Monday, September 26, 2016
Sorry, cannot read on Youtube right now.
So, I cannot read. It is because of a recent update to windows 10, and I am by far not the only person with this problem. launcher_main.exe stopped issues is widespread, and because of Windows 10 Anniversary Edition Update Issue. According to Microsoft, they intend to fix their error sometime in September, so I have been waiting all week, but nothing, so, basically, I am sorry. I will read when they fix it. My drivers are all up to date, but Microsoft decided to make an update with no support of compressed MJPG and H.264 streams for webcams :(
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Saving up with a strict budget and low income
Making less than 1k a month means not only living on a small budget, but also making it work for the 'extra' things in life. Things happen. Stuff goes wrong. Emergencies appear. The stuff besides normal bills. Here are some ways we avoid them being unmanageable.
Firstly, the car. I paid 5k for my car. I paid cash. My previous one had been totaled in a crash, and that gave me 2500 from the insurance company for my old car, which had been an impala. I had to use my saved up money to foot the rest for this car, but it has been the best car I have ever had. It never has leaked oil or antifreeze, like my two previous cars, and it has yet to have broken down on me, or refuse to start for no reason. I appreciate my car, even though I had to use up my whole savings at the time to get it. It is a grand am.
Now, the thing is, this isn't a new shiny car. This car is 15 years old. It has no special features, but it functions, frustration free, for the most part. To me, that is worth more than any amount of amenities. My car is reliable.
To avoid having to pay as much for repairs, here are some things I do for the upkeep of my car, since it takes me a looooong time to save up bulk money, being so low income.
Firstly, years ago, I bought a free oil change certificate. It was 500 bucks up front, but it lasts thru 2019, free oil changes whenever I need, which is typically 3 or 4 times a year, because I really don't drive often, so sometimes need one less often. I bought it in 2011. 27 bucks for an oil change (at the place I get mine done at that is the cost for one if I didn't have my free thingie) times even just 3 oil changes a year is 81 dollars. 81 dollars times 8 years is 648 bucks. Again, that is if I only get 3 oil changes, which many years I have gotten 4.
I saved over 150 bucks in the long run. I never have to worry now about coming up with the money every 3 to 4 months for another oil change. I never have to deal with that tiny bit of stress, and my car, she always has no reason to suffer because I had to stretch out until I could find the money, or time, to take her to get her oil changed. Working part time, and living off of that, instead of full time, means more time for things like appointments, and less distress about having to do things like that.
Another thing I do, is utilize my dad. My father works for a large company that runs huge trucks, fork lifts, and so on. They have a 25% discount on all parts. The employees, as part of working there, get to utilize that for themselves and their own vehicles, and so my dad can order any car, truck, or whatever part, and get 25% discounted off from the business price for the parts that is discounted in the first place.
I realize not everyone has this, but it helps a lot. You cannot avoid that a mechanic will want man hours for working, but you can avoid having to be price gouged on car stock. I only didn't use my dad's discount one time, and they wanted over 1k, for the repairs, for parts my dad said later were worth maybe 200 bucks. I learned my lesson. Don't let mechanics tell you stuff that pressures you into buying from them. If they won't work with you, don't stay. Providing my own parts for repairs is a huge life saver. Even if you cannot get a 25% off discount, it is still saving you the 100 buck average added on for the mechanic place buying and ordering for you, and then choosing high cost brands, if you bring your own parts.
Another thing, is learn how to do really simple things yourself. They wanted me to pay almost 80 bucks to put in an air filter. I bought one at Walmart for 8 bucks and put it in myself. I bought a thing of antifreeze, and a thing of oil, and if my fluids need topped off, I can do it, and don't have to worry about my car needing repaired sooner because it didn't have what it needed. (Always half your antifreeze with water. Never buy the premixed stuff. You are paying extra for WATER)
I air my own tires. I know how to change a tire. I am NOT a mechanic. I couldn't tell you how to do most things, but I can buy my own spark plugs and put them in, tell if they are doing well by being cocoa brown, and save a bundle. Most simple things like that there are how to vids on youtube for. Seriously, save the money, put in half an hour or less of effort.
Say, it isn't the car, but something else you are saving for. My hair. I take my own dye. 6 bucks for the box of dye saves me 40 bucks off my hair salon bill. I only get my hair dyed when I can afford it, even though I love it being blue. I have my own shaving clippers and that way have to get my hair cut less often. Providing the dye is the same concept as providing the part. Don't pay them for their expensive stuff when you can save the money.
I don't get my nails done, drink coffee, or go drinking. Those are all costs I almost don't see. I do go out to eat probably 4 to 5 times a year, but restaurant food is usually not as healthy for a person, so we avoid it for that reason as much as the money, and when we do go out to eat, we get meals that are huge serving sizes, so we can doggie bag it home and make a second meal out of it. We go to the movies probably 4 times a year, and we don't buy popcorn or soda pop there, but just enjoy the movie. We save up for something fun each summer, like a trip to a national park, or amusement park, or something. The rest all goes toward presents, because I have a huge family, and so birthdays and Christmas add up, but again, I do Bing searches, Microsoft rewards and get amazon money to help with that cost. 5 bucks a month helps. Everything adds up.
If I need new shoes or clothes, those tend to be what I ask for as presents for my own birthday/Christmas list. I can make bath salts, cleaner, laundry soap, so on. Most of those things are super easy and cheap to make. I do not use a vacuum, because our carpet is so shallow, so only need to sweep.
Using a flashlight for light at night or the light from the computer screen/tv screen instead of turning on lights for every little thing, or worse, just leaving them on, is just good sense to me. My eyes are sensitive to light anyhoo, so I don't use lights, but my wife, she needs light at night sometimes, and those are the things she uses. Batteries usually last most of the year, versus adding cost to our electric bill. I already said we don't keep things plugged in.
We are both homebodies, so we don't like going out to stuff. Neither of us are into clubs, bars, hangouts, and such. We like spending our time together, and we like cheap/ free entertainment. Honestly, with having internet, you can find almost any kind of game, show, articles, comedy, comics, books, or whatever for free. Why pay for cable? Why spend extra on a magazine? Why rob yourself for things you don't need to?
We don't wear make up. It isn't good for your skin unless you buy the sunscreen crap that costs way too much, so why bother? We don't buy jewelry, or hardly wear that. Most of what I have is from when I was a teenager or from my early 20s. We walk if a place is close, instead of driving just because it would be faster. Working part time, again, I get that luxury. I don't have to rush through everything. I can hold hands with my wife and walk 10 minutes instead of hurrying over if we want.
We have a cat. We save on cat treats by buying a small bag of cat food, and she thinks it is a treat to eat them because it is not her normal food. 5 bucks for a bag of food is cheaper than 1 or 2 bucks for a tiny bag of actual treats. My wife 'treats' our cat probably 2 or 3 times a day, and she can give the cat several of the 'treats' instead of just one. Our cat is happy and doesn't know the difference. We use old hair ties, milk rings, small boxes with treats in them, and strings with feathers on the end for toys. Why buy a fake mouse she won't even play with? Just be careful if your cat is a string eater. Our cat doesn't eat it at all.
