Honest Labor - Honest Recipients

My husband told me something interesting concerning food stamps here in Michigan. Someone he knows said her customer (and his live-in girlfriend) receive $700 a month in food stamps - for just the two of them!

That is not all. We were also informed that food stamp recipients can use those tax monies to buy the alcohol that are famous for cooking, such as sherry.

Now, why does that stuff bother us? 

Because we work our tails off to earn money on which we are heavily taxed. The amount of money we have left over after taxes will never buy us $700 of groceries. I have to make do on less than $100 a week at the grocery store and that $100 has to buy food, toilet paper, dish soap, and anything else we might need, like vitamins or toothpaste. And no, that money does not cover the two of us. It covers the SEVEN of us.

In case my readers think that I am bashing food stamps and their recipients, I am NOT. I genuinely believe that some folks desperately need the help. I would never want to hear that a child went to bed hungry for lack of food. Now, if that child were just sent to bed without supper because he refused to eat what was on his plate...... You know what I'm talking about.

I think that what we need is an educational reform of some sort. We need to be teaching other women how to garden, how to use coupons at the grocery store, how to cook a whole chicken as opposed to expensive skinless chicken breasts, how to plan ahead so most of the meals can be made from scratch, etc. I would love to show younger gals how to make their dollars stretch. 

As for the food stamp thing, I know that I would feel better knowing that those who receive a chunk of my tax dollars used those dollars wisely. The cooking sherry would be something of a joke if it were not true. You see, many of those people getting the sherry are not using it to cook with it. They're so desperate for booze they drink the sherry. No joke.

So ladies, can we each find someone to take under our wings and gently mentor? Can we find someone to whom we can show a better way of doing things - a way that is healthier and more economical? I think we can.