$0.50 – popcorn
$0.18 – can of soda
$2.75 – bubble tea
$2.00 – homemade korean curry and side dishes
$0.20 – fruits and corn syrup glazed potato

$5.63 – total

$32.36 – 5 day total

I finished strong with a dollar or so to spare.what made this challenge possible for me is being able to buy food at bulk prices and sharing meals with people. What I fail to do in this process is to eat 3 meals a day.  I used the same habit as I usually do with food and ate when I’m hungry. As you can tell from the list of food, it’s very college-student like. But food stamps don’t only affect people with families. College students are considered one of the poorest adults in the category and not everyone gets spending money from their parents either.

There’s a lot of controversey as well to college students receiving food stamps. Granted, if your household income is very low, your grants and federal loans are very high and that money usually can cover your food budget. However, not everyone is able to get federal loans and grants. Some people may fall in the gap between being ‘too rich’ for food stamps and not rich enough to actually being able to pay for food.

Another problem that I’ve heard of is college students abusing the food stamps. They declare themselves as independents, file their own taxes and since they make very little money working at part time jobs, they fall in the category of food stamps. That is also a big problem since they most likely have the support of their parents and they are taking food money away from others in need.

I feel like it was important to me to eat the way I usually would and personate the role of a college student on budget. What I ate may not always be healthy, but it was filling and definitely had enough nutrient values for college students. To conclude, it was a great way to figure out a approximately how much I eat on a daily basis and to save money.

Related posts:

1. Hunger Challenge
2. Hunger Challenge Day 2: $6.43
3. Hunger Challenge Day 1

So I did go over my daily limit yesterday:

$0.50 | 1 popcorn | midnight snack

$0.63 | 3 chocolate | breakfast
$0.20 | 1/3 of M&ms
$0.18 | 1 can of soda

$2.88 | shrimp | lunch

$2.55 | porkkebabs |dinner
$2.4 | roti canai

$9.26 | total

As you can see, my healthy-o-meter was destroyed and I broke all protocols. HOWEVER, I made it up by not ’spending’ as much today:

$0.8 | curry with bread | breakfast
$0.18 | 1 can of soda
$3.00 | fried rice | dinner
$0.5 | soup

$4.48 | total

In combination with Wednesday, it was a total of $13.74. So technically I’m still in the game!

It was pretty hard yesterday though when you are surrounded by food. But I realize that Asian style cooking is really cheap. You can make things really tasty and healthy for no additional cost. The curry for roti canai was great and I used it for my breakfast/lunch the next day. It had chicken and potato and I ate it on whole wheat bread. Fried Rice is also an example of another healthy dish. You get all your veggie and protein in for half the price and all the taste! Plus, we made extra so there was enough for lunch tomorrow and feed an extra person (which is exactly what we did).

Related posts:

1. Hunger Challenge Day 1
2. Hunger Challenge Day 5 + Recap
3. Hunger Challenge Day 2: $6.43

Breakfast:

$0.50 – homemade soup

Lunch/Snack:

$0.61 – 2 slices of bacon + 1 egg

$1.00 – handful of cheese nips

Dinner:

$0.36 – 2 cans of coke

$1.00 – 2 spring rolls

$2.59 – $5.18 for 2 – pasta with sauce, 1# of ground beef, and peas

$.50 – handful of grapes

Total: 6.56

It isn’t so bad.. but I have a feeling my costs would be higher if I didn’t buy in bulk or if I had actually follow the rules of the challenge and bought new food. I think when I move in June, I will restart this challenge but make it a little harder.. maybe 10 dollars a day for two people :)

Related posts:

1. Hunger Challenge Day 5 + Recap
2. Hunger Challenge
3. Hunger Challenge Day 2: $6.43