The hardest thing about this challenge is not being aware of what I eat. It's writing it down and pricing it. For the sake of brevity, I'll just document yesterday's menus, as they were quite similar to today's.
Breakfast
1 piece of toast w/ 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and 2 tomato slices. $.75
1 nectarine. $ 1.80.
Total cost: $2.25
Lunch
2 large carrots $.15
1 apple $1.09
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (bread ($.20), peanut butter ($.60), jelly ($.25)) $1.05
Total cost: $2.30
Snacks
1/4 c. almonds, 1/4 c raisins. $2.00
Dinner
Pre dinner snack--a few pretzels and 1 oz of cheddar cheese: $.95
2 black bean tacos w/ lettuce, salsa, and shredded cheese. $1.75 each
4 raspberry newtons $.56
Total cost: $3.26
So I spent $9.81 for food yesterday and, by my standards, I ate pretty little. I doubled the amount of almonds and raisins that I snacked on because I knew I was going to go work out in the afternoon. Still, I was famished by the time I got to the gym--somehow, exercise takes my mind off of that. But I usually snack on pretzels and some fresh cheese when I get home from the gym--at least until dinner is ready. I tried to refrain from that yesterday, which wasn't a huge deal, although I couldn't completely resist.
Some thoughts on the whole exercise coming this weekend.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
SNAP Challenge, Day Two
Okay, so I missed Day 1, but I'll come back to it. Yesterday, I made black beans, boiled pasta, took down some pesto and made bread for the week. The difficult part is pricing those things, by the serving. Here are some first-pass estimates.
For the bread, the entire cost is really the cost of flour. I get 2 loaves from about 2/5ths of a 5lb bag. So, $2.00 for 20 slices of bread--about $.10 a slice, plus a penny per slice for salt and yeast.
I made 2 13.2 oz boxes of pasta, for which the total cost was $3.40. There are about 6 servings in that amount for us--so about .$58 per serving.
For the pesto, we got the basil from the garden--actually, a friend harvested it from her garden at the condo we live in--so the cost of the pesto is the cost for 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup pine nuts, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. The prices for each of these, respectively, are $1.08, $3.99, and about $1.50, for a total of 6.50 for the batch. There are about 20 tablespoons in that batch--which is what I'll call a serving. So let's say the pesto (with "free" basil) is about $.33 per serving.
The black beans have only a few ingredients: the beans, onion, mushrooms, cumin, curry powder, and bullion. The beans are about $2.50 (2lbs), the onions, $2.25 (1.10 each), mushrooms $1.99 (8 oz.), and I'll add $1.00 for the spices and bullion, just to be conservative. There are at least 8 servings in this amount (again, conservatively), which makes for about $.97 per serving.
The prices below are from my calculations above and from guesstimates using the Peapod site. (I forgot to save my receipt from the shopping trip this weekend.)
So, here's today's Menu:
Breakfast
2 slices of toast, $.25
1 nectarine, $1.80
margarine, $.10
Total Cost: $2.15
Lunch
Pasta w/pesto $.90
2 large carrots $.15
1 large apple $1.09
Total Cost: $2.14
Snacks:
1/8 c. almonds, 1/8 c. raisins, $.80+.$.20
Balance bar -- $1.00
Total Cost $2.00
Dinner
1/5 package of baby greens $.75
2 oz tomato $.40
2 oz cucumber $.10
1 large carrot $.07
1 oz croutons $.26
5 Tablespoons cottage cheese $.60
2 Tablespoons dressing $.45
Total Cost $2.63
So, I ate pretty well today, but spent about $9.00 on food, about 30% above the daily amount for someone without income.
It is important to note that, because of my schedule today, I simply didn't have time to exercise. On normal days when I do, especially on harder workout days, I always eat a little more. I also haven't counted the 24 oz diet pepsi that I drink to get me going, nor the caffeine free diet pepsi that I drink in the afternoon. Both of those cost about $1, so you can add $2 to the total, which puts me at almost double the SNAP amount for a day.
For the bread, the entire cost is really the cost of flour. I get 2 loaves from about 2/5ths of a 5lb bag. So, $2.00 for 20 slices of bread--about $.10 a slice, plus a penny per slice for salt and yeast.
