Posted on 10/20/2015 1:57:08 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
We have a boat that I go spend a week at a time on. I hit the 99c Only store and spend $20 and usually bring half of the food home. I buy fresh fruit and veggies in that $20 and I cook. Quickie meals but I cook.
There are a lot of better/cheaper ways to eat than a hot dog and soda from the convenience store.
Good post.
Author is under the delusion that somehow “being poor” involves living a “not poor” lifestyle....NOBODY in the USA is poor. That’s a direct benefit of capitalism. 100% of our “poor” live better than 90% of the people in the world. NOT 90% of the poor, but 90%m of the population.
Poverty is one of the most extravagant life styles there is.
It takes every penny you have to support it.
Poverty is not actually a lack of money, far from it. It is an inability or unwillingness to take control of the money that does pass through your life.
Not an income problem. It’s a spending problem.
Eggs now cost more per pound than chicken. $4 a dozen is expensive. Two years ago the $4 a dozen eggs were the ritzy ‘organic, free range, corn fed’ crap. Now, that’s the price of a dozen eggs.
I thought I’d save a ton of money by making chili in jars for the last holiday season. The beans were stupid expensive. 20 years ago, when hubs and I were broke, a pound of beans was $0.60. Now it’s $2 at walmart.
The cost of fresh produce is horrible. We’ve turned to frozen with bags of salads (less waste).
The cost of food is insane right now.
In some ways, he’s correct.
Up until a few years ago, we lived very modestly because I was raising four kids on a single income. I’m slightly over median family income.
Most of the kids have moved out so that’s easier.
But, we learned to live with less. After a while, it just becomes a lifestyle.
Food-Eat at home. Done.
Transportation. Dude, it’s a mile to work. Buy a bike at Salvation Army. I used to ride 16 miles each way to work but that was for exercise not necessity. (At $4 a gallon for gas, sometimes it was necessity. Try car pooling. Put your stupid phone in a ziplock bag.
The last brake job I did without rotors cost me about $30 and I only needed a few hand tools. Learn to do basic maintenance like that. Find a friend to teach you. I’m no mechanic, but besides rear drums, I’ve never had someone else do my brakes.
Clothes. I still buy most of my clothes at Walmart or Kohl’s. Even a cheap shirt looks good for a few wearings. Some thrift shops have great selections.
Most millenials, like this guy are absolutely useless with their hands. They have no idea how to fix the most mundane things. Here’s an idea. Try. Look it up on youtube and do what they did. The worst you’ll do is break something that’s already broken.
My kids don’t get food stamps.
My daughter just got laid off of her job a month ago and hasn’t had any luck finding a new one so far. She’s a single mom with an infant.
As of right now, she can’t get help because she hasn’t gone long enough without an income. Her job is fighting her unemployment claim.
My son has a job, but he’s not getting any hours. Because he, technically *has* a job, he doesn’t qualify for help.
Then solve the problem.
Use what freezer space you have.
Half the country has a free outdoor freezer half the year.
Cook it and refrigerate, lasting the week.
Split the purchase with others; trade.
Learn how to can and preserve.
And sometimes one solution doesn’t work for you; take the hint and find something that does.
Interesting how you skipped the other suggestions and attacked one as though it devalued all.
Solve the problem.
Nobody who is truly poor “has to buy” soda.
He lost his argument right there.
He exposed in many ways, that he didn’t have the influence of a father from the technically inclined working class in our nearly deceased private sector. Another riches to rags story, may there be tens of millions of more stories like it over the next few years. Government spending is too expensive. Embrace the collapse. Have fun. Enjoy the slide.
I just checked. Chicken is $0.48/lb. That’s so cheap you can throw half of it away and it’s still dirt cheap.
I’ve never done any wiring....ever. Have done everything else but wiring. Pulled the nav lights on our boat to reseal them for El Niño .....lol....and one of the contacts broke so I had to go buy a new set to put on. I watched a YouTube video on boat wiring....easy peasy.....took a quick trip to Harbor Freight for some butt connectors and crimpers and this 60 year old woman got out there to do it myself. All my neighbors are always amazed at the tasks I take on. I tell them my grandson told me to look on the you tubes. Lol
You seem to have missed the author’s point. The poor pay more for these fees because of add-on fees due to the inability to pay on time. If you are poor you may not have the ability to quickly pay a ticket and thus end up paying more over time.
Our present system is gamed against the Free man. Even if you have money you’re not really independent. Somebody else to watch and educate your kids, mow your lawn, make your food, etc. Even with money we are pushed toward dependence.
I think the author may be onto something, but maybe not stated in the right way.
I was watching a program about wildlife LEO’s who were crusing around and just giddy to find some bum living in a van out in the wilderness. His crime? Expired registry. The guy is gonna lose his home (the van), end up with a warrant for not paying the ticket and when all is said and done he’ll spend a weekend in jail before going into a mens shelter and then maybe welfare. It is insane.
