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About feeding a family really cheaply, there was a while during the worst of the recession when I only had $150/month at the most to buy food, laundry soap, toilet paper, toiletries, etc. for a family of four. My husband refused to apply for food stamps, said that since I could cook from scratch we should be able to manage it. We ate rice and beans and pancakes. I got a couple of hams marked down really cheap and we used them in various meals. We did this for probably six months until we had paid off our car. My kids didn't grow at all during that time. My husband got some weird digestive issues which we never did figure out.
When he got laid off from his job, I told him we had to get food stamps...there's pride and then there's stupidity. Eating such a bad diet that your kids don't grow, just so you don't look bad to the people behind you in the checkout lane, is stupid.
If you're loading your stuff on the conveyor then you're at most 3-4' from the person at the card swiper. Maybe that isn't "polite" to you, I've never heard such a thing. I want to pay for my groceries and lug it home, not think about miss manners. If and I'm always loaded before they're done as I never use a cart, I don't buy that much, I just dump the basket on the belt. If I took a big step back you know what I'd be doing? I'd be being RUDE. I'd be preventing the person behind me from putting their stuff on the belt behind mine for no reason (wasting their time). If you want to keep your head down and defer your sight while they're fumbling around, that is your business. It isn't like they're hiding it. It's bright freaking blue, and they're holding it out there.
Oh, and I never said anything about a "welfare queen" or anything like it. I can recognize junk food though. Not everyone has it, but plenty do. Plenty also buy staples.
And I personally just want to pay for my groceries and lug it home and not spend a NANOSECOND even considering what someone in front of me is buying or how they are paying for it. I wonder who are these people so focused on the affairs of others. You could hold a gun against my head and I wouldn't be able to tell you even a couple of the items the person in front of me bought unless they were items I wanted to buy myself. I'm usually to busy unloading my basket, mentally adding up my total, scanning over magazine covers, checking other small things like the time or weather updates, or lazily daydreaming. Maybe if I was somewhere where I was in a long line, but once I have to wait over 5 minutes to check out, anger fills me up more quickly than curiosity for what the stranger in front of me is buying and what card they are using to pay for it.
I wasn't saying that you personally made the "welfare queen" claim, but, oh, so, SO many people on this thread has w/o an ounce of proof.
Last edited by eevee; 09-17-2013 at 01:26 PM..
Reason: sp
I don't want to cut it out, but how about tweaking it so you can use the EBT card for staples. Meat (not grade A), milk, butter, flour, etc etc instead of frozen dinners and junk food. Just a thought.
Programming EBT cards, in a similar manner as WIC, would be a nightmare. Even WIC has made quite a few changes in the past year. For instance they don't have to get just dry beans anymore. They can now get canned as well. They can also buy frozen veggies in addition to fresh. They can have frozen juice in addition to bottled. Everything is listed on a voucher and that's all they can get with that voucher. As of now they get cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, bread and juice. People on EBT buy an abundance of the things you listed...meat, milk, butter, etc. etc.. So if they want to throw in a couple bags of chips or a case of soda? So what.
One thing I don't 'get', and this pertains to people NOT on food stamps as well, is why do they spend the higher dollar on packages of prepared fruits/veggies when it would probably be cheaper to buy the food and prep it themselves. How long can it take to cut up a few pieces of fruit? The elderly and disabled buy a LOT more frozen dinners than the younger ones. They do it because it's easy for them. The younger ones don't seem to mind cooking from scratch. I'm sometimes really impressed with how they shop because a lot of them also use our ad matching and coupons to stretch their EBT money.
Great diet for children too. They go to school malnourished and hungry while the bootstrappers complain about hungry poor children being a burden on the healthcare system when they get sick.
What about fruits, vegetables, dairy? A family cannot live on that crap.
You know, in a perfect world we could do everything for everybody. We can't pay for food and housing and healthcare for everybody. You can't have 50% of the people supporting the other 50%. People have to step up and take care of themselves. I'm so sick of the excuse that these people are too down and out and depressed and un-empowered to do anything for themselves. I don't think that's true. I think they don't do for themselves because they don't have to. Why should they work when someone will give them everything they need? What's going to happen when the taxpayers get tired of supporting the other 50% and decide they will stop working too?
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. People have to learn to take care of themselves. Temporary help - okay. Permanent meal ticket - not okay.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eevee
And I personally just want to pay for my groceries and lug it home and not spend a NANOSECOND even considering what someone in front of me is buying or how they are paying for it. I wonder who are these people so focused on the affairs of others. You could hold a gun against my head and I wouldn't be able to tell you even a couple of the items the person in front of my bought unless they were items I wanted to buy myself. I'm usually to busy unloading my basket, mentally adding up my total, scanning over magazine covers, checking other small things like the time or weather updates, or lazily daydreaming. Maybe if I was somewhere where I was in a long line, but once I have to wait over 5 minutes to check out, anger fills me up more quickly than curiosity for what the stranger in front of me is buying and what card they are using to pay for it.
I wasn't saying that you personally made the "welfare queen" claim, but, oh, so, SO many people on this thread has w/o an ounce of proof.