I am paperless on most bill pays because a lot of places will actually discount you for doing so. Not my rent, though. They want an extra amount to pay that online, so I take my rent check instead, because it is much cheaper. I notice when things do cost extra. When I signed up for my phone service, I insisted they put a block up for premium texting ON the day I opened the account. I avoided ever having to deal with it in the future. I use hydrogen peroxide to keep my kitchen drain unclogged, the sink smelling better, and it means preventing ever having to deal with my sink backing up. I wash my dishes by hand, because it is so much cheaper.
I could go on and on. There are tons of ways to make things cost you less, to avoid the cost ever coming up in the future. Prevent and avoid are my methods to saving. Saving up is much less stressful when there is less to save up for. The examples are endless, but hopefully this helps someone else get creative with their own budget.
Firstly, the car. I paid 5k for my car. I paid cash. My previous one had been totaled in a crash, and that gave me 2500 from the insurance company for my old car, which had been an impala. I had to use my saved up money to foot the rest for this car, but it has been the best car I have ever had. It never has leaked oil or antifreeze, like my two previous cars, and it has yet to have broken down on me, or refuse to start for no reason. I appreciate my car, even though I had to use up my whole savings at the time to get it. It is a grand am.
Now, the thing is, this isn't a new shiny car. This car is 15 years old. It has no special features, but it functions, frustration free, for the most part. To me, that is worth more than any amount of amenities. My car is reliable.
To avoid having to pay as much for repairs, here are some things I do for the upkeep of my car, since it takes me a looooong time to save up bulk money, being so low income.
Firstly, years ago, I bought a free oil change certificate. It was 500 bucks up front, but it lasts thru 2019, free oil changes whenever I need, which is typically 3 or 4 times a year, because I really don't drive often, so sometimes need one less often. I bought it in 2011. 27 bucks for an oil change (at the place I get mine done at that is the cost for one if I didn't have my free thingie) times even just 3 oil changes a year is 81 dollars. 81 dollars times 8 years is 648 bucks. Again, that is if I only get 3 oil changes, which many years I have gotten 4.
I saved over 150 bucks in the long run. I never have to worry now about coming up with the money every 3 to 4 months for another oil change. I never have to deal with that tiny bit of stress, and my car, she always has no reason to suffer because I had to stretch out until I could find the money, or time, to take her to get her oil changed. Working part time, and living off of that, instead of full time, means more time for things like appointments, and less distress about having to do things like that.
Another thing I do, is utilize my dad. My father works for a large company that runs huge trucks, fork lifts, and so on. They have a 25% discount on all parts. The employees, as part of working there, get to utilize that for themselves and their own vehicles, and so my dad can order any car, truck, or whatever part, and get 25% discounted off from the business price for the parts that is discounted in the first place.
I realize not everyone has this, but it helps a lot. You cannot avoid that a mechanic will want man hours for working, but you can avoid having to be price gouged on car stock. I only didn't use my dad's discount one time, and they wanted over 1k, for the repairs, for parts my dad said later were worth maybe 200 bucks. I learned my lesson. Don't let mechanics tell you stuff that pressures you into buying from them. If they won't work with you, don't stay. Providing my own parts for repairs is a huge life saver. Even if you cannot get a 25% off discount, it is still saving you the 100 buck average added on for the mechanic place buying and ordering for you, and then choosing high cost brands, if you bring your own parts.
Another thing, is learn how to do really simple things yourself. They wanted me to pay almost 80 bucks to put in an air filter. I bought one at Walmart for 8 bucks and put it in myself. I bought a thing of antifreeze, and a thing of oil, and if my fluids need topped off, I can do it, and don't have to worry about my car needing repaired sooner because it didn't have what it needed. (Always half your antifreeze with water. Never buy the premixed stuff. You are paying extra for WATER)
I air my own tires. I know how to change a tire. I am NOT a mechanic. I couldn't tell you how to do most things, but I can buy my own spark plugs and put them in, tell if they are doing well by being cocoa brown, and save a bundle. Most simple things like that there are how to vids on youtube for. Seriously, save the money, put in half an hour or less of effort.
Say, it isn't the car, but something else you are saving for. My hair. I take my own dye. 6 bucks for the box of dye saves me 40 bucks off my hair salon bill. I only get my hair dyed when I can afford it, even though I love it being blue. I have my own shaving clippers and that way have to get my hair cut less often. Providing the dye is the same concept as providing the part. Don't pay them for their expensive stuff when you can save the money.
I don't get my nails done, drink coffee, or go drinking. Those are all costs I almost don't see. I do go out to eat probably 4 to 5 times a year, but restaurant food is usually not as healthy for a person, so we avoid it for that reason as much as the money, and when we do go out to eat, we get meals that are huge serving sizes, so we can doggie bag it home and make a second meal out of it. We go to the movies probably 4 times a year, and we don't buy popcorn or soda pop there, but just enjoy the movie. We save up for something fun each summer, like a trip to a national park, or amusement park, or something. The rest all goes toward presents, because I have a huge family, and so birthdays and Christmas add up, but again, I do Bing searches, Microsoft rewards and get amazon money to help with that cost. 5 bucks a month helps. Everything adds up.
If I need new shoes or clothes, those tend to be what I ask for as presents for my own birthday/Christmas list. I can make bath salts, cleaner, laundry soap, so on. Most of those things are super easy and cheap to make. I do not use a vacuum, because our carpet is so shallow, so only need to sweep.
Using a flashlight for light at night or the light from the computer screen/tv screen instead of turning on lights for every little thing, or worse, just leaving them on, is just good sense to me. My eyes are sensitive to light anyhoo, so I don't use lights, but my wife, she needs light at night sometimes, and those are the things she uses. Batteries usually last most of the year, versus adding cost to our electric bill. I already said we don't keep things plugged in.
We are both homebodies, so we don't like going out to stuff. Neither of us are into clubs, bars, hangouts, and such. We like spending our time together, and we like cheap/ free entertainment. Honestly, with having internet, you can find almost any kind of game, show, articles, comedy, comics, books, or whatever for free. Why pay for cable? Why spend extra on a magazine? Why rob yourself for things you don't need to?
We don't wear make up. It isn't good for your skin unless you buy the sunscreen crap that costs way too much, so why bother? We don't buy jewelry, or hardly wear that. Most of what I have is from when I was a teenager or from my early 20s. We walk if a place is close, instead of driving just because it would be faster. Working part time, again, I get that luxury. I don't have to rush through everything. I can hold hands with my wife and walk 10 minutes instead of hurrying over if we want.
We have a cat. We save on cat treats by buying a small bag of cat food, and she thinks it is a treat to eat them because it is not her normal food. 5 bucks for a bag of food is cheaper than 1 or 2 bucks for a tiny bag of actual treats. My wife 'treats' our cat probably 2 or 3 times a day, and she can give the cat several of the 'treats' instead of just one. Our cat is happy and doesn't know the difference. We use old hair ties, milk rings, small boxes with treats in them, and strings with feathers on the end for toys. Why buy a fake mouse she won't even play with? Just be careful if your cat is a string eater. Our cat doesn't eat it at all.
