On WIC: It's a really great program

Starting with the layoff about 3 years ago, we've been on and off WIC. We were living on unemployment and qualified. (We made too much money on unemployment to qualify for food stamps, which still baffles me.) Then I got a job and as my pay went up or my hours went down or my pay went up again or we got pregnant we did and didn't and then did qualify for WIC again. Now with Blake's new job and the raise I got when I got licensed, I'm fairly certain we'll be saying goodbye to WIC for good.

When we first got on it, they had us come in to the office and watch an explanatory video about the WIC program, how to use the checks, and which foods did and did not qualify. We laughed that all the people in the video, who were real WIC participants, said, "It's a really great program!" After our first shopping trip with WIC, we laughed again because we said to each other completely seriously, "this is a really great program!" Especially in those early months when our baby was just eating cereal and pureed foods, her entire diet except for breast milk came from WIC. It was such a relief as we were unemployed/underemployed for those months to know that she was taken care of. We could cut back and cheap out on our own expenses, especially food, but we never had to make that choice for our child. I'm still tearing up a little thinking about it. Thank you, WIC, thank you.

Being on WIC has forever (we hope) changed the way we buy and eat food. Now that we're making a little more money and could afford to, we can't imagine going back to the way we used to eat. WIC changed our eating habits in three important ways: beans, produce, and meat.

Beans. Neither of us had ever cooked with dry beans before and now we were getting 1-2 pounds of dry beans every month. We needed to figure out how to use them. A google search led me to a post about cooking dry beans in the crockpot from Budget Bytes. Crockpot is easy; we could do that! Now we could cook the beans and needed to find recipes that used beans. Again, Budget Bytes. We love Budget Bytes! (We considered that an added benefit to the name we chose for baby 2 is that she's Beth M.) The fabulous Beth M at Budget Bytes blog provides tasty recipes that are economical and usually pretty quick. We haven't tried every recipe on there but also haven't yet found one we hated.

Produce. WIC gives a set amount of money to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables: $6, $8, or $10. Knowing we had a set amount, we watched grocery mailers closely to see who had the best prices. We wanted to get the most food possible for our $6 or $10. The mexican markets always came in the cheapest: El Super, Superior Grocers, Maxi Foods, El Tapatio Markets are the ones we've frequented. We routinely find produce there for half of what we could buy it for at other discount grocers (Food4Less or WinCo). You might be surprised just how much produce you can get for $10 when everything is less than $1/lb. Sometimes we get things as cheaply as 7lbs/$.99. Seriously. So, we eat and cook with a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables than we used to.

Meat. More beans and more produce had meant less meat. Meat is also often the most expensive ingredient, so cutting it out entirely or reducing the amount so it's more like a garnish and less like the meal is more economical. And you know, we don't really miss it.

The consequence of all of this is that I eat a lot healthier now and feel a lot better. I haven't had trouble maintaining the weight loss I got from running even after I stopped running because I eat well. I can't imagine giving that up because we make more money now. Another great benefit is that our food is delicious! We really like the food we make. I was known at my office for having fantastic lunches. Several coworkers routinely checked in when I was in the breakroom to see what I'd brought for lunch. One even asked if he could pay me some money every week and have me just bring him lunch.

I love WIC! It's a really great program!