A hungry Gwyneth Paltrow fails the food-stamp challenge four days in

[FriendlyFire]

A hungry Gwyneth Paltrow fails the food-stamp challenge four days in

After four long days living like America’s poor, Gwyneth Paltrow broke her much-mocked attempt at shopping on a food stamp budget in search of some chicken and black licorice.

The multimillionaire mom was derided last week when she accepted the #FoodBankNYCChallenge from celebrity chef Mario Batali. The idea is to experience how difficult it is for families to live on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — better known as food stamps. So she set out with $29 — the amount the average person on food stamps receives — and every intention of showing those strapped for cash how to do it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...food-stamp-challenge-four-days-in/?tid=pm_pop

I think its possible to survive on $29 a week, you will need to buy bulk though
$5 for 1 kilo of wheat cereal, $5 for 5 liter of milk thats breakfast
$15 for 10 kilo of cheap rice leaving $4 .... ummmm soy sauce $1, 3 cans of tomatoes $3.

I guess rice and wheat would last 2 weeks
leaves some extra money for eggs, some mince meat, box of tea, sugar & salt and maybe canned peas, canned carrots.

Pretty boring diet but at least you wont be hungry.
I'd imagine that you would get sick of eating wheat cereal and rice everyday.

 

[cybrxkhan]

If you want to survive on eating out, you can buy only bean burritos at Taco Bell for every meal, that's about $3 a day, so $21 a week. Granted, it's not particularly healthy nor good for you and I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

If you want to survive on eating out, you can buy only bean burritos at Taco Bell for every meal, that's about $3 a day, so $21 a week. Granted, it's not particularly healthy nor good for you and I wouldn't recommend it.

What about beverages and tax?

As for "wheat cereal"... puffed wheat or Cream of Wheat? There was a period of several years in my life when breakfast was a bowl of porridge. Every single day. My grandfather got upset when I finally said (after 5 or 6 years) that I was tired of porridge and could I please have an egg instead.

 

[FriendlyFire]

It is the cheapest breakfast cereal food, its actually really good.
Sometimes add a bit of raw suger, or banana on top.

 

[Borachio]

Here's the stuff:



75p a kilo. And you won't want to eat more than 100 gms at one go. Well, 200 gms if you're super hungry.

I eat it for breakfast every day. And I don't cook it, as I hate porridge (which is exactly the same thing but cooked). I soak it overnight in the fridge. Usually in milk, but water will do. I quite like it. (With a few raisins for that added gourmet touch!) Look, it's just the basic ingredient of muesli.

When I'm trying to save money (really, really trying) I'll eat it twice a day. But be warned: a lot of it will make a person fart.

Yeah. $29 a week is perfectly doable, I'd guess. But for a rich person? That's got to be a lot harder. It takes practice, skill and motivation to live on a diet within a tight budget. The rich simply can't be expected to know how. We should feel compassion for their ignorance and vulnerability.

 

[gay_Aleks]

That looks like sawdust.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Considering all of the other comments she's made over the years demonstrating her complete lack of understanding with regards to how we average peasants live, this news should surprise precisely no one.

Also, Borachio, refrigerator oatmeal is really pretty good. If your budget isn't super constrained you can also try adding in a bit of plain, no sugar added yogurt to give it some tang and extra protein. I've also added chia seeds to it with great success. And of course you can flavor it up with any kind of fruit or nuts under the sun. Even did peanut butter a couple of times, that was pretty good too.

 

[cybrxkhan]

About a year ago,when I was recovering from my health decline I ate cream of rice most days, and it wasn't too bad - close enough I guess. My parents called it white people's rice porridge, since the usual rice porridge we (as Asians) are used to is much thicker. Anyways, all I needed to do was put in soy sauce, a bit of vegetable broth, tomato sauce, maple syrup, honey, or even a bit of salt, depending on what I wanted at the moment (though not all at once of course). I also had cream of wheat on occasion too, that wasn't too bad.

Then again I'm easy to please.

What about beverages and tax?

For beverages, that'd be water from public drinking fountains. As for tax, you're right, probably have to add in a few dollars overall, but still within the $29 per week limit I think. If you're really pressed for cash instead of the bean burrito , Taco Bell also has a lettuce/potato/cheese taco for 80 or 90 cents I think. It's not too filling, though it doesn't taste too bad.

 

[Borachio]

That looks like sawdust.

Well, it isn't. I bet you're thinking of bran. Which does look like sawdust, and tastes a bit like it too. (Actually, no. Sawdust is inedible.)

I find rolled oats quite palatable. Or I wouldn't eat it. Cheap as it is.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Here's the stuff:



75p a kilo. And you won't want to eat more than 100 gms at one go. Well, 200 gms if you're super hungry.

I eat it for breakfast every day. And I don't cook it, as I hate porridge (which is exactly the same thing but cooked). I soak it overnight in the fridge. Usually in milk, but water will do. I quite like it. (With a few raisins for that added gourmet touch!) Look, it's just the basic ingredient of muesli.