I am paperless on most bill pays because a lot of places will actually discount you for doing so. Not my rent, though. They want an extra amount to pay that online, so I take my rent check instead, because it is much cheaper. I notice when things do cost extra. When I signed up for my phone service, I insisted they put a block up for premium texting ON the day I opened the account. I avoided ever having to deal with it in the future. I use hydrogen peroxide to keep my kitchen drain unclogged, the sink smelling better, and it means preventing ever having to deal with my sink backing up. I wash my dishes by hand, because it is so much cheaper.
I could go on and on. There are tons of ways to make things cost you less, to avoid the cost ever coming up in the future. Prevent and avoid are my methods to saving. Saving up is much less stressful when there is less to save up for. The examples are endless, but hopefully this helps someone else get creative with their own budget.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Finances and Health
So, I am very blessed. Because of Obamacare, I actually get to have insurance for only the second time in my life, and because I earn so little, I get it automatically. I don't really use it much, but I have it. In fact, I have used it three times in the entire time I have had it since it first came out.
Before that, I was still poor, by typical standards, and have been my whole life. I had a job as a custodian for a while fresh out of school that had insurance, which I used twice, ever. Otherwise, I have never had it, at any job.
The time between when I went to the dentist was from age 17, the last year I was covered by being my parents' kid, and 30.
When I went, and only because I had the insurance now to do it, at 30 years old, and told them how long it had been, they were expecting a mouth like a pirate's. Instead, I had a single small cavity, it took them two searches to notice, and some tartar build up. I also had a problem that the dentist said was not my fault, but the fault of a dentist who did a (quote) "Hack Job" on my teeth. The inside of the tooth was rotting because the dentist who filled a cavity when I was 12 really messed up my tooth.
They kept telling me how impressed they were with my mouth. My enamel was good. My gums were good. They couldn't believe it.
The reason being, is that the only thing I did to protect my teeth in the entire time was to chew gum. Orbit, bubblemint. A few years before I went I did start brushing my teeth once a day, but the majority of the time, I didn't even brush. I would just chew my gum after I ate, even snacks. Of course I started that habit because of wanting to avoid bad breath, but it worked out in my favor.
The other thing, that made a HUGE difference, is that I do not drink soda pop, except maybe 2 to 4 times in a year. I do not drink coffee, and I do not smoke. I also don't eat a lot of sugar, or buy candy or ice cream very often at all.
I feel like the combination of these things is why I had such a lovely mouth. They said my tartar was about what would take an 'average' person 2 or 3 years to get. My one and only cavity was tiny. The other tooth, which is why I even went to the dentist, because it hurt, they said should have fallen out of my head. But it didn't, because it couldn't rot as quickly as they usually would anticipate. I still have the tooth, because it wasn't as bad as they thought, and they just hollowed out the middle of it, and then refilled it with white stuff.
The point is, I had ZERO dentist bills for over 10 years, and it didn't hurt my health. I know not everyone automatically falls under the Obamacare, and maybe you don't want to end up with a ton of co pays and bills. This is how you avoid the dentist- Chew a sugarless gum that increases your spit output to help destroy food particles in your mouth after each time you eat, and don't drink sugary drinks or smoke.
Some people will throw their hands up. Most people will chew gum, but I know almost no people who will give up soda pop or coffee either one. Well, I have found, the more you do, the better, but anything helps. Soda pop and coffee, but still chewing, still brushing, and not smoking, is better than nothing.
I do brush still once a day, sometimes two, if I actually remember, and I do still chew my gum after every meal. So I didn't need to go to the dentist yet since that visit. Shrug.
Now, my eyes, thankfully, are prefect in vision, just sensitive to light. I test them myself sometimes at the eye places in Walmart or other such places. I stand twice as far away as they tell you to, and twice as close, and then read the letters on the board for testing your eyesight. I have never had a problem reading any of the rows, ever. I am very blessed.
Physically, it has been the hardest. I last was able to go to the doctor's when I was 21, and could not again until 30. In all that time, I did get sick, but thankfully only once or twice a year. I also had emergencies, but I managed by myself, which I DO NOT recommend.
For instance, I was making Mac and Cheese, and I spilled the boiling water over my hand, and a little tiny bit on my foot. My skin became red and blistered, with a couple of them splitting open. It hurt like crazy. I cried, but I also shoved my hand into the freezer. I stood there, for almost 4 hours, until my hand was completely numb from the cold. Then I took some night cold medicine, to make me fall asleep, and put some Aveeno lotion in a glove for wintertime, and shoved it on my numbed hand, and then crawled into bed and slept before it started hurting again.
I still have the hand, but after doing this to myself for days, instead of getting help, for what I later found out could have been a third degree burn, I literally have killed most of the sensory in my hand. I can feel on a few places on the top of it, but most of the top is just dead feeling. I also have a rough spot on my foot that is the same, from the burn there, which was much less severe, and thankfully very small.
The point is that I didn't even think about going to a doctor because I knew I had no money. Don't do that. It is always a stupid idea. I did the same thing when I got food poisoning. I was laid out on the floor unable to move I was so sick, my dad suggesting the emergency room, and me just begging him to give me something that would make me sleep. Stupid. I don't know how I convinced him.
One time I got a bad infection from falling in a kiddie pool area chasing my nephew, and it leaving a large scrape. It got so infected it became a hole, and I cut out the infection with a knife. I have a scar, and my foot still, but that could have gone bad so quickly. Stupid.
The point of these stories, is being poor makes everything feel super expensive. I never once considered what other people would have immediately run to- namely a doctor.
Now, in my defense, my stupidity is also driven by Iatrophobia, which is the terror of doctors. I actually cry and get petrified around them. But, in my mind, I do know, despite that fear, that they can help me. I just think they also want to torture me, no matter how nice of one I may meet. I have always feared doctors, and probably always will, but rationally, I still can see that a doctor could help me with a burn better than shoving my arm in a freezer.
I didn't use the freezer because I was scared of the doctors. I did it because I would never be able to afford them, at that point in time. I did it because my health didn't come first. Sure I try to eat my vegetables, but everyone needs help sometimes. You get a virus or infection and you can't just magically make everything ok because you can't afford it.
Would I rather have had to pay off probably over 3k in medical expense even if just a quick in and out at the hospital for having feeling in the top of my hand now? Probably. I became so adverse to debt, to the concept of it, that I couldn't consider it as a valid option over my own well being.
I am proud of my dental history. I am proud of having that long period of time with no detriment and money saved, but I also can see why it was stupid. I am not proud of my medical history, even though it meant years without a single doctor bill. My body hates me on the daily because I didn't get certain things treated early on, and now they are a real problem. I am 31 years old, and have complications that people 30 years older than me are supposed to have, because I didn't do anything to help myself when I was 20.
