By the evening of Day 3 and into Day 4 things got really awful. Wednesday evening I was so jittery from being hungry while waiting for my food to cook that I went off the rails. Instead of my planned meal, I went with something that was more filling–baked beans and white rice.
I found it was better to not try to eat all of my allotted food three times a day. Leaves me too jittery. Spreading it out in bits throughout the day like I normally do helped me stay better balanced on Day 4.
DAY 3
I found myself getting more cranky, tired and harder to focus on anything. And constantly thinking about food.
Breakfast
- 2 cups of coffee $0.26
- Lemon luna bar – $1.29
Mid-morning snack
- 1/2 PBJ (leftover from Tuesday)
Lunch
- 1/4 of ramen noodles $0.20 (leftover from Tuesday lunch)
- 1/2 tuna sandwich – $0.34
Dinner
- Baked beans
- White rice
DAY 4
Full disclosure: Today my job had a health fair. Since I got a flu shot, I also decided to accept a slice of the pizza my company provided compliments of zpizza.
Breakfast
- 2 cups of coffee $0.26
- Lemon luna bar – $1.29
Lunch
- Combo Thai peanut and pepperoni pizza equivalent to one slice.
Snack
- PBJ sandwich
Dinner
- Baked beans
- White rice
At this point I’m probably over my $4.15. But I at least feel full but too tired to calculate it all.
Pinkpodster Ponders 
Pizza was a total cheat. People on food stamps usually don’t have access to jobs with snazzy “health fairs”!
I agree. I totally cheated there. I deserve to be called out! I’m very fortunate to work at a place that free food is often available whether it’s leftovers from a meeting or a coworker who brings in goodies. And the guidelines for this challenge clearly say to try not to accept free food. Earlier in the week many times I had access to food coworkers brought in to share or that was given to us by vendors. I refrained at those times. But indulged when faced with something I truly enjoy.
True, many people using food stamps don’t have workplaces like mine, but they do work and some may have access to free food on occasion. If we use my workplace for example, a part-timer, temp, or cleaning service worker (jobs that might meet food stamp program income requirements) would have been able to have the same opportunity to eat everything that was offered. Not that this makes my cheating excusable. Just noting it because sometimes we forget that people on food stamps might be our neighbors or coworkers–people who we never think would be in this circumstance. Especially in this economy. I know a lot of the people getting supplies from the Food Bank of CENC are regular working people who are finding it hard to make ends meet.