Living it up on the tax payers dime a weeks worth of food stamps

A lot of people like to complain about the food stamp program so I figured I'd put things into perspective. The recent cuts took food off of the table for me and millions of Americans. $47 million dollars in cuts isn't much to most but for some of us it was a big chunk. Yeah yeah yeah you hear stories all the time that we on food stamps are eating prime rib and lobster every night.

Well heres a picture of what a regular week of shopping looks like for me. I can't afford chick beef or pork. I stay away from processed foods as much as possible. I don't like eat tuna because of the possible radiation from the Japan incident but I don't have much of a choice. I need something to eat for protein.

In the picture there are two cans of gravy, two cans of condensed soup, 6 cans of tuna, bananas, potatoes, a jar of olives, a box of stuffing mix, 5 packages of instant noodles, 2 two liters of soda and a pumpkin pie.

Everything except the potatoes and bananas were on sale. If it hadn't been I would have had even less to eat for the week. The pie was half off at $2.50. The sodas were $1 each.

I'm on disability I use to make in a week what I now survive on in a month. I haven't had a steak in so long I don't even know what it tastes like. In my world real meat is a delicacy that I just can't afford. If I go over my monthly food stamp budget I practically starve. After gas insurance and bills $800 a month don't go far. There are many times at the end of the month I eat a plate of plain rice for dinner. I've been tempted to shoot a few squirrels running around in the yard.

I wish I could work but instead I'm forced to live as a second class citizen in richest nation on earth.

You can thank all of the people that do abuse the system.
www.fns.usda.gov...

reply to post by wantsome


What do you get, 25$ a week?

Seriously, what is your weekly income for the foodstamps alone?


I'm not condeming you on your choices of food, because growing up from a child, we had to live off of foodstamps and in government housing.

But, why, if you're on a strict budget (I don't see government funds set up to be used as personal indulgences), why would you buy cokes and pies? You're supposed to buy nutrition. That's what the funds are for. It's money to keep you alive and well, not to buy moonpies and soda water. Same thing with the EBT cards. I would think they're for paying bills like electricity and rent, not casino funds or club night.

I'm not picking on you. I'm just seeing an example of the problem here, even though it's small in your case, it's a very big picture problem. Substitute that 2$ of cokes, plus the 1$ olives and the 2-3$ pie and whatever else in there that isn't good for you and buy your meat. Potatoes have protien, as do all foods in some degree, but you can get stew meat, a 5lb bag of chicken or something akin to that with the money you saved on the foods that wont do anything for your body.

Smart shopping. I know it's tough, but it is very possible.

reply to post by StallionDuck


I get $45 a week the picture is $38. I needed to save enough for milk and bread.

reply to post by wantsome


For one person, in a month's time, that's around 225$, which I'm pretty sure is plenty to sustain you. Now, I can't really determine prices in your area, because I don't know where you live, but here, that's honestly enough to feed a person well. 300$ is what I pay on food every month and I end up throwing almost half of that away because it doesn't stay fresh the whole time.

I'm seriously not picking on you. I just don't see how it adds up to a lack of food. I know it's not a lot of food, but from someone who used to eat ramen daily during the college years, I could do a lot with 200$ a month.

If you have to live on a tight budget, get rid of those things you don't need. Treat yourself once in a while but making sugar part of the weekly diet isn't good for you and I'm not sure the government wanted you to have sugar as part of your diet. It's trying to sustain you and millions of others at the same time. I'm sure they're on just as much a budget, though so many people abuse it.

PlatinumShatinum
You can thank all of the people that do abuse the system.
www.fns.usda.gov...

Ah yes all those other skum sucking leaches right?

reply to post by wantsome


My husband was laid off a few years ago. We waited until we absolutely needed help, and we applied for food stamps. We had them for two months before he (thank The Lord) found his new job. For a family of four we received almost $500 a month. I knew I had to make it stretch....

I shopped manager's special meats (making me have to go to the store almost every other day) and used coupons whenever I could. The looks on the cashiers faces when I used food stamps and coupons together were priceless.

But, I did make it stretch, and I do feel your pain. Are you provided access to your local food bank? Sometimes you can go in there weekly and get a big box of food with non perishables that would help to stretch your dollars even further.

