That, and being able to garden are skills that matter. I don’t know the status of “home ec” education these days, but cooking from scratch is cheaper and healthier than eating processed, pre-prepared food. Gardening even more so (though not available to everyone). We could learn a lot from our far more thrifty great and grand parents, eh? Because you and I may not always have the luxury of eating out and buying ready-made.
Good luck, and hopefully things will be better for you in 2010.
Broomstick, are you able (or interested) to use coupons with your card? My wife religiously clips coupons out of every source she can find, and shares and swaps them with anyone and everyone–if you’re interested, PM me with specific things we might set aside for you.
Tripler
My midsection girth is directly proportional to the money she saves with coupons. 
I don’t know about coupons - when was the last time you saw a coupon for a pound of raw carrots? I don’t use them much, because they never seem suited for what we actually buy. But thanks for the offer.
If I recall correctly, any value of our vehicles over $4,500 is counted, and since our youngest vehicle is 7 years old, well, by the book they aren’t work much. There are also some other rules about vehicles involving number of adults and such, but in our case, no, their value is not counted against us.
Home ownership does not count, so far as I know.
Retirement accounts do not count towards that $2,000 total.
Has anyone given you grief in the stores when using your benefits card?
Has anyone in your community or family had unkind words about your need for assistance?
Sorry if I missed this… Was your husband’s application for disability ever approved? I recall that it was taking a while and you guys had to fight for it.
Do you have to sort your eligible and non-eligible purchases?
I was behind a woman in the supermarket line the other day, and she had carefully kept aside a few non-eligible items (a convenience-sized orange juice and some kind of prepared food - probably her lunch). However, one of the items in her “eligible” pile turned out not to be eligible after all (saurkraut) and the fact that it had been rung up with the other stuff turned into a huge nightmare involving a manager and several cashiers fighting with the computer. She was paying with paper benefit checks - I don’t know if that made a difference.
If the employment situation is so bleak, have you thought about moving somewhere that might have a better job outlook? What is it that you do? Do you feel that food stamp recipients should be required to undergo nutrition and cooking classes to teach them how to maximize their benefit? I was behind a woman last week paying for a cartful of food with her EBT card, and every single item was a prepared food. I wanted to tell her that she could buy a lot more boxes of instant pudding mix for the same cost of a 24-pack of pudding cups, but of course I didn’t.
StG
Well, they are a lot less frequent, and you have to dig for them–but my wife is an expert on them and knows where to find them: For example, clementines - http://www.cutiescitrus.com/ Register in the upper right-hand corner for two printable coupons for clementines; print several, they’re good through May. There are many great blogs out there but my wife uses UtahDealDiva.com.
There is a coupon for fresh dairy (milk or cheese) of any brand (sponsored by the Milk Council) about every other month. Around the holidays there are coupons in many store circulars for fruit/veggie trays. Kroger tip - go around the produce, meat, bakery and dairy and look for orange Manager’s Special price tags; the earlier in the day the better. Many times they’ll have items from the deli marked down as well but EBT may not apply to prepared foods.
This may help you, it may help other Dopers, on EBT or not. Hopefully it does help, even just “a skoach. . .”
Tripler
Just gotta keep eyes open.
Nope. Honestly, I don’t think anyone has noticed. In the past, once in a great while, I had noticed someone using such a card but I pretty much just ignored such instances as none of my business. I’m guessing a lot of other folks do, too. (In Indiana it is possible to have your food stamps, cash award, and medicaid accounts all on one card, so you might encounter such card use almost anywhere from an ATM to a local store to a health clinic)
So far the cashiers I’ve interacted with have been very kind as well, particularly the first time when I had questions about how to use the card at Meijer’s. Of course, they see these cards all the time.
I have had people wish me a better year next year, and comment that a LOT more people are winding up on the system. On the other hand, I’m a slender white woman in her 40’s without multiple kids in tow and a cart full of healthy food, I don’t fit the stereotype of “welfare queen” at all. When I was on the Census crew some of the black women did speak of getting harassed for being “welfare queens” so I really think prejudice can be a huge factor in how someone is treated.
