Food stamps

[rudeguy]

Poor shopping choices. I should hire myself out as a grocery consultant, and teach people how to shop. When you're short on cash, you can't get everything you want.

I would seriously take you up on that.

There is a site that lets you order groceries for my area. How much would you charge me to figure out what we need, then order it on that site?

 

[Nebor]

I would seriously take you up on that.

There is a site that lets you order groceries for my area. How much would you charge me to figure out what we need, then order it on that site?

Do you feel like you don't know what groceries you need, or you need someone to figure out how to get them cheaper? I find your post confusing.

 

[LTC8K6]

So, Food Stamps sucks. How would you haters fix the system?

Go back to the days of government cheese and white box government food and food stamps, and stop with the cash and EBT cards? Go back to just providing subsistence, instead of trying to provide a good living?

At some point, we will not be able to support all of the people who aren't chipping in...

At some point, the benefits will have to go down...

Imo, that point was actually about 10 years ago, and we are just running on a building debt pile.

P.S. Figure out how to stop the "baby daddy" game?

 

[rudeguy]

Do you feel like you don't know what groceries you need, or you need someone to figure out how to get them cheaper? I find your post confusing.

I hate grocery shopping.

I suck at planning. I know what we need for our usual stuff but I can never plan out meals. And if I do, I always manage to forget something. But then I'll just get frustrated and buy half of what I need and plan on eating out the other nights.

I am just not a good grocery shopper.

 

[Doppel]

I seriously doubt these figures. Every case I know of a family on food stamps , they earn around $230 max for one given month. That is a family making under $15,000 a year where at least one person works. I seriously doubt any state government is giving away $800 a month to any family. I just do not believe that. It is extremely difficult to qualify for stamps and even then in most cases the benefits are temporary.
People would love to believe the government is just giving away masses of money in benefits to practically anyone that as/ks.
Simply not true.

$800 seems a lot but I recently ran through my state's online program to see what I could get if I had a family of 4-5 total and made about $15k/year and it is shocking, frankly, it was well over a grand/month after taxes of just extra money. Well over.

 

[QueBert]

What do you eat???

Organic eggs from non grain fed chickens. Organic non grain fed chicken breasts. 3 mornings out of the week I have bacon from 2 different bacon of the month club's I belong to. I have a subscription for the bacon of the season too, which is extra uber bacon you get shipped 4 times a year for $199. I eat lots of Rib Eyes, lots of sandwiches with Parmesan crusted & Soppressata Salami. I got a ton of different cheese in my fridge, nothing super fancy, but even mid grade cheese isn't all that cheap.

I enjoy eating, I'm not trying to have ground chuck and crap like that. I wouldn't argue with anyone who calls me stupid for spending $1300 a year just on Bacon, I have friends who barely spend that on food total. I dunno I just like to eat so I go overboard with it. I also make big meals, like for breakfast this morning a 4 egg Omelette with 3 different kinds of cheese & chili. Biscuits & gravy and 1/2 a pack of bacon from my bacon of the month club. The bacon was the rest of a frozen pack I had from the summer seasonal pack, so I hit $25 today on bacon alone lol. Lunch was a chicken Cesar salad with 10oz of Organic chicken breasts and dinner was a home made pot pie with organic chicken. Eating a lot of food can get expensive real quick unless you eat crap like 99 cent frozen Banquet meals.

A lot of what I eat's organic, which is uber fucking expensive if you have any sort of appitite, but there's a big difference in taste between say regular and organic eggs. Same with everything else it just tastes better. Costs an arm and a leg though.

 

[stlc8tr]

I figure $2 per meal, 3 meals per day. That $2 figure is highballed a bit, so it allows for snacks, and miscellaneous stuff. That's $42 per week, or $672 per month for a family of 4. There's much savings in buying/cooking in bulk though, so I totally wouldn't be stressing a $600 check to buy food.

AT never fails to amuse with the extremes.

Either everyone is a millionaire married to a supermodel and living the high life or they're living like a pauper. LOL.

 

[spidey07]

AT never fails to amuse with the extremes.

Either everyone is a millionaire married to a supermodel and living the high life or they're living like a pauper. LOL.

My wife and I do pretty well, but we're still frugal with food costs and eat like kings. The key is making meals and eating off of them for a couple days.

Roast a turkey with some veggies and taters = 25 bucks and getting 10+ meals out of it.

Big pot of beef stew and taters = 15 bucks and get 10+ meals out of it. (hint - look for managers specials for a chuck/rump you can cube yourself, great deals to be had, you're cooking it low and slow in a stew so quality cut isn't what you need).

