Yesterday I shared with you how we blew our food budget because of a couple of dining out episodes. Although I was upset momentarily, waking up this morning I realized my husband is an awesome dad for taking our kids out to dinner. Our family comes first- before my blog and the Hunger Challenge.
So today I made some adjustments. We all had our typical breakfast and I made myself an orange julius smoothie for lunch while Rob worked through his lunch hour. This brings us to dinner. Tonight I made huevos rancheros made with eggs, black beans, left over salsa and tortillas, and a side of edamame beans. Using left over ingredients from one meal to create another meal is not only resourceful, its economical. Certainly our meal wasn’t glamorous but it was quick to prepare and nutritious to eat. Personally speaking, I think I could eat huevos rancheros every week. It’s nutritious, delicious, easy to prepare, and budget friendly – the best kind of meal!
Lunch= $3.04
Dinner = $2.72I didn’t get to the store today so tomorrow I will go and pick up a few things to get us through the next 2 days.
Having a curve ball thrown into our Hunger Challenge was stressful but not the end of the world. Knowing how to stretch food into other meals helps with budgeting and ultimately eliminates waste. This is one of the many life lessons my mother taught me, “To use everything and waste nothing”.
I was reminded today that although we did not go hungry, there are those who did. The purpose of this challenge is to bring awareness to the issue of hunger in our area. Here are some facts you may not be aware of.
Hunger Action Week Overview
Provided by UWKC
Why focus on hunger?
United Way of King County has always been dedicated to making sure families and individuals have enough to eat. However, within the last two years, the landscape of hunger has changed dramatically. The recession has led to more people needing help getting enough to eat. And people who were already relying on food stamps and food banks were put in even more precarious situations.
Statistics that have been coming out have reflected the dire state of hunger in our local community and throughout the US:
- In King County, there has been a 17% increase in food bank visits between Q3 2008 and Q3 2009 (those are our latest numbers). That an increase of over 31,000 people who had to use food banks for food. (Source)
- A December 20th article in the Seattle Times reported the following:
“In the past two years… the number of people in Washington state receiving food stamps has soared by nearly 60 percent, about twice the national increase…. In October, a record 12.8 percent of the state’s population — about 855,000 people — were on food stamps”. (Source)
While we think Basic Food (Washington’s name for food stamps) is a great program to combat hunger, it devastating to see how many people need to rely on it. - A 2009 USDA report showed that 47 million Americans are “food insecure” – that’s the most ever. That means that about 1 in every 7 Americans don’t have enough to eat. (Source)
How you can help – Donate to “Yes We Can!” Project. Details here.
Related Posts:
- Hunger Action Grocery Budget Totals
- United Way Hunger Action Week Opening Thoughts
- Hunger Challenge Day 1 $20.03
- Hunger Challenge Day 2 $38.94
- Hunger Challenge Day 3 $8.15
- Hunger Challenge Day 4 $16.44
- Hunger Challenge Day 5 $18.19
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Good for you for putting your family first no matter what:) You are still doing GREAT!
“Our family comes first- before my blog and the Hunger Challenge.”
So happy to see you stick with what we were chatting about
*hug* Hope you’re not busy on Monday…
Did you know that the original Orange Julius had vanilla pudding powder in it? No cream, no yogurt, just plain ol’ OJ and vanilla pudding powder. I miss them. No Julius’s around here any more.
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Barbara
http://ifididnthaveasenseofhumor.blogspot.com
Woohooo – great save and way to stretch your mooolah! I LOVE that you are adding pictures too…..they always make me hungry.
I agree – you are lucky to have such a great hubby to give you “you” time and “him” time with the kiddos.
You are doing awesome Alice – 2 days left or um, 1 1/2 now
You’re doing such a great job. I’m super impressed.
I’ve been following the challenge and I think it’s interesting that I’m pretty sure my boyfriend and I eat on less than $35 a week pretty much every week. We’re both in college, so we don’t have jobs, and are pretty much relying on parents. He does have a meal plan for our school, making cutting costs easier since I can get in too, but we still (apparently) eat pretty cheaply! but I’m impressed that you can do this with KIDS! I can’t imagine being an adult with a family trying to live like that – this is amazing way to look at hunger.
Alice, I just want you to know what a direct effect your Hunger Week just had on me. It’s Saturday night, when our larder usually seems bare. I was thinking about a run to the grocery store and checked your blog for a little inspiration (I do this periodically, ever since I found your frappucino recipe!:-)). After reading these posts, I decided to just go see what I had in the fridge. Turns out I have the ingredients for huevos rancheros, and a bunch of sweet potatoes to cut up and roast in olive oil. Thanks for inspiring me not to waste, but to work with what we have!