Cory Booker, Food Stamps, And What I Would Have Bought

Floating around on the edge of my attention these last few days has been that mayor in New Jersey....wait, I'll go look it up....Cory Booker.  Here he is:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/cory-booker-food-stamp-challenge_n_2250692.html .  He's decided to see if he can live off of the equivalent of a food stamp budget for a week.  $27.98.  I for one appreciate his effort--it's amazing to me how many people have no idea whatsoever what it's like to be poor.

But when I saw the picture of what he'd bought, this blog post was born.

Bagged lettuce?  Lots of produce and (were those brand name?) canned veggies and beans?  ORGANIC OLIVE OIL? (gasp)

Mr. Booker obviously needs more practice.

So I've decided to conduct a little experiment of my own.  Only on paper (or it's electronic equivalent).  I'll be a vegetarian (because Mr. Booker is).  And while I understand the concern over pesticides and preservatives, on food stamps one cannot afford to be choosy.  Generic is the way to go here.

And since things cost more in New Jersey than they do here (in Indiana), after a miniscule amount of internet research, I've taken one quarter off the budget.  This is a $21.00 budget.  One dollar per meal.

So here is tomorrow's shopping list:

1 box ramen noodles
2 bunches bananas (not organic)
1 package brown rice (store brand)
1 box spaghetti (store brand)
1 jar spaghetti sauce (store brand)
2 heads lettuce (not bagged)
1 bottle salad dressing (store brand)
1 large package eggs (store brand)
4 bottles generic soda pop

When I go shopping tomorrow, I'll take a notebook to keep track of the amounts/numbers of items and prices.  Then I'll total it up, come home, and figure out how many calories per day it is.

Here's my tentative weekly menu plan.  It's boring.  I'd think that even if I could shop for two weeks instead of one (isn't SNAP (used to be called food stamps) disbursed monthly?), I could vary this diet considerably.

BREAKFAST:

4 eggs, 1 banana.  Every day.

LUNCH:

2 packages ramen noodles (it's just as good as a can of corn and a can of peas mixed).  Yes, every day.

DINNER:

Brown rice, and salad with dressing, or
Spaghetti with sauce, and salad with dressing

I warned you, it's a boring menu.  I'm glad I don't have to feed my kids on this budget.  Sometimes I'm pretty close--I've got about $150/week for a family of six.  But hopefully, Mr. Booker wouldn't be too hungry on this diet.  And I've even allowed him one luxury--caffeine.  Mr. Booker and I share an addiction, and I sympathize with him.

So we'll see how this goes tomorrow at the grocery store.  I also have to mention food banks here.  I don't know much about New Jersey, but here we have them everywhere.  At a food bank, I might get one small bag of groceries as an individual.  That would be an important bag.  My family has relied on food banks for a long time.  Many you can only visit once a month, but after eating ramen noodles for lunch every. single. damn. day., I'm sure I'd be thrilled about that bag.  Ooh!  Ooh!  Creamed Corn!  Yams!  Ooh!  Cranberry Sauce.  Cool!

And finally, here are a couple of links to past blog posts of mine that are somewhat related to this topic:

http://debsisland.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-end-of-world-as-we-know-it.html

and

http://debsisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-save-money-when-you-dont-have.html

Tomorrow I'll let you know how I did at the store!