The following guest post is from Denise of WholesomeMommy.com:
Are you finding it harder to make ends meet? Do your grocery dollars run out before the month does? I have been in this situation. I’m a real mom who has been faced with many challenges including not knowing how the next round of bills would get paid. As many families have seen their food stamps/SNAP being cut this month, food insecurity is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.
As someone with a background in couponing and deal seeking, I am frustrated at seeing junky, processed foods more easily accessible for families on tight budgets. So, with that in mind, I decided to be part of the solution. I’m Denise Sawyer from WholesomeMommy.com, a a blog about REAL food for REAL families. As I’ve read comments on my blog and my facebook page it has become apparent that there are a couple things that keep families from preparing REAL, fresh foods:
- SKILL = Many women/men never learned to cook. Several women that I am friends with even, don’t know basic food preparation skills. The extent of their cooking knowledge is preparing hamburger helper or microwaving a vegetable. It’s not that they don’t WANT to cook, they just don’t know how and they don’t know where to look to learn that information.
- TIME = Many families feel that they don’t have TIME to prepare nutritionally dense, FRESH foods. {If this wasn’t true the processed foods industry or fast foods industry wouldn’t be booming businesses.}
- MONEY = Many families feel that they don’t have enough money available to them to purchase REAL, wholesome foods.
The more conversations I have with other women- online and off, the more I have come to realize that most of these families WANT to eat fresh, REAL food but just aren’t sure where to start on a limited budget. They don’t have the extra money to play around with until they “figure it out.”
One of the reasons I started Wholesome Mommy was to show women how to make changes one step at a time. I wanted women to see it was doable and to build a community in the process that would support one another in making these changes. But I’ve decided to take it a step further and really put my money where my mouth is.
Last week, I announced the “REAL food on a Food Stamp Budget” challenge. Basically, I’ve set out to buy a month’s worth of groceries for a family of four for $400, or $100 per week.
Why $400? The federal government would give a family of 4 with NO income about $630 a month in SNAP benefits. Most families on food stamps/SNAP are receiving much less because they report SOME income or assets. The amount of benefits you receive depends on that figure. So that means the federal government expects that if you aren’t receiving $630 per month in benefits, that you are making up the difference in your own income. Now, that said, many families with limited income don’t have the extra to contribute to groceries.
After talking with several women on my facebook page – both those on SNAP and those who are not, the consensus seems to be that a limited budget would be about $400 per month.
That comes to about $1.19 per person, per meal, for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. That might be easy to do if you were picking up chemical laden, non-nutritious foods, but I promised these would be REAL food menus- full of organic dairy, antibiotic free meats, and other items not normally synonymous with a low income budget. EVERY SINGLE INGREDIENT used will be included in this budget – I’m not using what I already have on hand to build my meals around.
I’ll be offering a monthly meal plan FOR FREE along with a printable grocery list so you’ll know exactly what to buy. What’s more is that I promised that I’d help you get organized and keep it simple enough for the working parent to prepare, or for families with more obligations than time.
Why for free? This has been my passion all along – to help people eat well. Following the Lord’s promptings I know that this is something that many families on low incomes need NOW and that the families I want so desperately to reach do not have the extra funds to purchase this kind of help. If we want to see a change, we have to be willing to be part of that change.
Regardless of what your income is, if you are someone on federal assistance or just someone who has a really tight grocery budget, or even someone who just wished that they could save a bit of their hard earned dollars so they could pay off debt or use it for other necessities, I hope you’ll take advantage of this and follow along. And, if you know someone who is in a desperate situation, I hope you’ll share.
Angel Bishop
Just wanted you to know that I’m following your site and will spread the word, I think what your doing is awesome! I’m new to this whole eating clean and healthy. My husband and I are going to do a 100 day challenge of no processed foods starting Jan 1st… Keep up the good work… you ROCK!!
Kathy
I’d like to know who gets 400 a month in food stamps for a family of four. IT’s IMPOSSIBLE to only buy healthy foods and still have food stamps to last a month. We only buy healthy food with our stamps, and guess what? A family of four here is only a little over 100.00 Not sure where you get the figure of 400 a month, but some of us can’t afford 100 a week to buy groceries. However, I think the free month of meal planning that you are doing is a great idea, but some people don’t get 400 in food stamps or near that.
KLS
I am so excited to be following you. We are a family of four and though we have never received snap we are on a tight budget. With two toddlers I try to prepare healthy meals but with natural food prices going up it gets harder and harder. I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with and I think what you are doing is truly awesome!
Susan
I am very happy to see you put this purchase plan together. Although my family of 4 cant afford a four hundred dollar a month budget, I hope to incorporate a few of your meal ideas into mine. Thanks for all your hard work.
Jorge Gonzales
I like your plan, few months earlier I also tried to work same as like this but that plan did not worked out but now I think I have got a good idea how to make that plan work.