Part 1
Shopping:
To prepare for the SNAP challenge Jennifer made a menu for
the week. It was a loose menu and
changes were made along the way. We did
not generate an item specific shopping list and we headed off to Aldi to make
our purchases. Overall it was a fun
experience because Jennifer and I rarely shop together for groceries. It took us a long time to analyze and find
the ingredients that we needed for our meals, and we had many debates over food
quality and price. It was also the first
time that I had ever used the calculator on my phone. Needless to say I made several mistakes but
was cautious to always pad the total so that we stayed within budget. Our first trip we spent about $76.00 dollars
and Jennifer had to do make a follow up trip on Sunday and spent an additional
$14.00. Our total family budget was
about $120.00, so we have about $30.00 left to fill in missing items.
Time:
I take for granted that I will always have food around to
grab when I’m hungry! If I’m hungry, I
just go into the refrigerator and grab a snack, usually something processed and
unhealthy. If I don’t feel like making
myself a lunch to bring to work, no problem I can run to McDonald’s and grab
something real quick. No time for breakfast,
no problem, just stop somewhere and get a breakfast sandwich. Worst case, go to the vending machine and
get something.
Living on a SNAP budget does not allow for these conveniences. We have to plan everything or be prepared to
settle for nothing. This is our reality
this week. For others, this is their
reality all of the time.
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