How to Get Cash from Food Stamps: 2 Legal Ways

Wondering how to get cash from food stamps cards? Sure, most people will tell you this is impossible without TANF benefits… but we’ve found a few savvy shopping techniques that can help you get cash from your food stamps funds!

Just like everything else we publish here at LowIncomeRelief.com, this information is 100% legal and 100% accurate. We’ve done a lot of research on these topics and we are committed to never publishing anything that is illegal or unethical. In fact, we’ve even done some of these techniques ourselves.

So how does this work? Easy! The cash doesn’t come from your food stamps balance – it’s just a bonus! With these techniques, you’ll still get to spend every penny of your food stamps balance… and you’ll get extra cash to buy other essentials! This money doesn’t come from the government and isn’t part of your food stamps allotment at all.

Don’t forget to check out this post, which can show you how to get 300+ freebies and deals with your EBT card!

Here’s how to get cash from food stamps.

If you’re wondering how to get cash from food stamps, then the answer depends on where you shop. We’ve found special techniques for Walmart and Costco shoppers, and one catch-all solution that works almost everywhere else!

Use Ibotta to get cash back!

You can use rewarded shopping apps like Ibotta to get cash back on your purchases from hundreds of different retailers! In fact, Ibotta works with over 150 grocery stores, from ACME to Wood’s Supermarket. Since their service focuses on claiming rewarded shopping offers and submitting receipts, you can use it with your EBT purchases.

There’s no better “how to get cash from food stamps” trick than that. Sign up with this link and you’ll get a welcome bonus if you redeem your first offer within a certain period of time.

Please note that you will have to redeem your first offer before the welcome bonus appears. Your first offer must be redeemed within 30 days. Unfortunately, “any brand” and “any receipt” offers do not count toward the welcome bonus.

Costco shoppers can get reward checks of up to $1,000!

This strategy is a little more complicated and requires a little more patience to yield results. However, since I have a larger family, I found this to be the most effective way of getting cash from my food stamps funds.

When we received our tax return, we bought an Executive Membership to Costco. The executive membership provides a 2% reward on all Costco purchases. Since we received approximately $550 per month in food stamps, we were able to earn up to $11 per month from our food stamps purchases. That’s $132 per year in extra money, just from our food stamps card. We also bought items like diapers and wipes at Costco, which increased our total reward check.

The check will arrive about six weeks before the end of your membership. You can use it to renew your membership or use it to shop at Costco! It’s not exactly cash, but it was my favorite method to get cash from food stamps.

Shop at Walmart? Get Walmart e-gift cards from your receipts.
Walmart Savings Catcher will be discontinued effective May 14, 2019. Review the article above to discover the two ways you can still get cash back from food stamps!

One of our readers, Nicole, shared this information with us:

“I love the Walmart Savings Catcher App! I have been using it since they switched from taking local ads to strictly using the app and to date I have saved $437.84! Those Walmart Bucks have saved the day on more than one occasion. I have two toddlers and I am ALWAYS buying diapers and wipes. The app is so easy to use and you receive the difference on an e gift card within 3 days of submission. Bonus: all of your receipts are saved on your app, so if you have to return something you don’t need to worry about saving the paper receipt.

The only drawback is you can’t just let the money sit there and build up, if you don’t spend it after a certain amount of time it’s removed from the e-gift card. It would have been nice to save it for the holidays.”

At the end of October, we were notified that the Savings Catcher would only be available with Walmart Pay. We knew this would adversely affect many of our readers, so we brought this issue to the attention of Walmart’s Media Relations department.

On October 30, 2018, I received the following email from Erin Hulliberger from the Walmart Corporate Communications office:

“Hi Nicole,

Since Walmart Pay is the exclusive to redeem Savings Catcher rewards for in-store purchases, as of October 29, we’re making Walmart Pay the exclusive way to submit purchases to Savings Catcher. This new process will allow all Savings Catcher users to seamlessly and consistently submit and spend rewards within the same convenient Walmart Pay experience.

That said, we understand some shoppers may be required to use methods such as EBT that are currently incompatible with Walmart Pay. These customers may contact Customer Care at 1.800.Walmart for details on how they can continue to participate in the Savings Catcher program for eligible items.”

If you’ve been discouraged by the recent changes to the Savings Catcher, don’t lose hope! Just reach out to Customer Care and they should be able to help you.

Looking for even more ways to save money? Click here!

Nicole Thelin

Nicole is the founder and lead researcher of Low Income Relief. After a personal experience with poverty and homelessness following her husband's sudden medical discharge from the U.S. Army, Nicole discovered the life-changing impact of community resources. This experience ignited her passion for empowering others to navigate similar crises. Nicole launched her writing career at age 16, working for various newspapers and publications. Her commitment to in-depth research and accessible content has been recognized by Google for Publishers and other industry leaders. For over 20 years, she has applied her investigative skills to uncover the most helpful, up-to-date information on benefits programs and community resources, ensuring Low Income Relief maintains the most extensive resource databases available.