New York Times: Experts Say SNAP’s Food Budget Doesn’t Match How People Actually Eat
Non paywall: https://archive.ph/gLsEM
My adult daughter and I don't use SNAP, but we easily purchase food at levels set by the Thrifty Food Plan from the USDA: https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/cnpp-costfood-tfp-sept2025.pdf . It bears mentioning that we both have celiac disease and several food allergies; some overlap, some don't.
I'm looking to start a non-judgmental conversation. What does your household spend monthly on food? Do you think the current standards for the food budget are reasonable? Why do you think the numbers are realistic or unrealistic? I'd like to read some reactions to points made in the article.
One of my personal reactions is the assertion that SNAP assumes people can take two hours of their day to cook. I don't spend two hours a day cooking, although everything we eat is homemade, from scratch. We also eat a lot of beans (pulses) and legumes. I do, however, believe that cooking is a lost skill in this culture and needs to be brought back, particularly given how unhealthy ultraprocessed foods are proving to be.
Does SNAP's food budget reflect how people eat?
byu/sbinjax inFrugal
Posted by sbinjax
16 Comments
I think certain things should be limited
I’m pretty close to those numbers if you ignore the thousands of dollars I’ve put into having a garden and fruit trees that provide my fruit and veg.
So realistically I’m not close at all. I reckon my berry intake alone would put me over that if I had to pay for them.
I don’t know what one could possibly be cooking that would take up 2 hours of their day.
You making noodles manually or something?
For me and my partner it should come out to $560 each month. We spend on average $450 on groceries. Our secret? We spend $600 on dining out each month. Those guidelines seem fair.
Thrifty plan is about $250/month for me. I spend more than that. Probably about $400. It’s hard to tell how much I’ve spent because I don’t budget. I’ve spent about $2600 on the credit card I use exclusively at grocery stores, but I also have grocery spend that’s captured on other cards that are used at general retailers. I’d estimate I’ve spent about $4000 YTD on groceries which includes household goods.
I spend about 20 minutes per day cooking on average. Most of that is batch cooking on Sunday.
You might try r/povertyfinance
Looking at that thrifty plan, my husband (M50) and I (F47) would/should be spending about $560/month. Our current spending averaged over the last 6 months is $450/month.
We buy meat, vegetables, breads and pasta, flour and sugar, soda sometimes, junky things like chips and cookies sometimes.
I take advantage of coupons, store deals, and markdowns whenever possible. We’ve never felt deprived of a food or ingredient that I can think of.
We don’t get SNAP, and I consider us very fortunate that we’re not struggling to get food.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to ask people if they can meet thrifty food plan guidelines if people aren’t receiving SNAP. People who meet those income guidelines are often dealing with a variety of issues, most notably disability (either their own or their children’s), time limitations due to working multiple jobs, having young children, caring for disabled parents, etc. People may not have access to stoves because they’re forced to live in weekly rate motels or are homeless. They may also live in food deserts, limiting their ability to access fresh produce (another reason the new restrictions are particularly draconian). You’re comparing apples to oranges.
Sure, I’m able to feed my family on the “thrifty plan” budget, including “prepared foods” like sliced cheese (???), and I don’t cook two hours a day…but SNAP recipients don’t all get the full amount, and are probably in a position of figuring out whether they can afford to spend limited money on food vs other stuff.
My being able to stick to that budget also depends on having good access to a discount grocery store, which people in rural areas may not; ability to find reasonably priced ingredients for foods from my culture; and having cooking equipment like an oven and instant pot.
So the amount doesn’t seem ridiculous to me, but we shouldn’t start from the position that everyone gets that benefit, or has the same circumstances that make it easy for someone else.
$100 a month for household of one. VHCOL city (think NYC/SF). And I’ve actually worked with one of the people cited in the article.
There’s no easy answers when it comes to policy here. Hunger in the US is almost always a lack of nutrition instead of a lack of calories. So a lot of programs end up trying to balance those as two priorities (specifically, pushing healthier choices). No, this doesn’t align with how people actually eat. Something like only 15% of Americans get the daily recommended portions of fruit and veg daily, where these programs assume boosting that number is a goal. The number is lower for SNAP beneficiaries.
SNAP is means-tested, and is largely designed to be supplemental. It’s not meant to cover all of your food. How you budget is really on you.
We average under that, but we bought a quarter cow I’m the spring that I’m not factoring into that. Also have venison and our own geese and chickens coming in (at a price per lb that makes beef look cheap. Oops.) so we probably won’t buy meat for a long, long time.
I could easily spend 2 hours a day cooking if I plan on making something nice. On an average day, it’s closer to an hour probably.
I also spend about $50/week on groceries for just me (though I do usually go out to eat or get takeout once a week or so).
My understanding is that it’s pretty common for people to get less than $100/month per person from SNAP. I don’t know how I could get my budget down that low, if that’s where I was getting my grocery money. I’d definitely be hitting the food bank in that case.
I 40m dont really pay attention to exactly how much i spend but i usually hit Winco 4 times a month and it costs me somewhere between 75-125 each trip. I do eat a lot of beans and rice, chicken and rice and bag salads. eggs, cheeze and bagels for breakfast with pancakes on the weekend.
I used to eat out several times a week, but between the cost increase and quality decrease i have cut back to 2 times a month or so.
I am single, and work a 12hr rotating shift scheduled so meal prep is essential.
I have been on SNAP a couple times when my son was young and I got laid off. I was always able to get off of it once the 6 month re-evaluation came around. Ngl, we ate better on SNAP than buying it ourselves. But, not the healthiest. When you’re not paying for it, it’s so much easier to go for the convenience of pre-packaged or pre-cut vs saving the money and doing it yourself.
It doesn’t seem realistic to me. To cook dry beans/pulses and to cook rice and other grains, not only do you need a functioning stove, you need pots and pans, etc. If a family is poor enough to qualify for SNAP they are possibly also living in substandard housing and may not have the equipment or the appliances needed to make bean soup out of raw ingredients. It also requires a investment into storage containers–having bags of grains sitting around invites rodents and insects and that ruins the food.
It is true that cooking is somewhat of a lost skill, but putting the burden of learning how to cook from scratch on people that are already struggling to make ends meet is mean spirited. I see a lot of redditors say that they can get rotisserie chickens for less per pound than raw chicken, yet you can’t purchase a rotisserie chicken with SNAP. That’s dumb–not only is it cheaper to get the promo item, it puts a reasonably healthy choice (roasted chicken) out of reach for the people who need it most.
Two hours a day for meal prep seems reasonable, but I’d want to know if that includes ALL aspects of meal prep: Planning, shopping, prep, cooking, cleanup. Eating on that small amount of money requires not only time to cook things that take a long time to cook, it also requires much more time spent on meal planning and on hitting sales at different stores. If the two hour estimate doesn’t include that part of cooking, then feeding a family on that little money takes even more time.
I spend double the thrifty plan in a low cost of living citu. I like to eat what I want and I will never spend two whole hours a day cooking. I do not have the time or energy. I eat a lot of easy to cook/ no cook items.
I think its gross to assume everyone has the energy to work 8-10 hours a day and then cook 2 hours.