Lesson #1: everything takes more time on food stamps. By Emily Baer

Lesson #1: everything takes more time on food stamps.

As I prepared for the food stamp challenge, I combed through the weekly sales at Safeway, clipped coupons and made menu plans for the week.  Having taken the challenge last year, I’ve learned a few lessons.  Lesson #1: Everything takes more time on food stamps. Lesson #2: If you plan only for dinners and rely on leftovers for lunch, you’ll have nothing for breakfast or snacks. Lesson #3: Don’t skimp on bad coffee; it’s too important.  Lesson #4: Prepare to forgo being healthy for a while.

For the next five days, I will be living on food stamps with my mom and sister.  I hope to provide a slightly different perspective on living on food stamps as a family – initially, it seems easier to have $90 spread out over three people.  But it went so quickly.  It’s time like this that I’m grateful I can and like to cook.  And ironically, that I’m not male.  It’s easy to forget that men eat more than women – food stamps don’t take that into account.  They barely cover the food me and my family will be eating.

The next week will not be easy.  As a senior working on my thesis and applying to grad school, I have taken for granted that I do not have to cook every meal I make.  When I’m having a bad day or just don’t feel like cooking, I can order delivery or pick up something on the way home.  For the next five days, almost everything I put in my mouth I will be cooking.  As the daughter of a single mom with four children, I know firsthand how hard it is to find time to cook for a large family.  Add to that the hours it takes to plan meals, clip coupons and shop sales and it becomes a whole other job that most people, especially those living in poverty and already working several jobs, do not have the time for.  I’m already feeling a little ashamed of myself for complaining about application deadlines and being too tired to make dinner. 

After shopping, the menu for the week: Tomato bisque with garlic bread; French onion soup; spinach salad with bacon and goat cheese; mushroom lasagna; and pork chops with green beans.  I am banking on leftovers (and the fact that I generally don’t eat breakfast, although I did buy yogurt, eggs and bacon), and to be honest, being able to use the $10 leftover in my budget on coffee at starbucks.  I feel like I’m cheating already and I haven’t even started…