The Last Day of the Month...

Cheer up; with the Bushco Rebate check (divided by 52 weeks) you will have (sit down and hold on) $11.54 more each week!!!

I feel for you...and I know the feeling well. There have been times I've been able to afford a loaf or bread and a jar of peanut butter...and that's all I've had to eat for an entire week. I'm not quite that bad off at the moment with food in the cupboard and some money in my pocket. But I spent two months in the hospital, so I didn't spend any money to have some now, nor did I eat any of my good so there's still some in stock. However, I don't have the money for medication or to pay a doctor or for a new leg. If they ever get my insurance straightened out, I can get them. In the meantime, I've gone without for almost a month because I can't cover those costs. And I only get a $300 rebate check because I'm disabled...and I guess that means I don't need as much money to get by on.

Thanks, Jim, James & Rob... I really wasn't complaining as much as "throwing it out there" to see how other people were faring in these time...

I sympathize, Rob... My husband is also disabled (100% VA)... I remember many years ago when all I had in my cupboard was rice and ketchup and that's all I had to eat for a month or more...

James: Hey... I'd settle for that $11.54 right now... with gusto...

Stock up on rice and beans for next month.

While you're waiting for the check you might try reading Invisible Hand to see how things could be done instead. Of course if you like living on the edge of hunger...

Please don't resort to eating the lizards. ;)

Good Luck, Jean!

Jean, I remember times like that when we were just married in the military and I'd open the refrigerator and it would be virtually empty, not really enough food left in the house for two people to have a nice dinner.

I'd rejoice when they released the check a day before payday and I remember standing in line at the commissary -outside- patiently waiting to get in to grocery shop.

He's passed away now (100% VA) - you can't live or die from the widows pension, not at todays rent and food and gas prices. So it's a good thing I found ways to supplement my income. Beyond that, I was just plain lucky to find a good man (or rather he found me) and we are not hurting in any way and share our good fortune when we can.

I am very fortunate, if you want to know how I fare - I am doing fine. There was a lot of turmoil in my life and my life certainly had some doozies of unexpected twists and strange, terrible and wonderful surprises.

I am sorry to hear that the budget is so tight and glad to hear that at least it is just enough. I know you are smart and resourceful and I saw that you do grow some of your own, so I think you'll do just fine.

Recession - what recession?

Larry,
Thank-you for your comment and for reading my article. Unfortunately, when one's sole income is a small fixed amount from the government, one is always "living on the edge of hunger"... Truth be told, MOST people are only one or two paychecks away from that edge themselves... Many are also deeply in debt to credit card companies and lending institutions. My husband and I don't have those problems because we cannot afford any credit cards, to buy a home or new vehicles. Our vehicles are 13 and 23 years old, respectively, and we pay $500/mo. in rent. We stock up on rice and beans EVERY month; unfortunately, the rise in gas prices has eaten up enough of our income that we are being pushed closer and closer to that "edge" every hour...

Michael, EEEEeeeuuuwwww! I don't THINK so! ;o)

Rose, both my husband and I very "resourceful" so, as resources dry up in one area, we simply find other ones to replace them... We will survive, no question about that... We are both offsprings of "good stock" in the gene pool and incredibly "tough"! :o) I'm glad that you are doing well... I'm glad for anyone who is doing well in these times. (Well... Let me "qualify" that statement to say "anyone except for those at the helms of incredibly greedy corporations that are squeezing the rest of us dry"...)

My kids receive a healthy SS Survivor Benefit since their father died. If I relied on that, and nothing else, we'd be severely you-know-whatted. At leat this anti-recession we're living in is probably helping me stave off Alzheimer's, with all the creative thinking I get to do...

Sorry about all of this, Jean. If you're anywhere near me, I'll come pick you up and you and the man can have a lovely dinner with us!

Uh, wait -- I'm Kansas. You're Cali -- ain't gonna work. But if we were closer, I'd definitely have you over for dinner!

i pray things will improve

Oh, and Rose, my mother has been living on a widow's pension from the Army since 1955 when my father passed away!

