Welcome to my chronicle of living on a food budget of just $29 per week. This is the average food stamp (nowadays SNAP) benefit - at least it was in 2015. My research showed that it has only slightly changed since then.
In addition to living off of just $29 per week for food, starting from absolute scratch, I have upped the difficulty in a few ways.
I can only shop once per week, and only at the 99 Cents Only store. This store only has a limited amount of food items, and you never know what they might have each day. For instance, there were no potatoes when I went shopping. So I could not have them this week.
I cannot use my microwave or oven. This is in case people on SNAP benefits do not have a microwave and their oven is broken and they cannot afford to fix it.
Most people do this challenge for one week. I am not most people, so I will do this challenge for three weeks. One week is nothing, it's over before it even starts.
BREAKFAST - DAY 4 - $0.65
I decided to make a little breakfast sandwich! It is just amazing how nice a runny egg and bacon is inside some bread. Yesterday I used half a banana to make the plain oatmeal tastier, thanks to 
This is the thing about having such a limited food budget, you end up eating the same thing over and over. I don't have much variety right now, as I started with nothing at all! My budget had to be used to buy those staples you usually take for granted (I know I do).
Next week should add some variety, but for now it's pretty much eggs and oatmeal.
1 egg - $0.14
1 slice of bacon - $0.17
1/4 cup oatmeal - $0.05
1/4 cup milk - $0.03
1 slice of bread - $0.07
2 Strawberries - $0.09
1/2 banana - $0.10
Total: $0.65
LUNCH - $1.19
As I hinted in day 3, I was tired of trying to get the dried beans soft. I mean I got them to be OK, but it took hours and hours to get them to where they were.
Instead, I used my spinach spaghetti, canned salmon, veggies, and made a white sauce. I've always been a huge pasta fan. I could eat pasta every day, no problem.
I just needed a big meal and this mid-point of the week is a perfect time to do it.
I put these items into the sauce and got three portions.
1/2 bunch of asparagus $0.50
1 squash - $0.25
1 onion - $0.12
2 tomatoes - $0.33
4 cloves garlic - $0.12
1 can of salmon - $1.00
1 cup of milk - $0.12
4 tbls margarine $0.13
2 tbls flour - $0.02
Total sauce cost: $2.59 (but each portion is ~$0.86)
I add this sauce to 1/3rd a pound of spinach pasta, which costs $0.33.
Each meal is $1.19
DINNER - $1.28
Same as lunch, but I had two strawberries as a dessert. I have been working evenings, so that's why it is in a plastic container.
CONCLUSION OF DAY 4
A bit of a jump up in costs today, but I needed to have some good meals.
All together, today I ate for $3.12. Add this to the previous days total and I have spent $7.46 on food over the past 4 days.
Since I have a food budget of $29 per week, that comes out to $4.14 per day. I have completed 4 days and am actually using less than 50% of that! Wow, it really is possible to cut food costs to the bone if you had to.
I might be living large next week!
Stick around and see what happens - I have two and a half weeks to go!