SNAP Challenge: Day 6

After a busy day with Aaron home all day it's clear that I would not make it on SNAP benefits alone. I read an article (and don't ask me where because I can't remember) that said that most fights between couples were caused by hunger... or hanger as they called it. Apparently when someone's hunger reaches a certain point they become angry, causing them to lash out at anyone in the vicinity who irritates them. In couples it's generally the partner who takes the brunt of the frustration.

I'm not trying to starve him and I'm sure he knows that, but I only have a certain amount of food left to work with. I made us some eggs for breakfast, two each with a bit of cheese. I even cheated a little and made Aaron a couple of biscuits I had in the freezer. For lunch we had leftover sloppy joes, one each, and Aaron and I had Doritos on the side while Bailey got another little bowl of frozen peas.

After lunch I had to go out and spend some time with a friend who is going through a difficult time so Aaron stayed with Bailey. I stopped by the store on the way home and bought another bag of brown rice for Sunday's dinner, $1.00... actually $1.09 with tax.

Then when I got home we packed up and headed out to Aaron's parents' house to have spaghetti with them. I was expecting his sister to be there or at least her kids but it was just the five of us so I only cooked half of the spaghetti and sauce. I forgot the salad mix at home but I remembered the garlic toast. We ate almost everything and his parents kept the leftovers so no spaghetti for lunch tomorrow.

Prompt for Day 6:

We know that low-income Americans have to make choices between groceries, prescriptions, gas for the car, utilities, and other household necessities. After living on a limited food budget this week, how has your perspective changed about the decisions families facing hunger must make?

Honestly? I've been there. Before Bailey was born Aaron and I were both working. Our rent was considerably higher than it is now, our utilities were also high. Luckily I didn't have to drive far to my office but there was some driving involved in my job. We didn't really buy groceries then. I did pick up a few things for the office, cereal and milk, instant oatmeal, canned soup, microwavable frozen dinners, peanut butter and jelly, and bread, but we didn't keep food at home. We mostly ate fast food. For awhile the lady at the McDonald's drive-thru knew me by name. I tried to keep the fast food budget low by eating off the dollar menu whenever I could but there were days when I had a week left until payday and no food at the office and I couldn't afford to buy a dollar hamburger for lunch. It's a constant struggle when you live paycheck to paycheck and we're not much better off now than we were then. I still have to work hard to find the sales so that I can afford enough food to feed all three of us but I'm proud to say that we do have a little money saved up now for emergencies. It's not much, but it's been a long time since I had to worry whether we would have food for dinner. We also have a little food in the house for emergencies. There is plenty of pasta and canned vegetables, I buy my meat in bulk when it's on sale so there's usually some pork chops, ground beef, or chicken breasts in the freezer, and I always have flour and yeast if I need to make bread. It helps a lot to know my pantry is never completely bare.

So in total today we consumed:

6 eggs

2 Tbsp shredded cheddar

2 biscuits from the freezer

3 hamburger buns

all of the leftover sloppy joe meat

2 oz Doritos

1/3 cup frozen peas

1 (1 lb) package spaghetti

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 lb breakfast sausage

1 box frozen garlic toast

Again, no leftovers from today but there's still half a dozen eggs left for breakfast and I thawed the last pound of ground chuck to make hamburgers for lunch.