/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.20030457]

I've just gotten SNAP/food-stamps/LINK-card as of today.

I've been waging nonstop since I was in high-school (more than a decade ago), had a steady job, took an "exciting new opportunity" that turned out to be run by incompetent vipers who kicked me out and seem to have denied me unemployment-insurance, although the State has yet to give me my Final Determination. And despite a decent resume, it seems nobody is hiring between Thanksgiving and Christmas/The New Year.

In any case, my food-stamps just kicked in and my LINK card came in the mail today. I went right to the grocery store and bought a whole bunch of stuff I wouldn't have otherwise: Fancy "grass-fed-and-finished Ribeye Steaks". A handful of bougie premixed-salads. Some probiotic foods and drinks like kefir and greek yogurt because I've been nuking my microbiome with booze and fried foods in my depressive-unemployed state. I also got some cold soup and sandwiches and some other LINK-qualified indulgences.

But how would you, /biz/, maximize your temporary access to this grocery benefit? Though apparently SNAP isn't considered a "benefit" in America, it's actually administered by the USDA as a program to ensure demand for US Agricultural goods. So long as I'm spending it on food from an American grocery store, I'm actually doing my part apparently.

It's near Christmas and I've already offered to stock my mom's freezer with "nice things she wouldn't necessarily spend her own money on", though humble as she is, she "can't think of anything right now" despite encouragement.

How else should I make the most of this silver-lining?

[Anonymous No.20030461]

>>20030457
Good on you OP. Enjoy it to the max while you can and I hope your forchoons turn for the better in the new year.

We're all one slip away from not being able to afford food and two slips away from homelessness †bh.

[Anonymous No.20030466]

>>20030457
this isn't /biz/ but you're in the right place
the intelligent thing to do is buy lots of long term storage food items like rice and beans

[Anonymous No.20030472]

>>20030457
Don't waste it on tons of expensive stuff. Even if you don't get approved for more after the benefits expire, it stays on the card and you can keep using it until it runs out. So when you start working again you could keep getting food for a while without having to pay and you can save that money or use it for other things.

[Anonymous No.20030479]

>>20030457
>not selling your food stamps for cigarettes
>keeps talking about "America" and USDA as if from another country
>uses "unemployment- insurance" instead of saying unemployment
>specifies LINK card
Illinois? Go trade that for weed. How far are you from your nearest dispensary?

[Anonymous No.20030485]

>>20030461
thank you for the well-wishes. my point in prefacing that I've been working Real Jobs for my entire adult life is that, while I believe misfortune can befall anyone, and systems should exist to help people through those moments, I've paid into the system enough to have "earned" my turn to be supported by the systems I support.
>>20030466
This is the same thing the people on /biz/ said but I've been employed long enough that I can afford a lifetime's worth of rice and beans regardless. This wasn't the difference between starving and living, it's just the only form of economic relief I've gotten since being dicked out of a job.
>>20030479
You got me. And you should know that, if ((((American Cash Dollars))) are what you need, an IL dispensary is basically the worst place in America to buy weed. We're actually the only state in America which legalized recreational marijuana by legislature (rather than by executive order or public referendum) which means the politicians who legalized it got to hand-pick which of their buddies got to get rich off distribution and cultivation, with the highest sticker-prices and taxes in the nation. But I haven't even regularly smoked in years. It's just wild to think anyone in IL in particular would suggest converting food stamps into hard cash into LEGAL WEED was an advisable course of action,
>>20030472
now THIS is some decent advice, though.

[Anonymous No.20030547]

>who kicked me out

Wtf did you do? Unemployment is often denied if you became unemployed through your own actions. If the company had folded and/or you were laid-off, then you'd be getting it.

[Anonymous No.20030560]

>>20030457
>But how would you, /biz/, maximize your temporary access to this grocery benefit
I live in a country where our neetbux aren't artificially limited to ensure that only big businesses gets the money from them.

[Anonymous No.20030568]

>>20030457
Shop the almost-expired rack and cook from that. The bakery discount rack is your best friend, it's like $2 for a dozen old donuts and that's practically a week worth of calories right there.