I totally believe in avoiding debt. I absolutely feel like living 'poor' doesn't mean living unhappy. I stay within my means rigidly. But, I am so grateful to have medical coverage, and if I didn't, if for some reason someone took it away or I won a sweepstakes or something random like that, and was wealthy enough not to be qualified anymore, I would get it.
My best friend is Chinese. She said there, they have a list of priorities for life, and they go, HEALTH, at the top of the list, then family and so on so forth. Health first, because if you are not here, you can't value anything else.
Do eat your vegetables. Maybe you will be like me and almost never get sick. Do clean your teeth, and maybe you will be like me and almost never need a dentist. You can decrease how often you go to the doctor's. You can avoid the gas money of driving there, even if your bill would be completely covered, the way I do. But when you are sick, and not just sniffle-nosed, but really hurt, or really sick, do go. Don't be like me, so wrapped up in a budget, you forget that Health is the top priority. Budget tries to be, when you have to live within it. Budget can feel like your world. But really, Budget is only there to protect you. So stick with it, absolutely, but only as long as it doesn't threaten your Health, because you are your world. Without you, none of the rest of your priorities can matter.
Before that, I was still poor, by typical standards, and have been my whole life. I had a job as a custodian for a while fresh out of school that had insurance, which I used twice, ever. Otherwise, I have never had it, at any job.
The time between when I went to the dentist was from age 17, the last year I was covered by being my parents' kid, and 30.
When I went, and only because I had the insurance now to do it, at 30 years old, and told them how long it had been, they were expecting a mouth like a pirate's. Instead, I had a single small cavity, it took them two searches to notice, and some tartar build up. I also had a problem that the dentist said was not my fault, but the fault of a dentist who did a (quote) "Hack Job" on my teeth. The inside of the tooth was rotting because the dentist who filled a cavity when I was 12 really messed up my tooth.
They kept telling me how impressed they were with my mouth. My enamel was good. My gums were good. They couldn't believe it.
The reason being, is that the only thing I did to protect my teeth in the entire time was to chew gum. Orbit, bubblemint. A few years before I went I did start brushing my teeth once a day, but the majority of the time, I didn't even brush. I would just chew my gum after I ate, even snacks. Of course I started that habit because of wanting to avoid bad breath, but it worked out in my favor.
The other thing, that made a HUGE difference, is that I do not drink soda pop, except maybe 2 to 4 times in a year. I do not drink coffee, and I do not smoke. I also don't eat a lot of sugar, or buy candy or ice cream very often at all.
I feel like the combination of these things is why I had such a lovely mouth. They said my tartar was about what would take an 'average' person 2 or 3 years to get. My one and only cavity was tiny. The other tooth, which is why I even went to the dentist, because it hurt, they said should have fallen out of my head. But it didn't, because it couldn't rot as quickly as they usually would anticipate. I still have the tooth, because it wasn't as bad as they thought, and they just hollowed out the middle of it, and then refilled it with white stuff.
The point is, I had ZERO dentist bills for over 10 years, and it didn't hurt my health. I know not everyone automatically falls under the Obamacare, and maybe you don't want to end up with a ton of co pays and bills. This is how you avoid the dentist- Chew a sugarless gum that increases your spit output to help destroy food particles in your mouth after each time you eat, and don't drink sugary drinks or smoke.
Some people will throw their hands up. Most people will chew gum, but I know almost no people who will give up soda pop or coffee either one. Well, I have found, the more you do, the better, but anything helps. Soda pop and coffee, but still chewing, still brushing, and not smoking, is better than nothing.
I do brush still once a day, sometimes two, if I actually remember, and I do still chew my gum after every meal. So I didn't need to go to the dentist yet since that visit. Shrug.
Now, my eyes, thankfully, are prefect in vision, just sensitive to light. I test them myself sometimes at the eye places in Walmart or other such places. I stand twice as far away as they tell you to, and twice as close, and then read the letters on the board for testing your eyesight. I have never had a problem reading any of the rows, ever. I am very blessed.
Physically, it has been the hardest. I last was able to go to the doctor's when I was 21, and could not again until 30. In all that time, I did get sick, but thankfully only once or twice a year. I also had emergencies, but I managed by myself, which I DO NOT recommend.
For instance, I was making Mac and Cheese, and I spilled the boiling water over my hand, and a little tiny bit on my foot. My skin became red and blistered, with a couple of them splitting open. It hurt like crazy. I cried, but I also shoved my hand into the freezer. I stood there, for almost 4 hours, until my hand was completely numb from the cold. Then I took some night cold medicine, to make me fall asleep, and put some Aveeno lotion in a glove for wintertime, and shoved it on my numbed hand, and then crawled into bed and slept before it started hurting again.
I still have the hand, but after doing this to myself for days, instead of getting help, for what I later found out could have been a third degree burn, I literally have killed most of the sensory in my hand. I can feel on a few places on the top of it, but most of the top is just dead feeling. I also have a rough spot on my foot that is the same, from the burn there, which was much less severe, and thankfully very small.
The point is that I didn't even think about going to a doctor because I knew I had no money. Don't do that. It is always a stupid idea. I did the same thing when I got food poisoning. I was laid out on the floor unable to move I was so sick, my dad suggesting the emergency room, and me just begging him to give me something that would make me sleep. Stupid. I don't know how I convinced him.
One time I got a bad infection from falling in a kiddie pool area chasing my nephew, and it leaving a large scrape. It got so infected it became a hole, and I cut out the infection with a knife. I have a scar, and my foot still, but that could have gone bad so quickly. Stupid.
The point of these stories, is being poor makes everything feel super expensive. I never once considered what other people would have immediately run to- namely a doctor.
Now, in my defense, my stupidity is also driven by Iatrophobia, which is the terror of doctors. I actually cry and get petrified around them. But, in my mind, I do know, despite that fear, that they can help me. I just think they also want to torture me, no matter how nice of one I may meet. I have always feared doctors, and probably always will, but rationally, I still can see that a doctor could help me with a burn better than shoving my arm in a freezer.
I didn't use the freezer because I was scared of the doctors. I did it because I would never be able to afford them, at that point in time. I did it because my health didn't come first. Sure I try to eat my vegetables, but everyone needs help sometimes. You get a virus or infection and you can't just magically make everything ok because you can't afford it.
Would I rather have had to pay off probably over 3k in medical expense even if just a quick in and out at the hospital for having feeling in the top of my hand now? Probably. I became so adverse to debt, to the concept of it, that I couldn't consider it as a valid option over my own well being.
I am proud of my dental history. I am proud of having that long period of time with no detriment and money saved, but I also can see why it was stupid. I am not proud of my medical history, even though it meant years without a single doctor bill. My body hates me on the daily because I didn't get certain things treated early on, and now they are a real problem. I am 31 years old, and have complications that people 30 years older than me are supposed to have, because I didn't do anything to help myself when I was 20.
I totally believe in avoiding debt. I absolutely feel like living 'poor' doesn't mean living unhappy. I stay within my means rigidly. But, I am so grateful to have medical coverage, and if I didn't, if for some reason someone took it away or I won a sweepstakes or something random like that, and was wealthy enough not to be qualified anymore, I would get it.
