*I apologize for the terrible grammar! I was in a conference call last night and I read a couple of posts that sounded emergent.*
Man. Some of you are way beyond "frugal" and are in crisis...
...I'm going to be honest, I dang near died with my one "true" bout with poverty. I've never had enough, but that period was really bad and I'd never been "there" before. I was prepped to work jobS and buckle down and blah blah blah. No one prepared me for what happens when all of that fails and there isn't a 2nd income to fall back on. (Thank you great recession.)
I had no idea where to go or what to do. I just didn't eat unless someone got worried and fed me, there wasn't anywhere to cut back except food.
Luckily I caught a small break and I went to work for HUD, the residents and clients taught me a TON of cool tricks while I scratched and clawed my way back up.
If you are not eating!!!! (alarm bells should be going off here) your job from here out is to keep as much money in your pocket as you can. Kay? That's it. Keep your money in your pocket.
You'll need money for things you can't barter for or get elsewhere, like meds or a utility bill or...
...it's not like the universe won't throw something at you just to keep it interesting.
But how do you do that?? Especially today when it costs $1700.00 just to blink?!
*Food comes from WIC or the food banks. Don't pay a dime. If your food bank is like ours, it deals to churches and then the churches hand out. Call your housing office or something like a community center to see if they have the list of churches and whatnot that run pantries. (they're not that scary... just call)
*Then since you already have the churches on the phone, see what funding and clothes closets you can tap. Sometimes they can even help with a minor repair or a gas card or rent assistance so you can keep that money in your pocket as well.
*Your state should have something like 211. Call and see what services are available. They'll send a packet in the mail for you to fill out. There's no first come first serve, you just wait for the paperwork in the mail and send it back with documentation of your income and assets. When they're done with your paperwork, they put you on what they can (usually medical, dental, food, and vision) and then they put you on waitlists or point you to waitlists for the rest. (Except housing, each area has their own entity so that'll all be handled locally.)
*15 year olds can work, they won't die, most of us survived it anyway - tell them to enjoy pre-15 because birthday's are coming up and if they want the **** kicks or the fancy butt jeans they need to earn it. Most parents won't take their kids' money, but the money they earn is less you have to come up with.
*Get on fb and search for local freebie sites. See who is giving away what. You may not need it, but can you buy it cheap, fix it up, and turn it for a small profit? Don't knock an extra $7, if you do that 4 times, you have a decent fruit and veggie haul. Fruits and veggies keep the doctors away.
You have a little grocery money now, plus the food bank donation. All that did was refill the pantry though. You still need to work a few things -
*Meat is for weekends. Weekdays are pastas, salads, bean soups, buddah bowls, oats, sandwiches, grains, etc. You don't need dairy either. A little butter here or there is whatever, but $9 eggs and $15 butter and $87 coffee creamer is pointless if it's half your food budget. Give it up til things even out, your stomach and blood pressure will thank you. Do these two things and you'll slice your grocery bill in half. That's more money.
And you're probably thinking, "I have food now...
...calm down."
But do you have a spare tire or a broken wrist?? Do you have a vet bill? Dentist? With your face all throbbing and you want to throw up from pain?
Get a couple hundred in savings before anything else. Emergencies happen to people that don't have any money.
It gets easier after:
*This is where you get some of your life back without going crazy.
*You need internet, get the cheapest package - you need to pay bills, kids need to upload homework, downtime comes to EVERY income bracket, it's okay to stream. Netflix police are not going to bang the door down.
*Before you do that though, call around your city govt offices, lots of places have grants in place to offer broadband to school aged kids. Not even a discount - FREE.
*Just remember you don't need 18 streaming packages.
Two at a time are fine. When you've burned them out, cut them and add 2 more. Rotate packages.
Don't stray from your job. Keep your money in your pocket. Don't get lax.
If you have a student in the family with a student email address, tap every student discount you can. Internet, phone, streaming package, etc. You're going to have them anyway, get them at a discount. Save that money for something else.
You have get out of crisis mode first. You have to.
You can't stay there, it's not healthy. One bad day is going to tank you and then you're really in trouble. You need to hustle and get help before the bad day comes so it's only a minor annoyance when it shows up.
Start with phone calls.
We're all a tad grumpy, we don't make enough, it's 400 people to us, and there aren't enough hours in the day - but we've been here. It's why we do the jobs we do. We're in a good spot and we're bringing people out of the hole with us. ❤
just. call.
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2023-04-01, 20:43
My book will not be a "how to" book. It is a "what" book.
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