When I'm trying to save money (really, really trying) I'll eat it twice a day. But be warned: a lot of it will make a person fart.

Yeah. $29 a week is perfectly doable, I'd guess. But for a rich person? That's got to be a lot harder. It takes practice, skill and motivation to live on a diet within a tight budget. The rich simply can't be expected to know how. We should feel compassion for their ignorance and vulnerability.

Add a little cinnamon with the raisins.

For me, cream of wheat porridge is something I lived on for quite awhile when there were weird things going on with what my system was willing to tolerate. So it was a matter of cooking up some porridge, adding some honey, and that was breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

As for rolled oats, there are many things you can do with that. That's another kind of porridge we had when I was growing up. But many years later, I got into working with chocolate. Rolled oats is one of the key ingredients in a cookie recipe I used to make fairly often.

 

[Borachio]

Cinnamon, you reckon? I'll have to try it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Cinnamon's also good with rice (along with raisins, too). So is brown sugar. I wouldn't mix cinnamon and brown sugar at the same time, though.

 

[Kyriakos]

30 dollars a week is something like 30 euros/week by now?

Well it is surely doable. I mean i have to spend an average of 1,5 euros/day for cigarettes anyway (ie half a pack or around that), and i could still go for a week with 30 euros, moreso if i don't buy any beverages (coke) as well (which really i must stop drinking, cause they are very unhealthy...).

Of course the food will not be anything great, but even assuming that having erased the 1,5 euros/day from the sum, i would have almost 3 euros/day for the rest, and if i do not buy tickets for transport that means i can have at least one meat-centered meal each day (even if "meat" of fast food), and some lighter stuf for breakfast/noon.

(edited, arithmetic error, i am not an engineer )

 

[RalofTyr]

Ever since college, I have learned to shop right and I live off of about $20-$30USD a week or so. I buy meat that is about to expire that is discounted and discounted bread. I have lived on my own, with only a part-time retail job. Right now, I volunteer to cook at a soup kitchen and I can take left-overs and donations home sometimes. I used to go shopping every other day at a supermarket but now for the past few months, I have found my self shopping less and less.

 

[nc-1701]

It's easy, just not even slightly fun.

A big bag of rice is like $3, a gallon of milk is $3.50, a dozen eggs is $2, and whey protein is ~$0.70/scoop, chicken breast is $2 for a half pound.

Each day eat 2 scoops of whey protein in 2 cups of milk, two meals of a scrambled egg mixed into fried rice. And on Sunday you're out of eggs so you use the chicken for a treat.
So Lets add a bit of oil and soy sauce to our fried rice, the amount used in a week probably costs ~$.50

Total cost $20.80...


This leave enough money to add a third rice+eggs meal every day
or...
Add 1 large fresh bell pepper to each days rice (Aldi has them for a dollar each iirc)
or...
Get coffee everyday
or...
Drink an extra 2 gallons of whole milk
or...
You get the idea

Fact is if you don't care about eating the same thing everyday you can probably get all of your macros and even make gains on this diet. Not that' I'm gonna do it, I'de rather dump all $30 on a rack of ribs and some cider

 

[FriendlyFire]

It's easy, just not even slightly fun.

..... you will have scurvy.

 

[Borachio]

I don't know. He's got one bell pepper in there. Optionally!

But he's certainly missing out on the five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables they recommend.

That's the trouble with a food budget: you quite quickly end up with a poor diet. I don't think it's a good idea to go too low, and it's a great shame that many people in the world are obliged to. Especially when you think of all the filthy rich, like Paltrow herself, sitting on billions of untapped wealth for no good reason.

Even Soylent is pushing the budget close to $30 a week, iirc.

 

[nc-1701]

Eh, it's not particularly far away from my actual diet:/

Only I drink lots of coffee (and Monster), hard cider, steak, and the aforementioned rack of ribs.


High quality multi-vitamins ftw.

 

[Lillefix]

Here's the stuff:



75p a kilo. And you won't want to eat more than 100 gms at one go. Well, 200 gms if you're super hungry.

I eat it for breakfast every day. And I don't cook it, as I hate porridge (which is exactly the same thing but cooked). I soak it overnight in the fridge. Usually in milk, but water will do. I quite like it. (With a few raisins for that added gourmet touch!) Look, it's just the basic ingredient of muesli.

When I'm trying to save money (really, really trying) I'll eat it twice a day. But be warned: a lot of it will make a person fart.

Yeah. $29 a week is perfectly doable, I'd guess. But for a rich person? That's got to be a lot harder. It takes practice, skill and motivation to live on a diet within a tight budget. The rich simply can't be expected to know how. We should feel compassion for their ignorance and vulnerability.

I usually had(haven't eaten it for ten years) a spoon of sugar with it. Was a bit boring without.

 

[Antilogic]

High quality multi-vitamins ftw.

Man, you must love cancer.