I made 2 13.2 oz boxes of pasta, for which the total cost was $3.40. There are about 6 servings in that amount for us--so about .$58 per serving.
For the pesto, we got the basil from the garden--actually, a friend harvested it from her garden at the condo we live in--so the cost of the pesto is the cost for 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup pine nuts, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. The prices for each of these, respectively, are $1.08, $3.99, and about $1.50, for a total of 6.50 for the batch. There are about 20 tablespoons in that batch--which is what I'll call a serving. So let's say the pesto (with "free" basil) is about $.33 per serving.
The black beans have only a few ingredients: the beans, onion, mushrooms, cumin, curry powder, and bullion. The beans are about $2.50 (2lbs), the onions, $2.25 (1.10 each), mushrooms $1.99 (8 oz.), and I'll add $1.00 for the spices and bullion, just to be conservative. There are at least 8 servings in this amount (again, conservatively), which makes for about $.97 per serving.
The prices below are from my calculations above and from guesstimates using the Peapod site. (I forgot to save my receipt from the shopping trip this weekend.)
So, here's today's Menu:
Breakfast
2 slices of toast, $.25
1 nectarine, $1.80
margarine, $.10
Total Cost: $2.15
Lunch
Pasta w/pesto $.90
2 large carrots $.15
1 large apple $1.09
Total Cost: $2.14
Snacks:
1/8 c. almonds, 1/8 c. raisins, $.80+.$.20
Balance bar -- $1.00
Total Cost $2.00
Dinner
1/5 package of baby greens $.75
2 oz tomato $.40
2 oz cucumber $.10
1 large carrot $.07
1 oz croutons $.26
5 Tablespoons cottage cheese $.60
2 Tablespoons dressing $.45
Total Cost $2.63
So, I ate pretty well today, but spent about $9.00 on food, about 30% above the daily amount for someone without income.
It is important to note that, because of my schedule today, I simply didn't have time to exercise. On normal days when I do, especially on harder workout days, I always eat a little more. I also haven't counted the 24 oz diet pepsi that I drink to get me going, nor the caffeine free diet pepsi that I drink in the afternoon. Both of those cost about $1, so you can add $2 to the total, which puts me at almost double the SNAP amount for a day.
Monday, September 5, 2011
SNAP Challenge, Meal Zero
This week, together with some friends from a reading group, I'm undertaking what's known as the SNAP challenge. The basic idea is to keep to a food budget consistent with the maximum benefit amount for a single person--$200 per month, or about $6.67 per day in September (which has 30 days). The point is to highlight some of the challenges--nutritional and otherwise--that low income persons face.
This benefit amount is what a single person with no income (and no assets) would receive in SNAP benefits. We chose it because otherwise the benefit amount would represent a supplement to some amount of income, a undetermined fraction of which could be spent on food. (FNS assumes that this will be .3, but it could be more or less than that.) By FNS (Food and Nutrition Service) thinking, a single person could eat a diet consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on this amount. As should be obvious, I'm not claiming to understand what it would be like to have no income--least of all, in a dietary sense. But I come in with the prior that I eat a good, though not extravagant, diet. And I wonder what I take for granted in this aspect of my life.
Another context for this is that SNAP has come to the attention of would-be budget cutters worried about our budget deficits. For example, Paul Ryan's budget would cut SNAP funding by 20% over ten years. About this, two comments. First, in general, the dire budget outcomes now agreed upon by almost everyone could be largely avoided by doing simple things, like scaling defense back to where it was in 2000 and letting the Bush tax cuts expire--for everyone. (I stole this point from Doug Henwood: http://lbo-news.com/2011/08/04/wild-budget-math/.) This rate of spending on defense would still leave us head and shoulders above anyone else in the world. Second, as the chart alongside shows, SNAP take-up has tracked alongside US macro cycles for the last 40 years. Like most of the government spending that people like to complain about these days, the increase in SNAP takeup has been automatic, a result of the federal government's role as countercyclical spender, not the profligacy of this (or any) administration.
