Colleen with OACAA's Shopping Trip

As the others commented, I too spent more time than usual at the grocery store yesterday doing some comparison shopping. This was also the first time I actually looked at the flyers that tell you what's on special.

I felt kind of silly walking through the grocery store holding my cell phone set to the calculator function so I could see how I was doing.

One thing I learned is that I have probably over paid for things in the past. During this Challenge I realized that it is much cheaper to avoid the pretty packaging and go generic.

I think my favorite scores were Teddy Grahams on sale for a dollar and a pack of snack size Hershey Special Dark bars for $1.05! I am enjoying my Teddy Grahams right now as a much-needed afternoon snack.

Dan At Northwoods Shopping Trip

Like Lisa, I also spent more time shopping than normal. It was kind of hard to pass by all the nice, expensive stuff I normally buy, but in a way, also liberating.

I did feel a little funny walking around with all the generic stuff in my basket. I mean, I don’t judge people on what they buy, but I did feel slightly self-conscious about people judging me.

Overall, I went with quick and easy things. I’m not one to do a lot of cooking and preparing. If I had to do this week in and week out, I know I would get tired of the lack of variety, but for this week I will be fine.

My grocery list:


The result of Dan's shopping trip
Nice to see those jars in tact!



- Half-gallon of 2% Milk – necessary for some recipes, also for cereal – $1.77
- Cereal (Cocoa Crunchies) – my breakfast and snacking material for the week – $3.39
- Ramen Noodles – in the bag – 2 x 0.19 – $0.38
- Ramen Noodle cup – $0.29
- Instant Mashed Potatoes – $2.49
- Can of gravy – on sale! – $0.99
- Pasta – there were cheaper options but I went with the whole wheat – on sale! – $1.25
- Pasta sauce – $1.37
- Wheat Bread – on sale! – $1
- Jelly – couldn’t afford the peanut butter to go with it – $2.88
- Baby spinach – for salad – a little more than I wanted to spend – $3.29

Total spent = $21.37
Leftover = $2.63

I wanted to leave a little bit of money for later in the week if I needed to buy something else. When I was unloading the bags out of my car, the handle on the bag with the two glass jars (of pasta sauce and jelly) broke and the life of my food for the week flashed before my eyes. Luckily, nothing was lost but it really put this in perspective. Had either jar broken, I would have been pretty screwed.

Toledo Blade's Hunger Games

Follow the Toledo Blade's staff as they participate in the Ohio Community Action Food Stamp Challenge http://toledoblade.typepad.com/hungergames/

Day 1 of the Challenge for Neva Dunn

I am doing the Challenge Sunday through Thursday because I will be out of town this Friday.

So my plan was to have lunchmeat sandwiches this week for lunch. I bought a sub kit that cost $5.49 at Krogers with a dollar off coupon. As I was preparing my lunch yesterday, the turkey and ham felt slimy (ewww), so I had peanut butter instead in a tortilla.

Now I am able to take this meat back and get my money back and choose another option for my lunch, but there was a time ( I am a food stamp survivor) when I would not have been able to take it back because we did not have a car growing up. Back then, the person that took us to the store may not have been available to take us back to the store to return it.

Then I realized after my dinner that I couldn’t go get my Dairy Queen twist cone with crunch coat for a treat because it wasn’t in my budget…… anyway it ain’t easy.

Lisa Walsh with Northwoods - Grocery Shopping

After I agreed to take the challenge, I spent a lot of time thinking about my strategy and what I would plan to eat for the five days. I planned my menu and then went shopping in my pantry. I didn’t want to add to the pile of staples that are usually neglected because I don’t really cook. I put all of those items (with brand names) on my shopping list so I could include the price I’d pay if I’d been buying them. Then, off to the store I went.


Lisa's grocery purchases



Armed with a list and pen, I decided I should check out the prices of what I had on hand and get the dry goods first. That would let me determine how much money I had remaining to purchase produce. That is exactly the opposite route I usually take. I got the prices for what I had on hand and picked up the other items I had on my list. I was lucky that several items on my list were on sale, which gave me hope that I’d be able to get some extras. Unfortunately, because a couple of things I had on hand were brand name items, I ended up spending more of my budget than I would have if I’d chosen anther brand, especially the store brand. But, in good news, I discovered that the items I buy in bulk, like rice and popcorn, really are cheaper even if you are buying a smaller amount.

Then I decided to see what I would be able to do about caffeine, and that is when I realized I’d have to make some adjustments. I thought about it and realized that the reason I drink coffee is really because I get a coffee confection. I like the flavored, steamed, fancy drinks. The other times I drink coffee is just to get my caffeine fix. So, I checked out the price of tea bags and will break my coffee habit in the next week.

Lisa's list. She only went 40 cents over budget!



Lisa's shopping list



Here is my shopping list – with prices.  I went 40 cents over the $23 limit.

It took me a lot longer to shop today than usual, and I spent significantly less than I usually do. I also stuck to my list a lot more closely than usual. It is a good thing that I didn’t have to purchase condiments and spices though. And, I didn’t get any cheese or dairy. I won’t miss the milk (don’t tell my mom), but I suspect I am going to wish I’d allocated some funding for cheese.

Dan Unsdorfer with Northwoods Shares His Thoughts on Preparing for the Challenge

I have to admit I have a somewhat-ulterior motive for participating in this Food Stamp Challenge: I know I spend too much on food. Inspired by a fellow Northwoodian (thanks Todd!), this month I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses. For food I budgeted $270 for the month, which is roughly $10 per day.

Well, I went over budget.

On the 14^th day of the month.

Full disclosure, I live with my brother and cousin (who likes to cook) and we do group meals a lot. I buy, my cousin cooks, everyone is happy (especially my brother). But I’m also an impulse shopper. You know how they say don’t go shopping when you’re hungry? Yeah, I do that. A lot.

