Is it still news when it’s 2 weeks late?
I guess it’s old news, at least for some.  On April 20th - 24th the United Way of King County was issuing a challenge.  Eat like you were on food stamps. A single adult gets $7 a day, and a family of 4 (like mine) lives on $22 a day.  At first glace I was thinking this would be hard… We’ll, it’s not really that hard at all.  I thought back to my grocery bills, and I average ~$120.00 a week (including hygiene necessities).  My limit would be $154.  I’m already living very close to a similar sized family on food stamps.   You can see my weekly plan here. We normally eat out twice per week, one lunch, and one dinner.  Lunch averages $20 downtown for the two of us downtown, and dinner usually is ~$30 depending on where we go. So if I’d cut out that lunch, I think it’d be a wash.
There’s a few things that I do that probably make this easy for my family. First is I always try to make a little extra supper so I can take LO’s to work the next day. Eating out is expensive, and you rarely get what you pay for.  Second is I plan out the weeks meals. I’m too rigid on the meal schedule and that drives the wife a little crazy, but it works.  And since spring is in full force I can cook a lot of meats on the grill one evening, and eat them several times during the week.  Never doubt the power of a good plan (and awesome Weber grill).
Looking at the menu we don’t eat a lot of fancy foods. Fish and shrimp is about as luxurious as I get here in Indiana. I could get even more stingy on the grocery list if I had to. I pay a little extra for some conveniences. I buy cage free or organic eggs when they aren’t outrageously priced. I buy a gallon of fresh OJ every week. I buy frozen steamer bags of veggies. I buy a lot of organic produce that adds 100% to the cost of those items.  The “green” tax, gotta love it.
So speaking of the diet, I’m happy to report a good week. I’m currently sitting at 208.5, which shattered the 210 barrier that had been holding a steady defense for a couple of weeks. I was getting a bit depressed looking at the same numbers every day, so I decided to stick hard and fast to the diet for a week then check. Paid off, booya.  Still on pace to be below 200 come the end of May.  ZOMG fat guy in a bikini for summer time! Note to self. Don’t post pics.
Speaking of pics… the garden is coming along nicely. I keep thinking about posting pics at work, then promptly forgetting about them at home.  Lets just say it’s shaping up to be a good harvest.  I built my tomato stand and it looks pretty good, I hope these upside down planters are worth the money. Now if I can just keep the rabbits out of the garden…
Some green links to read, both from the same site. PeePoo bags, yeah you read that right. RRR for the garden. Cool stuff.
April 29, 2009
Posted in: Diet / Health, Food Stamps, Green, Recycling, Weight
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