My sister's family went on food stamps this month because her husband lost his job suddenly. She called me today to share her amazement after finding out what her food budget for the month is. $750 !!!!

Can you imagine?

Granted, she has five children but Ohmygod!! I spend less than $200 a month on groceries. Right about $90 per paycheck. I can't even fathom spending $375 every two weeks on food! And it's just food too. Strictly food. $750. Crazy! And to think I once pitied people on foodstamps assuming they were scraping by. Little did I know they were swimming in luxury.

I remember when I worked as a cashier and at the end of the month people would come in and they would have run out of money on their EBT cards (food stamps have gone to plastic). Now I wonder how this was even possible.

Is this really going to encourage people to get OFF foodstamps? What are they going to do when they get off the foodstamps only to find that they can't get by on a 'normal' food budget? Can you imagine having to go from $750 a month for food down to less than $300??

I can't help but feel a little bitter you know. That my husband works his ass off to provide us with the tiny food budget we have while people on food stamps are livin' it up! I know that's not the reality, but it is sort of a smack in the face.

Anyway I told my sister that what I would do if someone gave me that much money for a few months would be to spend pretty much like I do now, and stock up on non-perishables because sooner or later they will have to get off the food stamps and it would be a shame to have squandered all that free government money.

Of course this IS my sister. :) So it's highly unlikely that she will listen to my advice.