Now, it should be noted that selling food stamps for cash is against the law.
I don’t encourage you to sell your food stamps, as there is a chance of you being fined, charged for fraud and even terminated from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Even though there are still many people seeking how to sell food stamps for cash, the seller is usually placed at a great disadvantage while doing so.
Simply said, selling food stamps for cash is a terrible deal. The going rate for $100 worth of food stamps is between $50-60 dollars depending on which part of the country you are in.
By selling your food stamps, you are losing about half of your purchasing power immediately, if not more.
But you already know this. If you are here, you are probably looking for ways to get cash quickly, but just keep in mind that selling food stamps for cash is not the smartest thing to do.
You’ll need to look for alternatives to increase your income, and the easiest way is to learn making money elsewhere.
I’ll share 2 legitimate channels at the second half of this article, do take a look if you are interested.
However, if you are still not convinced that selling your food stamps is a very bad deal, here are few more reasons why you shouldn’t do it.
FAQs on How to Convert Food Stamps to Cash
One of the most common questions that people ask is where to exchange their food stamps for money.
Generally, food stamps holders sell their stamps to small grocery shops or through online platforms like Craigslist, eBay, Facebook or Twitter.
Of course, no matter where you sell your food stamps for cash, it is still illegal.
In fact, more and more grocery stores have been discovered and shut down by investigators for food stamps laundering in recent years.
In Georgia, a string of 13 grocery stores were shut down because more than $8 million dollars worth of food stamps were being laundered.
With physical stores being shut down, more and more people are turning to online platform to convert their food stamps for cash.
However, this is not a safe way either, as the U.S.D.A has increased its focus on law enforcement.
Since year 2012, they have sent letters to Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and Twitter asking for help policing food stamps trafficking.
If you are caught selling or buying food stamps, you can be charged or fined. It is risky to list your food stamps for sale online, and it is not safe to ask around for black markets that accept food stamps either.
Due to the risky nature, sellers generally lose a lot of ground when it comes to bargaining the selling price. The more risky it is, the lesser a buyer is willing to pay for the food stamps.
This is why you generally lose out big time if you decide to sell your food stamps for cash. It is much better to keep the food stamps for what they are meant for instead – to buy food for your family.
The Alternatives to Selling Food Stamps?
With all said and done, people who are selling food stamps are just looking for extra money to spend on stuffs instead of food.
There are always 2 sides to the equation when it comes to how much disposable cash you have. If you are not spending your money unnecessarily, chances are you are simply not earning enough.
And it’s not your fault. There are Americans who live with $2 or less a day, and it’s understandable why they need more money to buy other necessities.
After all, there are way too many necessities which are not food items.
Every family needs toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, trash bags, foil, cling wrap, dish soap, hand soap, detergent, shampoo, conditioners, and brushes just to name a few. The list goes on and on.
So if you are not earning enough, the alternative is to make money money. I’ve tried out many ways to establish an extra income source (online and offline), and the online route has proven to be a much more viable option.
Generally, if you want to start a brick and mortar business, you’ll require a hefty start-up capital, a good understanding of your local market, and be prepared to face a very high failure rate (according to Forbes, more than 80% of businesses fail within the first 18 months).
That is a risk most people can’t afford to take, and understandably so. How can you take on additional financial risks if you can’t even take care of the daily expenses?
This is why I chose to start an affiliate marketing businesses online, because it costed me next to nothing. Today I make more than $1,000/month consistently from the internet, and it’s on a steady trajectory to hit $2,000/month soon.
But don’t get me wrong. Making money online isn’t a ticket to instant riches.
You still have to put in the hard work and learn the ropes, but it takes the financial risks out of the equation. It’s free to get started, and all you have to contribute is the willingness to learn and your relentless focus.
Don’t buy into any online opportunities that promise to make you a ton of money without putting in the work, because 99% of these are scams.
I’ve reviewed more than 200 of these scams, but there are still a lot of people who fall into them every single day. Don’t make the same mistake.
2 Legitimate Ways to Make Money Online
In this section I’ll talk about 2 legitimate ways that you can leverage to make money from the internet.
The first method is the quick and easy way, but it is not scale-able and you probably won’t make more than $200 per month. You can get started with this method, but eventually you will want to graduate to the second method instead.
