swept over it. THAT was hard.

I know we definitely broke the bank - The apples we got cost about 70 cents each. Yikes! But it fairly satisfied the sweet craving that hit me in late afternoon. In general, my philosophy is that if it's healthy, especially local and organic, it shouldn't matter what it costs, just get it into my body or the kids' bodies. It's also important to us that we expose our kids to a variety of foods like mangoes, plantains, and kiwis. True story, last week when Bo took care of the boys while I had an evening meeting, they all went on a special trip to the grocery store and picked out coconuts to bust a hole in, drink the milk, then whack open and eat the flesh. This is their daddy-son bonding activity, but costs over $2 per coconut. Wouldn't you rather our kids being doing this than snacking on unhealthy food? It's too bad that some healthy food, even a simple apple, can be a luxury.

All of a sudden that box of Jello that has been gathering dust in my pantry for 4 years looks good - That afternoon sweet craving lasted into the evening. So I made Jello. Not my preference, but it was the cheapest option we had on hand. I'm looking forward to Saturday because also in my pantry are 2 Reuben's chocolates. At $1.60 a pop, they are totally not doable on a SNAP budget.

We're not really doing it with the kids, but kinda - They still have their Kashi cereal each morning (to the tune of almost $4 a box and their whole milk from Kilgus farm to the tune of $4.49/gallon). This is their thing, so we left it alone, but I did skimp on them. They get food at school, so that we don't count. At dinner they each had an egg, while they usually have 2. I might have caved and gave them more, but that was all we had in the fridge. 1/2 slice of Pekara honey wheat bread was good for Monkey, but Bean asked for another 1/2 after his first 1/2, so I obliged. They also had a banana and yogurt smoothie. No veggies, but we'll make up for it tonight with squash soup. They weren't hungry after dinner, I don't think, but I know they usually eat more. Each of them can eat 3 slices of pizza and it's not because they're big boys. They're only 2 and 4 years old and each of them are in he 30th percentiles for their heights and weights. I can't imagine only being able to spend $4.50 a day on a teenage sons!

SNAP Hunger Challenge: Day 1 Breakfast

Breakfast:

Cream of Wheat made with:

1 c Milk (Kilgus Farm Whole Milk from the Food Co-Op)

3 T Cream of Wheat

Reactions: Very satisfied and full. This is comfort food for me. I think I could eat plain Cream of Wheat like this pretty much every day, but we'll see after a week. Milk, however, is a "must" or else this would be gross. It could be made even healthier with mix-in of fruit or nuts, but I can't complain about getting nearly half my daily value of iron in one sitting, which is important while being pregnant. So far so good.

Week 42 PURGE: The I.D.E.A. Store Continued

Well it turned out that The I.D.E.A. Store was interested in ALL the items I packed in this sack that I wasn't sure about. Besides the little toys, none were specifically listed, but I thought I'd give it a shot. One September 30th, you can be the proud owners of any of the following:

#281 Edges to foam play mats - I gave the mats to church, but they don't use these parts

#282 Paint stirrers - These were a freecycle find, but I only needed a couple

#283 Glass Brick - I got as a momento

#284 Misc little toys (in circular container)- random knick knacks from the basement

#285 Plastic lids to baby bottles (in orange shoe box) - I gave away the bottles and forgot to include these

And last but not least the 2 finds that started began this whole PURGE to The I.D.E.A. Store:

#286 Colorful Toothpicks and #287 Twist-ties - both of which were scattered along the bottom of our kitch junk draw.

After I dropped off my donation, I also got to look around the store, and it's incredible. At this point my limited artistic ability renders me mostly interested in the bulk markers and crayons, which were really cheap, but I'll go explore with the kids sometime and I'm sure we'll have fun. I also got more ideas of things to purge including those wooden crates that clementines come in and the metal tins for cookies and such. I'm going to start seeing junk in a whole new light. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

Week 41 PURGE - The I.D.E.A. Store

It all started Sunday night when I bravely decided to attack the junk drawer in the kitchen. One word: "scary"...there was a Daily Illini, in there from December 2002.

It was motivating to expect that basically everything in there could be PURGEd because we hadn't opened the drawer in months *cough* years *cough* except for recently when Bo was looking for a spare car key, which by the way, wasn't in there.

Armed with the confidence that when I was done I'd have a whole drawer of reclaimed space, I started to PURGE and managed to salvage several candle sticks and put into separate sandwich baggies a bunch of colorful toothpicks, a handful of twist-ties and a couple dozen aluminum can pull tabs.

I thought someone might be able to use them for something, so I tweeted about it. Gotta love social media because chambanamoms almost immediately replied that The I.D.E.A. Store might take them.

Haven't heard of them? Neither had I, but it's my favorite combination of being able to PURGE and help a good cause, in this case, the Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation and the Champaign-Urbana Public Schools. Plus, for those of you who are creative, this seems like the Mecca of craft supplies!