Bless your HEART, Joy! That's an incredibly sweet thing to say! (Don't worry, I won't "pass it around" that you're saying sweet things... ;o) )

All prayers accepted and appreciated, Diana... It'll be okay... :o)

Crazy Pants is SO busted being nice (again)! Jean, I think we've all been there at one time or another . . . and you have my prayers and best wishes. Funny how GwB thinks if he doesn't use the 'R' word somehow everything won't be so bad while those of us actually living in the economy really don't care WHAT word they call this . . . what is it now . . . economic downturn?

Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~

This is where the saying "I'm poor and I got it like that" comes in.

Blessings my sister.

Crazy Pants is SO busted being nice (again)!

Shhhhhhh! There are those here that would run you through if they heard that sort of blasphemy!

Funny how GwB thinks if he doesn't use the 'R' word somehow everything won't be so bad

There is no monster under my bed...
There is no monster under my bed...
There is no monster under my bed...
There is no monster under my bed...

UH-OH! Doyle busted us, Joy! I'm laughing my BUTT off right now!

Bless all of you, my sisters and brothers... Joy, Doyle, Sharon, Melinda... You bring tears to these old eyes even while I'm cracking up over your posts... :^D

Beans, beans the magical fruit.....

is what you need to stock up on with next month's check. I remember when Papa and I were graduate students we ate beans and rice for two whole years. I used to take baby Will shopping and we would spend hours in the fresh fruit section munching on grapes and strawberries and anything else that was easy to pick!

Been there, done that. Right now, with me not working (and usually, in his way, K encourages me NOT to), I feel bad bringing up ANY groceries.

We actually shop at flea markets for part of our groceries, and that's where anything namebrand comes from. We'll be growing all our own fresh stuff this year. I don't know what we'll do as gas price goes up. They're predicting ten dollar a gallon gas by next summer... :-(

When we were young 'uns and my husband was first in the Army, we had some down right strange meals on those nights before payday. I remember cooking things like pancakes with broccoli, chicken soup and stuffing, hot dogs and boiled noodles with butter, fried bologna and baked squash - oh the list is endless. We Army wives got very creative the day before payday.

Thanks, Elizabeth...
I guess you didn't read my post back to "Larry"... We DO stock up on rice and beans every month... They just didn't last the month out this month...

I don't know what we'll do, either, Lisa, if gas gets to that amount... We are MILES from any grocery stores, family, friends, drug stores, etc.

Everyone,

I'm not "new" to living like this, ya know. I've been poor my whole life (except in my mid 20s to mid 30s when I was working for the marketing dept of a large company and was very well paid...).

I was raised on my mother's Army widow's pension and a tiny bit from Soc. Sec. (we ate tuna a lot) and I ate vermicelli with tomato sauce on it all the way through college... I fed a family of 5 (3 of them grown men) on next to nothing when I was married to my daughter's father.

With the exception of those 10 years when I was flush and had credit cards and a nice car, etc., I've existed from hand to mouth (if it was a good month) most of my life. The only new clothes I've gotten in 10 years is one outfit that my husband bought me for my birthday 5 years ago. I go to the Goodwill once or twice a year or get given clothes by my friends. I haven't been to a beauty parlor or anything like that since I was a KID...

I'm used to this kind of economy -- it's "status quo"... I wasn't complaining... REALLY I wasn't! Just "telling it like it is"...

I'm an "Army brat" myself, Vicky! :o)

I don't think anyone thinks you're complaining. We are identifying with you. We have been living in the same world you are discribing.

I've had some rediculously hard times, all my life. Some times I wonder how I've come this far, as well as I have. The last 7 years have been unussually better, for me.

Not that I haven't had to pinch the pennies, and even had to go out insearch of those pennies, on the ground, so I'd have some to rub together. It's just not seemed to be quite so hard. Not really sure why, except, I quit caring about a lot of things.

