Comments on: What are people buying?

By: Royale

Royale — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:32:35 +0000

I live in Kentucky with my three wonderful little children. I am a single mother. I am employed, as an advertising salesperson.
With the recession I was struggling to survive as businesses are withholding their advertising until the recession is over. My sales have fallen off considerably and cost of life hasn’t gone down at all.
I scheduled and budgeted every penny and had just enough money to survive for three months on my current sales record. Then the Ice storm hit.
We lived for three weeks with no electricity. My mother in law passed away. My car broke down. All the stocked up food in my fridge went bad. I was broke and trying to feed the kids on soups and ramen noodles for two weeks. I didn’t eat for 2 days so that they would have food and had robbed every single penny in my house, including selling anything I could sell. I sent my youngest daughter to live with her father since I couldn’t afford to feed her.
I went into the local office to see if maybe I could get some assistance and now we have food stamps, extra money to subsidize my meager income and insurance. (Thank God mostly for the latter as both my daughters got strep throat shortly after.)
I don’t like being on public assistance but because of necessity I did. Now I have my daughter back, I am looking for a more stable job and my life has turned around.
I don’t care what people say about the government but I was cold, hungry, and didn’t know where my next meal was going to come from and now my kids are healthy, happy, and fed and I can sleep better at night because of it.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:09:35 +0000

hello I have work very hard most of my life chasing papper when I got laid off by my boss I usaly had a job the next day with more pay so when my boss called me back I would get another raise I worked in the constuction buisness I am now on food stamps and soc secerty cause I fell off a roof and distroyed my legs I am in pain thats never going away been 4 years since accedent been on food stamps for 2 mounths my wife left me and the kids for her boss the house I built for my family in forcloser my truck is paid for but is 12 years old everything of $ value ex wife took with her and I have been going to school for 2 years now for a 4 year energy engeneer degree the I eat well thou I have large garden freash fish & deer. bottom line Is I dont know too many people who said in school they wanted to be a bum which i am not cause I paid taxes way more then I get back but every thing I worked for is gone or almost gone and I will start all over again at 35
but with bad creidit never lived paycheek to paycheek
my insurance company did not cover the surgerays eather $10,000 and told I was never going to walk again or work I am a great man and done the right thing all the time help others all the time it tough out every where not just in michagan in the whole world
but I am aware of people who take advantage of every thing they can that is smart and if you dont that makes you retarted michagangirl pride keeps people from asking for help in making a better tomarro most ppl who get gov asstance make a huge differance because they hit a bottom and get just enough help to survie to go to school and fix real problems and give back the small group of people who give up get kicked off anyways. but trade food stamps for crack and what ever and it is the drug dealers who show up at the grosies stores in a bad ass car step out in desiner close and cart full of lopster shrip and rib eyes. and pay with food stamps

By: An

An — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:17:13 +0000

Roger,

Thanks for sharing your story and I am glad you got to eat today.

Andrea

By: Roger

Roger — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 00:21:58 +0000

I have lost my job and have a daughter that I raise. Never in my life have I been in this position. I always thought that I was smart enough to get work if I became unemployed…guess what…its pretty bad out ther right now. The goal for me is to not allow my daughter to realise that things are not good. I signed up for every possible thing that I could this past week. And you know what? When my case worker told me that I would get food assistance and my daughter was going to be covered medically, I thought I was going to cry. Then He gave me a list of food pantries to help subsidize my assistance, paid a overdue utility bill, had my doctor submit an over due medical bill to medicaide and gave me a voucher for some gas for my car. After that day I was able to sleep better than I ever have, and am able to actually have some fun with my daughter knowing that things will be okay for now. For this I am truely grateful. I don’t want to be in the system for long but right now I am far more ahead than the (-107.00 )in checking, empty cuboards, no gas for car, facing utility shut offs, and a wonderful daughter that couldn’t figure out why her Dad wasn’t any longer having fun like we used to. My internet may get cut off here pretty quick but thats okay, I actually ate three meals today and didn’t have to tell my daughter “daddy’s not hungry” or “I had a big lunch while you were at school”
Today I have no complaints.