StallionDuck
reply to post by wantsome

 

For one person, in a month's time, that's around 225$, which I'm pretty sure is plenty to sustain you. Now, I can't really determin prices in your area, because I dont know where you live, but here, that's honestly enough to feed a person well. 300$ is what I pay on food every month and I end up throwing almost half of that away because it doesn't stay fresh the whole time.

I'm seriously not picking on you. I just dont see how it adds up to a lack of food. I know it's not a lot of food, but from someone who used to eat ramen daily durring the college years, I could do a lot with 200$ a month.

If you have to live on a tight budget, get rid of those things you dont need. Treat yourself once in a while but making sugar part of the weekly diet isn't good for you and I'm not sure the government wanted you to have sugar as part of your diet. It's trying to sustain you and millions of others at the same time. I'm sure they're on just as much a budget, though so many people abuse it.

I get $180 how did you come up with $225?

Instead of soda and SaraLee pie and Stove Top Stuffing you could have bought a few loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter and honey, and boxes of spaghetti. Instead of the instant flavored rice you could have bought a huge box or two of minute rice .. or gotten a good sized bag of plain rice that would have been better for you and lasted a lot longer. Why buy a jar of olives when you could get a small bag of potatoes?

Instead of canned chicken you could have bought fresh chicken thighs and cooked them yourself.
2 large cans of chicken = 10$
2 packages of chicken thighs = $10 (and you get at least 10 thighs).

I know you are looking for sympathy, but what I see is someone wasting the money on lazy crap.

If you would cook for yourself instead of getting the instant stuff, your money would go farther.

reply to post by wantsome


You said 45$ a week, I multiplied that by 5. Sorry, I should have multiplied it by 4.3 which is 194 average. I gave you 30$ more a month.

My reasoning still stands.


Do you get free internet or a free cellphone? What's your primary mode of communication, and internet? Do you drive? How much do you spend in gas every week? How do you pay for electricity?

wantsome
I wish I could work but instead I'm forced to live as a second class citizen in richest nation on earth.

You've got money to pay the electric bill ... and the internet cable bill ...
And you've got money for a computer ... and a phone too, right?
So I'm not seeing 'second class citizen'. Sorry.

FlyersFan
Instead of soda and SaraLee pie and Stove Top Stuffing you could have bought a few loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter and honey, and boxes of spaghetti. Instead of the instant flavored rice you could have bought a huge box or two of minute rice .. or gotten a good sized bag of plain rice that would have been better for you and lasted a lot longer.

Instead of canned chicken you could have bought fresh chicken thighs and cooked them yourself.
2 large cans of chicken = 10$
2 packages of chicken thighs = $10 (and you get at least 10 thighs).

I know you are looking for sympathy, but what I see is someone wasting the money on lazy crap.

If you would cook for yourself instead of getting the instant stuff, your money would go farther.

It's chicken soup and it was only $1.25 a can. I can't afford chicken thighs. The soda was a $1 a bottle. I already have a giant bag of rice but I save that for hard times. Have you seen the price of peanut butter lately? And because making mash potatoes as apposed in minute rice and spaghetti noodles is so much harder?

reply to post by wantsome


They certainly do have you, don't they?
Why do you shop so expensively, and place all of that processed garbage in your body?
What If I told you that for the price of those 2 jars of gravy and the 3 packets of pasta sides, you could have gravy and pasta/rice dishes for about a half of a year???
Go to the Mexican foods section and get a big can of bouillon, chicken, beef, or tomato for about 4 bucks then grab a bag of flour for a few bucks more, just with that alone you could make gallons upon gallons of gravy.
Add some spices, milk, or sour cream and the above to rice or pasta and you have a pasta side.
Learn to actually cook and you will eat like a king.
If you are not working, the extra 10 minutes will not kill you to weigh and measure the portions.
I have harvested a few squirrels from my yard, not much meat but more than enough to compliment a dish.

FlyersFan

wantsome
I wish I could work but instead I'm forced to live as a second class citizen in richest nation on earth.

You've got money to pay the electric bill ... and the internet cable bill ...
And you've got money for a computer ... and a phone too, right?
So I'm not seeing 'second class citizen'. Sorry.

