That wasn’t what I expected at all.

I didn’t anticipate how stressful our Food Stamp Challenge shopping trip would be.

Usually, shopping for us is a team effort. My wife Nancy and I write up our shopping lists before we head out, then when we get to the store we each take a list and go. It’s efficient. It’s cooperative. It can even be fun.

Not so today. Since we had to watch every penny and scrutinize every choice, we couldn’t just head out each with our own list. We had to do everything together, which often meant Nancy just stood around bored while I totaled up how much we had spent so far. And of course I felt more pressure knowing that she was standing there bored.

So, what normally takes us 30 minutes this time took us over an hour.

But in the end, we succeeded.

Here’s what we got:

First thing to notice is that there’s not a lot of produce there. We’ve got onions, carrots, garlic, a plantain, and a bag of apples. You know those leafy greens the health experts say you should be eating more of? Well, not this week.

Before I lay out the meal plan, let me explain the wrinkle. Nancy will be out of town for 3 days of the challenge, so her share is just $12 (4 days at $3 a day), so our total budget is $33.

Now, on to the plan:

Breakfast: oatmeal with raisins.

Oatmeal: 1.59

Raisin: 1.99

Lunch: Some lunches will be leftovers, some will be a good old PB&J.

We bought the so-called “wheat” bread, but you don’t get true whole wheat until the 3rd ingredient. It’s 30 cents more than white bread, and I guess we’re paying for the illusion of whole wheat.

For the peanut butter and jelly, we’re using the “Yipes! Stripes” strawberry jelly and peanut butter mixed together. To be honest, this stuff kind of scares me. There are no trans fats, but beyond that I think I’m better off not reading the label.

We made a mistake here, though. Initially we had planned to buy separate peanut butter and jelly. It’s cheaper in the long run, but we are maximizing short term returns here. Our mistake, we forgot to put the peanut butter and jelly back on the shelf.

Oops.

So, the PB&J will go in the box of donations for SOS Community Services.

Dinner plans, we’ve got four meals together. One of those will be split pea soup (thank you Ypsidixit for the recommendation), two will be beans and rice, and one will be pasta and sauce.

As for my meals after Nancy goes off on her trip, I’ll be bachloring it. Noodles, frozen veggies, some cheese, and whatever else is left by the end of the week.

I did give in to my caffeine habit here and bought a can of coffee on clearance for $2.09.

At the end of the trip, we spent 32.79. Because of the mistake with the peanut butter and jelly, we had to put a bag of beans and a bottle of hot sauce back.

After we subtract out the PB&J cost, the total comes to $29.91.

I plan on using some of the sugar, salt, pepper and hot sauce we already have, and maybe a pinch of cumin, probably fifty cents worth in all. We also have a half-dozen eggs to use up, another fifty cents, so let’s add a dollar to the total and round it up to $31. That gives me $2 breathing space in case I run out of food–or I might grab some popcorn with it so I’ve got something for a snack.

I feel like I’ve got my calories covered, but not necessarily my nutrition, or flavor. Also, I’m very lucky to have the time to cook beans and rice and split peas from scratch. That’s not a luxury that most low-income working families have.

Right now I’ve got nine hours before the challenge starts. Time for some wine and chocolate and fresh tomatoes–three things I won’t be getting for the next week.

Update: Just for the record, our grocery basket usually looks like this:

And what’s more, we get a share of produce from the Community Farm of Ann Arbor, so you can add this in too:

I’m looking forward to getting back.