$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