Food Stamps, Poverty, Drug Testing

Today I opened my Facebook to see yet another Poll...this is so common with Facebook that you have to accept it as a way for people to express their identity and share themselves. One has to retreat from getting to emotionally involved because someone is going to disagree with you everyday pretty much. I am a Liberal Democrat living in a Conservative town, so I am a minority. Disagreement happens everyday. Most days I am really good at just letting this go by. Today is a different day: (As well as this poll I got a call from the Health Insurance Company's group "Americans for Solutions" a conservative group who wants to stop any govt. health care reform. They would prefer the Health Insurance Co. regulate themselves...that's turned out really good for the country so far.)
This poll is going around "Should people on Food Stamps/Welfare" be drug tested?
Everyone I have seen has said "Yes." At first I even thought "yeah probably," then in two seconds I was thinking "Who the hell are you lady? What have you done with my brain." Three of my friends have been pushed onto Food Stamps in order to feed their kids because of divorce. All three have been professionals or are professionals in their chosen field but can only work part time because they can't afford childcare full time. None of them are on drugs, except maybe the occasional Prozac (kidding.) Now how would I feel if I had to pee in a cup to pay for my kids food. Probably humiliated. The fact is a lot of people on drugs are probably on Food Stamps, and their kids probably are not on drugs!
What about probable cause? Should we blanket drug test people for being innocent? Or should the government say if you get arrested for drugs, or you are caught selling food stamps for drugs then we are going to test you? Then you should not receive them if you lose your kids are do not get into rehab.
* As an aside ( I have an adopted child who was in foster care, her mother was and is on drugs, she probably received food stamps, my daughter was often left without food to eat, this is one reason she was taken into foster care.)
Things change in your mind when you are affected by them or those you love are.

I was a recipient of Medicaid and WIC at one point in my early life, we had kids and we wanted to better ourselves by going to college. In order to do that we needed some assistance. It was so humiliating to use those vouchers in the store. If you had told me to pee for the vouchers I probably would have decided to forgo college and keep my husband working the $17,000 a year job, and our children s chances of getting out of Poverty would have been even worse, and so the cycle continues!

We are now middle to upper middle class and still struggle (we have four teens) but we don't need any assistance. We have private insurance, own a home, two cars (right now three, need to buy one?) an old boat and take vacations every three years. Our kids go to nice camps every summer. If you looked at me: a blond thirty eight year old mom, driving a nice Honda minivan, decently dressed, a husband who has a high ranking job at a college, you would never guess I needed government assistance as little as ten years ago.

Maybe there is no Democrat or Republican solution. It will have to be met with some thoughtfulness, humility, and honesty. Before you put out your opinion remember the very person reading your poll may be the last person you expect is on food stamps.

Cooking for Good Project / Somewhat Derailed.

Last week I came down with "Walking Pneumonia" this is not uncommon. It takes nothing for an asthmatic to acquire a good old case of WP. Hanging out in a smoky bar with your friends is the perfect way to catch a case. It's been coming on for weeks and in my usual fashion I ignored it hoping it would go away. So last Wed. I broke down and called the Doc. Today is day five on meds and I have to say I don't feel great, my fear is that I need steroids and I detest taking those. No one who eats and exercises like me should struggle with their health or their weight, yet I struggle with both.
Enough whining......so how have I fared with the Cooking Project. Pretty good.
We had enough food to make it through the week except for two small trips. Our total for food groceries is $260 for two weeks groceries, and eating out $89. That is $349.We have eaten out a few times due to some traveling and planned dates with the kids. I plan on three dates with my kids this week and this will cost me another $60 to $75. We may need a little Milk, if I am correct our expenses for food will be around $430 for one pay period (15 days.) To keep our expenses down we have cut out "All meat' at home. I am making bread, scratch breakfast, we are eating less exotic foods and more veggies, beans and rice. We have eaten out three times: Once Blake and I $20 with tip, Will and I plus brought home three kids meals $39.00 (our date) and then we had to get some dinner last night in Little Rock $21 for four kids. This is $89 for 11 meals or an average of $8 per person, Ouch. That is $6 more for a meal out than at home on our regular months!!!!!
If all this math is confusing and it still sounds like a lot of money you should realize that we have four kids ages 12,12, 13, 15. The USDA says the food stamp allowance for our family would be $1089 a month. The AR allotment is less only $700 a month, but I know no one who could survive on that with four kids. Several families I know on Food Stamps are always out of money by week three.
My goal is to eventually cut our spending down to $395. every fifteen days, or $1. per meal per person. Even if we eat out the money will still have to be made up for in other areas. Still got some work to do.

