Food stamps as a dieting tool.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Beans, rice and bread.

That would be about it. And pasta too.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

That would be about it. And pasta too.

It was good enough for my grandparents during hard times including the depression. My grandpa worked two jobs to make ends meet and they raised five kids. They were never on welfare, food stamps, or any government handout. There was no work in North Dakota so they moved to where the work was. That included Montana, Eastern Washington, and eventually Western Washington. It wasn't much different for my mom's folks. From wheat and hay fields in Saskatchewan to logging camps in BC, to more of the same in Washington State. Times get tough and you get tough with the times. I remember my grandma telling me how they hunted prairie dogs for food and because ammo was a premium necessity they made every shot count. She could still dead center the "O's" on a Coca Cola can from a good 50+ ft. away with a .22 rifle when she was in her 80's.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

It was good enough for my grandparents during hard times including the depression. My grandpa worked two jobs to make ends meet and they raised five kids. They were never on welfare, food stamps, or any government handout. There was no work in North Dakota so they moved to where the work was. That included Montana, Eastern Washington, and eventually Western Washington. It wasn't much different for my mom's folks. From wheat and hay fields in Saskatchewan to logging camps in BC, to more of the same in Washington State. Times get tough and you get tough with the times. I remember my grandma telling me how they hunted prairie dogs for food and because ammo was a premium necessity they made every shot count. She could still dead center the "O's" on a Coca Cola can from a good 50+ ft. away with a .22 rifle when she was in her 80's.

There certainly were very hard times during the depression and people did what they had to survive. In most cases it wasn't about choice. I also knew a few people from China who lived there before and during WWII and how difficult it was to survive. It made the Great Depression sound like modern times. And in many areas of the world life is still like that today. People fighting to exist. We still have it good here.

[james&olya 1,121]

Awwe the food stamps are peanuts, if Gary was smart he would do what so many other people are.... go the disability route.

Ever had a back problem? History of headache? ever had a seizure or any type of medical situation which could easily .... and suddenly escalate to the point you are no longer able to work.

Apply for SSI, you will be rejected, never mind, there are law firms which specialize in this and they will appeal your case and win if you have any case at all.

I predicted a surge in this new means of early retirement, I learned of it from an ex-con I took in for a couple of months. Since then I have known a few people who have done it and from the numbers I read, danno was right... the flood has began.

I suggest anyone who wants to do it to get in on it now as in the next 5 years they will have to change policy to prevent an outright stampede .. if you are even considering it, start laying the medical ground work for a future case.

here in Welfare Nation ... me and a lot of others say...."Don't fightem... Join-em".

Anyway, why should social security only be for the elderly..... when you are too old to enjoy it?

It may make me sound like a right-winger but it is disgusting to me to see how disability is used! In my ideal system there would be an intact safety net but with incentives NOT to need to use it except as a last resort! Disability especially would be different. If you are disabled from something due to a bad back or whatever there is virtually always something else you could still be doing. Nobody should be able to draw a disability check without putting in their 40 hours doing whatever they are still able to do. No exceptions! That would cut to a small fraction how much society shells out to these dead-beats! If people had to show up for work either way my bet is that most would decide to stick with their original jobs if the pay was even marginally better than what they got from disability plus whatever their alternative job paid!

[james&olya 1,121]

Really? Compare what a pound of potatoes costs with what a bag of "tater tots" costs. Compare what peaches cost to what canned peaches cost. What does a large porkloin cost at Costco compared to chicken nuggets, fried chicken or frozen chicken kiev?

Compare 10lbs of ground beef at Costco to ready made hamburger patties. Alla will make huge bowls of her Ukrainian meatballs and we will use that as the basis for our meals for many days. The meatballs contain potatoes grated into almost a paste and added as filler, along with several onions chopped up small. 10lbs of meat makes 15 pounds of meatballs. That means a meatball with breakfast, with our eggs. One for lunch on a sandwich and one for dinner with pasta. They can also be used for spaghetti sauce, I add some to beans for a beans and meat dish (dry beans, not canned beans, MUCH cheaper and go much further and taste just as good)

Part of why it costs us more to eat than in FSU countries is our insistence on 'pretty' food. When I went to visit Olya in Russia they had bags of apples that they got for free from someone who knew a farmer. These were small and with many small defects. Over here we have apple trees growing wild in many places with these same kind of apples. Olya will gladly harvest and eat them. She even prefers them to the chemically treated large, perfect appearing $2/lb apples in the supermarket.

Most people in FSU do not have gardens. The vast majority of people live in larger cities in these large gray concrete apartment houses with little green space around. Olya's first experience with gardening was here and she loves it. We had tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, radishes, cabbage, many herbs, raspberries, strawberries, etc... We spend a lot on food but if we needed to we could live well on far less.

