one loaf of bread: 3.50
one-half gallon milk: 2.30 2.30 * 20 days = 46.00 46.00
two tall boxes of cereal: free at a food bank, for those w/children under 5 and seniors
three cans of fruit: free at a food bank, for those w/children under 5 and seniors
two 18 ounce jars of peanut butter: free at a food bank, for those w/children under 5 and seniors
one block of cheese spread: free at a food bank, for those w/children under 5 and seniors
one fryer chicken or equal amount of vension: free at a local church
1 pound of ground beef: 3.00, avg 3.00 * 12 days = 36.00 82.00
one 16 ounce of vegetables: 3.50 3.50 * 12 = 42.00 124.00
one banana: .35 cents, avg
ketchup: forget it, you can’t afford it .35 * 30 = 10.50 134.50
salad dressing: forget it, you can’t afford it
musturd:forget it, you can’t afford it
Lettuce: forget it, you can’t afford it
one pound of dry beans: 2.99 2.99 * 3 = 8.97 143.47
one pound of pasta, cheap kind: 1.39 1.39 * 5 = 6.95 150.92
one can frozen juice: 2.99
one frozen pot pie: 1.00 1.00 * 16 (8 days) = 16.00 166.92
one 16 ounce coffee: 2.50-5.00 and up
16 ounce creamer: 2.50-4.00
5 pounds sugar: 4.00 171.00 – 166.92 = 4.08 to have fun with for the month

I am not a senior, over 65, nor feeding children under 5, routinely. I have been known to buy tea, coffee, sugar and the occasional margarine, potato and even a cut of meat other than ground beef.

I have always been a frugal shopper. So, it came as a huge surprise, when food stamps lasted a little over two weeks this past month and the month before. Most of my money, (I have a parttime job making minimum wage) pays for my efficiency apartment, which is less than some of my neighbors, because I moved in with a friend, then, later, he moved out, so I have an old lease – THAT AND my manager knows I have only myself to rely upon.

I’m hungry quite a lot of the time. I have discovered over this past year of rising food costs, that if a person goes with too many missed meals, the stomach demands more food, more often.

A friend doesn’t like peanut butter and gives me some of his cheese. Otherwise, there would be many, many days, when I had no food, except milk and cereal with coffee or tea.

I cannot stand President Bush and have spoken out about him loudly in my blog. Never before in my lifetime has there been so little for a poor person to afford to eat. George McGovern, too, winner of a big prize and going to Mexico to retrieve it…he makes me ill. There is no problem in America about yield. Iowa has the one of the biggest yields on its crops each and every year. My neighbors.

It’s money. That is the trouble. Why does it cost almost three dollars to buy one pound of dry beans? Why? Discover this answer and the answer to why most of these foods are so costly, and our food problems will be over.

Thank you for this site.
Ann Klein
moonlitetwine.blogspot.com