Over the next three days I will make bread, pizza dough, yogurt, oatmeal cookies, granola, broccoli and cheese quiche and soup, Italian tomato sauce, pizza sauce,veggie chili and some stoup (a soup made from leftovers.)

My biggest obstacle: Children, three of them do not want to eat anything that does not contain yeast or cheese and I can only be so creative. So they will either succumb or go somewhat hungry.

To sum it up: If I can keep this up we will save around $300.00 a month below the USDA Thrifty plan, if I can do even better and hit my goal we will save up to $500 a month on food!!!!

If you are interested in how I am doing this and want recipes look at previous post.


Courtney

Cooking for Good Project: Day 6 What a vegetarian diet looks like.

Today has been a little easier as I cooked so much yesterday there was not much need to cook today. We spent $22.41 at Kroger;s on food. Spices, honey, coffee, sugar, tea. The coffee was $6.99 on sale, Blake was with me and he feels " Life is to short to drink bad coffee," this does not help our budget. I have to admit the coffee was pretty darn good.

2 cups of coffee with milk and sugar for Blake and I.
Today I made scrambled local eggs with cheese, potato's and onions cooked in a bit of veg . oil with a grapefruit, and skim milk, Me, Blake, Felisha and Will.
Lunch for Blake: Beans and rice with cheese, 1 slice buttered toast, and a peach
Kids had a choice or High Protein whole grain pasta with Homemade basil pasta or
honey on toast, fruit and peanut butter and milk.
Courtney: 1/8 brie round with Triscuts and 3 Triscuts with homemade hummus for snack.
I am ashamed to admit I had a Diet Dr. Pepper and sweet tea.
Lunch: 1 cup pasta with veggie sauce and sweet tea.




Yesterday's meals
Courtney and Kids, 1 coffee milk and sugar Courtney only
Organic Yogurt, with fresh berries, bananas' and pecans
Courtney and kids
Lunch: Homemade pizza (whole grain crust) I ate four small pieces.
Snacks: 1/4 piece homemade wheat bread with Nat. Peanut butter
Courtney and Blake
Dinner: 1/4 "bread" and 1/2 cup brown rice with 1/2 cup Cuban black beans (veggies in beans) sweet tea
Courtney
Snack: 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 pat butter, 2tsp. sugar, 1//2 cup skim milk, with 1 whole peach
Sweet tea

Water all day.

Kids had dinner at church. and Will had two bean burritos for evening meal.

Tonight Blake and I will eat at home, kids at church. I will go Friday and pick up what staples we need as Blake and Will are going on a trip and I want to minimize shopping with three other children.
Courtney

Cooking for Good Project: Post three

Food and Social Justice:

Fact:In Oakland CA, a mostly black and Latino population there are 53 liquor stores and no grocery stores , the closest thing to a grocery store is a Dollar store that has some food items. Over 20,000 people live in this area.

http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/

Two post in one day is a record for me but I have been a busy bee and don't want to forget what I have done today.
Last night I made bread dough and baked two loaves today. This probably takes about 30 mins of hands on time at the most, it has to sit and then you knead it a few times, transfer sit, bake. Its not really labor intensive and once I get it memorized I think it will be very easy and take even less time. This is not my first bread foray, but they have all been sad in the past, the "Whisk Bread" recipe in cookforgood.com is by far the best bread I have made.
Then I rolled out three pizza's from dough I made Saturday. Mixed crushed tomatoes with homemade basil pesto (gift from Mi Mi, and the best pesto ever!) for sauce and covered with mozzarella and Parmesan. The trick to baking is to put a pan of water in the oven to keep everything moist.
Pizza is easy and economical and a family pleaser. My kids can eat on it all day long. The acid in the sauce keeps it safe and stable a bit longer.
So I put out Natural Peanut Butter, Jam, and butter, made sweet tea and said "Okay kids this is lunch, help yourself." Not one complaint, that is amazing!!!
Mixed up some pepper, onions, garlic and spices with the black beans I made Saturday and will make some brown rice..Viola Dinner. The kids will eat at church tonight and can snack on a variety of fresh fruit or leftovers if they get hungry.
All in all I bet my hands on kitchen time has been about 3 hours today max, including clean up. This sounds like a lot, but tomorrow I will not be cooking much except for oatmeal or some eggs. We will eat leftovers and we have a variety so all I will need to do is possibly cut up some fruit or fix a side veggie.

If you read back to previous post you will see tons of money saving ideas that are good for the planet and your pocket, but here are a few observations from this venture.

