" Related story on poverty: The Washington Post writes about four members of Congress, who have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That's $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday:"

The 'experiment' presupposes an interesting but unlikely idea - that most or all food stamp recipients (or indeed any welfare recipient) live completely on the proceeds from Federal programs - and that it is the duty of taxpayers to finance that kind of dependency. As unlikely as that dependency would seem to be in the majority of cases, where informal jobs, relatives, charities the undeclared father of the child, etc are helping out. It also discounts the effects of free food distributions (either dumpster-diving or distributions of products past their sell-by date but still good for human consumption.

Congressman Ryan's choices are interesting and probably unsound given his limited budget. There are luxuries on that list - and the prices seem high to me even living in the UK where food is more expensive.

I have had recent experience of living on a very minimal budget in very recent times after my bank screwed up my accounts this winter I lived for 2 months on a food budget of £25 a week.

Yellow cornmeal $1.43
2 packages angel-hair pasta 1.54
3 cans tomato sauce 4.50
1 loaf wheat bread 0.89


Bread and cornmeal are sound choices, as are dried rice and pulses. A lot of eating for very little money. The pasta and tomato sauce seem expensive - I could get 5-6 meals out of a package of dried pasta (38 pence) and two large jars of store-brand pasta sauce (75 pence each). Six meals for £1.88 plus maybe 50 pence worth of cheese for £2.38 total for 5-6 dinners.

I could buy a large loaf of long-life bread for 58 pence. Two of those would last me a week breakfast and lunch. I needed a tub of cheap olive-oil spread (75 pence) though that would last me more than a week. A large box of generic bran flakes 77 pence, and a couple quarts of long-life milk at 90 pence total gave me cereal and buttered toast each morning. I used cheap liver sausage for sandwiches for lunch (perhaps £2 a week).


2 jars strawberry preserves 4.80
1 jar chunky peanut butter 2.48
Chock Full o’ Nuts coffee 2.50
1 head of garlic 0.32

Coffe, particularly Name Brand coffee?!!!! Strawberry preserves? Peanut butter? All luxuries - particularly the coffee. I drank tap water and brewed tea. Tea is very cheap if you buy the cheap brands (at least here in the UK).

The congressman showed little discipline in the store. He blew nearly half his budget on luxuries - more than half given that he seems to have paid for name brands on many of his non-luxury items. And he's surprised that he wwent hungry?!!!! Shopping on a tight budget takes time and discipline. You have to comparison shop to make sure you are getting the best deal - and never buy name brand anything!