That's not the point.
The point is that $30 is not intended to live on.
Publicity stunts by rich people trying to live on it are meaningless.
It's Gwyneth Paltrow. She doesn't know how to feed her need for attention except by seeking bad attention. She also never looks remotely healthy, without lots of Photoshop.Avacado is very spendy, at least here on the east coast. Quality food, but she could do much better.
OatmealHave to admit it but this is a good point, make a sauce-based food like spaghetti sauce with ground beef and cook pasta every day and top it off. Thing is though a healthy diet needs complex carbs and at $29/week you can forget about that, you can also forget about any beverages outside of Kool-aid.
Nice dodge.
They both get a little over $800 a month each and they get a little over $30 a month in snap benefits.
http://twitchy.com/2015/04/12/gwyne...certainly-well-publicized-but-is-it-accurate/
Gwyneth Paltrows SNAP challenge is certainly well publicized, but is it accurate?
No.
In a 31-day month, that's 7/31*194 = $43.80/week!
Multis really are cheap, amortized out (generally <$0.10/day, for good ones). But, a multivitamin is just the realistic admission that you're not getting all you should be in your diet, and compensating for it. Even when I had plenty of time, a diet good enough to not be missing something an ideal diet aught to have was too much planning effort for my type B brain. It's not like you can live on multivitamins, water, and fiber, though.You have no idea what you're talking about. You need large amounts of protein so your brain does not die. Plastic does not metabolize and has no nutritional value. Please don't try to eat it. And eating nothing but sugar will cause you to have life-threatening health issues within a few weeks.
And multivitamins are not cheap.
Replace the wine vinegar with Bragg's ACV. IMO, it works great for acid cabbage soup (not White House, or store brand stuff, because it's too bitter/sour, but not Spectrum, either, because that stuff is just too strong).Cabbage is a good cheap fresh vegetable. Cabbage soup is very cheap and easy. Half head of cabbage 50¢, two Italian sausage links $1.50, wine vinegar 10¢, tabasco 20¢, black pepper 2¢?, and salt virtually free.
If you're on food stamps and are struggling you probably don't have time to cook all that. That's why people buy frozen pizzas and little Debbie cakes.
No one can live on $29 a month for food, that's pretty clear.
What's not clear is how the idea got started that anyone was expected to.
The problem I have with most of the "how to live on $XXX a month in food" is not so much the choices for a week. It's that there's no variety beyond that. That's the real challenge. Not get bored by what you are eating. Sure anyone can get by on a budget for a week or so. But looking at so many of those "Here's my diet" posts there's zero variety.
Eggs. Chicken. Pasta. Rice. Oats. The end. If you can leave eating that way more power to you. But I need some diversity in my meals.
Should have gone to Costco...
We're not talking about you, - a productive person with a job - and what you want (need and want are different). We're talking about someone who sits at home and does nothing. Because if the only money they have to eat with is SNAP, it's because they do absolutely nothing productive with their time.
Per week. Not month.
And a person CAN in fact live on $29/week in food. It's not a glamorous diet, but it's not supposed to be. It's for surviving. If you're not working, you don't get to have a glamorous life, you get to survive.
Did the math on most of those foods and it amounts to less than 1000 calories a day. Good luck for an average adult sustaining that for any measurable amount of time.