Living it up on the tax payers dime a weeks worth of food stamps

Being unemployed and no jobs calling me back, I can understand this, except you're getting more in a week than I am in a month. I get $36 a month, was $52.50 before the cuts happened. A month, I have to survive on that in a months time. Possible? Maybe.. but it's not really easy. It is the jagoffs that abuse the system that cause the good ones like us to lose out, guaranteed they're still getting a hefty chunk of the gubment cheese though.

reply to post by wantsome


Withdrawn

NavyDoc

What about the sick and vulnerable who's illness is self inflicted, such as COPD from smoking or obesity from overeating?

Now that a whole diffrent can of worms for another thread

I dont really have much sympathy..........


But I guess others would disagree.

reply to post by Bilk22

What's your disability? You didn't say. You have $200/week for food or what ever? Am I reading that right? You can obviously type on a computer keyboard, so there are jobs for you. You need to look harder.

That is not true at all, I too am disabled and I am typing this myself.
I cannot sit more than and hour at a time, I must get up and walk for a half hour.
A lot of disabled people have major underlying issues that really complicate things for them, be it transit, communications with others, mobility issues, and as the OP stated organ failure. Plus many many more things that can effect the productivity of the disabled person.

I am not knocking your post but, I am trying to educate people reading this thread.
All illnesses are not in the shape of a cooky cutter.

I am sure the OP never wanted to get sick just like me and many others on this thread, please keep that in mind.



Regards, Iwinder

Donkey_Dean

What if I could tell you in just a few steps how to own a paid off home and never have to count on a 40 hour gig again?

I suspect you will choose a life of freebies and easy living!

edit on 18-11-2013 by Donkey_Dean because: (no reason given)

I say U2U me and tell me more

daryllyn
Some of these comments are out of line, IMO.

So what if OP has a computer? Or internet access? Or buys 2 bucks worth of soda a week?

Since when are the disadvantaged not allowed to have anything extra?

Here is how I look at OP's situation:

They weren't always disabled.

Its not his/her fault they are disabled.

At one time he/she made four times what they make now and probably paid into these systems for years and years.

Given the choice, I am certain that OP would choose not to be disabled... but, unfortunately, that isn't something you get to choose.

Should any of that mean that anyone else gets to dictate their life or what they should or shouldn't have? Should that mean that we get to tell OP that he/she can't have a damn 2 liter bottle of soda? Or a pie? Seriously?

Just keep in mind that anyone of you could have an accident or illness that could render you disabled and it can happen in a flash. YOU could be walking in OP's shoes next week or next month.

Its fine to suggest healthier or more economic meal choices, but telling them that they can't have a computer, or internet access, or soda, or pie..... is rude and insensitive given the situation, especially given that the computer is a decade old and from before any of this happened.

OP, there is a thread somewhere on here that has many inexpensive recipes that you may be interested in trying out. I'll dig and see if I can find it for you.

What I won't do, is insist that you give up every last little thing in life and bash your for buying a 2 dollar pie because you are disabled and stuck in this situation that is beyond your control.

edit on 17amSun, 17 Nov 2013 10:13:45 -060013SundaySunday1311 by daryllyn because: (no reason given)

Super post!, thanks for the wisdom and insight on your part.

Regards, Iwinder

Been following this thread for a while and one thing no one has brought up....."left overs"! I have seen tons of great advice on cooking for cheap and still healthy, but one thing I have noticed with so many of my fellow Americans is their total distaste for eating leftovers.

reply to post by seeker1963

We do the same, if we BBQ burgers its burgers for at least 4/5 nights depending on the price of the beef.
The wife got pork chops on sale just this Saturday and made a stir fry with brown rice and peas, you betcha we ate it Sunday, last night , and tonight, and probably two lunches after that.

Both of us were children of depression parents so we learned very early in life to eat the same thing night after night and to be honest with you some foods just get better and better with age in the fridge. ( stew comes to mind)

Good post,
Regards, Iwinder

Buy a bag of beans for $10, buy a bag of rice for $10. That'll last you a month or two; although you might die from the lack of B vitamins sooner or later. But who cares about that, eh? You're poor! And living on such a spartan diet will give you the right to say "THIS IS SPARTA" which is worth more than your health.

