Hunger Challenge Update- First couple of days....

The Challenge I have been dreading is now a reality. The Challenge that has myself and my husband eating on $4 a day is here and it's pretty bad.

I blogged about the SF Food Bank Hunger Challenge a while back- which was supposed to happen last week, but because of an exciting and busy week- we were unable to participate. But we (my husband and I) decided to participate for 4 days this week. As promised, I am writing about our experiences.

In preparation for the next couple of days, I headed to Costco to stock up on some essential groceries that I felt would help us "get by" with this challenge. With our budget being $4 / day for a total of a 4 day commitment- that left us with a $32 budget for the both of us. The reason I chose Costco was because of the bang for your buck on milk and bread. While there, I bought $3 worth of Home Pride bread and $5 worth of two gallons of non organic milk, and $7 worth of Honey Nut Cheerios. That left us with $17 left in our budget for the upcoming days. I knew in my head that cereal and sandwiches were going to be my saving grace!

I usually pride myself in buying items that are healthy, organic, and good for my family. I would have rather bought the organic wheat bread and the organic milk. The costs of organic food is definitely much more expensive than non-organic. When I go to the Alemany Farmer's Market- "organic" is everywhere. People care about where their food comes from, what organic seal the seller's boast, if the chickens are free range, if the cows were treated with hormones, and the list goes on. People at that depend on the Food Bank probably don't ask questions or care about these issues.... the only issue they care about is probably "What am I going to feed my child tonight?" Thinking about this made me feel extremely humbled and grateful that my husband and I can provide organic and healthy food for ourselves and our children.

Day 1) I started my first day eating a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee. I estimated the coffee I made to be about 50 cents. For lunch, I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, nectarine (50 cents?), for drink- I was going to drink from the water fountain. I estimated my peanut butter and jelly to cost maybe 75 cents. On busy days- I usually buy from the Panda Express or the Subway- but these were far too expensive on my $4 / day budget. I got home that evening, and had spaghetti (no meat) for dinner that my husband made. The noodles being 50 cents (deal that I got a while back with a coupon) and the sauce he made from scratch from canned tomatoes and dried herbs we had on hand. I estimated my total for the day being $3.25 (not including the cereal, bread, and milk that I bought in the beginning of the week). I was still hungry (I'm pregnant), grouchy (I'm pregnant), and couldn't take anymore of this challenge (did I say I was pregnant?)

The first day really had discouraged me, it made me think twice about buying that $7 meal from Panda Express the $5 foot long from Subway- these everyday expenses that I would buy for lunch at work. In a sense I felt almost guilty for doing so- I decided to take a new perspective on this challenge and decided to spend the least amount I could each day that I could. I still had to nourish my body because I am carrying a 5 month old fetus. At this point, my husband had already given up!

But I'll keep trying...

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