Adventures at the Fruit and Vegetable Stand

I honestly thought the easiest part about doing this SNAP challenge would be buying the fresh produce.  I knew in advance I'd need to cut back on my fruits.  I usually eat 3 to 4 a day and I cut my allowance to two for this challenge.  Let me start by showing and listing what I bought before I go into the dirty details of what I didn't buy and what I put back. 

1 Romaine hearts	3.99
1 lb Carrots	0.79
4 Zucchini	0.67
2 Tomato	0.94
3 lb Onions	1.29
4 Potatoes	1.50
1 Garlic	0.52
5 Bananas	1.57
3 Apples	2.07
2 Pears	1.03
1 Oranges	0.69
1 Cantaloupe	1.19
2 loaves Italian Bread	2.49
Total:	18.74

This looks like a lot, but it is less fresh produce than I would buy on a typical week.  I was trying to keep the budget to $18.  And that's without a few things I put back like broccoli, cucumber, a few kiwi and a couple of lemons to flavor plain water.  I also put back a small container of about 1/4 lb container of walnuts to put in yogurt, salad and oatmeal.  I had really hoped I could buy more oranges and apples to fill in for snacks and apple and peanut butter for lunch.  The orange was bought more for some token effort to include some vitamin C in my diet, but I only splurged on that one and it put me over budget.

I bought pears even though they're not a favorite fruit of mine, but they were on sale for .69cents/lb.  I bought a cantaloupe because it was on sale too and I know I could get four servings of fruit out of it. The bread is the only bread I will buy this week.  I could have bought a 5lb bag of potatoes for $1.99 but they were spongy and smelled slightly of mold.  I could have bought two whole heads of romaine that would last me the week, but I would have had to buy two and they were 2.69 a head.  It was cheaper to spend 3.99 on the romaine hearts.  

.74 cents doesn't sound like much over budget, but it's still over budget and must come out of my grocery store budget.  Even with sales, that's going to be really tough to keep that shopping at or below $24.26.

I had no illusions this would be an easy exercise.  I knew going into it that this would be tough even if I wasn't adhering to the original $29 challenge but using New York State's $45 allotment (minus $2 for the seeds I bought for my kitchen window herb garden.)   Already it isn't a balanced nutritious meal plan because I've had to cut back on what the FDA recommends for servings on fruits and vegetables.  

Tomorrow is grocery shopping.   I can't say I'll be looking forward to it.