No. My dad feels bad and wanted to send me more money. However, I have a sister who is in FAR more dire straits than I am and who needs more of the family resources than I do, particuarly if I can get help from elsewhere (My sister lost her home, her slot in college, her job, her car, and has had both her sons hospitalized this year with life-threatening problems. One of the boys still has at least another year and a half in rehab. She spent about three months this summer homeless. No question her problems are far greater than mine at the moment.)
Our application for Federal disability benefits has not yet been approved… but we are so far along in the process the state is allowing my husband to claim disability in the food stamp program. He’s in a peculiar sort of limbo in regards to that - for many purposes the State of Indiana does have him in the system as officially disabled, but the Feds are another matter, and there’s some overlap between jurisdictions regarding aid programs. That is why I had to spend a week and a half in the IMPACT program, providing the needed documentation was a little more complicated without him being on social security disability.
We probably won’t hear from anyone on the Federal disability claim until mid-January. We are also considering firing our current lawyer and getting one more competant, but that’s a completely different topic.
Not at the stores I shop at. Between the card, the card reader, and the store system it is done automatically.
Well, I’m puzzled by that - even a small bottle orange juice should be eligible as there are no size limits, as should sauerkraut. Also, there are no paper benefit checks for SNAP, the “food stamp” program. That sounds more like WIC, which still uses paper, restricts the sizes of certain items, and wouldn’t include sauerkraut. So… she was probably using WIC (that’s food aid for Women, Infants, and Children).
I remember back when I worked in social services we had a single father who got hell for using WIC - because he wasn’t a woman. Well, no, he wasn’t, but he was raising four kids, including an infant, and THEY qualified for WIC and they’s why the kids got it - and being their parent he was, of course, doing the shopping for them.
I don’t know why WIC isn’t using a card and electronic funds - or maybe it’s an option that not everyone takes advantage of. As I have no children I am not qualified for that program and know only a few things about it.
WHERE???
Here, at least, I have a safe place to live, low rent, friends, and a few people who can employ me. I am NOT UNemployed! I am not employed enough. If I went elsewhere I’d have the cost of moving, plus I’d be somewhere without friends or network. IF I could find a job elsewhere and IF I was hired, yes, I’d move, but moving somewhere cold doesn’t strike me as smart right now.
Keep in mind - I have to move TWO people. My husband is unable to help me move. Well, OK, there is some very limited packing he can do, and he can sort stuff, but he can not help move boxes, carry things, or doing anything requiring much physical effort. It’s quite a daunting prospect. Sure, I have friends willing to help me load a truck on this end… but who will help me unload it at the other?
Also, our health insurance is absolutely tied to being a resident of Indiana. If, for example, I moved to Buffalo (I have family there) the first thing that would happen is that both my husband and I would lose ALL health insurance. This is a problem, given my husband is disabled and has multiple health problems requiring daily medication.
Last summer I was doing well enough to actually save a little money for a few months in a row. Unfortunately, it being winter, the lawn mowing and painting of house exteriors is not possible, thus severely limiting my income. Hence, food stamps, to keep us fed.
Right now? Cleaning, light carpentry, hanging dry wall, mowing lawns, painting houses (inside and outside). I have also worked at a candy store (but was laid off to do dropping business) and for the US Census (strictly temporary). Prior to that - adminsitrative support in corporate America. Also worked at a health clinic, briefly for Marvel Comics and First Comics, and free lance artwork. I have also been paid for my writing. Really, I can do a LOT of different things, and have - but there is very little work to be had around here right now.
No.
First of all - are you assuming that a person such as myself is simply sitting at home doing nothing all day? I either work for money - in which case I may well be gone all day, often doing manual labor that leaves me quite tired - or I am looking for work. I am not sitting at home. If you mandate that I must take classes - because why should you believe me when I tell you I know how to cook and such? - you WILL be taking time away from either my gainful emploment or looking for gainful employment. Does that actually help me?
Second - even if you teach it, it’s not like you can force people to actually use the information. I think pouring resources into getting people employed makes more sense, because that’s what will get them off the public dole.
