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.