Food Stamps - Take The Challenge

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Shiva_TD, Nov 30, 2012.

  1. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    I've read many opinions from "conservatives" that want to dramatically reduce welfare spending and the SNAP (food stamps) often take a lot of heat because tens of millions of Americans require this assistance. Most of these are either retirees on Social Security or hard working Americans receiving low wages generally supporting dependent children.

    Before demanding a reduction in SNAP spending I would challenge those opposed to the program to do what Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker is going to do from Dec 4-11.

    http://news.yahoo.com/nj-mayor-live-food-stamps-starting-tuesday-215309249.html

    Let's see what "conservatives" think about cutting benefits for food stamps after living on $1.40/meal for a week.
     
  2. Bluespade

    Bluespade Banned

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    Cory Booker is on a short list of democrats that I halfway respect.
     
  3. custer

    custer New Member

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    I had EBT or Food Stamps in college and did fine. I earned $120 a month, for one person, and got through every month just fine, while working full time and have fifteen hours of school a week.

    If I can do it on a small budget, anyone can.
     
  4. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    I'm not even familiar with him as I live on the opposite end of the country. I didn't even know he was a Democrat but I'm not surprised that he is. I would assume he's not trying to end food stamps or reduce the benefits and the challenge is more appropriate for those that are.

    Actually I won't even challenge Republicans to "take the challenge" because I'd like to see their grocery list so that they would have enough money to buy food at $1.40/meal for a week. I'd assume its going to have a lot of Kraft macaroni and cheese on it which is fine but not very healthy.
     
  5. marleyfin

    marleyfin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Despite being a polititian Booker seems like a good guy, rushing into burning buildings to save people and doing crime watches personally all hours of the night. I think he does these things to set the tone of being a positve part of the community which Newak certainly benefits from.
     
  6. akphidelt2007

    akphidelt2007 New Member Past Donor

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    We spent $71 billion on food stamps. That is not that much money in the grand scheme of things and really not that big of a deal to be feeding people in your country after an economic shock.
     
  7. marleyfin

    marleyfin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Normally my weekly grocery bill is more than $130.00. I would be hard pressed to stretch 130.00 for a month.
     
  8. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    $1.40 a meal? Crikey! We can't afford to give people all that free money!
     
  9. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well... it would be $1.46 firstly... assuming 3 meals a day over 30.5 days. So, we have 91.5 meals to account for.

    Let's look at my average meals.
    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cheerios-Toasted-Whole-Grain-Oat-Cereal-18-oz/10311410
    Mmm. Ok... so my cheerios are $3.68 providing 18 servings. We will round that up to 4 bucks with tax and complaints... Gonna need some milk in that. 16 cups in a galon... so lets just drop this to 16 servings for easy math... eating a little more cereal than recommended each morning, because I am fat. WalMart doesn't give milk prices online because, I guess, they vary. My milk is about 3.50, so let's make it 4 bucks... for tax an variable pricing.

    So lets round up to 8 bucks for tax an whatnot.
    133.26 - 8 = $125.26
    91.5 - 16 = 75.5
    Now we are gonna double that, because that makes 32 meals, and sometimes on a whim I will have cereal before I go to bed... cause I am wild like that.
    125.26 - 8 = $117.26
    75.5 - 14.5 = 61 meals left (I took 14.5 because I will include half a meal as cereal after a light dinner, and the 16th bowl is just gluttony, because I am fat... this provides our 30.5 meals.)

    Solid start.

    Rather than doing all of this painful research and averaging over months etc... look at this.
    http://www.parents.com/blogs/thrift...grocery-budget-at-200mo-for-a-family-of-four/

    This is an employed woman, who keeps her grocery budget for 4 people, under $200 per month. I guess it is odd to me, that people do not expect that they will have to make sacrifices for free money, when so many hard working Americans make them with their own money.

    Might also point out 5 kids eat less than 5 adults. Sort of a quick cheat to throw out that "average cost per person" thing.

    Did I mention we are fat? Curious how many people on food stamps are overweight (excluding medical conditions which ACTUALLY cause the problem) in relation to the rest of the population. Don't let this common sense interrupt your flow or anything... just thought it was worth mentioning.

    http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2012/01/2012-grocery-budget-challenge-week-4.html check out these ladies!


    I guess it is harder to address concepts like conservation, when it is free.
     
  10. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well... it would be $1.46 firstly... assuming 3 meals a day over 30.5 days. So, we have 91.5 meals to account for.

