SNAP !

I just read an interesting Article on one persons experience trying to voluntarily live on food stamps in NYC.  I was surprised at how much she got for a week, until she listed her grocery purchases.  The prices were our full prices and some were twice what I pay.  I realize that what you get is based on what the COL is in your part of the country.

  I didn't expect to have an audience in other countries or in different parts of the USA when I started this blog. Obviously, prices at our grocery stores are different than that stores in other parts of the country.
 Clearly,access to chain grocery stores has a lot to do with the prices you pay for food and storage on NYC is probably,not an big option.  But, the majority of us do not live on NYC.  One point she made that I thought was interesting was the realization that you can't live on SNAP and afford gluten free, organic, and specialty anything.  I can eat better than she did because of stocking and having access to four chain stores, 2 warehouse stores, and some alternative stores.  The gist is, you get less money on metropolitan areas, but you have more access to cheap food if you  look for it.


I also thought it was interesting that 80 percent of Walmart employees are on SNAP.  Walmart prides  themselves on contributing to the food banks.  H E L L O!  If Walmart paid their employees a decent wage, they wouldn't need SNAP!   And,  QFC is union, does pay a decent wage in comparison, and gives  to the food bank generously.  They just don't toot their own horn!   LOL

My principles of groceries on the cheap will work, no matter where you live.  The  prices will be different. The snap allotments are different.  The principles are the same.

I have read everything I could get my hands ( or eyes) on about thrifty cooking for some 45 years.  I have analyzed the ideas, added what I learned from my mother, and took the best of what I learned and put it together using my BLT approach.  Balance and logic test.  I don't want to spend my entire waking moments on groceries and cooking.  I want a reasonably healthy diet and a balanced diet.
Don't want  to stock until I look like a hoarder.  I want a reasonable amount of food to tide us over a disaster, and enough to last us until our staple items go on sale again. The only thing I stockpile as much as possible with no limits is toothpaste.  That is because I only buy it when it is free or almost free and I save it until I get a basketful to take to the women's shelter.

The secret to saving money is not to go buy just what you need at inflated prices.  It doesn't make sense to me to pay 1.59 for something you can get for .60.  My mother would have said, better the dollar in our pockets than someone else's.

That's not to say that she was not charitable.  I remember one time I went into Rite Aid and children's underwear was on a clearance table for next to nothing.  Knowing that a grade school in the area had children coming to school with no underwear, I bought all that I could afford.  I called my mom, she bought the rest!

I am a firm believer that no child should  wake up to no food in the pantry and the basics of a normal life.  I can't save the world, but I can do all I can to help.  Knowing how to stretch a buck and feed a family good, nutritious food can go a long way to help those on SNAP make it through the month and have food in the pantry at the end of the month.  It's not hoarding to have a reasonable stockpile of staple items that you use on a regular basis that you can make a meal from .


Thanks for stopping by

Please share .

Jane