Foodstamps are obviously evil! We should just give all of that money to the corporations directly; it isn't like foodstamps contribute anything to the economy and effect supply and demand. In fact, we should put the taxation rate at 99%, that way only rich people will be able to afford to live! And since they own all the corporations which will be receiving the corporate welfare, they'll end up coming out ahead! Then we could force everyone to work for the corporations by having the corporations provide "food credits" to employees! Sounds like a great idea!

It is such a shame that corporations don't benefit from foodstamps, it isn't like they are getting paid whenever someone uses foodstamps to buy some chickens which were raised on a government handout.

$45 a week is the maximum I spend out-of-pocket on groceries for myself.

It's just my wife and I, and we spend about $320-$360 a month on groceries for the two of us. Divide that by two and you get $160-$180 for each of us. Divide that by 4 (turning a month into a week) and you get $40-$45.

That's how I live. So, I'd say what the government is able to provide for you is sufficient.

What's your point?

I'm sorry that you're disabled, but so is this guy:

Wind, started going on a rant a bit into it The entire post wasnt necessarily directed at ya.

reply to post by windword


I really feel the solution is more along the lines of realizing what contribution actually means.

Now, most of the day, I am in a state where it is difficult for me to even go to the bathroom. However, that isnt the entire day! In those spare bits of time, I am able to use some of my talents and skills to bring about specific contributions to the world. I dont think this is out of reach for a lot of people. However, there are a lot of things that prevent this from being meaningful. Meaning, there arent many ways for that talent/skill to be used to sustain everyday life.

For me, its because my capability to do anything is sporadic and unpredictable. So, its basically treading water (mostly drowning) to balance income potential and cost of living (which is increased due to medical bills, etc). This is one of the more important factors in an economy (it applies to everyone), and when you raise the cost of living, even by small percentages, it is like raising the water. Some of the people that were on dry land start to find their feet wet. If the cost of living increases without proportional increase in the average income potential, more people willl find themselves in water.

There are plenty of ways to use this for control, as we have seen throughout history and currently.

A government can be used to either use this money to re-invest back into the governed state, or allow it to go.. elsewhere. That elsewhere could be anything from modern corporations or "special interests," to kings hoarding the wealth of their conquests for themselves.

The ideal government not only re-invests the entirety of that money back to the governed state, but also does so in the most efficient way possible as part of a framework that allows for constant improvement. Even this government, though, needs to balance the ratio of income potential of its people to the cost of living. Ideally, they would set it strictly to where it needs to be to cover the costs of whatever services the government employs to re-invest the monies into their governed state. "The ideal government" would also do everything in its power to avoid creating dependence in individual people. A state of independent, self-sufficient people is more likely to be the most productive, happiest, innovative, and creative.

Now, the determination would be "what methods do we employ to spend the money in the most effective way?" This would start to look at everything from scholarships, to welfare, education, health care, etc. We currently look at all of these in a "dependent" way, because they are currently. What systems could be implemented that instead created independence and self-sufficiency even for the disabled? I think thats a very important question regarding this topic.

Now, what if that government was more interesting in running like a corporation (for profit business) than a government? The balance, for greatest profit of the governing body, has to come from manipulating the above ratio in just the right way. Remember, this is applied to millions upon millions of potential sources, so even small percentages can yield massive amounts of money (think Office Space).

You would also be interested in maintaining market domination through regulation. Competition leads to less profit. Now, once this has reached its maximum profit potential, we run into an issue. A business wants constant growth, especially when considering investors trust. But, in a finite system (like an economy) constant growth is impossible. So, you would have to use ways to internally make the system more profitable, which can be done by lowering workers wages and ensuring that when they do spend their wages, it goes back into the same pots that paid them to the worker (an obscure type of coal scrip).

Constantly bringing this ratio to the edge creates bubbles and bursts. However, when you have the ability to cause a crash through sheer volume of resources/assets, you can make an enormous amount of money off of it. Then, re-invest it immediately at the lowest prices, which again due to sheer volume, will foster a sense of trust in the economy again. Rinse and repeat.

Only thing left to do is make sure people are sufficiently distracted and unwilling to pursue solutions for themselves. Again, just use the same tools like education, media, etc. And make sure the systems in place allow for abuse, so that instead of looking at the source of the problem, people will be too distracted by their programmed selfishness.

Voila!

So, what are some solutions to this? OP, do you feel you could live a better quality of life if different solutions were in place? What do you think they might be?

