I have a petty vent about myself today. Went to the grocery store. I had $20 left on my EBT card, $5 in cash on the EBT card, and $7 in real cash.
So I got $20 worth of food, some paper towels and freezer bags that added up to $5, and a head of lettuce and two packs of cherry tomatoes that totaled $7. How hard can this be?
So I go to pay and surprise, surprise, I forgot that I had bought $7 worth of bacon (on sale) a couple days ago and I don't have $20 on my EBT card, I only have $13. So I had to make a quick decision and passed back the lettuce and tomatoes.
Then I was so flustered, I forgot to ask for three separate transactions. Reason being, because now all the items are totaled together. This means that I'll use the food amount up first, the cash on the EBT card up second, and then pay what's left with what cash I have in my wallet. Problem is, when the cashier does this, she needs to know
exactly how much the food amount on the card is so she can put that total in manually, or the card rejects the amount because the amount is more than what's on the card.
The only way to get the amount left on the card to be entered manually, is to run the card the first time and let it be rejected. Then we redo the transaction for the food. This is the same scenario for the cash left on the card. FINALLY, what's left over is $7 to be paid and I pay that with cash I had in my wallet. The worst thing? I had managed my money so well this month I have food to last till the middle of July and what am I buying at this store? Well, I had decided to treat myself. I was buying shrimp on sale.
So now I have had to give back two perishable food items and run 5 transactions for what normally would have been one transaction and the line had 8 people in it, all watching me use an EBT card to buy shrimp. I was so mortified.
I usually keep the previous transaction of my EBT card on my bulletin board, so I always know how much is left on it, but I had forgotten to check that day. I guess I'm not going to forget again real soon.