In honor of Hunger Action Month, I am once again taking on the SNAP Challenge from September 15 – 21. With cuts to the SNAP funding last November, we were left with even less to work with this year. The goal was to work with $4.25 per person for each day, giving us $59.50 to work with. This is $3.50 less than what we had last year when we completed the Challenge. It doesn’t seem like much, but $3.50 could have gotten us quite a bit more food.

The $59.50 must cover everything we eat or drink in the next week – this means no going out; no free food from family, friends, or coworkers; and no running to the store mid-afternoon for a snack. Any food that you currently have in the house is out-of-bounds, with the exception of spices and condiments.

Planning for this year’s SNAP Challenge was way more stressful that last year. On top of a more limited budget, I had to figure out how to feed both of us while we’re living in two cities, meaning I had to come up with meals that I could prep ahead of time and leave behind for Mike. I’ve also become a lot less aware of how much I was spending on groceries these past few months and I’ve fallen out of the habit of menu planning. I did my best and ended with the following menu plan:

Dinner:
Spinach & tofu lasagna rolls
Chicken taco soup
Peanut butter noodles with chicken and veggies
Pasta with zucchini in a lemon-yogurt sauce

All lunches, as usual, would be dinner leftovers. Some dinners would be leftovers as well. This plan follows pretty closely what I do on a weekly basis – make a few dinners that we eat for several meals.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with raisins
Greek yogurt with agave
Regular fruit yogurt
Peanut butter toast

Snacks:
Celery/carrots with peanut butter
Apples
Toast with peanut butter

We did most of our shopping at Aldi, as I’ve found that it’s the most economical option out there. I ended up getting two things from the Asian grocery store near our house, since Aldi doesn’t carry ginger or tofu. Here’s the breakdown of what we bought:

Produce:

• Cilantro: 0.69
• Onions: 1.79
• Celery: 0.49
• Avocados (2): 0.49 each
• 3 pack of garlic: 0.79
• Baby spinach: 1.79
• Granny smith apples: 3.29
• Lemons: 2.29
• Bananas: 1.20
• Carrots: 0.99
• Ginger: free (from the Asian grocery store -this always happens when I get the 1″ nubs of ginger)
• Corn (3): 1.00 (from farmers’ market)

Dairy:

• Extra sharp cheddar: 1.99
• Individual yogurt cups (4): 0.39 each
• Parmesan: 1.99
• Low fat cottage cheese: 2.29
• Plain nonfat Greek yogurt tub: 3.89

Protein:

• Eggs: 1.15
• Chicken breasts: 5.99
• Firm tofu: 1.79 (from Asian grocery store)

Canned/dried:

• Natural creamy peanut butter: 1.49
• Diced tomatoes (2): 0.59 each
• Black beans (2): 0.59 each
• Tomato sauce: 0.25
• Tortilla chips: 1.69
• Spaghetti sauce: 0.99
• Agave: 2.49
• Old fashioned oats: 2.29
• Whole grain spaghetti (2): 0.89 each
• Lasagna noodles: 1.49
• Lemon juice: 1.89
• Raisins: 2.89
• Whole wheat bread: 1.29

Total: $56.85 ($2.65 left)

What we picked from the garden: the few tomatoes we had left, two small bell peppers, hot peppers, and zucchini.

I think I did OK, but I won’t really be able to tell until the week is over. I will admit that I had a minor meltdown while we were shopping because I realized that I hadn’t planned for enough meals. I had to figure out another meal last-minute and hack off a bunch of “extras” we had on our list like coffee (Mike willingly gave this up!), almonds, peanuts, and more fruit and vegetables.