I'm sorry that you're disabled, but so is this guy:

reply to post by DarkATi



Can I ask you if you ever have sat in a specialists office after major invasive surgery at the age of 32 and been told to get your affairs in order?

This is after just buying a home, getting married, and then gob smacked in the head that I need a will?

I became unemployable overnight and lost my very good paying job, the next trick was trying to afford the out of town doctor visits which were about one a week for over a year.

This involved my wife who had to take time off of work with no pay and drive me over 200 miles round trip and then pay the gas, and then do it again the next week.

Oh yeah I have a good time being disabled thank you very much, You have no idea how much fun it is and I don't need social media to play up my good fortune.

At one time I tossed kegs of beer around for pay and was in the utmost fit shape, now things are a bit different but hey what would I know?

Thanks to all the posters on this thread actually trying to be helpful to the OP with advice and recipes.


Regards, Iwinder

I remember when I got hurt at work, back in '97, and had to have surgery, DHHR wouldn't hardly give us any help. I asked them why I was paying into it then if I can't use it when I need it. Working under the table is what everybody should do. Groceries are so high that we spend $300 cash and come out with hardly nothing, and we don't buy anything too extravagant. Just # we need. It's sickening what kind of world we live in. It burns me up sometimes. There's only so many Ramen noodles one can eat before you get sick of'em. I kill deer and squirrel to help a little, and it does. Canning the garden helps too. Next year, I'm making my garden even bigger just so we can can more. I'd like to be able to stop going to the stores altogether. Let them go bankrupt. Go back to the old way of living. Get livestock and everything else that a decent, self-contained farm should have. Maybe start up a serious militia and create a community with like-minded people.

Good luck and I hope things get better for ya. I know exactly what you're going through and it sucks. Maybe things will get better somewhere up the way.

Oh, and boo to the people who are giving you flaq for buying some pop and sweets. It's ok to buy some of those things.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Im not American but I know what you mean. In Canada the welfare program makes up about 2 cents for every tax dollar. Im not on welfare, however I was on welfare for about a year due to health reasons before I was able to work again. I hear people complaining all of the time about people on welfare. Now Im not saying that people do not abuse the system because I know they do. There are whole communities that do. However if you take out welfare your still paying 98 cents on other things, so its not really a big deal.

I can say this. While on welfare I was getting the maximum allowed in my province for my situation. 1080 dollars a month. That wa for EVERYTHING. rent, power, heating, gas, and food. my rent alone was 700 at the time, and my power bill at minimum was about 65 dollars (like i said minimum). I got rid of my internet and cable. I don't have a cell phone and I kept my 18 dollar a month home phone plan in case of emergency. I had a wife who, because of the economy could not find work, and a 2 year old son.

after rent and power and phone I was left with 297 dollars a month to feed 3, pay for gas and also buy my medication (insulin, which is not cheap)

I was at my lowest. I begged family and friends for personal loans, my house went into foreclosure, I had to downgrade my car, and most of my bills are now in collections. My credit is absolutely ruined and I probably will never recover, even though I am now working and so is my wife.

So yeah I know how hard it is on welfare. at least here in Canada.


edit: by rent i meant mortgage. Im just used to saying rent because I am now currently renting

I feel like crap after reading through this thread. I waste so much money on garbage. I spend $45.00 a week on stuff to eat while I sit on my fat ass and watch the Buc's loose. I was poor once, lived on cold beans and weenies, lived in my car. I'm 60 years old now, I couldn't live like that again. That's why I moved to Florida. It stays in the back of your mind. Pork and beans were .29 cents back then, today I have no Idea, I can't even look at 'em. ...That is all...My pizza is ready.

OP,

The best way that I found to make your dollar go further is by finding a farmers outlet, or a produce outlet.

It might take a bit of work, and digging, but it will give you a fun challenge.

My life hit a real low point 5 or 6 years ago, and I was living on $150 to 200 a month for food budget, but I ate like a king. How?

Well I learned to buy in bulk, can, freeze quantities of meat that I bought at a discount.

I bought very little that was processed, or even in a box, but when I did it was on sale/or more than 70% off and I bought again in quantity.

Made my own bread, at first it wasn't so great, but after a couple of months I was a regular baker.