5 minutes is NOTHING to wait in line at the store I got to. 10-15 minutes on a weekend is fairly typical. Generally it is 4-5 carts deep.
If you want to daydream or look at the Enquirer or whatever, that is your business. I like to be aware of my surroundings and I'm focused on getting stuff loaded and paid for. Yes, I have my cash or debit card out before the clerk starts ringing. I want to be out. And yes, sometimes I'm like, "Daaaayem, $12.99 a pound for beef? Crazy what people spend". No, it isn't my business (other than my taxes are supplementing it if they're on EBT), but WE ALL pay attention to things that technically aren't are business (what people are wearing, reading, etc).
Can you believe it, I even look at what flowers my neighbors plant.
I'm sometimes really impressed with how they shop because a lot of them also use our ad matching and coupons to stretch their EBT money.
I've never used an EBT card, but I have used coupons in conjunction with ads and it is possible so save so much money on groceries that way. My store doubles coupons up to 50 cents (I know not all stores do), so sometimes between the double coupon and the sale price you can get food items for very little. I can easily save 30% not trying very hard, 50% if I put a little effort into it, and could probably save 70% if I really tried. The trick is you ONLY buy items that are on sale that you also have a coupon for. Obviously you don't have coupons for meat and vegetables, so you buy meat and vegetables that are on sale. And then you plan meals from what you have on hand that you have bought on sale, instead of planning meals and then going shopping and buying things not on sale.
Baileypotter, You make a point that should make the haters think a bit...why is it that food pantries dont include fresh veggies and fruits? Surely if its such a budget item, they would find a way to have those on hand
The food pantry at our church does. One week my mom actually got a case of strawberries that I made jam out of. They always have potatoes, onions, tomatoes, lettuce...iceberg and leaf...squash, yams, etc.. Fruits could be just about anything but mostly peaches, nectarines, pears and apples right now. People get to choose what they want of those but the boxes are preplanned and filled. Not sure how this will be handled during the winter but I'm sure they'll figure it out.
If they go to school, do they not qualify for free lunch (and maybe breakfast)?
Have you not seen the stories about the controversy over new school lunches --- and the fresh fruit being thrown away?
True, but sometimes, that "fresh" fruit is far from it. These free lunch programs aren't that great, they are just trying to serve the most amount of kids w/ the least amount of money. Some of these lunches are ghastly, both in taste and nutritional value (in high school, my free hot lunch was most often a small pizza and tater tots).
There are pilot programs out there trying to serve REAL foods under a strict budget, schools where cooking is done either on site or close by. These programs try to retain nutritional value, taste, and keep costs down. Unfortunately, the Free Lunch Program is a complicated, gov't assisted program often times filled w/ clout and fraud and most public schools are stuck w/ it.
5 minutes is NOTHING to wait in line at the store I got to. 10-15 minutes on a weekend is fairly typical. Generally it is 4-5 carts deep.
If you want to daydream or look at the Enquirer or whatever, that is your business. I like to be aware of my surroundings and I'm focused on getting stuff loaded and paid for. Yes, I have my cash or debit card out before the clerk starts ringing. I want to be out. And yes, sometimes I'm like, "Daaaayem, $12.99 a pound for beef? Crazy what people spend". No, it isn't my business (other than my taxes are supplementing it if they're on EBT), but WE ALL pay attention to things that technically aren't are business (what people are wearing, reading, etc).
Can you believe it, I even look at what flowers my neighbors plant.
LOL, well true, but I'm an antsy person. I go out of my way to shop at off times for this reason (e.g., if the store is open late or 24/7, I shop later at night). If I wait in line for too long, I end up thinking of all the ways that, as a cashier, I would have been faster. When it comes to shopping, I'm not a line person (though listening to podcasts or music on my iPod has helped in this matter).
Oh, I pay attention to my surroundings (and NEVER even glance at the Enquirer), but I don't waste time on what the person in front of me is buying or how they are paying for it. I'm not peering over to look at the monitor to see how much their stuff is ringing up for, not giving any thought at all to how they pay unless it's by some strange manner (e.g., traveler's check or even regular checks). Now, I may spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the PERSON in front of me, especially if they are a guy or a woman wearing a cute outfit (I swear, I once spent untold minutes staring at a woman's shoes, even as she left the store, to the point where the cashier had to tap me on the shoulder to ask me a question). As a matter of fact, even when I WORKED as a cashier in a supermarket, I didn't pay much attention to how a customer paid unless a problem cropped up. I'm not interested at all in what sort of card they are using, whether it's a black AMEX card or a LINK card.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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So you waste your time daydreaming and looking at tabloids, I waste my time looking at the people around me. Doesn't sound like a huge difference. We're wasting time trying to get out of the store. And I'm not "peering" either, that sounds like I'm going out of my way to look. It is right there in big glowing numbers at eye level. Or it is on the belt in front of me and I'm longing for something other than chicken (yes, I miss beef, so I look sometimes as these big roasts, then I see the prices). Doesn't seem odd to me at all. Your not interested in how they are paying, that's fine. That is you.
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