Food Stamps

I recently read an article in our local newspaper which featured interviews with our community Food Bank officials. The article really made me think, as one statistic stated that Food Stamp benefits equal about $96 per person per MONTH. If you count 30 days in a month and 3 meals in a day, that's $1.00/meal per person. Wow... is there a way to eat in a healthy way with that small amount of money?

During my grocery shopping and cooking, I have been thinking about that number. I bought a potato wrapped in plastic ready to microwave for my granddaughter and that cost $1.00. I guess that could be a quick meal for someone. Of course, there would be no extra side dishes or even condiments to put on top of it. But, a plain baked potato can actually taste good.

For breakfast you could purchase a large box of Shredded Wheat for $4.00 and a half-gallon of soy milk for $3.29. If you ate a bowl of cereal every morning, that would be $1.04 per breakfast.

I've got a recipe for some good and easy bread that you can make with self-rising whole wheat flour and a tablespoon of olive oil. The small bag of flour costs $1.69 and you could probably get 5 or 6 loaves from that bag. The olive oil costs $8/bottle. One loaf of bread would be about fifty-eight cents. Add an apple for fifty cents and you have a lunch. To add a tablespoon of peanut butter would put you over the top.

If you purchased a tub of spinach for $4.29 and steamed a small portion every night, you could get the cost down to sixty-one cents a meal. Add 1/4 box of spaghetti ($1.59) and 1/4 can of tomato sauce for another fifty-one cents and those dinners would total $1.12.

A can of beans costs ninety-nine cents and a bag of beans costs $1.15. If you cooked the bag of beans with an onion (thirty-five cents) and a bag of carrots ($1.39) and made it last for 3 meals, that would be ninety-six cents a meal.

This gets really hard and most of us would definitely lose weight if that's all we had to eat. As we gather around a full table this Thanksgiving, let's be extremely grateful for what we have and let's be very sympathetic for the plight of those on food stamps. Don't begrudge them their $1 meals.

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© 2007-2015 Melinda Coker

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Skin Care

Have you ever been "suckered in" by a salesperson? There is nothing better than a good salesperson... as long as that person is someone of integrity who has a sincere desire to help you get something you want. As with most "older" women, I am concerned with the lines and wrinkles that are showing up on my skin and I would like to use natural treatments and products to help minimize them as much as possible. Just because I am getting older doesn't mean I no longer want to be as beautiful as I can... to a certain degree anyway... as I am currently too fearful of having surgery.

A couple of weeks ago I had some errands to run at our local mall. I managed to get past the first booth of skin care products by rushing past and saying "no" to the plea to try a new hand cream.

At the other end of the mall, I noticed a chair massage site set up in the middle of the concourse. My shoulder had been bothering me and when I saw that you could get a 10-minute massage for $12, I had to stop. It was a good massage and it was quick. However, as I was leaving and not paying attention, a salesman at the skincare booth near the massage pad starting asking me about my massage experience, and, because Southern women are "polite," I visited with him and then he had me on a stool so he could show me his new skin care products.


He was trying this product and that product and then showing me the results in a mirror telling me that my droopy skin was firming up and my lines and wrinkles were clearing up right before his eyes. It's a great ploy! As an older woman, I couldn't believe someone was actually pointing out my sagging and lines and wrinkles, but then showing me the amazing results. Of course, I wasn't wearing my glasses and he wasn't holding up a magnifying mirror, so I just had to take his word for it that my skin was now amazing! Oh, what vain fools we can be. :)

After I got home with my purchases, because I had spent so much money, I decided that I had better not put these products on the shelf with the many others I have bought over the years, so I read and reread the directions and made myself a chart as to which product to use when. That salesman had talked me into buying THREE different masks, so I had to make sure I knew when I was going to use each one. I was somewhat excited because I knew I would begin to look much younger.

I'm sure there is a little improvement after using this skin care regimen for the past two weeks and I will continue to use my masks, creams, serums, and lotions. However, what has really upset me is after "googling" the products, I found that I paid nearly 3 times the amount I could have gotten them for on the web. That HURTS and could almost cause some of those lines and wrinkles to come back!

Switched to SuperSlow

At a charity "silent auction" this summer I noticed one of the bid items was a package of personal strength training sessions at SuperSlow. My son was going to be in town soon and he had talked many times about the benefits of a SuperSlow workout. I bid on the package and "won."

I have been working out at a local gym with a personal trainer for the past year and a half so thought this workout would be very similar. It wasn't.

I walked in and was met by my slightly overweight trainer who was dressed in street clothes and lots of jewelry. I worked out on several machines while she explained the SuperSlow concept. This was not a race to see how many reps I could do, but I was told to go very slowly for 3 minutes on each machine and to do as few reps as possible. The temperature was very cool, the gym was small with no more than 2 trainers working at the same time and no separate cardio machines. There is no loud music... in fact there is no music at all as you are to concentrate on your workout. The total workout only took 30 minutes.

I have since signed up for more sessions. It's very unusual to take a shower BEFORE I go to the gym. After my 30-minute session I am free to get a few errands run and I still get home in less time than I did with my previous workouts. It's really a nice change for now.

Added Swimming to My Exercise Routine

My granddaughter LOVES to swim and at 4-years old she is quite good. Whenever she visits, she is in the pool 2-3 times a day. The last time she came, a golfer had hit a ball into the pool and no one wanted to get it out. Kendall did. She swam to the bottom of the 9-10' area and retrieved the golf ball!

I am a warm water swimmer. By the end of June our pool had gotten warm enough for me to start swimming. I love the water and I love swimming (as long as it's warm) so for about 6 weeks I have been able to swim nearly every day. As in my other sports, I am not an extremist. I usually swim laps for 15-30 minutes using a variety of strokes. It definitely adds to my aerobic exercise and really energizes me. Unfortunately for swimming, we have had a week of cooler temperatures and clouds and rain so today I won't swim. I hope it is not the end of the swimming season for me, but just a few days without it.