I was with 3 of my long time friends yesterday and one of them told me that a friend of hers lost her job and gets unemployment and food stamps $17 of food stamps to be exact. My first thought was what can you buy with $17 ??? So we made a game out of it and came up with some very good ideas. Of course $17 will not feed a person for 30 days but if it's used wisely it sure can help. Each of us pretended that we had only $20 to spend for a week we had to have 3 meals a day. some of the things we came up with were: rice, beans, peanut butter, jelly, bread, oatmeal,eggs, a whole chicken to bake then make soup out of the bones. a bag of apples, various vegetables, potatos. These are a few things that we had on our lists of course this cost more than $20 but it was a very interesting conversation. As a side note I asked two men the same question and their first item was meat all the women said a carb for the first item. So what would you buy for $20???

eggs are an inexpensive protein and are very versatile

eggs, rice, beans, oatmeal, apples, carrots and potatoes.
I have had to help many low income families and Sr.s do just this. Is NOT easy. She will be hard pressed to make it stretch for sure. After all, her $17 of food stamps is for a MONTH, not a week! The man across the st. from us is raising 3 small kids on his own. He gets only $100 a month in food stamps! Try to feed your family of 4 on that!

A lot of communities have "food banks" or "needlines" that she might be able to get some food items from also.

Hopefully she already has the staples of flour, sugar, seasonings etc. Nothing preprocessed is cheap so its all from scratch now.

I bought eggs Friday and they were 2.00 a dozen. When did they get so high? I about fell over!!! :?:

what you get in food stamps is to "help" you buy food, not to be a complete subsidy for everything you need.

I've thought about it -

is one of the assumptions that she/he/they still have a means to cook whatever?

When the pickings get really slim - the power and other utitlitieis get cut off.

My MIL told me that they went dumpster diving to eke out their food (about 1935)

Pinto beans,Rice,Bacon,lg.Ragu,lg.Spaghetti noodles,Oatmeal,Eggs,Chicken thighs,Sm.Flour to bread the chicken with and make gravey. 8-)

ramen, tomato sauce, eggs, 1 pound hamburger, generic bisquick for topping, cream soup, rice, beans, spaghetti noodles, 1 loaf bread,

bread -$1 Dollar Tree
2 cream of soup, 49 cents ea, Aldi $1
1 pound hamburger, separate into 4 servings $2
bisquick topping, $1
eggs, Aldi's $1.50
rice, 1 pound $1
black beans and pinto beans, $3
spaghetti noodles $1
generic spaghetti sauce $2, 2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans mixed veggies, $1
oatmeal $2.50

That's the end of my money, oatmeal for breakfast, egg sandwich for lunch or ramen noodles, supper is spaghetti or hamburger/bisquick casserole, or beans and rice.
It would make a week, but barely for 1 person.

There was a show on this a while back & it showed how much perfectly good food was taken from dumpsters. In NY there are "clubs" of people who have jobs & make good money & still go dumpster diving regularly for food & bring back all kinds of stuff. The one man on the show said that when he gets home he wipes down the food or containers/bags/boxes with mild bleach to remove any bacteria on the pkging & his family eats what they find & when he finds good stuff that he doesn't need (other merchandise) he sells it on Ebay, etc.

I would dive into the reduced bins to see what was marked off. I did this recently & picked up several bags of organic meals for $1.50 each.

My thoughts exactly. A temporary helping hand...

We all could do better spending our money. Everything is getting way overpriced. I use coupons when I can.

oh deleted my rant

What I bought would depend on what is on sale-- and what coupons I can find. When I was first married, I had $20 for groceries for the month for the two of us. I would buy what I could get discounted, but we ate grilled cheese and hot dogs a lot (since they were cheap). With the rising prices of everything and the increased withholding from our retirement income, I am having to start counting my pennies again.

yet

Beans, lentils and dried peas are a cheap, healthy base to build on. Soups, chili, lentil sloppy joe's, salads, and burritos are a few of the meals you can make with them. I would add brown rice next, oats, peanut butter, potatoes, onions, and then whatever veggies and fruits are in season. Right now squash and apples are in season and cheap.
Avoiding the processed crap is a lot cheaper and healthier. As a long-time vegetarian, I can tell you that eating healthy can be done on a limited budget if you eat a whole foods plant-based diet.

