Our Family Food Budget vs. SNAP

[jollygreen23]

I just realized today that, for the past two months, our family has been living off of less than $4.50 per person per day, which is what SNAP recipients get for food. Now, I realize that we are way blessed to be able to make food from scratch at home; a family with two parents working four jobs wouldn't have the same luxuries that we do. But still. By just trying to cut back on our spending, our family of 5 has been eating for ~$620/month or $4.13 per person per day.

How?

I can bake a loaf of bread for $.50 (add some butter or jam and it comes closer to $.70)
A yummy bowl of black beans, rice, with salsa and gooey, melted cheese: $3 to feed my family
Roasting a chicken in my oven, with some veggies thrown in: $6
Scrambled eggs? $4.50 for all of us
Homemade pizza? $4.35 for 5 full tummies
Oatmeal and a banana: ~$4

If you rotated just these foods, you're looking at $22.55 every two days, or $2.26 per person per day.

Overall, this has made me extremely grateful to have time at home to cook, and it has made me realize how important it is to teach my kids to be able to cook basic, cheap meals at home. I don't know what we would do if we had to rely on manufacturers of convenience foods to put a meal together.

As a side note, while I was looking up what SNAP entails, I found that the USDA has put together a list of cheap recipes to help those who are trying to live on a budget:
http://www.whatscooking.fns.usda.gov/search/solr-results/im_field_term_program/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap-162

[Workingmomsaves]

Way to go!  We are less than SNAP too.  It can certainly be done and I feel like we eat really well too. 
Baby back ribs are on the menu this weekend, yum!

[Rosy]

Great job on the food budget! Could you share your bread recipe? I'm not much of a baker, but I do fine with the basics.

Tonight we harvested some plums in the backyard, so I'd like to bake something simple tomorrow - any ideas?
I should have enough plums left to make a bit of jam too.

They are very strange plums, smallish, elongated and have a weird green pit, more pit than plum and they are not exactly sweet either. This year the plum tree has gone nuts, maybe because of all the rain and while it is a bit of work to cook or bake with them, I don't want to waste all this bounty.
 

 

[MrsPfennig]

Good job! I really wish we could grow our own food. We live in a small rental and the only plants that survived this year were herbs.

[jollygreen23]

Great job on the food budget! Could you share your bread recipe? I'm not much of a baker, but I do fine with the basics.

Tonight we harvested some plums in the backyard, so I'd like to bake something simple tomorrow - any ideas?
I should have enough plums left to make a bit of jam too.

They are very strange plums, smallish, elongated and have a weird green pit, more pit than plum and they are not exactly sweet either. This year the plum tree has gone nuts, maybe because of all the rain and while it is a bit of work to cook or bake with them, I don't want to waste all this bounty.

My bread machine recipe is pretty simple:
Put 1Tbs yeast, 2 Tbs sugar, and 1 c. warm water in the machine. Let it sit for 10 minutes
Add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 Tbs. salt, and 3 cups bread flour
Start the machine on the basic bread setting.

If you don't have a machine, I highly recommend looking at the library for a book called Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

If your plums aren't ideal for fresh eating, then jam is probably the best route. The extra sweetness will bring out the flavor and you can experiment with plum preserves. A jar of spiced plums sounds pretty good! Sadly, I have no recipe for such a thing.

[Rosy]

Thank you jollygreen:) No breadmachine, but I will check out the book.

No worries on the plums:) In my Fannie Farmer cookbook there is a recipe called lightning cake. It is a basic recipe with minimal ingredients that you can turn into any kind of cake you want, like coffee cake or fruit cake.
I also found an organic vanilla cake mix that we really like - just added the plums - they do bake up very well.

It's the jam I haven't tried yet, but I kind of went on a canning book binge last year so I am sure I'll find something good to try out. Wish me luck:) this morning.

[Matt_D]

Way to go!

I am trying to figure out practical and non-time-intensive ways to get our food budget lower... we have some food allergies/sensitivities that make things a bit more complicated (e.g. I can't have eggs and 2 of the fam can't have wheat). My wife's expecting in about a month, and is our primary cook, so any suggestions that involve a lot more work are likely to go over as well as... well... suggestions that an 8-months pregnant lady do more work :P

We're at least in the process though! And homemade pizza is also a weekly occurrence in our household (wheat-free in our case, so a little bit more expensive but still way less than ordering).

[RelaxedGal]

They are very strange plums, smallish, elongated and have a weird green pit, more pit than plum and they are not exactly sweet either. This year the plum tree has gone nuts, maybe because of all the rain and while it is a bit of work to cook or bake with them, I don't want to waste all this bounty.

Sounds like prune plums .  There's always the "dehydrate them and eat prunes" option.

My fallback is always a crisp - chop up the fruit and spread in a greased casserole dish, toss with some sugar and spices.  In a separate bowl blend together oats, flour, brown sugar, butter, and spices until crumbly and spread over top.  Bake 35-45 minutes until crispy, browned, and maybe a little bubbly.

[bloomability]

I really like Leanne Brown's Good and Cheap. It's an incredible resource for families on SNAP, but also a great starting place for stocking a kitchen, buying in season, and other kitchen basics.

Here's her website that explains the project and contains the pdf of the book.
http://www.leannebrown.com/

[jollygreen23]

Way to go!

I am trying to figure out practical and non-time-intensive ways to get our food budget lower... we have some food allergies/sensitivities that make things a bit more complicated (e.g. I can't have eggs and 2 of the fam can't have wheat). My wife's expecting in about a month, and is our primary cook, so any suggestions that involve a lot more work are likely to go over as well as... well... suggestions that an 8-months pregnant lady do more work :P

We're at least in the process though! And homemade pizza is also a weekly occurrence in our household (wheat-free in our case, so a little bit more expensive but still way less than ordering).

If it helps, I'm also 8 months pregnant. :)

Fried rice is a great, cheap way to use up leftover meat. put a little veg and some oil to a hot pan, add meat. Add cooked/leftover rice and soy sauce (gluten free!) and you've got a meal. :)

[mm1970]

I think you are doing a great job with that.

The thing that often kills my budget, really (because I don't have a garden) is fruits and veggies.

Simply looking at the recommendations - 3 cups veg and 2 cups fruit per adult.  Plus slightly less for children.

That comes out to around 7-8 pounds of fruit and vegetables PER DAY, or 35-40ish pounds a week.
I have yet to be able to get much below the SNAP budget on that.  I do get close, around $4.60 per day per person.  But of course we do eat out occasionally, and that's a different budget.

I just read an interesting blog post on onehundreddollarsamonth, about the amount of fruits and vegetables Americans eat:

http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/do-americans-not-have-enough-vegetables-to-eat/

It's an interesting thought/ discussion.  Most Americans don't eat the recommended amount - there are lots of ways to get that, and of course the USDA website can help you get there with their recommendations.  But I find food budgets and produce intake often correlate.

[Loonie Tunes]

Awesome job!

I do agree though that saving money because you can is vastly different from saving money on food because you must. Social capital (knowledge, skills, connections and other resources) can cut your spending substantially.