Here's a list of what they take. Unfortunately in my excitement of PURGing, I had already trashed some fun stuff they could have used like old keys, key chains, string, and some straws, just minutes before I had heard about this place :( Luckily this list inspired me to scour the rest of the house, especially the basement, to find more stuff to donate. Here's what I found:

#274 5 Shoe boxes (one is buried)

#275 9 Advertising Magnets

#276 6 Brown Paper Sacks

#274 18 Paint Chips (in the plastic rectangle box)

#275 1/2 Bag of Rafia

#276 Foam Egg Carton

#277 Straws

#278 Altoid Container (cinnamon, yum!)

#279 Wrapping Paper

#280 Quilted Fabric Scrap

Until they open on Sept 30th, they are taking donations on Fridays from 4-7, so I plan to drop these off tomorrow. I also have a sack of stuff I'm not sure if they'll accept but we'll see and I'll report that for Week 42.

I'm not one for being crafty, but at their prices and knowing that I'm not wasting money on new products and also not having to clutter my house with supplies, this may be just the perfect thing to get me to do more art with the kids. When we're in the mood to create, we can just head to The I.D.E.A Store and buy what we need then and there!

Week 40 PURGE - More to Empty Tomb

I feel like it's been a while since I've PURGEd to my favorite (cuz I believe in their mission and also cuz they are close to my work, making donating easy) local charity: Empty Tomb. So they are the happy recipients of this week's PURGE.

#270 2 girls T-shirts that I got from a freecycler for Mei Mei - The are ever so slightly off-white but I didn't think I could whiten them without ruining the design.

#271 One of Bean's shirts that he made in the fall of 2007 - He just grew out of it now. Considering it's slightly stained and has his name on it, I knew there was no use in attempting to consign it.

#272 A shirt of mine from my church's children's ministry - A bunch of kids signed it and they're all grown up now, plus it's also a little discolored. I shouldn't wear it anymore.

#273 2 plastic cups - I've had these since high school. They are very fun, but I'm paranoid to drink out of plastic anymore.

#273 Fleece Blanket of Monkey's from when he was a wee babe - We just have too many blankets. We got so many compliments on this, I hope someone else can love as much as we have.

Just FYI, Empty Tomb will start taking fall and winter clothes starting on October 1st. I can't wait! I already have some stuff set aside to PURGE ;)

Another Challenge: SNAP Hunger Challenge 2010

Easy Cheese, Vienna Sausages, Ramen Noodles. I refuse to eat these things. Unfortunately, one may not have much of a choice when surviving on $4.50 a day, the average SNAP benefit (formerly known as food stamps) in Illinois.

Last week, Bo and I made the hard decision to take the SNAP Hunger Challenge 2010, which means that we have a budget of $126 our family of four for the week of September 19th-25th.

*GASP* No going out for lunch for the entire week! That's my daily weekday getaway during my lunch hour with a plethora of options on Green St. At least as far as the kids go, we almost never take them out to eat except we've started taking them on Friday nights as a new tradition. I think they can manage one week without that, especially if we make an activity of cooking together.

It will also be harder for us to keep our food local and organic, which we've been really trying to do recently. Will we be able to afford our Kilgus Farm milk or our eggs from T&S or Moore's? I think I'll be ok with just even just having healthy options like fresh produce and whole grain bread. I'm afraid that if we buy those we might only have enough budget left for unhealthy processed food product, or even worse, that we'll run out of food. 84% of Feeding Illinois clients report that over the previous 12 months they have been in a situation where the food they bought just didn’t last and they did not have money to get more.

What do you say to your kids when they tell you they are still hungry and you have nothing more to feed them?

I can tell already that this challenge won't be nearly as fun or therapeutic as PURGE, but I have no doubt that it will be an eye-opener for us. Care to join us?

Garage Sale PURGE - Christmas Stuff (Wk39)

Looking through my camera today, I realized that I had one more group of items that I PURGEd for the Clean Water Garage Sale but forgot to document on this blog.

Behold, my Christmas junk:

#264 - Hand towels - the cardinal set, the teddy bear set, and the two mini ones in the middle were both really soft, and I hated to see them go.

#265 - 6 Pink Ball Ornaments - These we got when we first got our tree to be fillers, but now we have enough ornaments with meaning.

#266 - 6 Mini Ornaments - Just got these last year as a gift and we don't need them.

#267 - Pair of Ugly Ornaments with faces on them (one tree, one pine cone. ewww). White Elephant gift.

#267 - Candles - These are cute, but again, just trying to streamline.

#268 - Stuffed Bear - I've have this since 2nd or 3rd grade from my best friend. I've put it out each year since then. It holds a special place in my heart. But I have a pic of it and that'll due.

#269 - Snowmen decorations - These are kinda cute too. I like things that match but are not exact duplicates, but they are not exactly the look I'm going for.

Last Christmas I set these aside in the basement to be donated before this holiday season to Goodwill or something like that. I'm glad I didn't have to wait that long! I know for a fact that many of these sold at the garage sale, so that's a bonus too.

Ugh, I really need to find this pic today. It's been harder to PURGE as I get closer to my due date because there is so many other things on my mind and to prepare for. And at the same time I'm refilling my house with more stuff for the baby. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks I can get a little farther ahead because I have no idea how PURGE will go when my baby girl gets here.