So, it turns out that I was theoretically eligible for EBT for a good long while, somewhere in the neighborhood of three years. It didn’t occur to me until I was kind of forced onto Medicaid by the state insurance marketplace that I should probably just go ahead and see what else I qualified for, since I wasn’t likely to start making enough to be off of these programs any time soon. (Mind you, I like my job very, very much, and I enjoy an excellent hourly rate. I just don’t work full time.)
I had always kind of figured that, because I lived with people who made significantly more money than me, that I didn’t have the right to use these resources. But the thing is, if I never do, then I may never get to achieve some degree of independence. The other thing is, I paid into these programs before I needed them, and I still pay into these programs even while I am in them. It’s not like the state stops skimming a little bit off the top of my income just because I use what it’s funding.
While I was waiting for final determination on my SNAP application I decided to brush up on my ability to stretch a dollar because I figured it behooved me to account for the possibility it can be as little as $23, which is the state minimum, or even none at all if my application was rejected outright.
It was, because my caseworker claimed she couldn’t read my pay stubs, which I sent in twice. Then my income was counted as being twice as much as it actually was, and I got kicked of my Medicaid. Thanks a whole lot, Pennsylvania DHS.
I did two challenges for myself over the span of two weeks. In the first week, I challenged myself to do a grocery run with a list prepared based on what I felt like getting, but limited to the paper cash in my wallet. (US $26.) This forced me to prioritize, compare unit prices, and knock several things off my list to make my limit. I managed to get it down to a full dollar and some change under my limit. No pre-selected coupons, few sales, and only one rebate.
By the second week, I had gotten my tax refund and had some more wiggle room, and I had a chance to do more research and planning.
I combed through Ibotta, SwagBucks, InboxDollars, and the Acme store app to see what rebates and sales were available to me. These rebates can’t stack with manufacturer coupons, but they can stack with store sales, and that seems to include digital coupons linked to the loyalty card. These apply at the register like a normal sale price.
I then opened Google sheets and made a spreadsheet of what items interested me from each of these rebate and reward apps, and took note of which ones might stack. (As it happened I ended up buying none that stacked that week, except for vegan spam, which Swagbucks inexplicably considers ground meat.) I also signed up for Care Club and sent in a photo of my receipt, because I buy a lot of Lactaid products and am therefore eligible for rebates through that, and I could stack them with the store sale on cottage cheese and ice cream.
The white tag (i.e. non-sale) price of my haul would have been $148.39. This included two impulse buys, which were two packs of apple-prune baby food for my nine-month-old niece who I bring with me to get her out of the house, and a wrap for myself. With store sales, plus loyalty coupons, and a BOGO deal, I saved $49.57.
My rebate from Ibotta—and this is where the spreadsheet is most handy, I think, because I tracked my rebates per app at the bottom—was $6.70. My rewards for snapping a receipt from Swagbucks was $0.02. InboxDollars was $0.03. ReceiptHog was 15 coins, and as each point is worth half a cent I will round down and count this as $0.07. Fetch was 100 points for the receipt itself, or $0.10. Care Club awarded me 150 points, each worth half a cent if redeemed and therefore equaling $0.75, which was my second biggest rebate. Therefore, in stacked rebates, I got an estimated $7.67. If we add rebates, then I saved a total of $57.24.
Not bad.
What I’m going to do going forward is refine my spreadsheet method and experiment more with planning around combining sales and rebates, especially for shelf stable goods. Thankfully, this is what a lot of rebates and coupons tend to be for. Second, now that I have my driver’s license (at the tender age of, uh, 31) I’m going to start amassing direct mailers and be more tactical about where I direct my trips, instead of being limited to where I can walk. One of my options opening up is the Amish-run grocery outlet, which will be interesting for shelf-stable goods.
Of Cabbages and Strings 