The foods that are 'unhealthy' that they eat over there are much less unhealthy when they are part of a significantly lower total caloric intake. The body will turn all that fat and gristle into energy to burn instead of artery clogging substances if you are burning the calories you eat instead of storing them. Even good quality food is unhealthy in excess and vice versa, lower quality food is far less prone to lead to heart problems when you burn everything you eat!

[SMR 368]

I live in the Boston area, too, and do most of my shopping at Stop and Shop. We have a family of 3 (although one of us is 2). We spend $550 a month and some of that is restaurants and non-food groceries. I will acknowledge that food here is noticeably more expensive than in areas where I used to live (upstate New York, for instance). One key is to look for good quality cuts of meat that are relatively inexpensive ($2-3 per pound). You get these by buying in bulk and waiting for sales. You'll find chicken breasts for $1.99/lb in big packages on sale. Boneless pork chops will be around $2-$2.50 on sale. Roast beef can be found on sale for under $3/pound. Basically, you buy big packages of meat on sale and divide it up and freeze it. Take some meat out of the freezer the night before. There are lots of other times of meat that you can find cheap like whole chickens or turkeys, chicken legs, ground beef, and other cuts of pork, like boneless ribs. You can mix in some more expensive cuts like better beef and fish occasionally. On average, I would say I pay about $4/lb for meat. For dinner, we eat about 1 lb of meat a day and have some leftovers for lunch the next day (usually). That's only $120 a month eating a good portion of meat for dinner every day. Doing that twice a day is still only $240 a month and I think you'll find that is a lot of meat.

Add in some cheap starches like rice, potatoes, or pasta (I usually even splurge and get whole wheat). Buy those in bulk, too. Rice is less than $1/lb and potatoes are less than $.50/lb if you get 10 lb bags. Pasta is a little more than $1/lb if you get whole wheat, but pasta and rice are sold dry, so you don't really need that much for a meal (probably less than 1/2 a pound).

Fruits should be bought in season. I eat all of the common fruits such as bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, peaches, pears, and blueberries. Some of those get very expensive out of season, but bananas and apples will almost always be reasonable. Veggies are similar to fruits.

I also buy eggs, cottage cheese, milk, juice, string cheese, grated cheese, natural peanut butter, tuna fish, sandwich meat, sausage, bread (although not a lot), processed snack foods such as crackers, and occasionally bacon. There are probably other things that I buy. The bottom line to living on a food budget is don't buy expensive stuff, at least not very often. This especially applies to fruit, vegetables, and meat, as those are the categories where I think you see the most price variation and ability to substitute. I know that I occasionally see chicken breasts for $1.99 per pound in big packages so I never pay more than that. Odds are I will find a different type of meat for a good deal. And even if I don't find a good deal one week, I have enough meat in the freezer that I don't have to buy meat every week. The trick with that is that when you buy something you need to make sure to put it at the back of the freezer. That way, you eat the oldest meat first and nothing ever goes bad.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I live in the Boston area, too, and do most of my shopping at Stop and Shop. We have a family of 3 (although one of us is 2). We spend $550 a month and some of that is restaurants and non-food groceries. I will acknowledge that food here is noticeably more expensive than in areas where I used to live (upstate New York, for instance). One key is to look for good quality cuts of meat that are relatively inexpensive ($2-3 per pound). You get these by buying in bulk and waiting for sales. You'll find chicken breasts for $1.99/lb in big packages on sale. Boneless pork chops will be around $2-$2.50 on sale. Roast beef can be found on sale for under $3/pound. Basically, you buy big packages of meat on sale and divide it up and freeze it. Take some meat out of the freezer the night before. There are lots of other times of meat that you can find cheap like whole chickens or turkeys, chicken legs, ground beef, and other cuts of pork, like boneless ribs. You can mix in some more expensive cuts like better beef and fish occasionally. On average, I would say I pay about $4/lb for meat. For dinner, we eat about 1 lb of meat a day and have some leftovers for lunch the next day (usually). That's only $120 a month eating a good portion of meat for dinner every day. Doing that twice a day is still only $240 a month and I think you'll find that is a lot of meat.

Add in some cheap starches like rice, potatoes, or pasta (I usually even splurge and get whole wheat). Buy those in bulk, too. Rice is less than $1/lb and potatoes are less than $.50/lb if you get 10 lb bags. Pasta is a little more than $1/lb if you get whole wheat, but pasta and rice are sold dry, so you don't really need that much for a meal (probably less than 1/2 a pound).

Fruits should be bought in season. I eat all of the common fruits such as bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, peaches, pears, and blueberries. Some of those get very expensive out of season, but bananas and apples will almost always be reasonable. Veggies are similar to fruits.