Roast chicken/veggies and subsequent chicken stock/soup/dumplings = 6-8 meals for under 10 bucks.

These are all seriously good eats and cheap. Not to mention what you can do for breakfast with how stupid cheap eggs are for what they provide. You easily do 2-3 bucks per meal if you cook big pots and eat off it. She does the main cooking on Saturday/Sunday and we eat off of that all week for lunch and dinner.

 

[lxskllr]

I hate grocery shopping.

I suck at planning. I know what we need for our usual stuff but I can never plan out meals. And if I do, I always manage to forget something. But then I'll just get frustrated and buy half of what I need and plan on eating out the other nights.

I am just not a good grocery shopper.

Honestly, the best thing to do is take advantage of opportunity, and stock up when you can. I don't eat much(no fresh) meat, but you can buy stuff that's short expiry, and put it in the freezer to freeze time. That's assuming the store you go to is reputable. Of course, you can also cook it to death so there isn't any bacteria. Beef stew or chili would be a decent way of getting rid of marginal meat.

When things go on sale, buy a bunch of it, and figure out how to prepare it later. Instead of matching the food to a recipe, match the recipe to a food. Checkout Aldi and BigLots if you have one close. BigLots gets some interesting food at great prices. You can't count on them to have anything in particular, but when they get something good, buy a bunch and squirrel it away. Aldi is great for canned goods, and pantry staples. They also have decent frozen foods, and frozen snack items. Their cereal is good too. For regular store cereal, Malt-O-Meal, and Moms Naturals(a division of MOM) are the equal of any big brand, and in some cases better. As an added bonus, they're a private company, so your money isn't going to shareholders.

 

[Brigandier]

My wife and I do pretty well, but we're still frugal with food costs and eat like kings. The key is making meals and eating off of them for a couple days.

Roast a turkey with some veggies and taters = 25 bucks and getting 10+ meals out of it.

Big pot of beef stew and taters = 15 bucks and get 10+ meals out of it. (hint - look for managers specials for a chuck/rump you can cube yourself, great deals to be had, you're cooking it low and slow in a stew so quality cut isn't what you need).

Roast chicken/veggies and subsequent chicken stock/soup/dumplings = 6-8 meals for under 10 bucks.

These are all seriously good eats and cheap. Not to mention what you can do for breakfast with how stupid cheap eggs are for what they provide. You easily do 2-3 bucks per meal if you cook big pots and eat off it. She does the main cooking on Saturday/Sunday and we eat off of that all week for lunch and dinner.

Roasting a Turkey breast I got for like 99 cents a pound tomorrow. Buy on sale and keep space in the freezer and you will eat like a gourmand .

 

[spidey07]

Right, a private company means your money is going directly to the owners and board making them super rich. That's so much better.

 

[spidey07]

Roasting a Turkey breast I got for like 99 cents a pound tomorrow. Buy on sale and keep space in the freezer and you will eat like a gourmand .

With thanksgiving coming up we stock up on a 4-5 birds because of the incredible 99 cent price. That's really tough to beat.

 

[OutHouse]

So, Food Stamps sucks. How would you haters fix the system?

stop giving out card or checks.

bring back soup kitchens where people have to stand inline to get fed hot dogs and mac and cheese. a month of that day in and day out would be motivation to get a job.

 

[OutHouse]

AT never fails to amuse with the extremes.

Either everyone is a millionaire married to a supermodel and living the high life or they're living like a pauper. LOL.

yup

 

[spidey07]

stop giving out card or checks.

bring back soup kitchens where people have to stand inline to get fed hot dogs and mac and cheese. a month of that day in and day out would be motivation to get a job.

Hunger is a hell of a motivator.

We've removed the motivation to work.

 

[lxskllr]

Right, a private company means your money is going directly to the owners and board making them super rich. That's so much better.

Yea, it is. Company owners have stake in their good name, and will protect that name. Shareholders and CEOs could give a shit as long as the next quarter makes more money than the current quarter. Quality, and customer service take a fall cause no one cares.

 

[spidey07]

Yea, it is. Company owners have stake in their good name, and will protect that name. Shareholders and CEOs could give a shit as long as the next quarter makes more money than the current quarter. Quality, and customer service take a fall cause no one cares.

Umm, it works the same way. Private companies have an evil CEO who's only goal is to make the business more money each and every quarter.

The business of business is to make more money. Get over it.

 

[lxskllr]

Umm, it works the same way. Private companies have an evil CEO who's only goal is to make the business more money each and every quarter.

The business of business is to make more money. Get over it.

Yea, that's the theory. A shame high school economic theory doesn't work in the real world.