As a result, I’m looking forward to this being a test of my discipline: the discipline to go to the store only once this coming week. To do this I’ll need to make a plan for each meal and stick to it.

The biggest challenge I think I’m going to face is the fact that I am a huge snacker and generally just eat when I feel like it. So far my plan for that is to buy one of those giant, off-brand bags of cereal and divvy it up into plastic bags for snacking purposes. The rest of my meals will have to be carefully planned. I normally just delete the deals-of-the-week email from Giant Eagle, but now I’m searching through my trash folder for it. I know I need to go in to the grocery store with a plan Sunday or I’m not going to make it.

I am not too far removed from being a poor college student when instant mashed potatoes and a stray Natty Light was a gourmet meal, so I know I can do this. I do my best to eat with my health in mind, so I am interested in seeing how hard that will be on a limited budget. I’m looking forward to sharing my experience with everyone so that we can all better understand what it’s like to live on a limited income.

Lisa Walsh with Northwoods Shares Thoughts on Preparing for the Challenge

So, I agreed to take the Food Stamp Challenge. It has been an interesting day or so since I agreed to do this. As I do with many things, I have gone through multiple stages in my thought process about how I am going to tackle this challenge.

Stage one: I began with a smug belief that this should be interesting and not too bad. I don’t eat meat. I am a thoughtful shopper and make good choices.

Stage two: Let’s make this interesting... I will try new recipes and cooking techniques.

Stage three: Reality sets in. I realized that I don’t cook much, eat out a lot, and don’t go to the grocery store often enough to really know what the price of many ingredients are.

Stage four: A flurry of recipe searches and meal planning to identify a few affordable ingredients that are very versatile, as well as options to provide multiple meals from a single recipe.

Stage five: I realized (with great angst) that I would need to accommodate my caffeine addiction while foregoing my usual snobby taste in coffee and tea.

Stage six: Complications! As I told people that I was doing the challenge, they started raising a whole host of new issues to consider, like “can you eat healthy for that amount per day?” and “but you’re doing it alone, so you don’t get to use bulk purchasing.” And the inevitable reminders from friends and family that I don’t cook.

Stage seven: It's just setting in that this is called a challenge for a reason. I just hope I’m up to meeting it.

Clearly the purpose of the challenge is to create an opportunity to “walk a mile in someone else's moccasin,” and even before I get started, I am thinking differently about role of food and planning for meals. In fact, I have put more time and thought into shopping, meal planning, and budgeting for food in the last 24 hours than I have in the last 2-3 years. So, I am preparing to put on those moccasins and walk this path knowing that I will look at many things differently in a few short days.

Poverty in America: Defining the New Poor

The following NPR article discusses the increase in food stamp recipients, with almost 15 percent of Americans on food stamps. The article goes on to say that more Americans depend on food assistance now than at any other time in modern history: 1 in 6 people, or almost 50 million Americans. Click here to read the article.

House Panel Okays $33 Billion in Food Stamp Cuts

As we embark on the Food Stamp Challenge and see how difficult it is to live on $23 for one week, we should keep in mind that things could get worse for low-income Americans if proposed cuts are made to the program as mentioned in this article.

From Cassandra Myers with Marion County/Ohio Heartland Community Action

I think it will be beneficial to "walk" in the shoes of our clients to get an idea of the daily struggles they are faced with.

Thoughts from Colleen Stoker in Preparing for the Challenge

In preparing for the Food Stamp Challenge I started paying closer attention to prices at the grocery store. Things are more expensive than I realized! This is going to be harder than I thought! I think the experience will give me a more realistic view of the challenges low-income people face.

Thoughts from Lorie McClain in Preparing for the Food Stamp Challenge

Thinking ahead to my week in May doing the Food Stamp Challenge has brought back memories of my childhood.  My mom stayed home and my father worked. He only had a ninth grade education, he had been in the military, but never served during war time so he was not a veteran. He worked 60 hour work weeks and took on side jobs to earn more using the job skill set that he had, which was in master carpentry. Both my parents were the product of the depression and of World War II both coming from large rural farm families. My parents met, married, and had four children. 

Growing up we had very little money. My father made too much for us to get assistance and to little for us to survive on. So my mother made sure we had clothes by making them, or we got hand-me downs from other family. Trust me when I say we wore no brand names and, other than tennis shoes at the beginning of the school year, very few brand new clothes. My mom was a good cook so she made the most out of the meals she made. We got help with food from our grandparents who were farmers. From my father’s dad we got red label bologna and some beef. From my mom’s parents we got a couple chickens for helping with the butchering of them, eggs, and then my grandparents would on the occasion forget that there were only two people left in their household and bought too much hamburger for them to use. 

All of this added up to my family having a meal on the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But the meals where simple and definitely not healthy and sometimes small. We would have meatloaf, spaghetti, rice pudding, and hamburger with cream of mushroom soup over toast, baked beans with hot dogs, and clean out the refrigerator night, which was the leftovers for the above meals. On Sunday was the big splurge we had chicken or pork with mashed potatoes and gravy, if it was butchering time for the cattle then we would have a few Sundays with beef. We always knew when things were tighter because we would have spaghetti without meat, only sauce, during the week and on Sunday. School lunch was PB&Jor bologna sandwiches and we carried a thermos with sweet tea (we never had anything else to drink). We never bought pop, candy, or chips, only needed foods. 

I look forward in May during the Community Action Month Food Stamp Challenge to seeing if it is still possible to cook some of the meals that my mother made us, or if I can find a way to make healthier meals, or if I will have to find a way to skip meals. The most interesting part is I have a month to think through a plan, which isn’t something that most food stamp recipients have.