wk 1. 5$ worth of any meat on sale, 5$for flour and yeast, 5$ for any fresh veggies/fruit on sale, 5$ for onsale/cheapest pnut butter and butter, cheapest eggs on sale (use the eggs to cook with, not for hard boiled or eating everyday)

wk 2. 5$ any meat on sale, 5$ worth of noodles on sale, 5$ for 5 1$ store brand spices: onion pd, garlic pd, italian spice mix, cinnamon, any other I liked. (I would think everyone has salt and pepper)

wk 3. 5$ any meat on sale, 5$ any canned veggies on sale (we currently have a store selling peas, corn, tomatoes, grn beans for .50C a can), 5$ cheapest process cheese on sale, 5$ sugar on sale, if any money left here cheapest tea bags on sale.

wk 4. 5$ canned or dried beans (canned black beans can be crushed w/ a fork and mixed in by half with ground meat to make burgers, meatloaf, or meatballs - any leftover veggie can be added here if ground down or added to a pot of soup) / lentils/barley on sale, 5$ canned tuna/salmon on sale, 5$ coffee on sale (only if you can't live w/o it - I cant!), 5$ for as much boullion I could get on sale chicken, beef, ham, vegetable bases)

you should also work in some breakfast cereal like slow cook oatmeal, some dried fruits, some concentrated on sale store brand juices, store brand cream soups, basic all purpose vitamins. make a list of everything and then break it down with store flyers, if you shop and see something you have for next week to buy, on close out now buy it instead, switch out, be flexible.
all processed food (except for the cheese) is off the list! milk is only necessary for small kids and babies, buy vitamin D, in the long run its cheaper -

go to the library or online and find some basic cookbooks, if you dont know how to cook then learn - it actually is cheaper when you have a stocked cupboard (with the basics for spices, flours , sugars etc) to cook at home. Find a cookbook that says meals in 5 or 4 ingredients or less. you re not going for gourmet here, you want to eat the cheapest most nutritious you can on 20$ a week.

Find out how many calories you actually need to live and cut back on the food, never waste a mouthful and dont throw away leftovers. If you do it properly you shouldnt have leftovers.

Living like this isn't a game, there are so many people having to live day to day now lie this - a lot of them never had to before and are a bit shell shocked by it all. sharet

I would buy a box of oatmeal, a package of noodles, a small bag of rice, a small package of cheese slices, a loaf of bread, a couple of onions, one pound of hamburger, a couple of small cans of tomato sauce and a couple of cans of tomato soup.

Menus for the week would be oatmeal for breakfast. Neither of us eat lunch so suppers would be noodle goulash, grilled cheese and tomato soup and rice mess.

Rice mess is rice, a little bit of hamburger and tomato sauce and seasonings.

I lived on a pretty limited food budget when my kids were growing up. We got paid once a month so I had to really make things stretch.

Nobody has mentioned planting something to eat. You can raise a little food stuffs in planter pots even. And grow some around flowers in their beds. Then there's dandelions that can be dug up, cut low and replanted in pots or planter beds where dogs don't get to.
Onion roots can be replanted and re-grow for the rest of your life, as do most all of that family. Tomatoes and other veggies can be planted..save a few seeds of some you buy.

The present POTUS promised that the energy rates would necessarily skyrocket after he got into office, he meant it. This affects the prices in the stores.....everything has to be transported and guess who pays in the end.
In an emergency, the grocery stores only store 3 days worth of food....when it's gone, it's gone. Anyone who can build up a stash of basic food supplies, should. Add extras for friends who aren't able to. We need to become more self sufficient as some before me has eluded to.

If you can stock up on basics like every kind of dried bean known to man and rice, flour, oil, sugar, salt and pepper, you will eat hearty.

I don't mean to alarm anyone but it's going get worse before it gets better. Ramona, I think you know where I'm coming from here.

Just wish I had thought to plant cotton....whew, the prices!

Our kids gave us a Food Saver sealer thingamajig for Christmas. When I see sugar, flour, beans, noodles of any kind, gravy & sauce packets, rice, powdered milk, Oatmeal, tea bags, coffee, dried fruits,I stock up and come home and seal them in sm portions. Anytime I find canned goods on sale, & they have a long exp. date, I buy as many as I can. I am thinking of trying to dehydrate some frozen veggies & see how those work. I also think some very lean times may be ahead. We will not be eating gourmet, but we will eat.