I also buy eggs, cottage cheese, milk, juice, string cheese, grated cheese, natural peanut butter, tuna fish, sandwich meat, sausage, bread (although not a lot), processed snack foods such as crackers, and occasionally bacon. There are probably other things that I buy. The bottom line to living on a food budget is don't buy expensive stuff, at least not very often. This especially applies to fruit, vegetables, and meat, as those are the categories where I think you see the most price variation and ability to substitute. I know that I occasionally see chicken breasts for $1.99 per pound in big packages so I never pay more than that. Odds are I will find a different type of meat for a good deal. And even if I don't find a good deal one week, I have enough meat in the freezer that I don't have to buy meat every week. The trick with that is that when you buy something you need to make sure to put it at the back of the freezer. That way, you eat the oldest meat first and nothing ever goes bad.

I shot at Stop&Shop at times and rarely see meat for those prices. Maybe 73% ground beef for $2.99lb. Eggs are 1.99 dz, juice 3+ per gallon for the store brand, milk in the 3.89 gal range, sandwich meat is $4+ lb on sale, ditto for deli cheese. Some of the prices you quote are quite occasional. Stop&Shop is a fairly high priced market. I only by what is on sale there.

Again, I personally would like to see someones shopping list and prices paid for feeding 2 people for $250 and 3 for $500-600 hundred.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Part of why it costs us more to eat than in FSU countries is our insistence on 'pretty' food. When I went to visit Olya in Russia they had bags of apples that they got for free from someone who knew a farmer. These were small and with many small defects. Over here we have apple trees growing wild in many places with these same kind of apples. Olya will gladly harvest and eat them. She even prefers them to the chemically treated large, perfect appearing $2/lb apples in the supermarket.

Most people in FSU do not have gardens. The vast majority of people live in larger cities in these large gray concrete apartment houses with little green space around. Olya's first experience with gardening was here and she loves it. We had tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, radishes, cabbage, many herbs, raspberries, strawberries, etc... We spend a lot on food but if we needed to we could live well on far less.

The foods that are 'unhealthy' that they eat over there are much less unhealthy when they are part of a significantly lower total caloric intake. The body will turn all that fat and gristle into energy to burn instead of artery clogging substances if you are burning the calories you eat instead of storing them. Even good quality food is unhealthy in excess and vice versa, lower quality food is far less prone to lead to heart problems when you burn everything you eat!

Very good point! When I first went to a grocery store in Ukraine, OMG! Beets, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc are pulled out of the ground and thrown on tables covered in dirt. "You will wash them of course...right? " In the market eggs are sold, basicially, by the egg with farmers bringing their eggs in baskets and wooden trays and selling them either by the egg, or by 10 eggs (not by a dozen as we do here) You are exactly right. Milk is brought in 10 gallon cans from farms, fresh off the cow and you bring your own jars to buy it and pour it in. That is why Alla wants fresh milk here, not "factory milk in which everything good has been killed!" She is adamant about that.

We have an apple tree in our back yard which I do nothing with and it produces hundreds of small, insect infested, bird pecked apples. It would be an unspeakable sin to allow this food (free food) to go to waste! "some people have no food! We have it falling off trees!" Pasha and I end up gathering the apples and Alla boils them to make "compote" which is nothing but the broth from boiled apples and sugar. Homemade apple juice! Some get made into a sort of "apple sauce" for lack of better term after straining out the bugs. Insects? "They are natural and better for you than chemicals! And we boiled it anyway...so what?" She then cuts up some of the better apples and makes her apple cakes which have four ingredients...apples, sugar, flour and milk. It is a tasty coffee cake. If I catch a fish, we eat it (except undersized fish which I throw back and she thinks is the most ridiculous law man ever thought of!)

Alla will not buy and will not eat the huge apples sold in the store, she buys locally grown apples in season. She looks at those huge, shiny apples and says "what is this? It is not even an apple, there is no such thing as an apple like this...I won't eat it. Poison. Chemical poison, are they crazy?" She prefers going to the mountians to get raspberries and blueberries, the small wild ones, because she is sure there are no chemicals and genetically modified berries. Plus it makes for a nice walk.

Good point James

Edited November 27, 2012 by Gary and Alla

[JensJrny2Ray 367]

Very good point! When I first went to a grocery store in Ukraine, OMG! Beets, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc are pulled out of the ground and thrown on tables covered in dirt. "You will wash them of course...right? " In the market eggs are sold, basicially, by the egg with farmers bringing their eggs in baskets and wooden trays and selling them either by the egg, or by 10 eggs (not by a dozen as we do here) You are exactly right. Milk is brought in 10 gallon cans from farms, fresh off the cow and you bring your own jars to buy it and pour it in. That is why Alla wants fresh milk here, not "factory milk in which everything good has been killed!" She is adamant about that.

