Just found out there's a bunch of stuff you actually can't buy with food stamps that most people don't realize. Like, I always thought frozen pizza would be covered since it's food, but apparently if it's heated or prepared at the point of sale, SNAP won't cover it. Same goes for hot coffee, rotisserie chicken, anything from the deli counter basically.

So what can you actually get with EBT? Basically just the raw ingredients - fruits, veggies, meat, dairy, bread, cereals. The rule is pretty strict about what counts as a "staple food." Cold prepared stuff like salads and sandwiches made by the store? Nope. Pet food, cleaning supplies, hygiene products? Definitely not. Even vitamins and medicine are excluded unless they're actual food items.

About 41 million Americans are on SNAP getting around $202 per person monthly on average, so this affects a lot of households. If you're trying to stretch that budget, you gotta get creative - buy frozen pizza that you cook yourself instead of hot pizza, grab the rotisserie chicken and cook it at home, make your own salads. Generic brands help too, plus coupons and store loyalty programs can save you a decent amount.

The whole frozen pizza thing with EBT is actually a good example of how specific these rules get. You can buy the frozen box, but the moment someone heats it for you at checkout, it doesn't qualify anymore. Kinda wild when you think about it, but that's how SNAP works.