When I quit caring, I seemed to have lost fear, embarrasment, shame, guilt. These things just went away, and with it, so much of my sufferring.

What I'm left with, is the creativity I have had, all along, which is what I'd been surving on, all this time.

Jean, when the money comes, buy one more bag, each, of beans and rice than you did last month, and keep doing what you are doing, cause that's what has kept you going, all this time. Lean on your creativity, and where-with-all. You have good instincts. You'll know what to do, when the time comes, I'm sure.

For the future, give Larry's book, Invisible Hand. It's got a really truly new, fresh idea, and may be what saves the people of this country, when things worsen. Plus, it also a very good read, anyway.

Larry also has a group called POM Education, which covers different aspects of how his idea would positively affect different issues we all face, today, in our everyday, life experience. Healthcare, crime, marriage, and divorce, jobs, economy, immigration, government, education, and more.

I feel you. . . we live paycheck to paycheck, its been a rough month. I am hoping May is a lot better. Our fridge is starting to look a little bare too. I am making a list of pantry friendly foods to stock up on when The Bushco's magic money (that was mine to start with ugh) shows up. I'm usually a picky eater, but I am going to learn to eat easy to keep, easy to cook foods with this craptastic economy.

regarding tuna, I wish I could stock up on it, but since It will kill me (deadly food allergy for me) I am looking to stock up on slightly more expensive canned chicken and salmon.

Thank-you, Dorothy, for your thoughtful comment... I appreciate it... I really do...

"Craptastic" is a great word for it, Heather... I like that... The tuna is for me and the cat -- Hubby does peanut butter... lol... (That's cuz he's from "Jawja"...) ;o)

Dear Jean, to some degree most of us feel that we are going down a lonely
road less traveled. If it wasn't for the VA Medical benefits for my wife and I,
we wouldn't be able to afford beans and rice. Please LOL!

We are by no means complaining, as I'm fairly sure that you are expressing
your futal conditions. As a 100% disabled combat veteran, whose only income
is the VA Disability monthly payments, the escalating cost of gas, food, and just breathing is forcing many families into financial catastrophies.

A lot of us will now have to stock up on "more Beans and Rice."
You will be in Our Prayers.
E. Everett and Jessica McFall

Thank you so much, Mr. and Mrs. McFall... I know that you both can put yourselves right into our shoes... I appreciate your prayers and you will both be in mine...

And, Ed, I'm so sorry that I somehow missed thanking you for your comment, as well... and I agree most heartily...

Jean - These words of yours, left in a comment, are SO true: "one is always "living on the edge of hunger"... Truth be told, MOST people are only one or two paychecks away from that edge themselves..."

We've been there ourselves and are grateful to be past that point, for now. However, we volunteer to work with homeless people, providing respite when the parents need a break, taking families to the local community center so their kids can play basketball, take a swim and (most important to most) get a nice, hot shower (the homeless shelter doesn't guarantee hot water so this is a luxury).

It angers me when people get judgmental about homeless people because a large number of them have college degrees and have worked hard for much of their lives. A house fire, cancer or anything that wipes out savings is all it takes to put someone on the streets. It could happen to many of us.

Sorry to go off on a rant.

Not at ALL, JC... I am in tune with you TOTALLY... Did you ever read my article

Hospitality of the Homeless

???

Jean - Not sure but will go check it out.

By the way, I do not want to sound as though having a college degree is a be all and end all. My point in throwing that into my comment was to dispel yet another myth about the homeless - that they are all high school dropouts or unable to hold their own educationally. Many very smart people (as defined by conventional and unconventional standards)can end up homeless.

Absolutely, JC... It boils down to this: Homeless people are just like any other segment of the population... Some are smart, some are dumb, some are honest, some are not, some are well-educated, some not -- they're just PEOPLE like everybody else... But what they AREN'T are "roles" they are actual, living, breathing people of all kinds just like the people of Gather are or the people at the PTA are or the people at the corner bar are or anyplace else you want to mention... just... plain... people...