2/23/09 | $25 Grocery Challenge?
[ Currently Eating: Kiwi ]
The United Way is kicking off a $25 Grocery Challenge starting today. I’m actually not sure how nationwide this event will be, since the only information I could find about it was on the blog of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the United Way. I actually think it might be a local PR event, just for Arkansas.
But in any case, I won’t be participating.
It’s not that I think it isn’t a worthwhile effort. We could easily pull it off here at Cheap Eats HQ - beans and rice and dollar store and repeat. This is a really great way to raise community awareness about how hard it is to subsist on the type of food income that someone on food stamps might get in your region. The participants have to limit themselves to not spending more than $25 for one week on food. Sort of a limited hunger strike.
In other words, it’s a very, very noble and nice stunt.
At the end of the week, I can see a lot of people just turning around and eating their usual kobe beef, caviar, foie gras and $1000 24k gold foil wrapped hamburgers.
Goshy, I’m such a heartless cynic.
Seriously, I think it’s a great gesture and good publicity (and karma) will certainly be forthcoming. I just think that doing this as an example for only one week isn’t as good as showing moderation on food spending throughout the year. What people who are subsisting on food stamps need to see ISN’T Mr. Rich Fatcat slumming it for one week on $1 chicken sandwiches. They need to see better behavior on food spending in general by the public: you go out to an expensive restaurant only on special occasions, try and cook more often at home and don’t buy expensive food you don’t need or want. If you want to show solidarity with food poverty, donate money to one of the causes that fight hunger.
(Accidentally falls down off of rickety soapbox before people can point and say “what a hypocrite”.)
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
Well you’re not supposed to want to stay on food stamps, it’s supposed to suck.
My wife and I make over $70k/yr and only spend about $50/wk on groceries (together)
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 am
@pete - that’s true, I definitely wouldn’t want to be on food stamps. I think it’s great you’ve kept food spending down to $50 a week - see, I wish there were more people who were smart about spending like that ALL the time regardless of income. =)
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I read about ‘checkout week’ which is the week in the year that marks the time that you have earned on average the total amount you will spend on groceries for the year. This was February 6, which gave me about $60 a week for my family of 4 + 3 cats and a dog.
I’m trying to make it work without eating dollar store food, but thankfully we love beans.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@cyn - I hadn’t heard about Food Checkout Week before, thanks for letting me know about it. Here is a link is here for anyone interested. Interestingly, I think they say that as of 2009, the timing of Farm Bureau’s Food Check-Out Week is not related to the date Americans have earned enough money to pay for their food for a year…
February 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I used to regularly spend $25 a week on groceries for just myself, but that was when I could go to the commissary at the local Air Force Base. It really depends on where you live how easily you can get buy on that little. I’m sure I’m probably spending more than that now, but I haven’t been keeping track like I should. I know, I’m a bad cheapskate!
February 25th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I think I’m the cynical one, because I refuse to believe that Pete only spends $50 a week on food and eats nutritiously. I suspect he either eats a nutritionally minimal diet or else a sodium laden processed food diet. I also suspect he is not including the money spent going out to eat. Maybe he’s a farmer or gardner. That’s the only way I can see that they spend that much. They definitely don’t live in a major city.
In college, when I was at my most willing to be frugal - mainly out of necessity, I spent $16 a week on food. My father was impressed, but truthfully I ate ramen, frozen burritos, processed spaghetti sauce packets with noodles, pot pies, fish sticks, and macaroni and cheese. Those things typically didn’t require a lot of time for prep and cost a dollar or less. I know most of those items have doubled or tripled in price, so the $16 I was so proud of is now likely almost $50 a week. This is to eat like a college student. This is okay for young ‘uns, but eventually one needs to eat a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein to not keel over from heart disease, stroke or type II diabetes related ailments. The produce alone will likely cost more than the $25.
I know the idea of people getting anything “free” that they have not earned is upsetting to people that work very hard at their jobs - as I do and I am sure Pete does as well, but if you want to be practical as far as federal spending then allowing people as much access to a healthy diet as possible is best for ALL of us. If people, of their own volition or not, cannot afford fresh and nutritious foods and instead buy processed or fast food to accommodate their need to eat, we will all pay in health care costs for them later. You can judge them or not, but it is better to keep all healthy in the first place. Don’t even get me started on children and how they don’t have any say in who their parents are and that they deserve nutritious and healthy food and how if we feed them correctly they may be able to learn better and have a better shot at not being in poverty as an adult.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:33 am
bingsy- He did say “groceries” not “total food cost” so that probably doesn’t count meals out.
I never really understood why people think inexpensive food can’t be nutritious. Produce is cheap in season, or when it’s on sale. I buy 4lb bags of apples for $1.49, and make spaghetti with meat sauce for about $2 a serving. Sure, mack and cheese is cheap and has little nutrional value, but add a can of tuna and some frozen peas, and then it covers 4 food groups.