In the interest of full disclosure, my family gets $180 in food stamps every month. It's currently our only source of food money due to a recent car repair we needed. We try to make the money stretch as far as possible, which means a lot of ramen noodles and $1 cans of ravioli, but we also try to get plenty of fresh or frozen fruits and veggies. We designate an amount every month to go to our daughter. She gets most of her food from the WIC program, but they don't cover things like chunkier foods and mixed dishes (turkey and veggies, chicken noodle, that kind of thing).

Here's where the debate is. My daughter's birthday is next month, and since she'll be 1, we wanted to make it a special occasion. We're planning on using our food stamps, which we get before her birthday, to pay for her party. And yes, that means punch, chips, and cake, also known as junk food. Hubby and I figure that as long as we make sure our daughter gets her meals, we can use the food stamps on her party, even if that means we stock up on extra ramen noodles the month before.

Another issue is with steak. I've never seen someone who isn't on some form of welfare say that it's okay to buy steak. My husband works in the meat department at a grocery store and knows when things are going on sale, so he often gets several pounds of steak then at a cheaper price than ground beef. Here's the thing, though- most of it is ground up into ground beef, which is then higher quality and lower fat than the tube kind.

I'd like to see what the rest of you think about this issue.

Cake pop and cakes in general can be easily done with 1$ mix with water. Chips can easily for 2/1$ same for soda and juice. Tbh there is a lot of stuff at the dollar store that you can use for a birthday party.

I would normally go that route for the cake, and I'm planning to next year and possibly the year after if we're not off food stamps by then (knock on wood), but the point was that I wanted her first birthday to be special. As for chips and drinks, I'm not planning on getting expensive stuff. A big thing of Hawaiian Punch (or the generic stuff if I can find it) and some generic Sprite or 7-Up makes good party punch. It's just the idea of buying junk food with food stamps that gets most people.

In my opinion you shouldn't really care what people think. It's your food stamps, you should use them as you please. It's not like you're trading food stamps for drugs. You're trying to provide a nice birthday for your daughter. Don't worry about trying to impress other family members and friends because honestly they could easily pitch in for food or a nice ordered cake. As for your steak issue I'm not entirely sure what the question was. Are you seeing if it's okay to buy steak with food stamps? Why the hell not? It's food. Should you care about what people will think? No. The government isn't going to take away your benefits because you bought a steak. If meat is on sale, take that advantage. I understand your money limit is fairly low but if you can figure out a way to get some nice food for your daughters party and still have other food for the rest of the month, then do it. And remember, life will not always be like this! I've been in a situation like that when I was in middle school living with just my dad. There were times when we had only $20 to our name and we didn't even have food stamps. It sucks but you will get through it. Just keep your spirits high and if you're religious, trust in the lord. If you're not, just keep believing in yourself and know that in the end you won't have to worry about things like this!

That's fine, I just thought the topic would be better suited for Debate.

The issue with steak is that it's considered a luxury food, like organic foods or seafood, but some steak cuts can be cheaper than ground beef. There's a large majority of people who think anyone on food stamps shouldn't get luxury food (but they also think we shouldn't eat junk, double standard much?).

I'm working on getting into college now to improve our situation, if the admissions people would quit losing my papers...

I'm on food stamps because my entire paycheck goes to bills. Who cares what others think? Use the money the way you want to. I personally am very quiet about my food stamps and when I use the card to check out, I put my hand over it because I don't want people to know my business.

As for steak, I use my food stamps to buy steak. I'm anemic, so the red meat helps. Plus, I will buy it when it's on sale and freeze it for later.

Food is food no matter what you buy so like i said before, just don't care about what other people think.

I bought a slurpee with my ebt card this morning and anyone that wants to judge me for it can kiss my ass lol. It's very rare that I spend my ebt card on anything but real groceries, but sometimes I'll buy candy if I have a sweet tooth or a bag of chips, etc. Some people are always gonna have an opinion on how other people live their life whether they're in the position they have to live that way or not. The way I see it, as long as you and your family gets fed, who has the right to say a thing? Besides, it's not like you don't buy real groceries. This is a special occasion for your daughter and family and you deserve to be able to live a little and celebrate this month. :)

It sounds to me like you're very responsible with your stamps and income. I don't think buying a cake and snacks this one time, for such a special occasion, should be a problem. If anyone gives you grief about it, tell them to mind their own damn business! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your little one! :D

Aww, thanks. Hubs and I try to be responsible, I can't say that there hasn't been times when we went out grocery shopping and got ourselves a small bottle of soda or something, but that's usually all the junk food we get. I will admit, right before Little Bit was born, we stocked up on frozen dinners (I would have done them homemade but tupperware wasn't in the budget), and most frozen dinners are junk. It was a necessity though, since Hubs went straight back to work the day after she was born and my mom could only stay a few days to help out. Nobody else could take time off work so TV dinners it was for a month.

