BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Poll: What do you think about Food Stamps

Today at Walmart I used my food stamps to buy 'emergency food' - large containers of preserved food. In the 'rollback' food aisle of my superwalmart, they have the following:

Dried Milk
Dried Milk substitute
dried whole eggs (I bought barrel of this)
dried butter, dried margarine (i bought this as well)
dried cheese
dried honey
white sugar
rolled oats
wheat berries
dehydrated carrots
dehydrated bell peppers
" corn
" bananas
" mixed fruit
" mixed veggies
cornmeal
pancake mix
dried scrambled egg mix
taco mix meat alternative
dried bacon bits
vegetable protein meat alternative
garden seed mix - heirloom varieties
white rice
brown rice

There were others but i can't recall them. I thought these were pretty cool though. They are spendy - from ten to twenty dollars for a large container - but provide a lot of food uses per ounce and look like they will last very well in the pantry area of one's emergency supply kit.

I think i want the powdered cheese one next. I also want the wheat berries - those can be made into sprouts or ground into flour.

As for the rolled oats, sugar and rice, I think I can do better with these by buying bulk bags and putting them in buckets on my own.

Jilly,
Sounds fantastic. Let me know how the "dried" (then reconstitued?) stuff tastes. Buying in bulk is definitely cheaper if you can repackage and store it.

Good for you!

Thanks, diane. I won't be opening these containers unless there is a regional or national emergency, but i do know what they taste like - and about how you would expect. Great for camping or emergencies, but not textured or fresh like the real thing.

Food stamps have certainly made a lot of lives healthier, especially children. As long as there is a political party that refuses to stop oil subs. while refinery are closing down to drive up the cost even further. I rather see the money going to help GOOD people stay/become healthy. Grocery prices are outrageous. My doctor tells me to eat Vitamin K, among other things I am suppose to eat, right, like we can't afford basic things like groceries.

Qualifications differ too much from state to state. If all your income goes to house payment, insurance, taxes, utilities, prescriptions and doctor bills that should qualify anyone.

The state I live in has no state income tax but they tax food and EVERYTHING else. I can hear the chanting go red team!!!!

diana, i agree. is your state saying you make too much money to qualify? Even though all your income go3es towards bills and survival?

Tomorrow there is a sale where if i spend $50 at Alco, i get a $10 gift card to the store. This is perfect since my food stamps refill tomorrow. So i will get $50 of food with my SNAP card and then be able to get ten dollars in non-food of things I need as well.

Probably cat food!