Food Stamp Diet

About a year ago, when I was living in NYC and literally eating ramen noodles for days and days at a time I came upon this great article via The Gothamist called The (Organic) Thrifty Food Plan Challenge. Basically, it was inspiration from the USDA's Thrifty Food Plan (I'll provide link later) about how to provide healthy meals (mostly for children) on three types of budgets: liberal, moderate, low-cost. The last being more along the lines of food stamp aided budgets.

Honestly, I was pretty intrigued and I tracked Rebecca's progress in her challenge to eat organically on a budget of 320.80/mo for TWO adults. Her budget and inspiration also came from a recent article of the time about a few Congressmen who tried to live on the budget laid out by the USDA found below. The twist is that their budget was $21, the avg. amount of money given out by foodstamps per person/week :

Click for larger size.

So anyways, everyone who tried to do this seemed to succeed, and while sometimes difficult it is very doable. I found three blogs who fully documented everything they did and I really want to try this for several different reasons. It's a peek into how the other half lives and everyday struggles to put food on the table for a family (this will be slightly easier because I am just one person). Secondly, it will help me budget AND find ways to eat healthier. Now that I'm on my own it will be easier for me to try this. It will enable me to learn how to make inexpensive staples into something tasty. I will be forced to plan ahead and at times improvise.

Money is tight everywhere. Me, especially, but also with my parents. My mom was forced into early retirement because the land her washateria is on was sold and her landlord is not building another washateria. I don't want to ask for her help financially anymore, especially when I'm 22 and totally capable of living on my own financially by just learning how to budget and live within my means.

This will be tough because out of everything, I'm pretty liberal with grocery expenses..gotta stop that.. Wish me luck!