Kill Me Now!
By alaskanray
@alaskanray (4636)
United States
August 5, 2011 4:59pm CST
I just got the bad news today from the Food Stamp Office. Last month our food stamps were cut down to $144 from $300. This month they have cut them again, down to $43!!! I have revamped my budget again and still have no idea how I am going to feed my family.
Beginning with my daughter's next paycheck, she is going to have to start paying me $150 a month...$75 per paycheck...which will cut her college savings in half. I have cut the payments to my creditors as much as I dare and canceled all my plans to buy any new clothes for the next two years. Christmas is no longer affordable in my home so I guess I'll sell all my decorations at a yard sale.
Seriously, folks, this is such a blow to me, my daughter and I are both in tears. My online earnings have diminished to under $50 per month. I have canceled Netflix a month early. My electricity usage is bare minimum and we are using used bath water to water our garden to save on water usage. What more can I do???
My daughter is trying to convince me to let her move out but that would only give me an extra $20 a month in food stamps so that's not even worth it. Now I hear that Obama is threatening to not pay Social Security for some lame excuse. If I lose that, I will truly be destitute. So what's a girl to do???
1 person likes this
6 responses
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
26 Oct 11
Hi Alaskanray,
I just got off from another discussion from a person that wanted to cut back the food stamp purchases to only those used for WIC. Yours is a perfect example of the kind of people who legitimatly get food stamps that would seriously suffer and have suffered from the changes they try to implement while the ones that really don't need them and are cheating the system will still prosper from them. Rather than make more cutbacks or changes that will make things harder for people like yourself, they need to hire a few people to just investigate the people that they allow on the system. It would create jobs and in the end save them a ton of money. I see it's been 3 months. How are things going for you and your family?
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
27 Oct 11
Oh I hadn't even thought of the church but now that you mention it, I did know they were very good in helping people. I had a friend years ago that got helped by a local church and she was not even a member. I'm so glad to hear that you were helped. I know that the cuts they are making are hurting an awful lot of people. It's sad because there are many other areas that they could make huge cuts and hurt no one.
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
29 Oct 11
I would love to see some of our legislators live on what I live on for a while! They would never be able to manage, what do you want to bet? If they could, then they would have balanced the budget long ago!
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
27 Oct 11
I am so grateful to have my church to help me out. This month I had to ask for help and my bishop was wonderful to me about it. I showed him my budget and explained about my income and my daughter saving for college and he said that there was no problem, the church would provide me with food for as long as I needed it. If not for the church, I don't know what I would do, really!
@TheCatLady (4691)
• Israel
7 Aug 11
Why did they cur your food stamps. That sucks. You have to eat. More important the cat needs to eat. I also do the water saving thing. I have a bucket in the shower and bowls in my sinks. I use the shower water to wash the floor then to flush the toilet. The washer water goes out to the garden.
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
26 Oct 11
They did this to my rent when one of my girls turned 18. She was in school still part-time because the guidance councellor misguided her on the credits she needed to graduate so she took the wrong courses and had to make up the credits. She worked part time and I did not charge her rent as I wanted her to save her money to better her life...hopefully further education which she is doing now. In exchange, she babysat her younger sister. Still, my rent went up substantially. It was pretty tough for a time.
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
27 Oct 11
Sid, the system is just totally insane. You can get childcare assistance and it wouldn't count toward your countable income but have a sibling do the childcare in exchange for rent and it counts. Go figure! 
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
7 Aug 11
Yes, we also have started to save flushing the toilet. We started flushing only if we have a BM or if someone has tinkled twice or more in the toilet. My water bill went up by $5 last month due to our watering the garden so we started doing this to save on water.
The reason the food stamps were cut was because they count my daughter's income as household income since she is no longer in school. My daughter had an increase in income in July due to longer hours + a raise. I expected the cut but not that deep a one! It was quite a shock for me. So now I have to charge my daughter $150 a month to make ends meet...and believe me I don't charge her any more than I have to! I still want her to save for college!
Mind you, my income has not changed, just my daughter's.Next year she will be leaving me to go work as a nanny for a year before college but since I will be alone then and have no dependents, my food stamps will still only go up $20 or so. I have never understood how they figure countable income for food stamps!
Mind you, my income has not changed, just my daughter's.Next year she will be leaving me to go work as a nanny for a year before college but since I will be alone then and have no dependents, my food stamps will still only go up $20 or so. I have never understood how they figure countable income for food stamps!
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
5 Aug 11
You should get at least a part time job to compensate for it if you already have a full time job. Or maybe borrow money from relatives to pay for the bills.
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
5 Aug 11
You obviously have no idea what my health condition is so I will explain. I am virtually bedridden so tell me how am I supposed to work? I am permanently disabled and living on a disability stipend. If I could work, believe me, I would...and borrowed money has to be paid back so that is not an option, either. This is not something that I am able to fix so easily, my friend.
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
6 Aug 11
Oh, I'm so sorry hearing about that. Well, I hope you fix your problem before it's too late.
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
7 Aug 11
Thanks. I'm sure we'll manage somehow. The new change just threw me for a loop. I don't deal well with change. 
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
6 Aug 11
oh friend
I'm hearing a lot of how bad the economy is down there, tsk tsk...I don't know what to say..hope they fix it soon but seems like there's no solution in the near future,,terrible, just take care, hang on and don't lose hope.
I'm hearing a lot of how bad the economy is down there, tsk tsk...I don't know what to say..hope they fix it soon but seems like there's no solution in the near future,,terrible, just take care, hang on and don't lose hope.1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
6 Aug 11
Thanks, Louie. Yah, every time I think we are in a holding pattern something happens to upset the status quo. I guess that's life, eh?
@aprilmom (172)
• United States
6 Aug 11
The amount of money they give depends on how long been getting benefits, if have any dependants, and how much income you have. Why you think they cutting it down to 43 dollars? My dad never gets any where near 300 and hes low income. my neighbor gets around that but she not working right now and has a newborn baby. I am thinking about applying for food stamp card after my baby is born but I still don't know. I hope to get my drivers license, a car and a job so I will be able to provide for my baby.
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
7 Aug 11
Actually, the length of time on benefits has nothing to do with their figures. It is entirely according to income. Since my daughter is no longer in school, they are counting her income as household income, even though she is still a minor and saving for college. This is why the cut in benefits. I was trying to give her as much as possible to save toward college but now I am having to charge her $150 per month to make up for the food stamps we lost.
The reason I was getting $300 was because I had my daughter as a dependent and she was still in school so they were only counting my income which is only $694 per month. When she got her GED, they started counting her income but she was still working short hours so it wasn't as much. When we re-certified, her hours had gone up and she had gotten a raise as well so her July income was more. I just didn't think it would be that much more so this was a major shock for me!
@lucil_antig (91)
• Philippines
6 Aug 11
Hey, don't surrender that situation of yours; It has more chance and more solutions. You can manage that situation by the way. Here's myLot. In every problems there's always a solution, right?
1 person likes this
@alaskanray (4636)
• United States
6 Aug 11
I'm just sick of tightening my belt...it's already as tight as it can go, or so I think, and then I have to punch another notch in it and tighten it even more!