It bears mentioning in this context that SNAP is a very effective program. Research by Yen et. al (2008), Depolt et. al (2010), Gundersen et. al (2009) and Ratcliffe and McKernan (2010)--among many others--shows that SNAP significantly reduces food insecurity. In addition, the error rate for SNAP benefits is around or below 5%, an enviable rate of administrative efficiency. (See http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Legislation/about.htm.)
I also like to note that while the trends in UE and SNAP are mostly parallel, the level of SNAP takeup starts to diverge from UE around 1985. In other words, there are lots more employed people receiving SNAP now than before 1985. The reasons for this are complicated, but surely the relative buying power of those who are employed but at the lowest quintiles of the income distribution has got something to do with it.
So, I go into this with the knowledge that I probably won't be able to live within the budget proposed--and certainly not 20% less than that. What I'm going to do is track and price what I eat, with an eye toward what this would mean for my health and energy level on a day-to-day basis.
Meal Zero: Dinner Sunday Sept. 4, 2011.
2 eggs ($.42)
3 links chicken sausage ($1.67)
4 oz. brussels sprouts ($1.19)
8 oz. diet, caffeine free soda (.16)
1/2 piece of fudge cake ($1.75)
Total cost: $5.19
So, okay, the fudge cake is a little over the top, but I'm moving into this gradually. Even without this expense, though, I would have spent $3.44, or almost 1/2 a day's allotment on dinner alone.
This benefit amount is what a single person with no income (and no assets) would receive in SNAP benefits. We chose it because otherwise the benefit amount would represent a supplement to some amount of income, a undetermined fraction of which could be spent on food. (FNS assumes that this will be .3, but it could be more or less than that.) By FNS (Food and Nutrition Service) thinking, a single person could eat a diet consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on this amount. As should be obvious, I'm not claiming to understand what it would be like to have no income--least of all, in a dietary sense. But I come in with the prior that I eat a good, though not extravagant, diet. And I wonder what I take for granted in this aspect of my life.
Another context for this is that SNAP has come to the attention of would-be budget cutters worried about our budget deficits. For example, Paul Ryan's budget would cut SNAP funding by 20% over ten years. About this, two comments. First, in general, the dire budget outcomes now agreed upon by almost everyone could be largely avoided by doing simple things, like scaling defense back to where it was in 2000 and letting the Bush tax cuts expire--for everyone. (I stole this point from Doug Henwood: http://lbo-news.com/2011/08/04/wild-budget-math/.) This rate of spending on defense would still leave us head and shoulders above anyone else in the world. Second, as the chart alongside shows, SNAP take-up has tracked alongside US macro cycles for the last 40 years. Like most of the government spending that people like to complain about these days, the increase in SNAP takeup has been automatic, a result of the federal government's role as countercyclical spender, not the profligacy of this (or any) administration.
It bears mentioning in this context that SNAP is a very effective program. Research by Yen et. al (2008), Depolt et. al (2010), Gundersen et. al (2009) and Ratcliffe and McKernan (2010)--among many others--shows that SNAP significantly reduces food insecurity. In addition, the error rate for SNAP benefits is around or below 5%, an enviable rate of administrative efficiency. (See http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/rules/Legislation/about.htm.)
I also like to note that while the trends in UE and SNAP are mostly parallel, the level of SNAP takeup starts to diverge from UE around 1985. In other words, there are lots more employed people receiving SNAP now than before 1985. The reasons for this are complicated, but surely the relative buying power of those who are employed but at the lowest quintiles of the income distribution has got something to do with it.
So, I go into this with the knowledge that I probably won't be able to live within the budget proposed--and certainly not 20% less than that. What I'm going to do is track and price what I eat, with an eye toward what this would mean for my health and energy level on a day-to-day basis.
Meal Zero: Dinner Sunday Sept. 4, 2011.
2 eggs ($.42)
3 links chicken sausage ($1.67)
4 oz. brussels sprouts ($1.19)
8 oz. diet, caffeine free soda (.16)
1/2 piece of fudge cake ($1.75)
Total cost: $5.19
So, okay, the fudge cake is a little over the top, but I'm moving into this gradually. Even without this expense, though, I would have spent $3.44, or almost 1/2 a day's allotment on dinner alone.
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