I appreciate that you didn’t, because you don’t know her situation.
I do most of our cooking from scratch, but recently my husband went into the hospital for surgery. That week I actually did get some paying work, I was looking for work, AND I was dealing with him being in the hospital. Do you really think I was going to spend a lot of time cooking that week? No. I ate out of boxes and cans, except for when I was at the hospital all day and spent money eating in their cafeteria. Sometimes the use of convenience foods makes a lot of sense. There is only so much me and so much time in the day. I have to figure out the most cost-effective way to get everything done that needs to be done.
Or take my husband - January and February of 2009 my mother was dying and I more or less spent 2 months living with her while she was in home hospice, in another state hundreds of miles away. Now, remember, my husband is disabled. It is dangerous for him to cook on a stovetop because he has diminished sense of touch in his hands, so he can easily burn himself severely without realizing it, he is weak so lifting many of our pots and pans when full is beyond his ability, and he is very unsteady on his feet, making him likely to fall, particularly when burdened. Forcing him to cook from scratch will only save money until he is injured and winds up in the hospital. Skin grafts required from burns suffered while cooking will cost the taxpayers FAR more than our food stamp allotment will! (And yes, my husband does have burn scars from before he stopped trying to cook. As it happens, he was on private insurance at that time, it was a long time ago, but just because we aren’t paying for it I don’t see the logic in risking it. He would still be the one suffering pain and scars from it) If I must be away for awhile he eats convenience foods out of boxes and cans because it’s a hell of a lot safer for him to heat stuff in the microwave than to cook it from scratch on a stove or in an oven (that is one reason the disabled get a slightly higher allowance on the program, to allow for precisely that situation).
Or how about my sister, who was homeless part of this year? She didn’t have a kitchen. HOW would she make pudding mix into pudding without a kitchen? She didn’t look homeless, she kept herself clean, wore decent clothes, etc., she wasn’t living in a cardboard box out on the street, but she was still homeless and without a kitchen for a couple months. What choice did she have?
That’s my point, you can’t know what situation these people are in. Was the woman you saw working two jobs leaving her no time to cook? Is she working AND going to school, again leaving her with little time to cook? Did she need food a disabled person or child could safely prepare? Was she homeless/in a shelter with very limited cooking facilities? Or, yes, she could simply be making very poor choices. That is certainly a possibility, but you can’t know that.
Yes, yes, I, too, feel frustration when I see someone overweight with kids in tow load up a cart with frozen boxes and junk regardless of how they pay … but I don’t say anything because I don’t really know what’s going on with those people.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you only get so much a month. Sure, load up a cart with lobster and steak… but you won’t have enough money to buy a month’s worth of food at those prices. If you run out you run out, which can be a powerful incentive to learn to make better choices. The benefits are generous enough to allow you to eat well, even have an occasional indulgence, but you can NOT rack up a normal suburban middle class food bill with this. You CAN’T have steak and lobster every night. It works out to around $4 for every meal. Doable, yes, but hardly extravagant. Granted, some meals come in considerably under that price, which allows for some higher priced meals a few times a week, but it’s not extravagant living by any stretch. If ever you DO see me buying a lobster we’ll be eating beans and rice the rest of the week. I do buy steak… which I cut up for stir fries or stews. So 1 steak I’ll get at least 2 and sometimes as many as 4 meals out of it.
I’ll keep that in mind, but then we’re back to the time and energy problem. Right now, it might make more sense for me to seek coupons on thinks like toilet paper which I have to pay for with MY money - and I do use such coupons when I find them.
It depends. HOT prepared foods no, they don’t qualify, but a surprising number of cold prepared foods do. Sometimes you just have to try and see if it goes through as qualified or not on the reader machine.
Yes, and if it doesn’t help me it certainly might help someone else.
That’s entirely possible. I was curious, but I wasn’t going to try to hang over her shoulder to see who was writing her benefit checks - that was obviously none of my business. I limited my role in the interaction to not acting annoyed by the clusterfuck that wasn’t her fault at all.
