Two-Thirds Done

Long-overdue post. After a couple small shopping trips over the last 1.5 weeks, we have left to spend $51.... about $2.50 per person per day over the next 10 days.  Basically, we po (no, not this, but this).

Although, we should be fine.  We purchased a lot of dry goods, soups, and canned goods at the last two shopping trips.  The only thing we need to replenish imminently is bread. We go through a lot of bread!

Where has all the money gone?
Jan 31: $83 (first shopping trip)
Feb 4: $13 (super bowl trip)
Feb 8: $38 at Schnuck's (second real trip)
Feb 9: $7 - Jeff forgot his lunch and got fast food, hungrily consuming two person's equivalent food budget.
Feb 12: $26 at Trader Joe's
Feb 15: $33 at Trader Joe's
Feb 18: $3 contribution to group mardi gras pizza order

Our goal is not to make another (and our last) shopping trip until much later in the week.

It is certainly difficult to maintain a balanced diet on $4 per day, and this challenge is really bringing home the struggles faced by individuals and families receiving food stamps. One thing I realized today is how challenging it must be to not purchase food in bulk or make fewer, but larger-intake shopping trips.  Living on a limited and defined budget essentially disallows these shopping behaviors that is pretty customary in America. This is a real shame, because buying in bulk at Costco, Sam's, etc, can be more economically efficient.  But, if the money isn't in your EBT account to buy a 3 ton bag of cereal or 40 pounds of crackers, even though this would last for months, you just can't do it.  Perhaps food stamps can be structured in a way that participants can receive one lump sum to last a couple of months? This might encourage more efficient grocery shopping... but, at the same time, some participants might not utilize or prorate the large payment responsibly.

I've never really liked using American Cheese on sandwiches for whatever reason (although, love it on burgers and grilled cheese), so my sandwiches have been pretty boring with just sodium-lovers oscar mayer prepackaged meats. Looking forward to getting some good deli meat and cheese from the counter at Schnuck's.

The challenge's constraining factor to our kitchen is starting to wear on us. St Louis is a city with soo many great restaurants, and we usually dine out once a week or so. I had a pretty great urge to just get up and go to a restaurant today, but it just wasn't in the cards.  So, I assembled a list of St Louis restaurants by neighborhood that we haven't yet visited, which helped things a bit. I've already made plans for March 1: Lunch at Protzel's (my favorite St Louis restaurant), and dinner at Farmhaus, which is supposed to be excellent.

A couple nights ago, we made one of my favorite dinners yet.  I found on sale at Trader Joe's a pack of 6 chicken drumsticks for $2.75!  We also mashed a large potato and used a 69 cent can of corn.