Posted on 09/22/2011 7:36:30 AM PDT by Abathar
(CNN) -- That is the reality for the more than 40 million Americans who rely on food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center the average food stamp allotment is just $30 per week.
I began thinking about taking a food stamp challenge earlier this month when I met several women who we profiled on hunger for two CNN stories airing this week. These women had to make tough choices between paying bills and buying food. Often they skipped meals so their children could eat. Often the amount of food stamps they received was not enough.
Living on a food stamp budget for just one week won't begin to put me in these women's shoes or come close to the struggles that millions of low-income families face every day; week in and week out, month after month. But I do expect to gain a new perspective and a better understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
baked potatoes from food stamps.. you haven’t seen the EBT song video have you? lol..
Before Obama took office you could.
Now... holy crap!!!!!!!
I went shopping the other day and spent $180 on about a HALF A CART of stuff
I am a VERY good shopper and used to pride myself on never going over $100 in my cart but that is nearly impossible now.
Why don’t we hear consumer price index numbers any more? I bet they are up 100% since Odumbass took office
My food budget is $150 a month - so stepping down to $129 (there are 4.3 weeks in the average month) wouldn’t be too hard...
Are you freaking serious? Bologna sandwiches, hot dogs, raman noodles that is not nutrition, that is the meat remnants and empty starch.
Now if you start talking brown rice, beans and rice, fruit and veggies, grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs, the perfect protein that is different.
I watched a lady in front of me pay for a grocery cart full of food with food stamps. I swear, there wasn't one thing in that cart that was fresh. Everything was processed, frozen, or microwavable...easy and fast to cook.
As to living on $30/week, I'd say yes. When I was a freshman grad student, I was told that my TA scholarship check would be issued on the 15th. I timed my little cash to run out on the 15th, only to be told I wasn't paid until the end of the month. I had about $3 to last until payday. I ate steel cut oats for two+ weeks. I think it's time for some food stamp people to do the same.
This list is a little dated, but you could probably pull it off for $50/week these days, depending upon where you live:
http://www.heart4home.net/2011/08/30perweek/
I’ve always fed my family on the cheap. Three teen boys and three adults got by on $150/month, but we had a HUGE garden and hunted and fished...and that was 10 years ago.
One of the few places you really have control over your household budget is in the food budget. Now that I’m just feeding me and assorted friends and relatives on a weekly basis (I love to entertain!) I find myself spending a little too much in this area, so thanks for the reminder to knock it off, LOL!
You can bet that MoochHell Ubama couldn’t eat on $30 bucks a week.
One word “Aldi’s”
For a couple of weeks Publix had a deal where you got a FREE $10 gift card for every $50 you spent so I used coupons over and over to buy $50 worth of stuff for FREE to get those gift cards. I ended up the two weeks with about $400 worth of Publix gift cards which I used on whatever I wanted (except liquor). I even bought several already prepared mojo pork dinners on days when I didn't feel like cooking.
I don’t know what states pay the $30/week figure. In PA, it’s $50/week, for a single-person household.
My non-food stamp grocery bill for one week, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is roughly $28, and that’s for convenience foods (cereal for breakfast, packaged sandwich lunches, whole fruit, and frozen dinners).
No to mention if you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em.
There are clinics that will hand out all the birth control you can use.
But having more poor, dumb people like themselves is the ticket to firmly attaching their scolexes to the working person’s bodies.
Or you could, you know, go get a freekin' job...
Tricky, tricky. They average everyone from those who are completely crippled so are not capable of making any money to those who are right at the edge of eligibility and only get a few dollars of food stamps. You wouldn't be expected to feed yourself on the "average" allotment. That amount is meant to supplement your own money spent on food.
Beans and rice with something left over for Tobasco.
$30/ week? i want to know where they get these numbers. i have yet to meet someone on food stamps that doesn’t get so much more than they need for the month that they don’t spend it, or barter it away.
most of their kids are probably also getting free breakfast and lunch at school, so they really only need to worry about one meal a day.
I live on the equivalent of 28 US dollars a week for food, in a country where food is usually more expensive than in the States.
I don’t go hungry.
$30 per person per week, hayna, with the large-welfare-family economy of scale figuring in?
Or no?
Baked potatoes, seriously as long as you eat the skins that is everything you need in a diet right there. PBJ makes a good lunch, lots of protein and calories to keep you going. Cut out the cheesy poofs and snackey cakes and $30 can go a long way. Especially if you have a little vegetable garden to make things a little more interesting. I have peppers, beans, tomatoes and lettuce out of mine. And it is just a tiny little hobby garden. My onions didn’t do well this year, but those are cheap to pick up and keep well.
Great post.
I’m not that good...but every tip helps, thanks!!!
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