By now everyone has heard about Oregon Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and his wife, attorney Mary Oberst who are going to try to live on the standard food stamp allocation of $3 per person per day . Marilyn and I had been thinking about third world diets for quite a while and thought that this might be a good opportunity to try the American equivalent for a week and at the same time see how difficult this really is. We think this will be challenging eventhough we are good, inventive cooks and totally omnivorous.
It is Saturday April 28, 2007 and we will start the diet tomorrow. We went shopping today. We gave ourselves $41 dollars to spend. We used the other dollar as a contribution to the pantry. The pantry deserves a short explanation. We assume that, over a longer period and for two people, one could spend a dollar a week and keep ones basic spices, salt, pepper, vinegar, baking powder and soda in supply. Here is how we spent our money:
milk gallon $ 2.59
coffee 12 oz $ 4.99
peanut butter 18 oz $ 1.49
jelly 18 oz $ 1.19
flour 5 lb $ 1. 09
oil 48 oz $ 1.59
eggs dozen $ 1.00
beans (dried) 1 lb $ .59
rice 1 lb $ .89
onions 3 lb $ 2.79
carrots 1 lb $ .99
chicken (thighs) 3.46 lb $ 4.12
cheese 1 lb $ 3.00
smoked sausage .93 lb $ 1.99
sugar 2 lb $ 1.12
can beets 14 oz $ .49
can stewed tomatos 14 oz $ .49
can mixed greens 27 oz $ 1.49
butter 1 lb $ 1.99
cabbage 1.41 lb $ .69
breaded fish 8 pcs 19 oz $ 1.99
tea 40 bags $1.99
corn muffin mix small box $ .25
red pepper .5 lb $ .79
Total $39.60
A few caveats:
We have chickens and we are using our own eggs. We used the best price for a dozen from the store.
We bake our own bread and desserts ... thus the large amount of flour.
We are not eating from our garden this week ... things will keep.
I work but Marilyn is at home. Preparation times are irrelevant.
We did our shopping at three different stores, not too far apart but not realistic if you did not have access to a car. The cost and variety would have shifted if we were limited to one market. Protein sources were much cheaper at the extreme value chain (Save-a-Lot) but staples were cheaper using the value brand at the standard chain (Giant Eagle).
Marilyn bets we will need the remaining $1.40 for milk since she drinks copious amounts of tea and would rather die than not have milk for her tea.
Today's jobs: soak the beans and get the starter ramped up for the bread.
Paul
2 comments:
As for "ramping up the starter" do you have a special starter recipe?
No special recipe. My starter is 5+ years old and was just 50% un-chlorinated water and 50 % whole wheat flour left in a 70+F room until it started to bubble. From here, follow and instructions on the web for refreshing and using a sourdough starter. See: http://www.thefreshloaf.com for a community of support.
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