Monday, June 21, 2010

Food Stamp Challenge Update 5



Mrs. Roy stopped by Sam's and bought a few things a couple of days ago.  Then our son came home for Father's Day and brought two hungry friends so Mrs. Roy made a quick trip through the Winn-Dixie.  Here's how it went:

baked lay's (30 lunch size bags) - $10.88
18 eggs - 1.38
regular coffee - 6.98
decaf coffee - 9.57
splenda - 11.87
8 cans tuna - 8.88
3 bottles ketchup - 5.78
20 skinny cow ice cream sandwiches - 9.88

2 boxes of cereal - $5 (bogof)
mini marshmallows (to combine with the cereal for rice crispy treats) - 1.29

Then Mr. Roy forgot about the food stamp challenge and stopped at Winn-Dixie and picked up a few things - ground beef, texas toast and milk, spending $17.58

The bottom line is we have about $10 left to get us through the rest of the month.  Obviously, if we really were on food stamps, Mrs. Roy wouldn't have bought skinny cows or the rice crispy treat stuff or stocked up on ketchup and Mr. Roy wouldn't have stopped and just picked up whatever we wanted that day.  I don't know if we'll be able to make the $10 last until the end of the month but Mrs. Roy has learned it isn't as easy as it sounds and I'm enjoying the mental exercise and reading about the other folks doing the Challenge so it's all good. And just for the record, I'm not blaming Mr. Roy for anything; the poor man does have to put up with all my wacky ideas up close and personal.  He's a jewel; trust me.  (Katy over at the Non-Consumer Advocate had pretty much the same thing to say about her husband which made me smile and nod in agreement.)

The good news is that our neighbor came to the door this weekend with a bag of squash, a green pepper and a huge tomato from his garden.  Thank you, Lord, for good neighbors.  Mrs. Roy offered to give my son and his friends some of the squash and one of the friends told me, "We wouldn't even know what to do with fresh produce."  Mrs. Roy thought that was an interesting commentary on how these young folks are eating and spending their food dollar, especially in light of our Challenge.  Mrs. Roy and Mr. Roy may have to open a cooking school for upwardly mobile 20-somethings to teach them about what real food looks like but that discussion is for another post.

Also, we finished off the potatoes and squash Mrs. Roy bought at the farmer's market by cutting them into small chunks and roasting them with some onion and olive oil.  Yummy!  And no waste.

Finally, Mrs. Roy has a confession - we ordered pizza Saturday night (Mr. Roy said it was for Father's Day - knowing Mrs. Roy would refuse him nothing).  We got in the car a few minutes later and headed to the pizza parlor about a mile from our house.  As we approached, we noticed that the traffic lights weren't working and, sure enough, when we got to the drive up window, they confirmed they had no electricity, it had gone out just minutes after we placed our order, and our pizza was a gooey mess of warm dough and half melted toppings stuck somewhere on the conveyor belt inside their oven.  So Mr. Roy and I returned home, opened the freezer and pantry and prepared ourselves an alternate meal with items already bought and paid for.  Yes, we were weak and sad about maintaining the Food Stamp Challenge but the Good Lord took care of it for us and helped us stay on track.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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