What Can You Buy With Your EBT Card?

We’ll show you what you can buy with your EBT card, so you get that necessary nudge to apply today.

Is your fridge more empty than full? Do you cringe every time you go grocery shopping and see how expensive your bill is? Then applying for food stamps may be your best move, as they can give you monthly funds to buy groceries to keep your family fed and take a huge financial load off your shoulders.

What can you buy with food stamps? Let’s look at that now, so you know exactly how everything works.

How To Use Food Stamps

Before we jump into details of how to use food stamps, we should mention that they now go by the official name of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. True to its name, this program helps supplement your nutrition by giving you the power to buy healthy foods. How? With monthly funds loaded to an EBT card that you can swipe at participating stores.

Are you limited to only buying healthy foods like fruits and veggies? No, as your EBT card can buy much more, such as:

• Meat (including deli meats)
• Poultry
• Seafood (including live options like lobster, shrimp, oysters, and clams)
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Dairy like milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.
• Bread
• Water
• Non-alcoholic drinks
• Seeds and plants to grow your own food

While all of those eligible options are healthy and essential, your SNAP benefits let you use your EBT card for even more items that could be considered treats, such as:

• Soda
• Snacks like cookies, chips, crackers, brownies, cupcakes, etc.
• Frozen treats like ice cream, popsicles, frozen yogurt, etc.
• Mints and gum
• Energy drinks (must have a Nutrition Facts label and not a Supplement Facts label)

As if that wasn’t enough, your EBT card can also buy things like gift baskets as long as over half of their value comes from food items. Don’t forget birthday cakes, either, plus edible pumpkins for the fall, bakery items like muffins and donuts, and frozen foods your kids will love, like chicken nuggets.

Although some of these items may seem like luxuries, there’s a good reason they are allowed: It would take too much time and effort for Congress to ban them, so they decided to let them slide as “food” items.

Looking at those lists, it seems like you can buy almost anything you want with an EBT card, but that’s not the case. Items that are not eligible include cigarettes and tobacco, beer, wine, liquor, and hot or prepared food. Could these rules change down the line? Absolutely, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.

Non-food items are also a no-go, so you cannot buy cosmetics, hygiene products, cleaning and paper products, or household supplies with your EBT card.

What about pet food? While your furry friends need to eat, they cannot do so with SNAP benefits. And you also cannot buy medicine or prescriptions with your EBT card. For help with those, apply for some other form of assistance, such as Medicaid.

Now that you see what’s a-okay to buy with your EBT card, it’s time to apply for SNAP benefits and get one of your own.