[Anonymous No.20030572]

>>20030560
people can get welfare payments anon, which is cash in the bank. but there are also food programs that provide subsidies specifically for essentials (food, housewares, hardware, fuel, etc). They are not mutually exclusive. However, SNAP/Foodstamp programs are politically less volatile because it inhibits neets from using tax money on booze, drugs, and tattoos.

[Anonymous No.20031192]

>>20030547
No business ever wants a former employee to claim unemployment because it raises their insurance premiums. So they just say "He showed up late" and suddenly it's "for cause". Every time one of my friends has lost a job, that's how it goes down.

[Anonymous No.20031228]

>>20031192
>So they just say "He showed up late" and suddenly it's "for cause". Every time one of my friends has lost a job, that's how it goes down.
Jesus, someone failed the hell out of y'all.
>write your hours down every single day.
>has to be every single day, when you're in and when you're out.
Congratulations, you've got a legal log of your hours. If they come back with that shit, you have actual legally recognized proof so you can fight shit like this.
Also, lot of companies kneejerk reject all unemployment claims because they know some won't bother fighting/will give up. Make them provide documentation to prove their side and make sure you keep their damn handbook that outlines policies so if they fucked up following their policy/can't prove that they followed their policy, you've got them.

Protect yourself.

[Anonymous No.20031234]

Is this the /nigger/ general?

[Anonymous No.20031236]

>>20030457
>But how would you, /biz/
Lazy copypasta and still morons are biting.

[Anonymous No.20031237]

>>20031228
oh and if you want to be a supreme dick, every 6 months or so report something to some regulatory agency.

That way if they do try to fire you, you can try to get back at them for retaliation.

[Anonymous No.20031270]

>>20030457
I was in the position of having EBT with honestly way too much money on it per month for me to use reasonably every month. After a while it accrued to a large number and I was faced with the option of potentially losing all benefits or spending on pricy stuff just to use it all. Obviously went with the 2nd option.

OP, get some stuff that won't go bad, but costs good money. Higher end versions of balsamic, olive and other oils, honey, protein shakes/powder, etc. Even stuff that isn't very expensive, but is the more expensive version of something else, like different kinds of rice.

[Anonymous No.20031296]

I fucking hate commie parasites so much

[Anonymous No.20031297]

Cool op. I retired at 40 from my own company I sold my share of stock from. My sister fired me so technically I was eligible for unemployment and snap. Even though I literally have a net worth of about 3 million it's nice being able to take advantage of all the freebies I had to pay for and fund the earlier days of my life.

Dunno how long it's gonna last because I am not looking for a job. If I one day lose it... fuck it. At least I got something.

Wanna go catch a drink? I am taking delivery of a $42k truck camper in a few days. I also got a trip to Japan coming up in March.

[Anonymous No.20031304]

>>20031296
>NOOOO, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO EVER BENEFIT FROM THE SYSTEMS ESTABLISHED WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS!!!!!
>You're supposed to pay into them your entire life so that OTHER people get to take advantage of them

[Anonymous No.20031543]

>>20030457
how did you apply? i just had my disabled buddy (he's epileptic) run me through the application and i felt sketch putting zero for everything, but he insisted that's how it's done and i've heard more or less the same from others who've used the service

[Anonymous No.20033377]

>>20031543
You mean zeroes for assets and such? Checking and saving and etc.? I answered honestly but it differs state by state. Some states have done away with asset-testing, including mine, so I answered honestly.

The alternative is that you're not ever supposed to have more than $1000-2000 in total assets or else get cut off, depending on the state. Obviously someone who has $1500 in liquid funds to their name is either a sneeze away from catastrophe or, more likely, in catastrophe already.

As far as "just put 0, they don't check" in states that DO asset-test, well, I couldn't say. I do know that, while my state stopped asset-testing for Medicaid and TANF and such literally two decades ago, for some reason they only stopped it for SNAP in the late 2010's I think. Last time I was out of a job (2014? 15?) I couldn't get any either.

[Anonymous No.20033632]

>>20033377
Holy Digits