We have an apple tree in our back yard which I do nothing with and it produces hundreds of small, insect infested, bird pecked apples. It would be an unspeakable sin to allow this food (free food) to go to waste! "some people have no food! We have it falling off trees!" Pasha and I end up gathering the apples and Alla boils them to make "compote" which is nothing but the broth from boiled apples and sugar. Homemade apple juice! Some get made into a sort of "apple sauce" for lack of better term after straining out the bugs. Insects? "They are natural and better for you than chemicals! And we boiled it anyway...so what?" She then cuts up some of the better apples and makes her apple cakes which have four ingredients...apples, sugar, flour and milk. It is a tasty coffee cake. If I catch a fish, we eat it (except undersized fish which I throw back and she thinks is the most ridiculous law man ever thought of!)

Alla will not buy and will not eat the huge apples sold in the store, she buys locally grown apples in season. She looks at those huge, shiny apples and says "what is this? It is not even an apple, there is no such thing as an apple like this...I won't eat it. Poison. Chemical poison, are they crazy?" She prefers going to the mountians to get raspberries and blueberries, the small wild ones, because she is sure there are no chemicals and genetically modified berries. Plus it makes for a nice walk.

Good point James

Your wife is a very smart lady. Unfortunately raw milk here is illegal. I try and buy my meat from a local farm that raises grass fed cows and chickens that are free range etc. One of my jobs is at a supermarket and there is so much food waste it is frustrating. Not just by the store, but by customers. (this can has a small dent, I'm bringing it back! These bulk cashews are too expensive, I don't want them [but now we can't put them back in the bin], or finding meat left on store shelves) I'm all about waste not, want not.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Your wife is a very smart lady. Unfortunately raw milk here is illegal. I try and buy my meat from a local farm that raises grass fed cows and chickens that are free range etc. One of my jobs is at a supermarket and there is so much food waste it is frustrating. Not just by the store, but by customers. (this can has a small dent, I'm bringing it back! These bulk cashews are too expensive, I don't want them [but now we can't put them back in the bin], or finding meat left on store shelves) I'm all about waste not, want not.

Raw milk is legal here and we can get it delivered. I have not heard of any outbreaks of health problems and I assure you the cows and milk here are delivered in far more sanitary condition than in Ukraine. We have been to the farm that we get the milk from and they have quite an operation. The milk is flash cooled and the bottles are put through an elaborate washing system. Heaklthy cows and clean bottles mean safe milk. Drugs and killing good bacteria do not make healthy milk. It is also very tasty (guernsey milk, 4.5% fat) renders cream for Alla's coffee and makes the best damn milk shakes in the world! Big frothy, foamy milkshakes! Alla adds fruits and natural yoghurt and makes her version of a "smoothie". She got herself hooked on them!

Nationwide 20% of milkborne illness comes from raw milk...not a good number since raw milk is less than 1% of consumption, but it has been traced to a few bad apples making quite a few people sick. For those considering raw milk, check out the farm and their process. If they do not want to show you their operation, walk away and buy elsewhere. We started this by buying milk from a large dairy farm and I took it off the bulk tank into our own pitcher and left $4 per gallon. But we were small potatoes to a farmer that milks 300 cows. Then we found a little hippie farm down by the river but one day Alla saw the woman that works there walking around in her bare feet in the milk house with her unshaved armpits in her tank top. No more hippie milk. Besides they did not deliver and were in a difficult location.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Then we found a little hippie farm down by the river but one day Alla saw the woman that works there walking around in her bare feet in the milk house with her unshaved armpits in her tank top. No more hippie milk.

What?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

What?

It's a free state. First one declared for Obama on election. Anyone can carry a gun, AND be naked while doing it AND sell raw milk while naked, carrying a gun. YOU, the consumer, have a CHOICE to buy raw milk from naked, gun toting, unshaven hippies...or not. I am pro-choice! Our liberal Democrat (and well armed) Governor wants to legalize marijuana AND he gets an A+ rating from the NRA.

Canadians come here for health care

It may be too much freedom for some people.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

It's a free state. First one declared for Obama on election. Anyone can carry a gun, AND be naked while doing it AND sell raw milk while naked, carrying a gun. YOU, the consumer, have a CHOICE to buy raw milk from naked, gun toting, unshaven hippies...or not. I am pro-choice! Our liberal Democrat (and well armed) Governor wants to legalize marijuana AND he gets an A+ rating from the NRA.

Canadians come here for health care

It may be too much freedom for some people.

What the hell are you talking about?

I just thought your reasons for not buying milk from this person were hilarious and bizarre.

You made it oddly political.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

What the hell are you talking about?

I just thought your reasons for not buying milk from this person were hilarious and bizarre.

You made it oddly political.

Not pro choice I see.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Not pro choice I see.

Oh, Gary.

Finding your choice funny and weird doesn't mean I disagree with your right to choose.