    Let's look at my average meals.
    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cheerios-Toasted-Whole-Grain-Oat-Cereal-18-oz/10311410
    Mmm. Ok... so my cheerios are $3.68 providing 18 servings. We will round that up to 4 bucks with tax and complaints... Gonna need some milk in that. 16 cups in a galon... so lets just drop this to 16 servings for easy math... eating a little more cereal than recommended each morning, because I am fat. WalMart doesn't give milk prices online because, I guess, they vary. My milk is about 3.50, so let's make it 4 bucks... for tax an variable pricing.

    So lets round up to 8 bucks for tax an whatnot.
    133.26 - 8 = $125.26
    91.5 - 16 = 75.5
    Now we are gonna double that, because that makes 32 meals, and sometimes on a whim I will have cereal before I go to bed... cause I am wild like that.
    125.26 - 8 = $117.26
    75.5 - 14.5 = 61 meals left (I took 14.5 because I will include half a meal as cereal after a light dinner, and the 16th bowl is just gluttony, because I am fat... this provides our 30.5 meals.)

    Solid start.

    Rather than doing all of this painful research and averaging over months etc... look at this.
    http://www.parents.com/blogs/thrift...grocery-budget-at-200mo-for-a-family-of-four/

    This is an employed woman, who keeps her grocery budget for 4 people, under $200 per month. I guess it is odd to me, that people do not expect that they will have to make sacrifices for free money, when so many hard working Americans make them with their own money.

    Might also point out 5 kids eat less than 5 adults. Sort of a quick cheat to throw out that "average cost per person" thing.

    Did I mention we are fat? Curious how many people on food stamps are overweight (excluding medical conditions which ACTUALLY cause the problem) in relation to the rest of the population. Don't let this common sense interrupt your flow or anything... just thought it was worth mentioning.

    http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2012/01/2012-grocery-budget-challenge-week-4.html check out these ladies!


    I guess it is harder to address concepts like conservation, when it is free.
     
  11. kenrichaed

    kenrichaed Banned

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    Unlike the old days where people actually planned for their retirement or waited to have kids until they could afford them.

    Why do that anymore, just give em government assisstance to live irresponsible lives.

    lol
     
  12. akphidelt2007

    akphidelt2007 New Member Past Donor

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    So your diet primarily consists of cereal? You did not make having $1.40 a meal for food look any more appealing, lol
     
  13. marleyfin

    marleyfin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The woman who wrote about her savy grocery shopping did not include anything but food in her $200/ month bill (which cuts out a lot of expensive stuff). The article also makes it sound like the $200 is as low as she can get her bill despite heavy restrictions, and being a super coupon shopper.

    I don't think the point was that it is impossible budget $133.00/ month but that $133.00/ month for groceries is a tight budget.
     
  14. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    My breakfasts do.
    I was simply demonstrating that breaking this down to 1.40 (which is the wrong figure) is deceptively low... as 1/3 of the 91.5 meals can be had for less than half of that figure. The 1.40 thing was meant for shock value... I am demonstrating why this value is not representative of... tell you what... please read the post again. Please read the links.
     
  15. CKW

    CKW Well-Known Member

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    I was looking at my old budget sheet. We spend $350 / monthfor a family of four in 2008. That is when I stayed at home and had young kids to feed during the day.

    The point to consider is---when a person receives food stamps, cash, housing, medicaid, daycare funds---do they even need to really budget?

    My budgeting skills occured after I was off the food stamps, reduced housing, medicare, free daycare and wic to boot.

    People need to be independent or they suffer.
     
  16. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Cathy: Feeding a family of 9

    Monthly grocery budget: $600

    Spending this week: 65.93
    Savings this week: $0 {just did regular supplement shopping}

    January Spending: $382.37
    January Savings: $116.47

    Year to date spending: $382.37
    Year to date savings: $116.47
    Read more at http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2012/01/2012-grocery-budget-challenge-week-4.html#TAT4cJxhWQCOEgsa.99

    That is HALF of what is given away for free... just to SAVE money... I guess it is a foreign concept to be frugal with other peoples money. Dunno. This thread is starting to (*)(*)(*)(*) me off.
     
  17. submarinepainter

    submarinepainter Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    my niece gets 1000.00 a month with 5 kids and her husband , when feeding a larger family you buy in bulk and thus save some . I hope no one expects us to feed the world on the taxpayers dimes without giving back something in return , it should not be easy to survive on welfare it breeds laziness
     
  18. marleyfin

    marleyfin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So you think $133/ month is absurd?
     
  19. akphidelt2007

    akphidelt2007 New Member Past Donor

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    Ummm... there is no way one box of cereal and a gallon of milk can create 16 full meals. 1 cup of cheerios and 1 cup of milk is not nearly enough calories for someone to consider it a "meal". That's about 200 calories. You would need 7-12 of those meals a day to get the appropriate amount of calories depending on your size. And that would be horrible on the nutrition side.
     
