Food Stamps

We receive food stamps. We could not get by without them. Hubby and I try to do our shopping at the beginning of each month. We stock up. We rarely buy junk food with our stamps as we consider that to be a treat not a necessity. My husband's vice is that he is addicted to Mountain Dew so we get it every month for him. Our shopping is usually done at Giant Eagle and we use our advantage card so we can get food perks and fuelperks back from the food that we purchase. This way we save on gas. We do use coupons and get their special deals. A lot of the food we buy there is the Valu time brand because it is so much cheaper. You can get a three pound bag of egg noodles there for around $2.00. Through trial and error we have made a list where we can make our stamps stretch the whole month. Our food is supplemented with venison that my husband's brother gets us each year. I also go online and print out coupons for freebies as well as request them in the mail. All of this helps. The food we get does need to be healthier because I am diabetic and allergic to food dyes and they have a wonderful natural food section there. Many people shop at Aldis but for us it is not cost effective. Most of the food that they sell at the local Aldis is in smaller cans and has dyes and preservatives in it. Our Walmart Supercenter also tends to be higher because it is the only big box store locally. Sometimes we will travel to a neighboring city and shop at Save a Lot or Dollar General Market. We find the food quality to be much better there than Aldis.

I know that my family couldn't survive without it. I'm in the middle of taking my SSI claim to court. My health barely allows me to sweep my living room floor without having an asthma attack and spending the next few days exhausted from it, so I havent rationalized how they expect me to maintain a job...What little cash I get comes from sites like Mylot. Food stamps can be difficult to stretch... But when you have families that have severe dietary limitations it can be a total nightmare. I get very sick, sometimes for days, if I eat any of the following Potatoes Fresh fruits Fresh vegetables Ketchup/Tomato products Pork products "Mushy" foods - Oatmeal, mashed potatoes, beans Mayo Eggs Nothing with methyl/high methane Nothing with red dye #40 No salycic (sp) acids No city water ** That leaves me... with beef and poultry? :/ I also can't have especially greasy foods and my daughter can't have high acid/grease coated foods. It really puts us in a bind when it comes to shopping for food. We end up with a LOT of chicken, lettuce salad mixes before they star to turn, and grain products. It's not uncommon for me to snag up some Little Debbie's cakes and eat that alone for lunch or breakfast, so that I can focus the budget on weekend meals and dinner when everyone is here to eat instead of just me. I'm allergic to some chemical that the town uses to treat the city water, so I buy gallons of bottled water and about one case of soda pop per month, but people that are in line with me at at the store are just d@mn rude about it.... but they don't know my health concerns, and I wonder just what exactly DO they expect me to eat. People here where I live also talk about, and treat, many people who do get FS QUITE horribly. I used to be a workaholic and would almost always work through being ill unless I threw up at least twice or couldn't stand if the job required it. I also never used to take time off to go to the doctor so that I could avoid being on government programs. I did it for so long that when I was seriously ill, it was quite some time before it was noticeable, and now I can barely work at all. I guess they'll have to excuse me for having tried so hard to satisfy them the first time .. :/ lol

I have never received food stamps or WIC, but I know people who have. Yes, it is definitely tough to get by on those things. I really think that the amount of food stamps they give people should be seriously increased. You literally cannot purchase healthy food with the amount that is given out nowadays.