The End of My X-Treme Food Stamp Challenge

Those that have been following my X-Treme Food Stamp Challenge for the past few weeks may remember that I said that there was no way I could quit (barring a major financial turn for the better) or cheat on my food stamp challenge.  As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised today to find out that I was wrong.

Today started out on a fairly low note on the food front.  Yesterday was another boring day of cereal for breakfast for my husband and kids, leftovers for some and sandwiches for others for lunch and/or dinner (I just had one meal of leftovers, as did my husband, but the kids helped themselves to the last of the bread for PB & J sandwiches, self-serve style), ended with some of the cookies and chocolate covered pretzels I made last night.

I was half almost-excited and half sad on my trip to the store this morning.  Excited(ish) because it was the beginning of a new month for WIC so I could get milk, juice, and more cereal, pretty important stuff with my 12 year old arriving tomorrow, who is a milk-drinking, cereal-eating fiend.  Sad because I'd decided to spring for another pound of butter, but I had to borrow money from my 2 year old to do it.  How sad is that when you have to borrow money from a 2 year old?  (Since I know at least some people are wondering, their grandma has a tendency to give the kids her coins and/or bottle return money when they go to visit her and he brought back a handful of coins after being babysat there the other day.)  So here are my receipts from that shopping trip, first WIC, then the last little bit of my food stamp money for the month:

The apples were in the reduced for quick sale area, which is why they were so cheap

This food would have been enough to get us by for the month, to be sure, especially when combined with what I already have put up from this summer's efforts of gardening, gleaning, canning, and more.

But......

I got a wonderful surprise.  One of my friends, a fan of this page and general troublemaker in a good way had mentioned a few days ago that she had some hand-me-downs and "stuff" she wanted to get to me, either when I headed into town, or she could pop out for a visit.  She came by today and I found out what "stuff" meant!  She brought a van full (not up to the top, but enough stuff that all the seats were down) including: some gifts for the family and food!!!  There was a big box of granola, some vegetable oil, salt, raisins (what luxury!  I've been wanting raisins for a while, but couldn't fit them into the budget!), baking powder, 2 pounds of yeast, a big bag of small flour tortillas, another big bag of corn tortillas, 7 pounds of brown sugar, 50 pounds of all-purpose flour, 25 pounds of bread flour, 10 pounds of rice, 9 pounds of oats (if only I'd known about that this morning!), 2 boxes of graham crackers (more luxury I've been wishing for!), a giant bag of chocolate chips, sugar, ketchup, and some Diet Coke!  I had to find some new places in the house to stash all this stuff because it wouldn't all fit in my kitchen!  This is why I feel I can't continue the challenge: my house now strongly resembles one of those "crazy survivalists" (no offense to my crazy survivalist friends) through no effort or money on my part!  If we are still struggling financially in the summer, I might do another one though, so you can see how we eat in less embarrassing times of the year when if someone is hungry, they can go outside and pick some!