I just thought it was odd - she was buying a load of groceries that any nutritionist would have given a gold star, including lots of milk and fresh vegetables, rice, beans, and canned and frozen vegetables (presumably for later). Why the canned corn was okay but the canned sauerkraut wasn’t… I just don’t know.
The thread made me curious, and I checked and found out that CostCo will soon start accepting EBT at all their locations. The $50 a year membership isn’t covered, but they aren’t especially rigid about how they define members of a family, so I imagine two families could pool one card. You can save a considerable amount of money at warehouse clubs.
I worked part-time as a supermarket cashier back when I was in high school in Pennsylvania, and one thing I clearly remember from that time is that the WIC list was weird. At that time (late 1980s) WIC covered a smaller number of categories than it does today - no vegetables, most importantly - so I don’t know how that works. But, for instance, for breakfast cereals, a customer could only use a WIC check to buy a brand listed on the poster or a generic or store-brand equivalent. Obviously they wanted the customer to choose something more nutritious than Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, but not all cereals that appeared to be low-sugar and reasonably nutritious were included. Also there was a size restriction, so even though the big bag of our store-brand Cheerio knock-offs was cheaper than the smaller box of actual Cheerios, the customer had to buy the name brand because the store brand packaging was too large. And the cheese had to be a domestic variety, even if an imported variety was on sale for the same or a lower price. I don’t know how much the system has been simplified - for the sake of both the families who use it and the cashiers who serve them, I hope a lot - but it certainly has a history of being full of unpredictable complications.
We didn’t get a lot of food stamp customers (many WIC clients don’t qualify for food stamps) but one incident stands out in my mind. On July 2nd or 3rd one yar, a woman came through my line with hot dogs, ground beef, rolls, potato chips, pretzels… and she paid for them with food stamps. The woman behind her started snarling about her tax dollars going for junk food like that. The customer with the food stamps lost her temper and said she’d been careful all through May and June so she’d have extra stamps to give her kids a Fourth of July picnic just like all the other kids. Well, this teenager was deeply embarrassed by the scene… Madame Snarkypants, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered a bit. Apparently if you’re on benefits you’re not allowed to celebrate holidays…
Oh, yes, that’s true about Snarkypants People and poor folks having holidays. There really is a type of person out there who wants the poor to suffer, we’ve seen it in other threads on this board, and they are VERY judgmental.
I’ve gotten crap from people who insist my job search should be 24/7 with nothing else in my life until I get a “real job”. Um, right. I’ll job search from 9 to 5 (or 8 to 4 or whatever) and I do - outrageous! - take a lunch break. Basically, I treat it as a job. And that means I get days off, like, say, the weekend. If I don’t I’d go insane or my health would suffer or both.
That IMPACT program I mentioned? They gave their clients Christmas Eve and Christmas off - in other words, no job searching required, they get credit for those two days. A “paid” holiday if you will. I’m sure there are folks out there who would scream bloody murder over that, welfare people getting a holiday, but screw 'em. IMPACT tries to set up the job search as if it’s a job (or as I put it - your job is to look for a job) and what’s a common feature of jobs? That’s right - paid holidays. There’s also a means to call in sick if you have the flu or something and really shouldn’t be out spreading germs while job seeking. In other words, it helps prepare people who have never had a job for some of the features of having a job and not by lectures or simply telling them but by it’s very structure.
Likewise, the woman who saved all May and June for her July 4th picnic? That’s budgeting and planning. These are immensely valuable skills for ANYONE Yet she is being criticized for collecting her “prize”. The very people who criticize the poor for being lazy, shiftless, and without foresight are the very ones who seem to pounce fastest when someone poor demonstrates such skills as frugality, foresight, and planning. That picnic didn’t cost the taxpayers anything additional, it wasn’t extra - it did mean some poor folks might enjoy their day, and that, to me, seems to be the root cause of irritation in many of the Snarkypants crowd.
I’ve been on “food stamps” before…currently not eligible since I am a widow who receives SS benefits for myself and the children and they count that as “unearned income” :mad: (NOT! That is money my late DH earned before he died, dipshits!) so even though I was/am unemployed (currently a FT college student) and barely scraping by, I was over the limit. Something to be aware of…had that income been earned by me through working, I would certainly have qualified for benefits, but because it was in the form of death benefits, nada.
