Frugality

Last month I read a post at Living Almost Large titled “Still Hungry with Food Stamps”. It was in response to this CNN article about a woman who found it difficult to feed her and her baby on $280 a month in food stamps. LivingAlmostLarge thought that it shouldn’t be a problem to eat on that amount a month but some of the commenters disagreed with her. Since I’ve been on food stamps myself I wanted to do my own post on the subject and I’ve finally gotten around to it.

I was on food stamps in Texas for three months in 2003. I was employed at the time but not getting many hours and therefore not making much money. I was making just enough money to pay my bills but certainly wasn’t going hungry. Since I worked at a pizza restaurant I had access to free food several times a week. I debated whether to apply for food stamps but decided I should go ahead and take advantage of the program.

It was pretty easy to apply for the food stamps. I just filled out an application and dropped it off at the office. I was called about a week later and after a short interview I was declared eligible for $160 a month in food stamps. I don’t remember the exact details of documentation but I remember being surprised at how easy the process was. I was also surprised at the amount, $160 seemed like a lot to me for one person.

The food stamps were actually in the form of an EBT card which worked like a debit card. The first month I used my entire allotted amount. Some of this was due to buying food for a friend that visited and building up a supply of basic staples. The second month I didn’t come close to using all of my allotted amount. This amount rolled over to the next month resulting in me having much more than $160 to spend on groceries for the month. The third month I got a new job and canceled my food stamps. However, I was still able to use the amount remaining on my EBT card and used it to buy my groceries for the next couple months.

Overall, I would say my experience with food stamps was a positive one. I found a $160 a month to be plenty of money for groceries and I actually bought more expensive foods than I normally would have. I did occasionally get dirty looks when using the card but for the most part no one seemed to care that I was using them.

If I were in the same position again though I wouldn’t apply for food stamps. I was eligible for them so it was legal for me to do so but since I could have easily got by without them I don’t think it was ethical to do so. So far this year I’ve been averaging $100-$150 on food including restaurant food so I’d have to be pretty poor to not be able to afford food without food stamps.

David from David Makes Cents and Sean from Financial Ramblings recently had a gas saving challenge.  The goal was to see who could get the larger percentage improvement over the EPA MPG estimates.  David managed to get 32.257 MPG which compared to the EPA MPG estimate of 29 amounted to 12.16% improvement.  Sean got 32.088 MPG which compared to the EPA MPG estimate of 26 amounted to a 23.4% improvement.  Both of these are much better than the EPA’s fuel economy estimate which shows that you can significantly increase your MPG by altering your driving habits.

I didn’t participate in the gas saving challenge but I keep track of my mileage anyway so I can do a comparison.  My last four tanks I have gotten 30.2,32.29,33.22 and 34.42 MPG.  All of them except for the 30.2 amount reflect a large amount of highway driving.  Using the 30.2 figure I am doing just a little better than the EPA figure of 29 MPG for combined driving.  This isn’t too bad considering I was using my a/c the whole time and it also includes two shifts of pizza delivery driving.  If I compare my 30.2 MPG to the new EPA estimate for combined driving of 26 MPG than I’m doing really well.  The new EPA MPG figures are 26 MPG for combined driving, 23for city driving, and 31 for highway driving.  The old EPA MPG figures were 29 combined, 27 city, and 34 highway.  The EPA changed the way it calculates MPG because people complained that the old figures were unrealistically high.  I find thought that the old figures more accurately reflect my style of driving.  You can find EPA estimated MPG for your vehicle at fueleconomy.gov.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you may remember my post “Taking Cold Showers to Save $45 a Month” which was about my turning off my natural gas last summer to save money.  I’m doing the same thing this year and it will be easier this time around.  I’m staying with my mom during the week since my internship is in a town three hours away from Kansas City so I don’t have to worry about needing gas for hot showers then.  When I’m back in Kansas City I usually spend the night at my girlfriend’s place so hot showers aren’t a problem.  If for some reason that option wasn’t available I could take a shower at the school gym or just take a cold shower.  I need to cut expenses since the internship limits my availability for paid work.  I also need to increase my income and I’m working on a few ways to do that.

On an email list I belong to a member was recommending this gas-saving device.  It apparently works like the fuel economy gauge that many cars have in them already but supposedly is more accurate. It helps you save gas by helping you adjust your driving habits to be more fuel efficient. The reviews I’ve read on the web seem good but at a price of $169.95 it would have to save a lot of gas to be worth it.  It also has other features but since it is only for 1996 or newer cars it won’t work for me so I haven’t looked into them too much.

Another possible device for those with older cars is a vacuum gauge. There are some of them made especially as mpg gauges but you can get regular vacuum gauges for as little as $15.  These aren’t very accurate at telling your instant mpg but they are good at helping you drive more efficiently.  Since these are much cheaper than the ScanGauge it shouldn’t take nearly as long for you to make back the purchase price.