I did something very similar as part of a class in junior high.
The one somewhat misleading part of this is that most people calculate by dividing a per-serving cost. So they take that $5 jar of PBJ and calculate that one sandwich worth is $0.25. Some jelly and two slices of bread and maybe it's a $1 sandwich. Easy. However, having enough money to purchase the entire jar of peanut butter, the entire jar of jelly, and the entire loaf of bread can be a challenge. You need money up front to eat cheaply. Go to the store and spend $75 and then another $50 two weeks later and you are at that SNAP budget and eating very comfortably. But if you break it down to just a week (about $32), it becomes a lot more challenging because you'd likely need to eat PBJ for a lot of those meals because you don't have the budget to purchase variety. Maybe you can't by the sandwich makings and some eggs, milk, apples, rice, beans, tomatoes, pasta, frozen veggies, and maybe some salt and pepper and garlic. That might be enough food for two weeks, but if you only have a one week at a time budget, you can't purchase all that. APowers explained this very well.
That's not to say it can't be done, but I don't know that saying many of us do it quite simulates the experience of a truly struggling person starting from scratch.
How much do you think PB&J & eggs cost?
Aldi prices here in TN:
Giant PB: $2.50
Jelly: $1.50
Bread: $0.90
Paper plates: $2.00
Plastic cups: $2.75
Plasticware: $4.30
Sandwich bags: $2.10
Milk: $2.40
Eggs: $0.80
After tax, that’s at least a week’s worth of food for under $25. You can add in some vegetables for $5 to keep it a bit healthier, but this is very doable.
Edit: nearly half of that is disposable eating utensils, so after a little buildup, you could get actual silverware, dishes, and dish soap and cut the budget further.
So you could live on two eggs and two peanut butter sandwiches per day for a week? I would be seriously hanger. Also none of the paper products on your list can be bought with SNAP.
Why would you spend money on disposable dinnerware - that is a luxury one cannot afford. Our local dollar store carries nice plates for $1, and the thrift store has some decent ones for 25 cents.
But, it would involve a fair amount of walking from where I live and/or paying at least $2-$3 in bus fare - ask me how I know:)
$2.10 for sandwich bags? The dollar store to the rescue at one dollar!
EBT also does not cover plastic goods, sandwich bags or even toilet paper!
Bread for .90? how about 50 cents at the day old bread store within walking distance of our house. Also a good source for occasionally finding bargains for 25 cents (that can be frozen) and a cool way to make dirt cheap birthday treats from Little Debbie's et al. Every penny counts - not just every dollar!
Organic milk at our local Aldi is now $2.40 it was $2.
There is a huge flea market, barely within walking distance that has insane prices on fresh fruit and vegetables in season and if you know how to can, you'll have your choice of jellies, jams and fruit butter, whole fruit or slices - salsa and homemade tomato sauce for months to come.
If you don't, you can still cook up a smaller batch and store it in the fridge or clean the fruit, slice and freeze, and of course, buy fresh for immediate use.
Fresh peppers, cleaned and sliced keep extremely well and taste fresh out of the freezer.
I don't know about you, but I happen to like variety and I'm always experimenting with flavors, there is no reason why I would let EBT stop me from utilizing my creativity or starve my tastebuds.
Not to mention you can combine your buying power with a friend or neighbor to buy say an expensive spice or a roast - since the spice is expensive but you only need a small amount and we all know big packs of frozen meat generally are cheaper too.
Badia is the one brand that has cheap spices incl. specialty spices - no quality issues either.
I was never on EBT but during my year of poverty, I often benefitted from two neighbors who went to the food bank and were given things they did not want or knew what to do with. We also cooked up batches of things and traded the food between us.
One time one of them came home with several bags of frozen apricots they didn't want - until I made pies and desserts galore, yum.
Problems related to a severely limited budget:
Transportation worries (enough money for gas or car repairs), not having access to the Internet, not to mention the library which was out of my way and too far to walk to, were all roadblocks.
There was a TV, but no cable. No movies, no DVD player, no nothing, not even a book unless I had an extra quarter to a full $ to buy a used book at the thrift store/salvation army.
Believe me, the book selection at the Salvation Army store isn't great either if that is your only source.
No cool stores, plazas, parks etc within walking distance and gas money was often too tight to go somewhere for fun.
Dinner out - once a month $5 endless pizza but with only a water to drink. Evening out, $5 once every two weeks just to stay sane. Sometimes a day at the beach, can't afford the parking, so you walk a bit more from where you parked. Nothing is cheap enough at the beach although you sometimes cave and buy a drink or a trinket at one of the beach art fairs and festivals.
Then you worry all week long if you really have enough gas to make it to payday.
Hated that I never had the wherewithal to just walk in the grocery store and buy exactly what I wanted.
Non-negotiable - decent coffee:) - although a few times I re-used the filter or had to rely on cheap black tea. Good free coffee at work helped a lot.
The thing that sucks about poverty is the lack of choice, the lack of access and all the extra time and effort you devote to keep going and afloat.
The good thing is you learn to live on very little and discover options and opportunities where there were none. You learn to trade your skills and keep an eye on the dumpster when someone moves out or stop by and troll for potential goodies without (too much) shame.
The exhausting thing is that you can never afford to let your guard down - the smallest wrong move can spell disaster - the ripple effect will cost you!
If it had not been for a trip a month to the beach or a festival, or a day at the park - the overtime at work that gave me access on the weekend to a computer at work to print coupons, read up on interesting stuff, learn and play, I think I would have been a depressed basket case.
We all need a break and we all need encouragement and the hope that we can escape a bad situation or at the very least find ways to cope, even live better than you expected as you discover new tricks to survive the next catastrophic $25 rent increase.