I'm actually in the process of applying for stamps myself. I don't have kids or anything - it's just me. I live with my parents though and I hate to keep asking them to buy me food things. I have a job, but the money I get is stretched thin, paying my bills and helping out my parents. I got health care through the state, I just need to get one more pay stub so I can get food too. From what I've seen of people at grocery stores though, believe me, you don't have a thing to worry about. I've seen people buy nothing but junk food on stamps.

Honestly, you're not blowing all $180 on the birthday food, so who cares? Even if anybody did care, it's not their bloody business and if it pains them so bad they can give you $20 or something to buy cake and drinks with. Unless they're doing that, they can just keep their damned fool mouth shut and their privileged opinions to themselves.

I sometimes buy "junk" with my food stamps, and I couldn't give a rat's ass what the jerk behind me in the checkout thinks - just because I'm poor doesn't mean I should be forced to eat nothing but potatoes, carrots, and cabbage and drink nothing but water like some people think.

And sometimes I'll buy something "nice," too, like a bag of chicken breasts or a steak. Hell, every month I buy a container of Slimfast powder with my regular groceries. And it's nobody's business but my own. If they don't like that their 1/10th of a penny goes towards my "nice food," I'll be happy to give a whole penny and tell them to fuck off and go re-read the fragging Gospels while they're at it.

Why bother putting stock in what other people think? That's just asking for judgmental dicks to come crawling out of the woodwork to tell you what a disgusting, horrible, irresponsible person you are for daring to treat yourself to anything but the absolute bare minimum required to survive, and I don't think that kind of abuse is something you deserve to deal with (or anyone on food stamps, for that matter.)

Buy your cake and pop and chips. Have fun. And stop caring about what some snotty pearl-clutchers with too much time on their hands think.

Since I celebrated my daughter's first birthday last year and got not so good economy myself I would accept that its not the expensive things that makes it special. Its the time and the fun part you can spend with your daughter and family members. People can also stop putting their nose in your business on how you use the food stamps, they don't know whats the long plan just for the sacrifice of giving your daughter a special birthday. Mine was happy she could eat ice cream and wouldnt care for cakes nor chips.

As someone who pays taxes, I gotta say-- USE IT FOR WHATEVER YOU WANT! If you want to make your child's birthday something special, then you do that! Do what makes your family happy and healthy!

I think first and foremost as long as you're not committing actual fraud it's no nobody's business but your own how you spend your food stamps.

Have you had people specifically judge you for it? If so that's awful. It's really nobody's business to know you're using food stamps in the first place and if your friends/family know then they should also know you're trying your best to make ends meet. My healthcare is covered by the state (expanded medicaid) and my family knows it's because my employer doesn't cover part time employees but I have a respectable job (excluding pay) and I will gladly pay my share once I get a full time opening. If any one of them is judging me for that at least they've had the decency not to say anything to my face.

As far as the cashier or whoever at the store, I was one and couldn't have cared less who was buying what with their ebt card unless they had a problem or question. We were too busy to spend time analyzing everything someone put on the belt. And with the card, it doesn't look any different from a regular card so the next person in line would have to be supremely nosy to pick it out. Even the wic papers aren't that different from the rebate coupons a lot of baby formula companies, etc., give out. And who cares about what a random stranger thinks anyway. You're trying to do the right thing for your family and that's what matters.

I've tried to reason through the argument from a logical standpoint and I still can't find a good reason why it matters ethically if you're buying steak or whatever. You get a specific amount of money every month. You make reasonable purchases such that you can feed your family without running out. You said yourself you buy a lot of fresh veggies, etc., so you're not lacking nutrition. There's no incentive not to spend what you're allotted (like you can't save it or invest it or anything like that). There are only so many perishable items you can use in a month, and only so many nonperishables you can store if you choose to spend extra stocking up. So what are you supposed to do with the balance? Not spend it because it's immoral to buy steak or ice cream? What do people think you should be buying instead if all your other needs are met? I mean, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't get how anyone even has an argument.

Tl,dr: you're fine. The people who matter don't mind and the people who mind don't matter :)