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I am not now, nor I ever been on Food Stamps or EBT Cards. We have, however been on the brink financially and we learned how to eat well, live well by being frugal. No, we did not do it by clipping coupons, except on rare occasions for a few ‘high end’ treats.

We bought sale items. We shopped fresh produce at farmers stands. We bought really good naturally raised eggs in Amish Country at a very reasonable price. And we found several ‘Bent n’ Dent’ stores that have various grocery items at very good prices. Often we find high end stuff at 10 cents on the dollar prices. And we grow our own tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, lettuce, asparagus, beets etc in a small but very productive garden plot. And we have a peach tree that was prolific...we now have canned peaches to last well into the next season.

One of the stores where we shop, we found pure maple syrup $5 a quart, and pure maple sugar $5 a pound. No, those are not regular items, there are no regular items. Makes it fun to shop there...we never know what really special deal we might find.

That being said, we now are not in such a tight financial fix as we were when we learned to live frugally. But we have not changed our buying ‘habits’. We are not intent on doing that even as our financial position continues to improve. We are retired. We like to help others, and we do. We can because we have learned to be ‘frugal’.

We still enjoy a good steak, and when we watch sales and exercise our frugal spending bent, we can buy a whole beef filet for less than $7 a pound. Or a whole strip loin for less than $5 a pound. So yes, we also eat well.

I dare say we eat better than the EBT people, and we spend a whole lot less, equivalent dollar-wise. It might be we eat better that the majority of the upper middle class.

Am I bragging? No. We have learned how to make the few dollars we have to spend for food, buy a lot more food than just ordinary shopping, even with coupons, would buy. It also enables us to buy and store extra for that next disaster. And even more important, it enables us to help others who might be in a particular financial strait.

We shopped fresh produce at farmers stands. We bought really good naturally raised eggs in Amish Country at a very reasonable price. And we found several ‘Bent n’ Dent’ stores that have various grocery items at very good prices. Often we find high end stuff at 10 cents on the dollar prices. And we grow our own tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, lettuce, asparagus, beets etc in a small but very productive garden plot. And we have a peach tree that was prolific...we now have canned peaches to last well into the next season.

How much of that would you have been able to do if you lived in an apartment -- no garden -- and couldn't afford a car to get around and find bargains?