{"id":324,"date":"2015-05-17T15:49:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T19:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/?p=324"},"modified":"2015-05-17T16:38:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T20:38:56","slug":"the-29-food-stamp-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"The $29 food stamp challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I was compelled to take on the #FoodBankNYCChallenge<\/a> for one week.\u00a0 The challenge dictates that you try to live on $29 worth of groceries for seven days.\u00a0 And you can’t use stuff you already have sitting in the cupboard.\u00a0 With that in mind, it’ll take lots of strategic planning to make the dollar go far.\u00a0 Buying in bulk would give a better deal.\u00a0 When you buy in bulk, you’d end up eating the same thing pretty much at every meal, but you’ll make it through.\u00a0 A restricted budget means that you only eat to live, not live to eat.<\/p>\n

So this is what my $29 food stamp challenge haul looks like.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trader Joe’s<\/span>
\nInstant coffee: $3.99<\/p>\n

I realize that I can forget about the organic free trade non-fat soy latte brewed with whale tears from some trendy coffee house down the block overrun with hipsters.\u00a0 Because budget.\u00a0 Regardless, coffee is still an absolute must for me to be able to function in the morning. This is where instant coffee comes in.<\/p>\n

I thought about picking up produce there, but figured that I might find a cheaper price at Aldi or the ethnic markets.\u00a0 I know because I once brought a 2 pound bag of bananas from Aldi at an exorbitant price of 44 cents.<\/p>\n

Patel Brothers<\/span>
\nIndian bitter melon at 1.79\/lb: $1.58
\n1 pound bag of raisins: $2.99<\/p>\n

Subzi Mandi<\/span>
\nBox of spice mix: $1.29
\n1.25 pound bag of lentils: $2.49
\nDomestic garlic from California at 2.49\/lb: $0.60 (Because “hell to the naw” to Chinese garlic.)
\nPlum tomatoes at .79\/lb: $0.65<\/p>\n

Aldi<\/span>
\n2lb container of oatmeal: $2.49
\nHalf gallon almond milk: $2.39
\n3 pound bag of rice: $1.59<\/p>\n

Sadly the bananas and avocados were sold out so I had to go to a fifth market for fruits.\u00a0 Because the oatmeal need fruits.<\/p>\n

Yellowstone Farm<\/span>
\nBananas at .79\/lb: $2.29 (That comes to 0.38 per piece.\u00a0 Fuck, I should’ve gotten them at Trader Joe’s in the first place. Oh well.)
\nApples at .99\/lb: $0.93<\/p>\n

My meal plan will be oatmeal and fruits for breakfast. Lunch and dinner will be lentils and rice with a veggie side.\u00a0 The total cost of this shopping spree came to $23.28.\u00a0 This leaves me with $5.72 to come up with another side dish for the mid-week. I get the feeling the bitter gourd won’t last a whole seven days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I was compelled to take on the #FoodBankNYCChallenge for one week.\u00a0 The challenge dictates that you try to live on $29 worth of groceries for seven days.\u00a0 And you can’t use stuff you already have sitting in the cupboard.\u00a0 With that in mind, it’ll take lots of strategic planning to make the dollar go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterblacktea.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}