Reply #96: $1,800 was actually the total bill??

[dmr]

In a combination of DBT and cash? There definitely has to be more to this scenario.

I don't think your wife should play the lottery as suggested.

Things are not always what they seem, which is why I try not to be judgmental of my fellow man.

If your wife's story is true about the amount spent, and the jewelry worn, it sounds to me that there were more than one household shopping here, along with a benefactor (most likely the jeweled one) helping this family out.

I was briefly on food stamps after an accident left me disabled. To look at me, I looked like my former middle class self, but sadly I was in dire straits. Thankfully, I no longer have to rely on this important benefit.

Now, about a possible benefactor. I have in my multiple years on this earth, when I was working and making good money, have shopped for families, sometimes taking them with me. The purpose was to fill their larder so mom wouldn't have to worry about stretching her food stamps a full month. That worry is a hell of a burden on top of other daily worries.

I tell you what, I am less concerned with low income benefit abuse than I am concerned with the high income abuse of the likes of Haliburton and their corporate welfare; or the Medicaid fraud perpetuated by clinics/physicians/lawyers. It seems to be the little guy people get all up in arms about, while we shrug our shoulders to the corporate's sense of entitlements.