Day 4 (I'm late to the party.)

Okay so first off, this "thing" my roommate and I are doing is allegedly called 'The Food Stamp Challenge.'

Now, that's all fine and good. But my stomach is not.

Seriously (and this may be TMI, so you could easily ignore this paragraph... like right now, I am giving you that opportunity) I have been in severe gastrointestinal duress since about 3 am on Thursday. I think my body is sick of essentially only eating rice and beans. It woke me up, made my classes hell, made eating even less fun, and refuses to be quelled. I spent one class doodling delicious foods instead of taking notes and in the evening I had hot water (because I can't afford tea). Somewhere in the margins of my notebook are a series of complaints about my current situation.

Hardships aside, I'm not giving this thing up. Yes, it will be hard at work today to avoid all the delicious, nutritious goodies that are freely available to me. But it will also be so rewarding when I've proved how ridiculous it is that my 'Food Stamp Challenge' is other people's 'life.'

Day 3 - $28/week

Today was going fairly well, I powered through the temptations of endlessly free pastries and such at work. (I haven't even had coffee in three days... I'm a barista, you guys.) It was at dinnertime that tragedy struck:

Two of my suspiciously cheap frozen meals proved to be moldy.

Now, I'm a big girl- I can laugh it off, pull out a third frozen meal, and continue to watch Scandal on Netflix with my roommate... but imagine those people who can't just toss that food and chalk up the $3.38 as money back in the bank to spend on a new dinner plan for the next two nights. What would they do?

This is a real issue. I mean, my roommate and I are both fairly petite (don't get me wrong- we can really eat, but still) and we've been hungry this entire experience.We're caffeine-deprived, maybe even a little loopy at this point, and that's with fruits and vegetables and whole grains and the like. Not everyone has time to plan like that.

I barely have time to plan at all, let alone to this degree. Hopefully I have leftover cereal this weekend.

Day 2 (barely) - $28/week

In some ways, today was easier than yesterday. I didn't feel like I was starving all day and I managed to boost my energy with extra water and an afternoon workout. So accomplishing this thing might actually be achievable.

In some ways, however, today was the worst. I had to turn down a free cupcake today. A FREE CUPCAKE. Seriously, I deserve a medal. I also didn't partake in any of my friend's Sun Chips. I also find that my reason for abstaining is much more interesting to people than the expected answer of 'dieting'or some such other nonsense about health.

Embarrassingly, this semi-starvation vehicle may prove to be healthier than my normal routine. Although I still haven't really got time for all of it.

Day 1 - $28/week

Lessons I've learned after the first day:

• Food is glorious
• Planning and prepping is more tedious the tighter the budget
• Advil doesn't count
• I'm probably emotionally addicted to coffee
• My life is so busy that living this way is impractical
• I'm hungry

However, I haven't cheated by any means and I am ready for the second day to arrive!

(In the sense that I'm dreading it and really just wish the week was over so that I could resume eating everything in sight.)

$28/week

Okay, so in order to illustrate how insane it is that food stamps are being reduced again- a whole bunch of people are going to live on $28 for this coming week (the monetary equivalent of the food stamps they're allotted). It's actually my roommate who set out to do this with her coworkers- but I'm all for being a supportive roommate and trying new things... Also we basically live on $28 a week anyway (and I've been over-spending as of late).

We started off by grocery shopping in order to plan our meals for the week. So it looks like I'll be eating mostly rice and beans (and celery). I'll be keeping this blog updated about our struggle.

I started with Trader Joe's, for their value and to keep it healthy:
Joe's O's..............................................$1.99
Celery..................................................$1.79
Baby carrots.........................................$1.69
Fuji apples............................................$2.07
Almond milk.........................................$2.99

Then Target, because I live by the only one in the city:
Brown rice...........................................$2.04
Black beans.........................................$1.57
Sausage links........................................$2.51

Then we went to this awesome place in our neighborhood called the Stop and Shop, where we landed some excellent (although suspiciously cheap) array of frozen meals:
Healthy Choice Sweet Ginger Chicken
Healthy Choice Margherita Chicken with Balsamic
Healthy Choice Ravioli & Chicken Marinara
Healthy Choice Crustless Chicken Pot Pie
Red's Bean & Cheese Quesadilla
for just a few dollars a piece!

I've reached about $25 so far... The real struggle will come when I can't eat free things at work. (It wouldn't be fair to anyone involved.)

Well, I'm off to cook my meals for the rest of week! Expect and update tomorrow!