My best friend is Chinese. She said there, they have a list of priorities for life, and they go, HEALTH, at the top of the list, then family and so on so forth. Health first, because if you are not here, you can't value anything else.
Do eat your vegetables. Maybe you will be like me and almost never get sick. Do clean your teeth, and maybe you will be like me and almost never need a dentist. You can decrease how often you go to the doctor's. You can avoid the gas money of driving there, even if your bill would be completely covered, the way I do. But when you are sick, and not just sniffle-nosed, but really hurt, or really sick, do go. Don't be like me, so wrapped up in a budget, you forget that Health is the top priority. Budget tries to be, when you have to live within it. Budget can feel like your world. But really, Budget is only there to protect you. So stick with it, absolutely, but only as long as it doesn't threaten your Health, because you are your world. Without you, none of the rest of your priorities can matter.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Financial budget- Meals
So, it looks like clarification of some things is desired, in regards to my budget. I will address things more information's wanted on in parts. Today, will be about food spending.
Everyone eats. We need to for survival. Let me be clear, when I said 2 dollars a meal or less, I meant 2 dollars. There are 30 days in a month, and 3 meals a day, so that is 3x30= 90. 2 people x 90 meals in a month = $180. It takes 180 dollars to accomplish said task. But my budget is less than that! I have $170 most of the year, and a few months a year, less than that!
Welp, here you go. Here are things I buy to eat, that we actually eat, and how much they are, and what constitutes a meal for us.
First things first, we don't eat TV dinners. I bet you thought we did. Nope. The closest thing to TV dinners we eat are Steamables. You can get them sometimes for 1 buck each, or a big one for 2 bucks, and off brand ones are sometimes less, like 90 to 98 cents. Steamables tend to mostly be vegetable, and frozen isn't as good as fresh, but it is better than canned.
We don't like the plastics that TV dinner meal trays are made out of, and don't like the 'fake' food. It isn't filling, it doesn't actually give us high nutrition, and so, we don't waste our time, nor our meager budget on them.
We also do not buy soda pop, juice, or any other 'drinks' except a single thing of milk. The milk not being for drinking, but for making meals with, means the only thing we actually drink is water. We might indulge, say at a family get together or party, in a drink other than water, but honestly, we mostly drink water there too.
Water is cheap, healthy (we do have a filter) and keeps my diabetic wife's sugar from fluctuating all over the place. Before she started drinking water only, she had horrible issues with her sugar levels being very sparatic.
I am a vegetarian, and my wife eats meat only once or twice in a month. I know there are people who cannot imagine this, but it helps our budget, and I am actually allergic to something in the processing of meat. Dunno what it is, but I am made sick every single time I eat any meat other than something completely fresh from my grandma in Alaska, that she did not preserve, but just vacuum packed and froze. All other meat makes me horribly sick. So, although, yes, it does save animals and it helps the environment by not destroying yet more wild land to make animal agriculture for people to eat yet more meat, it isn't actually for that reason, good reason though it is.
My wife, though she does like meat, she limits her meat ingestion because of the animal agriculture problems some, but mostly, it is actually for her health and our budget. My wife has a lot of health issues, and not eating a lot of meat, and instead consuming more vegetables and such, has really helped her. Her A1C is the best it has ever been in her whole life, her cholesteral is down, her weight is steady, and she has even had her sleep apnea improve.
It is not just good for the budget, how we eat, but it helps us not to have to constantly have her in and out of the hospital, as it was her whole life before she changed her eating.
Anyhoo, back to things we actually eat. Some things are really obvious. For instance, a can of soup is easily $2 or under. We like to get the bigger cans when on sale for $1.50. I am sure there are even cheaper options, but we find one big can is better than two little ones for $1 each.
Plus, $1.50 is automatically less than our $2. Remember, the max for a meal is 2 bucks, but we actually do need some meals to be cheaper. This is an easy way to make that happen.
Another thing we love to do is make pasta meals. We buy a box of pasta for 88 cents, and then add vege's we chop up ourselves to add in. We each get a bowl, put a little pasta and water in the bottom, put the vege's on top, and cook in the microwave a couple minutes, dump out the water, and boom! Meal ready to eat. One box of pasta lasts us typically 4 or 5 meals, because we tend to get the smaller pasta, which for us, equals more to eat. They leave less air between them compared to large pasta, so small shells vs big shells, we pick small. You get more pasta for your buck.
Anyhoo, let us say, that it was only 4 meals, for the sake of easy math. 88 divided by 4 is 22 cents a meal. That leaves us a lot of room to add other things to the mix.
For instance, a head of broccoli for 1.29. Cut that up into 4 parts and you get another 32 cents. up to 54 cents now. We could stop there if it is budget cutting time, but honestly, we usually get me a green pepper for 50 cents and my wife some mushrooms for a dollar. Sometimes we get tofu, or bok choy, cauliflower, potatoes, or even splurge on something really nice like asparagus.
The point is that our base cost is so small we can pick and choose a little, keep some variety in our diet, and even switch out small shell pasta for micro spaghetti noodles, or elbows, or whatever. It is a way on a budget to have some fun with this. I like my food to taste like the food it is, but my wife likes it to have sauces or other flavors. So a lot of times we get a garlic alfredo sauce or something to put on it. She also has just plain garlic salt for her pasta too.
Sometimes we splurge and go for 1 dollar rice noodles instead. A thing of soy sauce in our home lasts for a year, easy. We get the little vegetables to go on it, add a smidge of soy, and make it in the exact same way, in the bowl, with the microwave.
You can do this with rice and/or beans as well.
Another type of meal we like to have a lot would be wraps. A thing of tortillas is basically 3 bucks (slightly under, but I tend to round up, as to avoid ever going over budget) for 20 tortillas. We will usually eat 2 or sometimes 3 wraps for a meal. Now each tortilla shell is basically 15 cents each. Again, a really small base cost. We tend to get a can of black olives, which even if they are not on sale tend to be a dollar and maybe 20 cents. We also like to use some cottage cheese or some spinach artichoke dip. These things tend to be more expensive, at around 2 or 3 dollars for a container of it, but they last all month long, for every meal of wraps, which even if we only bought one thing of tortilla, and had 3 wraps each, would be 6 wraps a meal, that is 3 meals. So, let us say that the black olives were a full dollar and fifty cents, and the dip was a full three dollars, which means $4.50 divided by 6 which equals 75 cents. 75 cents plus the 15 cents each for the 6 tortillas, and we still are only at $1.65 for the meal. We also like to get pineapple tidbits or a little lettuce, if feeling like a crunch. Both amounts are less than a dollar. Spread that can of tidbits for 75 cents out over 3 meals and that is 25 cents of pineapple a meal. $1.85 a meal, for 3 meals, at the most expensive, is still less than 2 dollars. We actually don't usually spend even that, because we buy things on sale a lot.