Also, foods from the deli are NOT covered by EBT. Anything that is prepared, (even, as I learned once, a make it yourself, by the pound salad from a grocery store salad bar) is not eleigible. That’s why the cluster f@ck at the check-out. Silly that you can buy soda pop, candy, all sort of costly and/or junky processed foods off the shelf, no deli stuff, no matter how cheap or healthy.
This month, being between terms and STILL waiting on my student funding to be released (should be in a few days), I have had to use my sis-in-law’s EBT card twice to keep us fed. (then I will pay them back in cash when I get my funding). Yes, I know, not kosher, but neither is a family of 3 starving. :o
Illegal, but I’m not going to say squat - the moral good of keeping a family fed outweighs the technicality in that case.
I keep thinking there’s something that’s been overlooked or that will come back to haunt us, then we’ll be nailed by a “gotcha!” and be forced to pay back everything with fines on top of it or some such. Probably just a little paranoia speaking, but I’ve had so much crap happen to me these past few years I’m a little twitchy.
In New York (and, I think California and some other places) there has been a big push recently to make EBT accepted at city Farmer’s Markets. Do you see something like that being helpful to you personally if it were to be implemented in your area (or if it is already)?
Here in Oregon you can use EBT at farmer’s markets (at least if the market accepts it/has the means to process it).
On getting “gotcha’d”, we never had a problem, even though our income flucuated a lot since we were both self-employed at the time. What they did was set our benefits and set a level of income we could reach before we had to report any changes. As long as you report any income over that limit in a timely manner (within 10 days, I think it was) you are fine.
Not really.
First of all, I have a big garden out back where I get most of my fresh vegetables during the summer, so I don’t frequent Farmer’s Markets. (I do want to try a paw-paw, which don’t grow in my yard, but I’ve yet to see any for sale around here despite it’s alternate name of “Indiana banana”.)
Second, at least in my area, Farmer’s Markets tend to have notably higher prices than the stores. Requiring the vendors, who tend to be small scale farmers, to purchase the equipment required for EBT readers strikes me as something that will only drive the prices up further. If something could be worked out that doesn’t impose further burdens on either the farmers or the poor people using the system fine, but I’m not sure how that would work.
Maybe, if it was a market sponsored by a large municipality and it was large enough in size it might be practical for the sponsor to provide such equipment as it would potentially draw in even more people and result in more profit for all, but the roadside stands and small scale markets that exist in my area… I just don’t think it would be a good idea. You have to let the vendors make some profit, otherwise why would they come? And you need to keep the prices on the merchandise reasonably competitive with local stores.
There’s also the added wrinkle in my area of the Amish farmer. The Amish are, as we all know, a bit spotty in what technology they will deal with. When I worked in the Chicago Loop there was an Amish bakery that sent people out to the big skyscrapers during the week to sell their wares. They would take cash or check but adamantly refused to get a credit card reader or accept any sort of card for payment, even when it cost them business. They had plenty of business otherwise, apparently. Amish produce and products are a significant draw at local markets in my area, even more so heading east. I’m not sure how that would work with everything else.
So… in sum, in some areas it would work just fine but in others requiring EBT as payment may, in fact, work against these very small local markets.
Many food stamp recipients do not receive a full benefit, it’s a supplement to their food budget not the whole of it. As virtually all people receiving EBT has some discretionary income otherwise this doesn’t prevent them from visiting Farmer’s Markets and paying cash. By helping recipients get the basic, it may well free up some other funds for higher quality, specialty, or locally produced foods such as those found at farmer’s market. If they choose to go. If it’s important enough to vendors/sponsors of farmer’s markets to capture the “food stamp” crowd they’ll figure out a way to do this without it being mandated. Since EBT folds in with accepting credit cards and debit cards this should be easy to incorporate in any venue that accepts the latter, which would, again, capture more potential customers. Just have to wonder at what point doing that becomes cost-effective.