Wow you all came up with some very good ideas. Esp planting a garden! Thanks for all of your input.

wow going by what others think she should eat, I certainly hope this woman is healthy now..she won't be eating most of these suggestions.

she also needs to learn what will keep her fuller longer. That is HARD proteins! NO sugar, no starchy carbs, no caffeinne...eggs are great, but can be costly. Tuna is good and Salmon.

always sounds so FUN and exciting, but gardening is NOT easy nor cheap! As for saving seeds from things you buy..NOT a good idea..they are usually grown from Genetically modified plants and will not grow from those seeds..they are not meant to reproduce! they are also treated with chemicals that alter them, so again. usually will not grow!
IF you want to garden it takes months of reading,planning and hard work. Even just a pot of tomatoes can be hard to grow if you don't know your zone, your climate, what species to get, etc.

and then there is Mother nature..who decided to ruin the gardens of even the heartiest of gardeners this year..thus by forcing us to not be able to put up anything at all despite our months of planning and hard work!

I don't think you can dehydrate produce that is already frozen..it has already lost most of its nutritional value already. Best to by fresh on sale and then dehydrate..but even then, most of what we get at the store as "fresh" is already a week old and has lost most of its nutritional values as well!

actually frozen vegs are as nutritious as fresh - maybe more so, as they are frozen immediately, compared to the "fresh" in the store which has been sitting around, as you said.

I think you can eat pretty healthy and cheaply if you eliminate meat, soda, junk food, and most processed or convenience foods. I am amazed at what people pay for a little frozen meal, lean cusisine or such. And when I have a coupon for a free one, I open it up and DH says, where is the rest of it?

We have been doing this for over 6 months, lost a little weight, learned alot and have built up a good 6 month stash of food as we are told to do. You do need sugar, salt, powdered milk, spices, then on to rice, several kinds, beans, many kind with differing amounts of protein, canned meats, tuna, potato flakes from the Amish store, onion flakes, oatmeal,all from the Amish store, they know how to store food as they store for a year. If you go online, they have a list of what you need to store for 4 people for 3, y6, 9, 12 month. Amazing how much you need. Oh yes gelatin, all kinds. Honey, large Amt. as it can heal wounds and act as a natural anti-biotic. Look into survival needs, it could save your life.

At WM, they ususally wheel out the day old bakery items in the AM- they are usually marked at 40% off. The way I look at it is, if I bought the bread the day before at full price and didn't eat it, it would still be the same as if I buy it today off the reduced cart. Slice and freeze for french toast, garlic bread, sandwiches, etc. I also save leftover bread pieces for when I make meatloaf. One pound of dry beans will yield more than enough for a huge batch of chili and then some left over for putting in a casserole or even tacos. I starting adding black beans to taco meat to increase fiber and decrease meat intake.
They should also check out the local food bank for additional help with the food and sometimes they help with budgeting and other financial things like electricity and gas programs.

I was at a Walmart and the produce guy was picking out tomatoes with blems, I said are you going to mark those down, I can use them for cooking. He said, no, we have to throw them out. grrrrrrr.....

not nutritonal- but along the line of your grrr; my dd used to work at a coffee shop- high end- and at the end of the week any coffee, no matter the type, had to be thrown out when the bins were emptied, cleaned and refilled. some of that coffee was $50.00 a lb; others @ maybe 7-10 a lb. my point is all that, and produce from stores across our nation could be helping folks in need. and we realize there are a lot of folks in need nowadays.

The biggest cheapest bag of beans, protein and carbs. I would also try and glean if I was that person.

You are so right!

how does that food saver work out for you? I've been thinking of getting one as a "Christmas present from santa to the family". are the sealing bags expensive when you run out? are they the kind you can put in boiling water to heat stuff up? I think my mom had one, but I was alrady living out of state and never asked her about it - didnt even really know it until after she and dad died and it went away by people cleaning out the house. sharet

Veggies for soup, corn bread mix and pinto beans.

she gets a dollor more in food stamps than I do. It is hard but can be done.

Box of shotgun shells, box of 30-30s.

I have been spoiled the last few years...

But there were years that were slim. We got by with small amounts of cash to buy things like flour and sugar because we raised a garden and my husband likes to fish. Wrong time of year to raise the food, I know...

Are you all aware that the amount of Food Stamps you get is based on your income?

My mother always had a tupperware type container in the freezer, and always tossed in that "last" tablespoon of corn, peas, potatoes, meats....,.just about everything...then when it was full we always had the most delicious stew...never knew what was going to be in there, but it was something about all of those flavors..it was always good, and just about free!