Folks waste their Food Stamp money, then need free breakfasts and lunches for their kids and food pantries for food. It's not fair to us taxpayers who are actually striving to balance our budgets on fixed incomes. And it isn't teaching those families collecting handouts to plan responsibly to feed themselves and their families.
Grrr....end of rant.
Yup. If you know how to cook with scratch ingredients and choose wisely, that amount would be sufficient.
If I were in charge, I would make a government store that only sells the absolute basics. No premade meals, no soda, no candy, no lobster, no junk food of any kind. Just basics. This would be the only place that accepts food stamps. And if Expensive cars, or spinny rims, or other displays of “wealth” (extreme finger quote) show up in the parking lot, an automatic audit is triggered
Yup, I can agree it’s easily do able and made better if people think to find discount stores that sell produce and healthy foods.
I wonder why you mention $30/week? I know single adults getting $200/month ebt, they run out of $ in 3 weeks usually ‘scrounging’ the last week of month!
A couple of years ago, Gweneth Paltrow opened her yap on the subject. Had a few things in a basket, which were ridiculous.
The average is $127 per month per person.
I do about $300 a month for 2 people. With MY OWN money.
If I had to, I could cut it down to $127 per person. But that would mean cutting out things like ice cream and pop and chips.
Just came across a sale last Thursday. Split chicken breasts w/ rib meat, for $0.69#.
Boy did I stock up (stocking up is the key)
Got home and cut the rib portions off. Divided the chicken into 2 pieces per package, then threw them in the freezer. The rib meat got boiled, then bones and stuff removed, then made chicken and dumplings. Mmmm...good and CHEAP.
The breasts are large enough for 1 per person. That's $0.90 a breast (not figuring what was used for chicken and dumplings), add rice and some veggies and you have a great meal for under $1.50 per person.
Oh yeah...the store I do most of my shopping has a rewards program, where they have coupons and offer rewards for certain spends. I have 2 running concurrently right now. Spend $60 on fresh meat get $4 off and Spend $175 throughout the store get $6 off.
Well, $60 got spent on chicken, so I'll get $4 the next time I shop. But it also puts me $60 closer to the $175 goal.
Basically, I just saved another 10% on an already good deal.
But it takes work to plan things out.
Work you can tell most EBT users don't put in, by just looking in their carts.