The second method is what I use to build a growing affiliate marketing business that generate consistent and meaningful income month-in and month-out. It’s a stable income source that will eventually replace my day job (in the next 1 to 2 years).
However, the second method involves a rather steep learning curve, and you will not see results immediately. It may take you months before the first profits roll in, but that’s where it starts to get better.
Note that I don’t include certain online opportunities in this list. I don’t include direct sales, multi-level-marketing (MLM), and trading because they are either 1) not free to get started and 2) not real businesses that you can have complete control over.
Quick and Easy Method: Good Online Survey Sites
Completing online surveys is a well-known way to make money online, and I believe many, if not most of you have done it before.
However, it’s not exactly a no-brainer way. There are literally thousands of survey sites waiting for you to sign up, but how do you know which ones are legitimate (and which ones are not)?
I’ve tried out many of them and wrote an article about the top paid survey sites that I have found to be legitimate.
To find out how much I can make using just a handful of survey sites, I completed survey after survey during my free time for an entire month.
On average, I spend about 1 hour a day on weekdays and 2-3 hours a day on weekends doing surveys while watching shows (you don’t need 100% concentration for most survey tasks).
I made $183 for the entire month, and it was pretty good money for me back then.
If you just want to make some pocket money without putting in too much effort, doing online surveys might worth a look. But it is not scale-able (you have only so much free time for surveys), and it can get boring quickly.
I have since moved on to building long term assets that can generate meaningful income for years to come, which I’ll describe in the section below. I encourage you to get started with this method if you are serious about changing your financial life.
Harder But Life-Changing Method: Affiliate Marketing
Gurus on the internet make it sound extremely easy to make millions of dollars online, but I assure you that’s not the case.
I say this because I want you to be prepared for the challenge ahead. I don’t like to sugarcoat things, and if something requires hard work and dedication, I’ll present it as it is.
I have been scammed a few times by allowing myself to fall for hypes and empty promises, which motivated me to create this site (it’s mostly dedicated for exposing online scams).
In this process, I have also learned affiliate marketing and came across a good learning platform called Wealthy Affiliate that helped me make consistent income online.
Now, readers ask me why I swear by affiliate marketing but not direct sales, MLMs or even methods like Forex, binary options or day trading. After all, there are successful people in each of these ventures.
I have tried them all, and here’s my conclusion:
- Affiliate marketing is suitable for my personality. I don’t like to sell face-to-face (like direct sales) and recruit downlines / build teams (MLMs), so being totally independent is awesome for me.
- No inventory-keeping and upfront costs. Affiliate marketing means you get a share of the profit by selling other people’s products, so you don’t have to take care of inventory and customer issues.
- It doesn’t rely on luck and guesses. I can build it like a business and expect consistent income every month, which I can’t say the same for trading.
- I have total control over my time and resources. Sometimes I neglect my online business for 2 to 3 weeks during vacations, and they still generate income as per usual.
- I don’t need to hire employees. I learn and set up everything by myself, and since my websites are running 24/7, the money making process is pretty much automated. I outsource some work to freelancers from time to time, but there’s no actual need to hire a full time employee until much later.
- The income potential is enormous. Top affiliate marketers like Pat Flynn and Charles Ngo make millions of dollars from affiliate marketing per year, so the ceiling is pretty much limitless.
These are the main reasons I have stayed with affiliate marketing. While there are still a lot to learn and improve, I can rest easy knowing that this is a tried and true path, and it has worked for thousands of other people.
As I have mentioned earlier, the best place to learn about affiliate marketing is Wealthy Affiliate.
They provide free lessons and 2 free websites for you to kick start your business, and you can choose to become a paid member only when you become comfortable with it.
There is no better deal in the world of affiliate marketing.
Conclusion: Don’t Resort to Selling Food Stamps For Cash
You have many options to make an extra income. Don’t resort to selling food stamps for cash because it’s not only illegal, but at the same time you are putting yourself at a great disadvantage while doing so.
Use the food stamps for what they are meant for. Buy healthy food for yourself and your family, and seek extra income elsewhere.
You may need to put in more time and effort using the method I outlined above, but it’s far more sustainable than selling food stamps for cash. There are simply better options out there.
Leave a Reply