They are the same fees, but as the author points out the margin for error is thinner, and the fees are proportionally much more damaging to someone who makes $400 a week than someone who makes $1400.00
I have been there.
What seems minor to someone who makes a decent paycheck (been there, too) takes a big bite out of a small one.
Other points: You can't take advantage of loss leaders in the grocery store if the budget is thin. You can't afford the outlay or the financing on a washer and dryer so you go to the laundromat (more expensive in time and money, but it takes the initial buy-in to get out of that rut, and if you don't have it you don't have it).
Financing can eradicate the fiscal advantage of buying a washer and dryer, too, even now. If you look at the seemingly low payments (usually weekly) for a rent to own outfit, and add them all up, the price of the appliance is far greater than if you could afford to pay cash.
There are ways out of that, but they require time, effort, and a little savvy.
Used appliances are commonly available through appliance stores and private sale. Sometimes you get a bargain, sometimes you get ripped off--and every penny counts. You still have to have the cash to get the job done. (Buy the dryer first, it saves time and will be cheaper than the washer--and you can get things done at home while the clothes dry--even sleep).
I knew a guy whose (now ex) wife would kite checks a few days before payday and race them to the bank. Their margin was thin, but got thinner when the usually small checks bounced. Collection fees on top of overdraft fees put the de facto interest rate for those 'short term loans' at 500% or more on occasion.
That is a situation to be scrupulously avoided.
Better to call the vendor and tell them you will be late, it is unavoidable, give them a date you can pay, and make sure you have it paid by then. Some will even waive late fees in that instance (another bite out of the budget). Credit cards are dangerous, too, especially at that income level.
Someone up thread said that people making that little would be getting public assistance, but that isn't a given. We're talking people who generally don't have the time to camp out at the welfare because they have a job, and they are trying to avoid being on welfare in the first place. Even if they apply, it is easy at that income level to fall through the cracks.
Often, your car books for too much (even though you got it cheap because of body damage which looks bad but it works okay)--you didn't buy it to be pretty, you bought it to get from point A to point B.
I knew a young lady who was turned down for Medicaid because of that very thing, her beater ran well, but had too high of a book value (the welfare worker would not even look at the vehicle). She would have had to sell a reliable vehicle to get assistance--with two small children, just divorced from a husband who did not pay child support to her or the other woman.
If you live someplace that has annual inspections, there is another 'fee' on top of the registration 'fee', and all those mean you don't buy food or new shoes, or whatever.
It takes real discipline to sit down and list the must pay items first, stay on budget on food, and then realize there isn't anything left over. That's discouraging.
A flat tire can eat the rest of the budget, and you end up replacing it with a used one.
Priorities become housing, transportation, food, clothing (nothing fancy), often thrift shop fare if you are lucky enough to be the right size and are there on the right day--and remember someone got rid of it because they didn't want it--so either they gained weight, lost weight, it is out of style, or has some other flaw that the previous owner didn't like. Maybe there is a difference in taste or preference and you luck out, maybe not.
You aren't poor enough to get a cell phone free, but affording one becomes a question of getting a cheapie at Walmart and buying a card every month or when the minutes run out. Bad deals are better than nothing.
Things you take for granted when you make decent money become optional when you don't, and you get looked down upon for living within your means.
What to those of us with some financial cushion is an aggravation, an inconvenience, or even a painful but not devastating loss hurts when your margins are thin and sometimes even when they are not.
For instance, I work in a blue collar environment. Ties are dangerous on an oil drilling location. "Street shoes" won't cut it.
We had a house fire a couple of years ago and my non-work wardrobe which was at home was destroyed in the fire, my work clothes were all with me on a job site. Other items took precedence, and the end result is that at a time when I should be out courting additional clients I don't even own a suit. All my field clothes are (required to be) flame resistant (NFPA 2112), and expensive enough, but not exactly the sort of upscale attire people expect you to wear on a sales call.
While a house fire is devastating in so many ways, even when you have a good income and great insurance (Yes, State Farm is really good), there are subtle ways even someone with a good income is hurt by the situation. Really nice clothing (and other items) acquired at yesterday's prices was not worth what it would take to replace it with new items of similar quality. That is the reality of depreciation.
Had I been a renter, already economically on thin ice, it would have been far more dire.
The writer understands what it is like to be on the thin side of things trying to move up, and it is some rough road.
Yes, it is more expensive to be poor. What's worse, is the marketplace is rife with people who will 'help', for a fee.
You develop some skills if you have decent mechanical ability, and DIY is the order of the day--because you can't afford otherwise.
Good points all, but what they come down to is that poverty is a hard lesson-master- which we all should know.
Learn the lesson quick or the punishment is severe.
Apply what you learn or the punishment is severe.
In the not too distant past the punishment would be death.
I think we're on our way back there.
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