My take on living under the poverty level

I am on disability, I live under the poverty level.

I was lucky enough to be able to build a home and get a new automobile a few months before I hit the "below the poverty level".  I paid for these in cash, therefore no money was left.

I pay insurance on my life, car, home, flood.  I pay taxes in my property, I pay standard bills.  Yes, I do have a cell phone, since I am in a wheelchair I feel safer with one when I have to get out to shop for groceries or go to the doctor.  It, cable tv and the internet are my luxury items of life. 

I worry each day that I wake up about making sure bills are paid, I have enough left over to pay for a doctor appointment or medications I may need.

If I eat out it is perhaps three times a year if I have to pay for myself.  There is no money left over for such frivolity.  The cost of one fast food meal can feed me for four days if I eat at home. 

People who want to write about being able to survive on an income below the poverty level, should actually have to consider the standard bills someone who is living on that income has.

The cost of gas has kept my driving down to less than three thousand miles a year for two years.  I only leave my home for groceries or to do to the doctor, otherwise I need the gas money for bills. 

If you really want to know the true cost of trying to survive, sit with someone who does it every day.  Do not project what you believe to be the real time way of it. 

I guess since I don't have unreported income (usually not gotten in a legal manner, of course if it is unreported it is always illegal), I don't have relatives paying for extras, then I can tell you that doing it and just believing that you can are two different animals in this world.

Of my "luxury" items, the cable will be the first to go within the next couple of years.  The cost is too high and rising.  I will probably go back to dial up rather than $24.95 dsl.  The one thing I will not give up is the cell phone.  It is the only safeguard I have if I fall or have a medical problem.

Too some here who eat out regularly, and still try to give advice, rethink your writings.  Sit down do an excel spreadsheet, then start poormouthing the fact that you are broke.  Figure out where each and every penny you spend goes.  Keep a diary, you will find you waste a lot of money and then want to whine about being broke.  Stop your damn whining.

Thanks to those who stayed around to the final end of this, I feel better doing my whining. I will stop now.

Hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful day.