Posted on 06/01/2007 5:27:07 PM PDT by Huntress
“Although I did not suffer hunger pangs, but I did feel light-headed one night during yoga...(which I pay $45 a pop to attend; money that could be well spent on feeding my insular, leftist little family that will never know the value of a shrinking dollar.)”
There. I feel better now, LOL!
I managed to feed an a-typical family of six (three adults, three boys) for $175/month for a decade!
Articles like this are SUCH BS. And none of my kids are fat, or have their hair or teeth falling out from “poor nutrition.”
I’ve done my job. :)
This is so utterly ridiculous I don’t even know what to say.
I would absolutely ADORE having a budget of $130 a week to feed my family of 3. I am quite capable of feeding us all on that, with the exception of perishables, for a month.
“Accepting food stamps forces you to cook.”
Oh, Man-o-Man! Such a target-rich environment. I wish I had the time to fillet this entire article, but I think I’ve made my point. Yeesh! No wonder this country is going down the tubes. We can’t even FEED ourselves fer Pete’s Sake! It requires “cooking!”
Oh, the Humanity!
I must be from another planet. What happened to people who grew their food and picked wild berries etc. My mother has records from 1945 to 1949...her most expensive MONTH was $3.93. Sugar, flour salt and coffee. I could survive by growing food in my back yard...yep canning and preserving for the winter. This article is STUPID
Thanks, that was my question.
I just shared this article with my husband and had him laughing. He’s so proud of me now! I feed our family of 5, almost 6(does it count that I’m eating for 2?), on $400 a month. That includes household items like diapers, razor blades and cleaners, etc. It’s not easy and started off with some really boring meals. But as the months go by we add new, inexpensive meals to our favorite list to rotate. One of our favorites is 3 can soup. Black beans, corn and rotell tomatoes. Add a couple of cheese quesadillas and my kids are cheering! :o)
Toads in the hole out of the “artisan bread”?
Sounds good to me, the really funny thing was that this purveyor of modern technology was having trouble making recipes and shopping lists.
Err, even the oldest and clunkiest home PC can do that job in a jiffy as well as finding recipes online if things get dull. And all of that Salmon, my goodness, what about Tuna Casserole? Toast up the artisan bread in rub it with garlic then add butter.
And what about good old pouncake?
She was so used to buying the primo items, that she didn’t have too many skills I bet she didn’t make pancakes beforehand either.
“Canned I just will not eat.”
That’s the only “snobby” thing about me. Generally I’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat me first, LOL!
However, I have THREE food-related things to be a “snob” about. I MUST have liquid Hazelnut Coffee Creamer (much cheaper than buying “gourmet” coffee; it makes the cheapest coffee taste good) and I have to have Scott Brand TP...it’s just the BEST value for the dollar, and if I can’t grow and flash-freeze enough veggies for us due to a bad growing season, I have to have fresh or frozen, too. I can’t stand canned veggies, either.
Other than that, I’m cool. ;)
Yeah, but you know how to cook. Try feeding your family on a budget when you don’t know enough to either buy whole milk, or add some other kind of fat to the short cakes. And yogurt on strawberry shortcake? That’s the kind of trick I pull when I want my husband to take me out to dinner.
Searching for the definition of a “biga” has to be one of the most enlightening experiences I’ve had in a while. Thank you, can’t wait to try this!
As someone else has already pointed out, most communities have some form of a food bank where they can grab some extras.
So, let’s see. Two adults for 21 meals plus 11 meals for two children is a total of 64 meals per week. $129.50 / 64 = $2.02 per portion per meal or just over $8 per meal for the family of four.
According to the list I made from the sale ads this week for the stores in my neighborhood, the first has canned vegetables at 3/$1, top round steak for $1.99/lb, carrots 2 lb for 99¢, and eggs for 99¢/doz.
The second has avocados 3/$1, green onions 2/$1, and cilantro 3/$1.
The third has chicken tenders for $1.99/lb and split chicken breast for 99¢/lb.
The fourth store has Vienna sausages 3/$1, Hormel or Wolfe Brand chili 10/$7 (!), “ham portions” for 99¢/lb, and Vidalia onions 3 lb for $2.99.
The fifth store doesn’t have anything worth getting excited over.
Nobody has milk on for a decent price this week, but they have been alternating weeks with milk prices lately. Last week, it was $2.50 per gallon at two stores.
Add a sack of rice, one of beans, some corn meal, some flour, and a couple of cans of tomatoes and broth for variety, and I think I could feed a family of four for way less than $129.50.
“Add a couple of cheese quesadillas and my kids are cheering!”
It’s a total myth that kids are “picky eaters.” They are if you RAISE them that way. Duh!
For years, I’d ask my son what he wanted for lunch. His answer was always, “A PBJ sandwich cut it TRIANGLES, a cut up apple, some yogurt and a glass of milk.”
Since I’m from a ‘Straight-off-the-Bratwurst Boat’ German family, I always had Liverwurst Sandwiches as a kid for lunch. When Dad hit the “Big Time” and we moved on up in Life, we switched to Oscar Mayer Braunschwager. What an absolute LUXURY, LOL!
Stop off for just one fancy latte on your way to work or grab a burger and fries for lunch and you’re likely to blow through that amount, the maximum food stamp benefit for a single person, and go hungry for the rest of the day.
***
Well, if you don’t drink a latte or buy junkie fast food and invest in 5 lbs flour, 5 lbs cornmeal, gallon of milk, bag of dry beans and on sale family packs of meat divided up into meal portions, you can make it! The problem is people want to eat fish sticks and tbones instead of actually like they are *gasp* poor!!
I am NOT on food stamps, feed a family of 7 on $100 a week and we eat well. When chicken breast are on sale for .98 a lb, I buy about $20 worth and split it up. Same for pork, beef and other meats. Then I actually COOK THE MEALS FROM SCRATCH.
So instead of spending money on more free food, maybe we should be spending money on required cooking classes. I see people in front of me buying Chips Ahoy and other high price cereal. Must be nice, we eat oatmeal.
I was on food stamps for a while and I sure made it last. It is a necessary thing TEMPORARILY, but you shouldn’t expect to get some latte’s and burger and fries.
Stupid people.
I get so mad at people talking about the ‘starving America’ and homeless people. There is NO reason that someone in this country should starve. You can buy a can of soup for .50 and a loaf of bread for a dollar. You can beg for $5.00 a day (and plenty keep up their crack/alchohol/meth habit by begging, why not for food???) and live well. Might not live like you WANT, but there is that option of a job!
I bet some of you know how to stretch a dollar until it squeals and still make something yummy. I admit to being jealous of women who have a family of 7 and can feed them on $50 a week.
***
Yep, I spend $100, but could make it on $50 if I needed to.
LOL! My son would live on PBJ if I let him. I try to offer a little more variety. Just a little...PBJ is so easy!
I’d like to have the recipes from the woman that feeds her family of 7 on $50 a week!! I’m not very creative.
The welfare program as it was intended to be rather than what it has become.
I guess I don’t get the condescending tone. Sounds like how it would go down in my house as well. I felt extremely guilty by mid-article, because I set aside $100 a week for my lunches, snacks and drinks at work alone. Mrs. Melas tells me that she’d be thrilled to death if we could bring our monthly grocery spending down to a grand for our family of four. That would be only be around $3 a meal per person. A mark we miss by a long shot. One steak or shrimp dinner during the week and you’ve used up the cash for 6 meals. I can’t fathom how anyone could eat for $5 a day. Maybe one meal for $5 if they were careful, but all three?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.