By: Edie

Edie — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:43:30 +0000

Thank you for drawing my attention to the use of my vehicle when shopping/gathering food. The tomatoes and okra were grown on a friend’s farm in Sylvan Twnshp. – accessible only by car. I would not have been able to plant there without transportation. The Kroger (seems to be a theme here) is only an easy mile away.

One way I manage to eat and work at the same time is to try to cook for the week on one day. That way I only need to heat things (which is fine unless the power goes out like it did last month in my house for 3 days. Imagine the food spoilage when that’s your entire food budget for the week…).

By: Chuck Warpehoski

Chuck Warpehoski — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:50:19 +0000

Nancy and I live just 1/2 mile from a Kroger, so we walked there. I talked to someone else who decided to shop at stores that were easy to get to on the bus.

You’re right though, transportation is a huge issue here. If you live on the east side of Ypsi and your car breaks down (or you don’t have a car), it’s going to make it much harder to shop.

By: Murph

Murph — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:50:55 +0000

SE’s comment brings up a thought: “And yet according to the others in this blog, i am still expected to stay up after a running a double shift to “shop around” for groceries?”

Chuck, do you know if any of the Challenge participants have chosen to do their shopping without using a car? Plenty of people who eat on this budget “for real” don’t have access to a car, and have to make do with walking, biking, riding the bus, or arranging rides with other people – making it that much harder to shop for food.

By: Chuck Warpehoski

Chuck Warpehoski — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:37:33 +0000

Michigangirl, for the average time that most people are on food stamps is just 9 months–it is a system to help people get by.

During the Challenge, I’ve been surprised how many former food stamp recipients I’ve talked to. They usually say “Thank you for doing this,” and “I’m not taking the Challenge. I’m not doing that again.”

Recently I was talking to a grad student who used to be on food stamps–that was how she finished college as a single mom. If we’re going to turn the Michigan economy around, we need to have people educated for 21st century jobs–we need more people to finish college like she did. If food stamps help her get by and finish her degree, I think that’s a good investment.

And, if they make her baby’s early years healthier so the baby can perform better in school and be more successful later in life, I think that’s worth investing in too.

By: An

An — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:17:01 +0000

For the record:

From 1988 – 2003 my children and I were on food stamps (full grant until about 1998 and then a partial gant).

*I* am a diabetic.

I have 3 kids and we made shopping and meal planning into a family activity and I didn’t really comparison shop much. I went to ALDI or Save-A-Lot for the bulk of my groceries and Randazzo’s in Westland for produce. (My children’s grandmother lives out that way as do some of my friends, so we would visit those people when we were out there, almost always on a Saturday or Sunday).

I KNOW how hard it is. My food budget is very similar to the one I had on food stamps. It is STILL hard.

I don’t know why my saying that someone was being harsh at those who are trying to understand how hard it is for those of us who are or have been on food stamps in the past makes people angry but I am truly sorry you feel that way.

Once again, if anyone wants to discuss off this board, email me at distressingdamsel07@yahoo.com. I can also email you a copy of the article I wrote for Habitat for Humanity on feeding a family of 5 on $200 a month. The article is 3 years old and now I have 7 instead of 5 in my household and we spend a little more but the concepts and meal plans are still the same. And yes, we eat the same things over and over and over again and yes, if there isn’t enough to go around, I go hungry and my children come first. ALWAYS.

By: An

An — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:18:44 +0000

WAIT a minute, when did I ever say that it was easy to eat healthy on food stamps? WTH?

Debby, feel free to email me off the board. distressingdamsel07@yahoo.com I think you misunderstand me and I can tell you I feed SEVEN people on 250-300 a month. EVERY month. And I am diabetic. I am so confused.