We also love sandwiches, but not the peanut butter jelly kind. I am allergic to peanuts, and my wife actually doesn't like them. So, we make sandwiches out of things we actually like to eat. Firstly, I like real whole grain bread, multi-whole grain if I can get it. This means we never eat white bread. White bread has less nutrition, but also, again, we go for filling. We want our smaller meal to fill us up more.
One loaf for 2 bucks. 2 bucks divided by our eating 4 meals out of it (we eat two sandwiches at a time) is just the bread being 50 cents a meal. My wife LOVES the texture of avocado. 40 cents. We like pairing that with tomato. 1 buck. And some sliced cheese, which has 11 slices, and is 1.22 dollars for the pack of swiss or muenster, with us having 2 slices of cheese for the meal each, so 4 slices, is 44 cents for our cheese a meal. This meal actually comes out to OVER the 2 buck limit, but we don't eat it but twice in the month, which since most of our meals are less than the 2 dollars, we can splurge most of the year, when it is hotter and eating something hot isn't fun anyway, and afford our treat for the extra 35 or so cents. We slice the tomato and avocado into long thin slices, with the cheese, and munch away.
What about vege burgers or dogs? 3 bucks for the pack of meatless meat, with 4 patties or 6 dogs. That is 2 meals. That means 1.50 bucks already used up, but what is left? 1 dollars for a pack of buns, which means the other 50 cents for our two dollars is right there. I don't like sauces, but my wife likes a little ranch, but the ranch she uses for so many other meals. She spreads that 3 dollars out over 2 or more months for her sauce.
Now you might like other foods. But these are some things we eat. And this is how much they cost. This is how I find their cost. I see everything I look at this way. I see value, no matter what I look at, at all times, in how it pertains to our health vs our budget. We eat other things too, like burritos, cereal, oatmeal, salad, so on. These are just some examples. We eat our food and settle into our day and don't snack often or over indulge. We refuse to go over budget. We don't live off of only TV dinners, nor just Raman noodles, although my wife does like those once or twice a month. (dunno why, haha) The point is eating on a budget is functional, if you think it through, and find tastes you like while always putting foods that offer nutrition and fullness first on your priority list.
This is how we do it. You can take your budget and view food in the same way. Every phone has a calculator in it nowadays. Take advantage of it. Look at how much you are spending, and what you are spending it on. Maybe you are just not buying filling stuff, so you have to purchase twice as much. Maybe you are buying snacks and not meals. When you do the math, it all works out.
Everyone eats. We need to for survival. Let me be clear, when I said 2 dollars a meal or less, I meant 2 dollars. There are 30 days in a month, and 3 meals a day, so that is 3x30= 90. 2 people x 90 meals in a month = $180. It takes 180 dollars to accomplish said task. But my budget is less than that! I have $170 most of the year, and a few months a year, less than that!
Welp, here you go. Here are things I buy to eat, that we actually eat, and how much they are, and what constitutes a meal for us.
First things first, we don't eat TV dinners. I bet you thought we did. Nope. The closest thing to TV dinners we eat are Steamables. You can get them sometimes for 1 buck each, or a big one for 2 bucks, and off brand ones are sometimes less, like 90 to 98 cents. Steamables tend to mostly be vegetable, and frozen isn't as good as fresh, but it is better than canned.
We don't like the plastics that TV dinner meal trays are made out of, and don't like the 'fake' food. It isn't filling, it doesn't actually give us high nutrition, and so, we don't waste our time, nor our meager budget on them.
We also do not buy soda pop, juice, or any other 'drinks' except a single thing of milk. The milk not being for drinking, but for making meals with, means the only thing we actually drink is water. We might indulge, say at a family get together or party, in a drink other than water, but honestly, we mostly drink water there too.
Water is cheap, healthy (we do have a filter) and keeps my diabetic wife's sugar from fluctuating all over the place. Before she started drinking water only, she had horrible issues with her sugar levels being very sparatic.
I am a vegetarian, and my wife eats meat only once or twice in a month. I know there are people who cannot imagine this, but it helps our budget, and I am actually allergic to something in the processing of meat. Dunno what it is, but I am made sick every single time I eat any meat other than something completely fresh from my grandma in Alaska, that she did not preserve, but just vacuum packed and froze. All other meat makes me horribly sick. So, although, yes, it does save animals and it helps the environment by not destroying yet more wild land to make animal agriculture for people to eat yet more meat, it isn't actually for that reason, good reason though it is.
My wife, though she does like meat, she limits her meat ingestion because of the animal agriculture problems some, but mostly, it is actually for her health and our budget. My wife has a lot of health issues, and not eating a lot of meat, and instead consuming more vegetables and such, has really helped her. Her A1C is the best it has ever been in her whole life, her cholesteral is down, her weight is steady, and she has even had her sleep apnea improve.
It is not just good for the budget, how we eat, but it helps us not to have to constantly have her in and out of the hospital, as it was her whole life before she changed her eating.
Anyhoo, back to things we actually eat. Some things are really obvious. For instance, a can of soup is easily $2 or under. We like to get the bigger cans when on sale for $1.50. I am sure there are even cheaper options, but we find one big can is better than two little ones for $1 each.
Plus, $1.50 is automatically less than our $2. Remember, the max for a meal is 2 bucks, but we actually do need some meals to be cheaper. This is an easy way to make that happen.
Another thing we love to do is make pasta meals. We buy a box of pasta for 88 cents, and then add vege's we chop up ourselves to add in. We each get a bowl, put a little pasta and water in the bottom, put the vege's on top, and cook in the microwave a couple minutes, dump out the water, and boom! Meal ready to eat. One box of pasta lasts us typically 4 or 5 meals, because we tend to get the smaller pasta, which for us, equals more to eat. They leave less air between them compared to large pasta, so small shells vs big shells, we pick small. You get more pasta for your buck.
Anyhoo, let us say, that it was only 4 meals, for the sake of easy math. 88 divided by 4 is 22 cents a meal. That leaves us a lot of room to add other things to the mix.
For instance, a head of broccoli for 1.29. Cut that up into 4 parts and you get another 32 cents. up to 54 cents now. We could stop there if it is budget cutting time, but honestly, we usually get me a green pepper for 50 cents and my wife some mushrooms for a dollar. Sometimes we get tofu, or bok choy, cauliflower, potatoes, or even splurge on something really nice like asparagus.
The point is that our base cost is so small we can pick and choose a little, keep some variety in our diet, and even switch out small shell pasta for micro spaghetti noodles, or elbows, or whatever. It is a way on a budget to have some fun with this. I like my food to taste like the food it is, but my wife likes it to have sauces or other flavors. So a lot of times we get a garlic alfredo sauce or something to put on it. She also has just plain garlic salt for her pasta too.
Sometimes we splurge and go for 1 dollar rice noodles instead. A thing of soy sauce in our home lasts for a year, easy. We get the little vegetables to go on it, add a smidge of soy, and make it in the exact same way, in the bowl, with the microwave.
You can do this with rice and/or beans as well.