I get free internet from a neighbor and my computer is 10 years old it was purchased while I was working. Maybe I should just buy t-bones in sit in the dark.

reply to post by wantsome


Potato Soup:

Loaf of Bread = 1.50 at aldi's
Box of Saltines = 1.00 at aldi's
Cheese slices = 2.00 at aldi's
10 pound bag of potatoes = 4.00
gallon of milk = 3.00

fried chicken:

10 lb bag of chicken leg quarters = 6.00
frozen corn = 2.00
can of dinner rolls = 1.00
potatoes left from the 10 lb bag: free
homemade gravy with the drippings: free

Chicken Liver:

2 lbs of livers: 3.00
frozen vegetables = 2.00
Flour: 2.00
Salt: .50 cents
Pepper: 2.00 (goes a long way)
can of biscuits - 1.00
potatoes: 4.00
cream of mushroom soup for gravy: 1.50

Sloppy Joes:

Sloppy joe mix: = 3.00
Ground Beef: 7.00
Hamburger Buns : 3.00
Potato Chips:= 4.00

Chicken Noodle Soup:

1 Whole Chicken: 6.00
1 can bullion cubes: 2.00
1 loaf bread: 1.50
cheese: 2.00
Butter: 3.00
(make the noodles homemade: free)
Saltine Crackers: 1.00

Spagetti:

Spaghetti noodles: = 2.00
Ground beef: 4.00
Pasta Sauce: 4.00
Lettuce: 2.00
Salad Dressing: 2.00
Hard Boiled Eggs: 1.25
Bread: 1.50

Hamburger Helper:

2 Boxes Hamburger Helper: 4.00
Ground Beef: 7.00
frozen vegetables: 2.00
Bread: 1.50


Breakfast necessities:

Oatmeal: 2.00
Milk: 9.00
Eggs: 2.00
Bread: 3.00
Bag Cereal: 5.00
Pancake Mix: 3.00
Syrup: 2.00
Sausage: 4.00


The Above gets you fried potatoes and eggs with sausage, oatmeal (twice), pancakes, french toast, and cold cereal twice

Extra Necessities:

Sugar: 5.00
Coffee: 5.00
Koolaid: 2.00
Garlic: 1.00
Basil: 1.00
Cake Mix: 2.00
Cake frosting: 2.00
Brownie Mix: 1.50
Extra Eggs: 1.25
Oil: 2.00


Total: 153.00

153 x 4 = 612

The Above will feed a family of 4 or 5 every week... a family of 4 gets 632.00 a month... the extra 20 covers the other two meals a month. Cook more, shop at aldi's and save-a-lot, hit sales... and you have nice meals for decent prices.

Foodstamps account for maybe 2% of our national debt. I can think of bigger expenditures to focus on.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


I have been looking for easy meals to make but my culinary skills aren't up to the task. At $45 a week I get to spend $6.50 a day. A $7 package or ground beef with other stuff is out of my price range. I have been thinking about making chicken soup but I don't know how long it would last. I have liver and other health problems because of my medications and I need to watch what I eat.

This thread is one more that makes me think we would switch from handing out money to handing out food.
However, with recent changes, it seems like the US is headed right into Soviet style breadlines.

reply to post by wantsome


Did I say anything like that? No
I am pointing out that you could get more money per week if the massive amounts of frud were stopped.

A bag of chicken leg quarters costs between $7 - $10 for a 10 pound bag and you get around 8-10 pieces. Shop sales papers and you can get inexpensive sirloin that you can cut up and use for stew meat. We got two big ones at Sam's club for $2.98 a pound, and I cut them up to get enough for 6 pots of beef stew. The only other ingredients in that are flour, onion, garlic, salt and water. Some A1, if you want, for extra flavor.

I cook for four of us and on Thursday, I cooked up a large pot of chicken noodle soup that we ate for 2 days, still with some left over, and it took 3 chicken leg quarters, 4 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, some salt and some bow-tie noodles, .98 cents for the box. You could use 2 potatoes instead of the noodles, which I do sometimes. The pot cost me probably less than $5.00 to make, and fed four people for two days.

Taking that same soup, you can strain the broth out, use a little to mix up a gravy to stir in with the soup contents that you strained out, put it in a baking pan, cover it with a crust and bake it and you now have a big chicken pot pie.

I was on food stamps when I was younger and took that little bit that I got and it lasted a long time. Someone mentioned above, learn to cook and you can eat like a king for cheap.

Even without food stamps, food prices are stupid high and we stretch every dollar that we can. We spent $53 at Food Lion yesterday. The price before all the savings was $123. We got 12-packs of soda for $2 a piece (Coke products), a free turkey, .33 cent per can vegetables,( limit of 12, so we're going back today to get 12 more), and some other really good deals.