Ashley Widener comes to the challenge of living on food stamps for one month with a healthy dose of skepticism.
First off, she wonders if the SNAP program enables people to be unproductive, knowing that assistance is available. Secondly, she thinks the program is too lax with its oversight of applicants. Third, she considers the benefits as generous. “I already spend less than what I would be alloted,” she said if she were to receive the maximum amount provided for a family of two.
“SNAP should be more regulated,” she added, including regular tests for drug use and proof applicants are trying to find work.
SNAP is the acronym for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly regarded as food stamps. Widener said she agreed to participate in the SNAP Challenge — a one-month experiment of living solely on the government-subsidized program — in part from what she regards as selfish reasons.
“Being forced to spend only so much money on food will help me become more conscience in my own budgeting,” for food as well as other expenses, she said.
WIDENER’S viewpoints on SNAP hinge on her unhinged childhood.
The child of divorce, she was shuttled between parents who had their own growing up still to do. As a youth, Widener attended a dozen elementary and middle schools and five high schools between Kansas and Oklahoma.
She said her mother, especially, was a poor role model when it came to living within her means.
“We lived paycheck to paycheck,” she said, somewhat generously.
Ashley grew up not knowing the value of saving for a rainy day.
Her mother, who worked as a nurse, viewed payday as reward day.
“She’d spend it all. Clothes. Jewelry. She felt like she deserved these things, which by the next week meant nothing.
“She was terribly irresponsible.”
The effect on Ashley is that she is the model of frugality.
She and Tim Culver, her boyfriend and the father of their child, live a somewhat spare life in a small rental home on North Second Street.
They have one vehicle, paid in full. She uses a pre-paid card for her cell phone, which averages $45 a month. They don’t have a credit card and pay for everything up front. Their debit card accounts prevent them from withdrawing more than what they have in the bank.