Another type of meal we like to have a lot would be wraps. A thing of tortillas is basically 3 bucks (slightly under, but I tend to round up, as to avoid ever going over budget) for 20 tortillas. We will usually eat 2 or sometimes 3 wraps for a meal. Now each tortilla shell is basically 15 cents each. Again, a really small base cost. We tend to get a can of black olives, which even if they are not on sale tend to be a dollar and maybe 20 cents. We also like to use some cottage cheese or some spinach artichoke dip. These things tend to be more expensive, at around 2 or 3 dollars for a container of it, but they last all month long, for every meal of wraps, which even if we only bought one thing of tortilla, and had 3 wraps each, would be 6 wraps a meal, that is 3 meals. So, let us say that the black olives were a full dollar and fifty cents, and the dip was a full three dollars, which means $4.50 divided by 6 which equals 75 cents. 75 cents plus the 15 cents each for the 6 tortillas, and we still are only at $1.65 for the meal. We also like to get pineapple tidbits or a little lettuce, if feeling like a crunch. Both amounts are less than a dollar. Spread that can of tidbits for 75 cents out over 3 meals and that is 25 cents of pineapple a meal. $1.85 a meal, for 3 meals, at the most expensive, is still less than 2 dollars. We actually don't usually spend even that, because we buy things on sale a lot.
We also love sandwiches, but not the peanut butter jelly kind. I am allergic to peanuts, and my wife actually doesn't like them. So, we make sandwiches out of things we actually like to eat. Firstly, I like real whole grain bread, multi-whole grain if I can get it. This means we never eat white bread. White bread has less nutrition, but also, again, we go for filling. We want our smaller meal to fill us up more.
One loaf for 2 bucks. 2 bucks divided by our eating 4 meals out of it (we eat two sandwiches at a time) is just the bread being 50 cents a meal. My wife LOVES the texture of avocado. 40 cents. We like pairing that with tomato. 1 buck. And some sliced cheese, which has 11 slices, and is 1.22 dollars for the pack of swiss or muenster, with us having 2 slices of cheese for the meal each, so 4 slices, is 44 cents for our cheese a meal. This meal actually comes out to OVER the 2 buck limit, but we don't eat it but twice in the month, which since most of our meals are less than the 2 dollars, we can splurge most of the year, when it is hotter and eating something hot isn't fun anyway, and afford our treat for the extra 35 or so cents. We slice the tomato and avocado into long thin slices, with the cheese, and munch away.
What about vege burgers or dogs? 3 bucks for the pack of meatless meat, with 4 patties or 6 dogs. That is 2 meals. That means 1.50 bucks already used up, but what is left? 1 dollars for a pack of buns, which means the other 50 cents for our two dollars is right there. I don't like sauces, but my wife likes a little ranch, but the ranch she uses for so many other meals. She spreads that 3 dollars out over 2 or more months for her sauce.
Now you might like other foods. But these are some things we eat. And this is how much they cost. This is how I find their cost. I see everything I look at this way. I see value, no matter what I look at, at all times, in how it pertains to our health vs our budget. We eat other things too, like burritos, cereal, oatmeal, salad, so on. These are just some examples. We eat our food and settle into our day and don't snack often or over indulge. We refuse to go over budget. We don't live off of only TV dinners, nor just Raman noodles, although my wife does like those once or twice a month. (dunno why, haha) The point is eating on a budget is functional, if you think it through, and find tastes you like while always putting foods that offer nutrition and fullness first on your priority list.
This is how we do it. You can take your budget and view food in the same way. Every phone has a calculator in it nowadays. Take advantage of it. Look at how much you are spending, and what you are spending it on. Maybe you are just not buying filling stuff, so you have to purchase twice as much. Maybe you are buying snacks and not meals. When you do the math, it all works out.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Finances- Being Debt Free and earning less than 1k a month.
I know this topic is a very large deviation from my usual "discounts on my books" or "Fantasy commentary on my own fantasy novels" but honestly, I have had many people be in disbelief about how I live. I see "How to save money" articles all the time, but none of them are useful, because they always advise people to drink less coffee and go out to eat less often, and such things.
People get frustrated, because so many of us in the USA do NOT have money to do those things in the first place. I certainly cannot. So, how does one survive on so little? How can one save? And the real kicker, how can someone who makes so little, who has to manage survival month to month, be debt free and HAPPY?
Well, I do not know your situation, but this is how I do it, for everyone who has asked.
I grew up poor. Understand what it feels like to starve poor. I watched my parents go bankrupt, despite poverty, 3 times before I was 8 years old. I swore to myself I would never go into debt. I would gladly starve before losing everything like they did. The moves, the losses, the never being in a school more than 2 years in my entire life. I never got to see my dad, because he worked constantly. None of it was worth it.
I literally make under 1k a month. That is less than one thousand dollars. That means my yearly income is less than twelve thousand dollars.
I also have zero debt. I have never owned a credit card in my life. I have never taken out loans at banks. Ever.
How? on a budget of $933 a month?
Firstly, and this is huge, I do not have kids. There are many people I know who would never be able to live how I do for that simple reason. Kids change everything. Everything goes to them. I understand that.
For instance, my rent each month for a two bedroom duplex with a quarter acre back yard in Western Washington State is $450 a month. This means that the place is super old, has almost zero insulation, and you can hear every single passing car through the walls. This means that, yes, my car has been broken into in the last month, and there is a bullet hole in the glass of one of my front windows. I am a recluse, and almost never leave my house, so I can live here. The average rent for the 'poverty' area I live in is still 750 bucks a month. I lucked out, but that lucking out meant living in a bad area where drug dealers walk by and squatters constantly try to take over the vacant building near our place.
I realize for a lot of people, that this alone would make all the difference in the world to them. People would go into debt just to get out of the situation, but I have only felt scared for my actual physical self once, and it turned out the looming dark shadow at the front door was the man who lived across the street going around warning about a vicious raccoon. I actually like most of my neighbors, poor simple recluses like me.
One is an elderly man with a bum leg from being a veteran. One is a college student working her way through and trying to survive and study as best she can with everything on her shoulders. And, obviously, it turned out that the man and his wife across the street were kind people who even have offered to let me borrow their lawn mower before.
Poverty doesn't mean all bad people. Some are just broke. They aren't into violence or drugs, but they cannot afford the 'appropriate' sector of society to live. Like me.
Still, for those who don't have kids, who perhaps understand what it feels like to live in an area like this, who know what it feels like to never have anything of value in your car, because it will get broken into for ANYTHING. People who understand that having a car that is over 15 years old is a blessing, because it isn't likely to ever get stolen, and it was cheap to buy. There are those of you out there who get the 'danger' side of things and still are thinking about the math. 450 out of 933...
You are right. Rent is more than the 'average' portion of my paycheck. But it isn't a full half. That is what saves me.
The rest goes to these costs monthly-
46 dollars a month for internet (this area just sucks and this is what I can get that has any decent speed to it at all, which for me, is my splurge each month. Speed as in 5mps)
23 dollars every 2 months for renter insurance (This gives me up to 4k in coverage, which everything I own, period, besides my car, put together is worth less than 2k, but this was the cheapest, lowest coverage they had, because they expect people to have at least 4k worth of stuff...)
