living on $67 a week

how much do you spend on food & drink in a week? is it less than $72? that is essentially the amount of money that a family of two receives in food stamps in california. the l.a. times had an article, that seemed like it could be very interesting, about living/eating for less. i say that it seemed like it would be because it really wasn't all that interesting or helpful. the husband and wife team manage to cut back to $67 a week, but reveal little about what they actually consumed over the two months that they tried the experiment.

a couple of quotes that really stood out for me from the article:
"It wasn't as easy as we thought. For a couple who grow their own tomatoes and have olive oils for different occasions, it was hard to find a balance between eating affordably and healthfully, much less deliciously."

"The first step was a trip to Costco. (I later discovered that Costco doesn't accept food stamps, a reminder that although we were trying to live as if we were receiving government assistance, we were enjoying options that the truly impoverished don't have.)"

you know what, people living off smaller incomes generally aren't worried about "delicious." they often are worried about "eating." really, you can buy a whole hell of a lot of mac n cheese, top ramen, instant rice, and even ground beef (the fattier ground beef). i know this because when i was in college and funds were more limited, i got by on around 30 something dollars a week, if not less. now, this doesn't mean that people shouldn't care about eating healthy and inexpensively. it does bring up the fact that the healthiest foods are often the most expensive. want really nutrient dense bread, it's going to cost you and the loaf is small. want cheap bread? rainbow and other crap bread like that is cheap, but it's so processed and stripped of nutrients that it's of little nutritional value. the same goes for just about every thing at the market. vegetables seem like an area where this changes, but not really. fresh vegetables cost more than frozen which cost more than canned. i grew up eating canned corn and carried this on through college. when i got married my wife introduced me to frozen corn. much better tasting, and healthier, too. and a little more costly. now, in season fresh corn can be pretty cheap. but out of season, not so much.

i'm glad that they admit that they had advantages, like costco, that poorer people don't have. but, there are warehouse stores (foodmaxx, foods co) that do sell in bulk and are on the less expensive side of markets. shoot, i still try and keep our food cost lower by shopping at foodmaxx. the benefit of these stores may be limited by access to them. many lower income neighborhoods don't have supermarkets, let alone large discount supermarkets. shoot, some neighborhoods barely even have anything beyond convenience or mini marts.

it's not my intention to just dissect the article. rather, i do want to acknowledge the article as a part of my continuing thought process on how we all live, and what choices we're making. as i write this i also am co-authoring an article for the undercurrent that deals with the issue of going without things and what that means. i wonder if my wife and i could live off of $72 a week for food cost and how that would change our lives. what choices would we have to make? could we do it?

what do you think? could you do it? are you doing it? if so, how and what choices have you had to make?