 

[Brigandier]

...

 

[Cerb]

AT never fails to amuse with the extremes.

Either everyone is a millionaire married to a supermodel and living the high life or they're living like a pauper. LOL.

One of the general trends with food is that it's hard to get good food for every meal without making some from ingredients. Many such ingredients are sufficiently cheap, even with rising costs, to make food stamp amounts we see seem reasonable for entire food budgets, or more. Eating frugally is not living like a pauper, but living like a financially responsible person.

IoW, it's not extreme at all, but rather, a common working class cultural value. It also is one part of a cultural schism, which this all really comes down to. We don't all have the same cultural values. That's not always a bad thing, but some cultures just have plain bad values and expectations.

If you work and put into the system, you expect that others work, as well. If or when they are taking reasonable efforts to live within their means, and cannot, they should be assisted. If or when you also cannot, you would expect such assistance. Then, when you no longer need it, you would instead be paying back into that system again. By welfare assistance being somewhat shameful to live off of, you have a cultural incentive to make it something you only even apply for if you're at the breaking point, and something you stay receiving for as little time as possible--it's a safety net, not a laz-e-boy. Part of living within one's means, consistently, is not overspending on food all the time.

With expectations that others owe you because you exist, or worse, because you made some babies to help keep the poverty streak going, the incentives to not spend every last dime go out the window, as does any incentive to work to be able to put into the system that is assisting you (including trying to make it so that your kids won't be receiving assistance, if at all possible). It is not being extreme, or living like a pauper, but a show of valuing the money spent on food, while seeing people spending some of your tax dollars on food not valuing that money (and therefor not deserving of it), then complaining about it being cut by a wee little bit.

"Not being able to," afford food on such high food budgets, due to the kinds of foods chosen, and/or buying lavishly with welfare money, is a cultural affront--an implicit insult, by one's actions--to those that try their best not to ask for help if they don't truly need it.

 

[ThinClient]

stop giving out card or checks.

bring back soup kitchens where people have to stand inline to get fed hot dogs and mac and cheese. a month of that day in and day out would be motivation to get a job.

I volunteer for a place like this. You have no idea what you're talking about. All hunger does is motivate them to fight each other, bring guns and knives (I've been threatened with each), bicker about their place in line, fight over food scraps, etc.

All people like you do is make the situation worse because you're ignorant but you think you know everything.

 

[darrontrask]

I think a true fix would be to limit the products that can be purchased. Prepared foods, hot or cold (allowed in NYS) should immediately be banned. If you need assistance because of a lack of work, you do not have a lack of time to prepare your food.

Limit what can be purchased: Steaks, Lobsters, top shelf deli meats, etc.

I remember when I was young and we had a need, there was not the extra $ in the paper stamps we were given to afford such luxuries and the embarrassment of it all made my parents constantly do want needed to be done to not have to use them. We ate the free cheese, pasta, potatoes and such and made due. Hot dog soup, macaroni whatever, and leftovers, that was what we lived on, but it seems that now this would be totally unacceptable and we as a society "owe" the unfortunate more than what they are willing to earn.

I am all against watching people go hungry, and we make sure that the children of our friends, that are less fortunate never go without, but at the same time I watch them eat far better than I do for the first 2 weeks of every month because they have more means to afford that type of food than I do all month long.

My cousin has a skanky ho, who will not work for unknown reasons, that just was qualified for food stamps although they live in his paid for trailer and he makes 30k/yr and it is just the 2 of them. Where does the madness end.

The system is broken and it needs to be reined in to a point that food stamps should be used as a means to stave of starvation but not allow the rampant misuse that occurs daily.

 

[Ronstang]

They'd just continue to hate whatever system is in place. That's what they do. They're not problem solvers, they're just whiny little bitches.

Seems you got that backwards chumpkin, if we weren't problem solvers we would be on food stamps instead of being robbed to pay for them.

 

[ThinClient]

Seems you got that backwards chumpkin, if we weren't problem solvers we would be on food stamps instead of being robbed to pay for them.

There's nothing but whining and pretending to know what you're talking about in this thread. There is no problem solving going on here, Keyboard Warrior.

 

[Nebor]

I volunteer for a place like this. You have no idea what you're talking about. All hunger does is motivate them to fight each other, bring guns and knives (I've been threatened with each), bicker about their place in line, fight over food scraps, etc.

All people like you do is make the situation worse because you're ignorant but you think you know everything.

I think it's their nature, not hunger, that cause them to behave that way. I've volunteered for plenty of soup kitchens over the years too. It's easy to tell apart the people who make it a lifestyle and the people who are just down on their luck.