Don’t be sorry. Paying with food stamps is embarassing. I’ve done it years ago. Luckily, I found half price meat, day old baked goods, and dented cans. That and coupons made those gubmint bucks go a lot farther :)
I just get irritated when people game the system, but others don’t qualify, because they are honest and play by the rules.
[I just get irritated when people game the system, but others don’t qualify, because they are honest and play by the rules.]
Hard to teach children nowdays, isn’t it. Being honest doesn’t seem to pay off anymore. How sad is that!
We were on food stamps for a while when my parents divorced. Mom was a genius at squeezing a dollar until the eagle screamed, but the food stamps didn't help with essentials like diapers, dish soap, shampoo, baby powder and laundry detergent. So Mom went shopping with her friend Elaine, and they swapped a few items in the parking lot.
Is that a technical violation of the rules? Probably. But she wasn't buying beer or lottery tickets. She had a 40-hour job, a full course load, a 5-year-old (me) and a 1-year old. And after a little while on food stamps, she got her degree, then a better job, then a better one than that, and put me and my sister through good schools, and we got good jobs.
Between the three of us, we've paid back the Treasury what we got in food stamps at least hundred-fold. That is why I am not sympathetic to the arguments from some conservatives that programs like food stamps are inherently destructive. They can work, and they do; where they fail, those are flaws to fix, not a reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I know it might be a minority position around here, but I believe that a basic social safety net is essential. Done right, it keeps families together and lets fols move ahead a little and get past just scraping by.
Don't apologize for accpeting help when you're in need -- just find some gratitude, the resolve to get out of that condition, and pay it back when you can. And resolve to help others, when you can. enough of that, and we won't need government programs.