Living that right now too with the added fun of going to college and each trip costing $5 in gas. Friday night (one of my classes is in the evening) about 10 pm I ran out of gas on the way home. Had a nice sveral mile walk through the dark creepy country side. it’s only 25 miles round trip and I put $5 in. Wasn’t enough I guess.
Living off roman noodles. Yesterday I splurged and got the last loaf of .89 cent of discount bread out of the freezer for a change. Today managed to get a little money and splurged on some store brand pop and a .59 cent can of tuna, and some butter so the potatoes aren’t so dry. Squeezed out the juice for my kitty and ate it straight out of the can with a fork. There’s just things in fish that help to keep your brain running sharp I think cause I was really feeling out of it earlier.
Thinking alot clearer now, and feeling alot happier thanks to that. People not in poverty don’t realize how a little pop, abit of fish, or just an otherwise small tread can really help your mood.
Put some gas in my car too. Oh I can’t wait till all my classes are earlier in the day. Then I can start biking when the weather is good and we can use the freed up gas money for food. (I’d bike now but with back country drivers biking at night around would be suicidal)
Really hoping I can find a job when I get my electronics repair certification. Problems like this are my motivation to work hard at school. It’d really suck if I ended up still unemployable.
Anyway let me add to the list if you don’t mind:
poverty sucks because you have to give money your belly needs to the greedy oil people
Every budget needs a little give. If you couldn’t splurge on soda or chocolate or whatever(especially when it is on sale) every now and again the day to day grind would catch up with you mighty fast. I wish more people understood that.
When you are poor you HAVE to stay healthy. The majority of bankruptcies are health related.
Then there is dental. Your teeth suffer. You can sometimes get medical help but dental is hard to come by. That is why there is so much bad teeth in the poor. Pull it or get a root canal. Root canal 1000 bucks. Many poor have missing teeth.
Yeah. That’s why I spent $115 on the dentist recently instead of $50 on a live-trap cage for the feral cat tearing up my garden. I can replace vegetables a hell of a lot easier than I can replace my teeth.
That goes for mental health assistance as well. Poverty can be soul-crushing. To someone who already suffers from depression and suicidal ideation, it can be devastating in long-lasting ways. Getting regular therapy and medication that’s affordable is a difficult and drawn-out process that exacerbates the problem.
Hey, I didn’t fry my bologna… that spends energy! And oil! (I don’t fry with butter)
It sucks to be unemployed, no source of income, watching your savings get smaller and smaller and smaller and ever smaller because you’re quite literally eating them, and having to get interview clothes which you will only use for job interviews and make you look like shit but hey, it’s a professional kind of shit, and having to bum rides to your interview from friends and heck I was lucky in that I was able to bum those rides and then someone comes and tells you you’ve got it so good cos your parents paid to send you to school here see… uh, no, I paid for school by teaching thank you, something that half the so-called teachers weren’t willing to do…
I really appreciate the thought and bless your heart for it, but that was just a rough patch. I have things sorted for now. Thank you very much though:)
Good to hear. But should you need it, drop me a line. We’re always walking a fine line ourselves, but I believe in sharing, and at least here we have a very good food bank, as well as a very stocked freezer. Good luck.
Actually, I didn’t like your post, either. It sounded like you were dissing folks who were poor and then snuck in that little disclaimer so you wouldn’t get called on it. I am glad you were called on it.
It seems the concept of less eligibility is pervasive in our culture.
Just wait, one day when you manage to get out of poverty, the same ilk who think it their business to approve or disapprove your grocery purchases will grouse about how since you are no longer poor that you were just pretending to be poor previously or were poor of your own free will so you could sucker people out of money. Which really sucks, but not as much as being poor.
I know someone who lost all of her teeth because she was poor and pulling them was cheaper. During this spot of poverty. she managed to own a computer, an ancient but functioning discard, and get Internet access via student connections IIRC. The skills she developed and honed then are partially responsible for her making more than I do now.
I was poor until I graduated college, but only had to go on food stamps the last year of college. One of my fellow students was horrified and told me if I had any morals, I would drop out of college and get a job so that I would not be sponging off the state. Of course this was among the very worst things I could have done as it would leave me even further in debt as I would have had to pay back many of the grants I had, and left me with no way to earn much of a living, but I am sure he felt righteous and wise telling me what I should do.
geezus! Broomstick has a problem that is most likely temporary. She is smart and will get out of it. I mentioned what allowed me to get out the same fucking problem. I didn’t have money and then lose it. I never had money and had to figure out how to get it. In my case, it was through education (wow, such a revelation that the educated have a better chance of not being poor than the ignorant). In her case, maybe there is some other solution if she already does have education. Maybe she is trying to market herself in an area where there isn’t much of a market for her skills and a better solution for her would be to move to another location that would employ her. I don’t know, because that is up to her to figure out and I wish her all the best. At no point did I wish to slag her or anyone else, well until now. I was relating my experiences that ONLY applied to me, as I said in the original message and later. So, if you still think I was being rude, or condescending, or what have you, then you can go fuck yourself, buddy. Got it? (Yeah, of course not).
That other student was an idiot. One of those people that can’t think things trough apparently. I bet they applied for a federal grant though. Quiting school for the reason that you are getting food assistance is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard in a while.
One of life’s greatest pleasures is just pointing out how some judgmental idiot is wrong right to their face.
Sadly the shock of the stupidity stuff like that is usually enough to render your telling them off to staircase wit after you process it.
Another stupid thing he failed to consider. You prolly paid back whatever you collected in food stamps many times over with the taxes on your increased salary.
Yes sir sponging off the state by paying all that money into the tax fund. How you sleep at night?
Yes I told him that, right then and there. I told him that I had signed papers that obligated me to stay in school or payback the money, money that had been paid to the college and would not be returned if I dropped out. I also pointed out that I was already working as many hours as I could at the school, and my husband was working 40 hours a week as an auditor for a hotel, but we could not afford to eat without assistance.
He kept repeating his argument that what I was doing was wrong, and that the right thing to do was to not take handouts from the government. Nothing I said even made an impression on him.
Good luck.