1. You can make a variety of foods fairly easy with grains, tomato based dishes, beans and spices.
2. Eating less or no meat will cut your food bill (for us we have cut back to not buying any.)
3. Eat oatmeal or homemade toast with eggs for breakfast, its fast, easy and super cheap.
4. Drink water, then homemade tea or homemade lemonade. The sugar is nothing in comparison to the overly sweet corn syrup drinks Americans consume. Arkansas is number two this year in the highest rate of obesity. Much of this is due to corn syrup laden drinks, and foods.
5. Go through your house and get rid of everything with corn syrup or do not buy any more.
6. Produce does not have to be expensive there are many cheaper options like potato's, carrots, green peppers, & in season produce. If you buy off season or fancy produce you will spend more.

Courtney

Cook For Good Project, 2nd post.

Today is the fifth day we have been following the "Cook for Good" plan on frugal, socially conscious eating. We were already on a similar plan but this one is quite a bit more intense.http://cookforgood.com/

Day one: Went grocery shopping at Kroger, purchased everything on the grocery list, and took a trip to the health food store for Tahini and Local Honey.

Day two: prepared bread and pizza dough, yogurt, and hummus from scratch. See below post for menu's for Sat. menu. Made high protein pasta with a homemade tomato veggie sauce with a bit of Parmesan.

Day three: See previous post, ate mostly leftovers from the day before and fixed a large pot of beans. This was a pretty lazy day, everyone was expected to eat leftovers, fruit and yogurt or peanut butter, homemade bread and cheese.

Day four: Monday: I had to get to work early and had a full day so I could not cook.
Breakfast: Yogurt and Fruit with Pecans and honey, coffee.
Lunch: for me leftover pasta with veggie sauce and cheese, water
Kids and Blake: Pork Tenderloin my Dad made and gave us, high protein pasta with cheese, and homemade bread (I told him to give them apples but he chose bread. Oh well Daddy was in charge what can I say, the man thinks mac and cheese counts as a vegetable. I have to be happy they ate and he cleaned the kitchen!)

Dinner: Kids ate at church for VBS, Blake and I went to a Chinese Restaurant and split a meal for cost $15.00
Evening snack: Homemade bread with butter and honey and grapefruit. My teenage son had two bean burritos with cheese (yes he eats six meals a day!)

Last night I whipped up a batch of bread. Today I will make: 2 loaves of bread, two cheese and veggies pizza, homemade yogurt, large batch of Cuban Black Beans to share with friends.

Currently I can't say we have saved any money but by day five we are usually nearly out of groceries and our fridge is still full, as well as the pantry. This is a sign to me that we are saving money. It will take a month to see if we can keep our cost down overall. It seems pretty positive to me and I get a rush knowing I am actively saving money and the planet!! Off to put on my cape, I mean my apron:).

Courtney

Project on Healthy Low Cost Eating

Food Inc. has just come out and I plan on watching it just as soon as I can. In the meantime on their website I found a link to an online cookbook on eating healthy, frugal, and light on the planet http://cookforgood.com/ . With the addition of another child, (we adopted an older child) a few years ago and the cost of groceries going up from 25% to 35% depending on where you live, we have seen our food bill go from about $88 a week four years ago to $300 a week. Now some of this of course is that four years ago we had three young boys and now we have four teenagers. The stories you hear about teenagers appetites are so true, they eat constantly and they eat a lot! Now I have to take into consideration that this price reflects some toiletries and household items, so if I am figuring correctly our food consumption cost is sitting somewhere around $ 1000. a month. This sounds like quite a bit but we are actually comparable to the thrifty plan that the USDA says if how much a family of six should spend per month,.http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2009/CostofFoodApr09.pdf
So in my cost to spend even less I have decided to chronicle our progress and see if we can get our cost down to around $150 per week. I will post what is working and what is not working.
You should know we already ate minimal process foods. Ate out for lunch about once a week. Ate dinner out as a family about once a month. Meat consumption is only about once a day if not a few times a week. I rarely buy name brands unless they are on sale and are cheaper than the store brand.
We do buy some organic foods, local foods, organic meat, eggs, and hormone free milk. We also shop the Farmers Mrkt. about twice a month.

This weekend I spent $181 on groceries, buying a lot of staples to get started. Much of this was bought in large containers. Yesterday I was in the kitchen for 7 hours making bread and pizza dough, hummus, pasta with homemade tomato veggie sauce, homemade pudding and yogurt.
Today I baked bread, 2 pizza's, and made a strawberry cream pie. It was a labor intensive weekend and I am wondering how I will keep up this week. Currently I have 2lb.s of black beans in the crockpot for Cuban Black beans and Rice.

We also spent an extra $61 on toiletries and the ingredients for the pie I promised my son.

*I have really cooked all weekend and I am tired. It will have to get easier or I will have to find some other way to keep cost dwon.

Courtney