  20. Ex-lib

    Ex-lib Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You can't use the average food stamp size to do this demonstration unless you determine the income and resources of a person who gets that same amount of food stamps, and then allow the person to spend some of their extra money on food.

    Food stamps are graduated. Some who gets only 1.40 would get more than that if they didn't have other income. Since they have other income, they will spend some of it to augment the 1.40 they get from govt. Someone who gets PLENTY for food stamps, gets that much because they DON'T have other income to augment food stamps.

    I doubt that smart conservatives want to cut the payment size of food stamps as much as they want to cut the NUMBER OF PEOPLE who receive them.

    IMO, anyone who is able to do ANY kind of job, including stuffing envelopes, should be forced to take free schooling if they are going to be receiving govt. aid. The conservatives' problem is that they don't want people to be dependent on govt when they could be dependent upon themselves instead.

    Education is probably the biggest thing lacking there.
     
  21. Ctrl

    Ctrl Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I wonder...


    How many pack a day smokers are on food stamps...

    $3.50 per pack
    x 30.5
    That $106.75 they could have fed themselves with... THAT MONTH that do not lead to long term health costs I will also be paying...

    Oh but why bother... when I will be buying them food and healthcare?
     
  22. Ex-lib

    Ex-lib Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    By the way, if you buy flour, and sugar, potatoes, milk and eggs, etc. and MAKE meals, like folks used to, $1.40 per person, per meal, could do pretty well, I believe.

    That assumes that the people on food stamps have been taught to be independent and are able to cook for themselves instead of trying to eat at McDonald's or buy tv dinners....which is the point of NOT giving them too much govt aid in the first place.
     
  23. Roy L

    Roy L Banned

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    Of course. If you have a kitchen with a fridge and stove, you can eat much cheaper. With a freezer, you can go cheaper still. The point is, if you are homeless, or living in a single room with no kitchen facilities, eating becomes MUCH more expensive.
    It also assumes they have access to a kitchen, can store cooked food in a fridge, etc.
     
  24. Shiva_TD

    Shiva_TD Progressive Libertarian Past Donor

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    There have been some very good comments and then not quite so good (e.g. blame it on the smokers) and I think we can agree that it can be done because millions of Americans are doing it. The point I would make is that no one is living high on the hog at less than $1.50/meal. Personally my food budget is about $140/wk and I eat out about about four times a week as well.

    What needs to be put to rest is the belief that those collecting food stamps are somehow welfare queens or sitting on their butts all day.

    As I mentioned earlier a large percentage of them are retirees living on very low incomes under Social Security. Want to get them off of food stamps then raise the benefits for Social Security so that the don't require welfare too.

    Many are divorced women raising children as well and they are hard working individuals. I've known a lot of women in my lifetime that left a marriage, often because of physical abuse, and they work very hard but just don't make enough to really get by on. Some received child support but it's not nearly enough while others didn't. In any case they're not deadbeats but instead they just don't have enough income to really live on unassisted.
     
  25. Roy L

    Roy L Banned

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    When are people going to get wise to the fact that as well as not being healthy, Kraft Dinner is NOT CHEAP?

    Eating well on $1.40/meal is entirely feasible, and we have fed our family of six on about half that for years -- and a lot of what we eat is organic. You just have to learn to cook, keep your eyes peeled for bargains, and stay away from expensive stuff like small packages, red meat and seafood (though we do try to have fish a few times a month), prepared foods, brand names, junk food, soda, candy, baked goods, etc. We have a hard and fast rule: we won't pay more than $.15/ounce for prepared carbs like breakfast cereal, chips, etc. Pick up a good used bread machine from a thrift store for $20 and buy some yeast in bulk and flour on sale at $8/20-lb bag. You get hundreds of loaves of fresh-baked bread for under $1/loaf. Make your own buns, pizza, etc. using the bread machine to make the dough. Find a good greengrocer run by East Asians: they will often put out slightly older but still good produce for $1/bag, and offer good prices on things like rice, soy sauce, noodles, etc. Learn how to use herbs and spices (always buy them in bulk and keep the extra in the freezer), and build your meal planning on a foundation of beans (including peas, lentils and peanuts), eggs, rice, and cheaper vegetables like carrots, onions, and cabbage, not meat. Make your own hummus and use it for sandwiches and dips. Use cheaper meats like chicken, and in small amounts, primarily to add flavor. Calculate prices per ounce and be on the lookout for sale prices on things you can stock up on, especially canned tomatoes and pasta sauce, which add a lot of flavor and nutrients. It's not that difficult.
     

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