I learned to make my rounds at local butcheries and got to know them well. I told them I wasn't looking for handout outs, but rather excess, or meats that might have been thrown away. Many times I got excellent cuts of meat, or even under the table hints about a supermarket that had over bought and had excess to sell.

My freezer was full of 1000's of dollars in cuts, for 10 cents on the dollar or less.

If your willing to put time in and barter with people, it's amazing what you'll come up with.

The farmers produce markets, or wholesale I was able to buy cases of fruits and veggies for less than $5 a case and in some instances I got 2 cases for $5. How? well when food is about to expire they will throw it out, so you have to learn the timing, and it takes about a month of so.

I bought 50 pound bags of potatoes for $4 dollars Michigan grown.

I think the most expensive things I bought were oils to cook the food with.

People can live very well in this country, for very little but it does take the drive and ambition to pursue it.

I hope that helped. I understand things are tough for you, but doing one thing like this can really give you a new perspective on life. I did for me.

Peace out,

RT

StallionDuck
reply to post by wantsome

 

You said 45$ a week, I multiplied that by 5. Sorry, I should have multiplied it by 4.3 which is 194 average. I gave you 30$ more a month.

My reasoning still stands.


Do you get free internet or a free cellphone? What's your primary mode of communication, and internet? Do you drive? How much do you spend in gas every week? How do you pay for electricity?

I'm from the UK but this kind of thing stinks over here as well. I can guarantee you that the amount of money the so called "welfare scrounger" receives in one year will be a fraction of the tax AVOIDED IN ONE WEEK by the fat cats who are playing you like a fiddle.

Wake up turn around and look at where the problem lies..........

Think about it what do the rich do, wind the average working wo/man by convincing them their taxes are paying for the scroungers. Sorry but simple maths here : tax avoidance means YOU THE AVERAGE TAX PAYER MAKES UP THE DIFFERENCE .....DUH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The vast majority of welfare recipients are the very people the system was created for, genuine hard working people going through a temporary hard time. The "professional" scroungers and benefit cheats are a very small minority. In the UK the amount of money lost through benefit fraud is ONE TENTH the amount of money lost through tax avoidance.......go figure.

Should I have said that he is the "compact" version instead?

In the UK we have something called Job Seekers Allowance which means if you are unemployed but seeking work you receive $418 a month plus you receive Housing Benefit to help pay your rent, they used to pay al of it. If you are disabled it is significantly higher and in some case you will receive approx $1600 a month. All this is paid for by the taxes we pay which also includes never having to pay a hospital bill and only prescriptions which are all £12 each no matter what it is. However if you are receiving one of these benefits all prescriptions and dental care is free too.

FlyersFan
reply to post by Daughter2

 

GROW UP (and don't send me any more stupid U2Us).


And to you and the other posters who are just sooooo uptight because people are telling the OP to spend more wisely ... GET REAL.

The OP invited comments by posting a picture of what he purchased and by his own comments. People posted the truth ... that instead of buying expensive prepackaged foods he should instead spend the money more wisely ... LIKE THE REST OF US HAVE TO ... in order to make the money last to eat more healthy food.

If the OP didn't want the comments, then he shouldn't have started the thread, and he shouldn't have posted the picture filled with soda, and SaraLee Pumpkin pie, and pre-cooked flavored rice packages, etc etc.

When I go shopping, I dont' have the money to buy bunches of soda, Sara Lee pumpkin pies, precooked heavily flavored rice packages .... I use my money MORE WISELY. It's called COMMON SENSE.

Sure I'd love to have rib eye steaks once in a while .. but we can't afford it. And i"m not going to go whine about not being able to afford it and because our income makes us eat rice and chicken instead, and I'm not going to try to jack the taxpayers to go buy me rib eye steaks when I can get by without them. The same should go for the OP and his pumpkin pies and soda and the rest of his prepackaged-precooked food.

That's not 'evil' or 'cruel' or 'unchristian' or 'disgusting' or any of the other insults that have been hurled around here (and in a U2U) .... it's just the truth. Deal with it.

edit on 11/18/2013 by FlyersFan because: (no reason given)

Well i would say you are dead wrong about it being unchristian. If you think that is how a person of any religion is taught to treat or talk to others you are wrong. You are a very sad person. People like you are making this extremely negative, what is wrong with you. Lay down on the couch and tell us about your childhood, it was obviously traumatic because you are one resentful person.

The Bot