13 dollars a month for the heating bill for the majority of the year, 7 months of it (This is literally the cost of just leaving it hooked up and not used. Honestly, if the stupid ancient furnace wasn't so difficult to get the pilot light on in, taking over 5 hours of effort and almost breaking myself to do, I would save that money monthly too.)
65ish dollars for 5 months of the year for the heating bill (This keeps my house at 62 degrees. I wear lots of coats and robes in the winter, always am under a blanket, and drink a lot of tea. Cannot afford warmer)
31 dollars a month for electricity. (I keep only the computer and modem plugged in at all times, and the fridge. Even the stove is unplugged, the microwave, the tv, all of it. Nothing stays plugged in when not in use other than these, and honestly, the modem, if it wasn't so very hard to get the ancient phone line to work with to get internet to work at all, I would unplug these things too. Also, we don't turn on lights in the house at night. My pupils don't undialate, so this means that my eyes are very sensitive to light. Helps with the bill)
30 dollars a month for the phone bill (I use tmobile, and share a plan with other family members. Unlimited everything including to Canada on my galaxy s4. Phone is a little older, but it means I save on my bill. My wife and I share our phone.)
49 dollars a month on the car insurance ( Because we are so low of income, we are auto qualified to be on the medicare system in the state. This is a GIANT relief. It helps so much. Also, because of this, we don't have to include medical side of things for our own selves in our auto insurance. Also, with State Farm, they give us a discount for how little we drive. Helps too.)
60 dollarsish, sometimes over 80 dollars, for gas for the car ( We don't drive a lot, so this helps. For people with long commutes, this would be very different.
The rest is for our needs. Cat litter and food. Dish soap and toilet paper.
I always calculate 2 dollars or less per meal, if I can, and then try to make that into as healthy of meals as possible.
It isn't easy.
In the winter, with all the above costs at their worst, that is 170 bucks for not starving the cat or depriving us. That is all.
But we make it work. We don't eat a lot. We don't in portion size, nor often. We never go over budget. I am a stickler about it. Honestly, I will fast and not eat at all, and just have my wife eat, for a meal or few in the month if we are saving or getting too close. The food we have in the house when our food money runs out is the only food we have. We ration when needed.
Most people wouldn't think this was ok. So most people get credit cards and go into debt and end up bankrupt. And I do get it. It isn't that dream life you see on tv. It certainly isn't what most people think of Americans as living like. But this is our life.
Now, what I will say, is that I do not hate our life. I actually am grateful for it. I am so glad I get to spend the majority of my time with my wife. I get to hang out with her, instead of working super long shifts and missing her. I can go to family functions at my parent's house. I can take a walk if I feel like it.
Please understand, I did, at one time, make over 2k a month. That does equal out to 25k a year. I did it for years. I was not in debt then either. In fact, I could go out to eat twice a week, I had a much nicer situation, and clothes, and so on. But I was miserable, sick all the time, and never got to see my family, because I worked 13 hour shifts. It was actually far worse doing that, constantly exhausted, than doing this.
So, I live on less than 12k a year, stick absolute to my budget, save as much and as often as I can, which is usually only 20 dollars or less in a month, and manage just fine.
Our entertainment is cheap. We walk together. That costs nothing. We play free games, or ones with a one time purchase, as much as possible, for instance, right now, Guild Wars 2, and we play together. We do puzzles, play cards, watch internet streaming free, read books, and the nicest things we have, we either saved for and then bought when on sale, or else were given.
I do bing searches to get that 5 dollars amazon money a month to help with Christmas gifts. We use coupons. I have volunteered years of my life in hours since I cannot afford to donate money. I do donate clothes.
We are saving right now, for our dream home, which for most people will probably sound silly, but we'd love to have a trailer, and when we could afford it, save up, and drive and visit the rest of the country.
We actually like spending all our time together. We are both recluses. We actually like our life so simple, so uncomplicated. This is how we live on little, and live without debt.
I realize there are better ways. I realize that this would never work for many people. I even realize some people who read this will think I am crazy. :D But this is what works for us, and this is how we are happy.
People get frustrated, because so many of us in the USA do NOT have money to do those things in the first place. I certainly cannot. So, how does one survive on so little? How can one save? And the real kicker, how can someone who makes so little, who has to manage survival month to month, be debt free and HAPPY?
Well, I do not know your situation, but this is how I do it, for everyone who has asked.
I grew up poor. Understand what it feels like to starve poor. I watched my parents go bankrupt, despite poverty, 3 times before I was 8 years old. I swore to myself I would never go into debt. I would gladly starve before losing everything like they did. The moves, the losses, the never being in a school more than 2 years in my entire life. I never got to see my dad, because he worked constantly. None of it was worth it.
I literally make under 1k a month. That is less than one thousand dollars. That means my yearly income is less than twelve thousand dollars.
I also have zero debt. I have never owned a credit card in my life. I have never taken out loans at banks. Ever.
How? on a budget of $933 a month?
Firstly, and this is huge, I do not have kids. There are many people I know who would never be able to live how I do for that simple reason. Kids change everything. Everything goes to them. I understand that.
For instance, my rent each month for a two bedroom duplex with a quarter acre back yard in Western Washington State is $450 a month. This means that the place is super old, has almost zero insulation, and you can hear every single passing car through the walls. This means that, yes, my car has been broken into in the last month, and there is a bullet hole in the glass of one of my front windows. I am a recluse, and almost never leave my house, so I can live here. The average rent for the 'poverty' area I live in is still 750 bucks a month. I lucked out, but that lucking out meant living in a bad area where drug dealers walk by and squatters constantly try to take over the vacant building near our place.
I realize for a lot of people, that this alone would make all the difference in the world to them. People would go into debt just to get out of the situation, but I have only felt scared for my actual physical self once, and it turned out the looming dark shadow at the front door was the man who lived across the street going around warning about a vicious raccoon. I actually like most of my neighbors, poor simple recluses like me.
One is an elderly man with a bum leg from being a veteran. One is a college student working her way through and trying to survive and study as best she can with everything on her shoulders. And, obviously, it turned out that the man and his wife across the street were kind people who even have offered to let me borrow their lawn mower before.
Poverty doesn't mean all bad people. Some are just broke. They aren't into violence or drugs, but they cannot afford the 'appropriate' sector of society to live. Like me.
Still, for those who don't have kids, who perhaps understand what it feels like to live in an area like this, who know what it feels like to never have anything of value in your car, because it will get broken into for ANYTHING. People who understand that having a car that is over 15 years old is a blessing, because it isn't likely to ever get stolen, and it was cheap to buy. There are those of you out there who get the 'danger' side of things and still are thinking about the math. 450 out of 933...
You are right. Rent is more than the 'average' portion of my paycheck. But it isn't a full half. That is what saves me.
The rest goes to these costs monthly-
46 dollars a month for internet (this area just sucks and this is what I can get that has any decent speed to it at all, which for me, is my splurge each month. Speed as in 5mps)
23 dollars every 2 months for renter insurance (This gives me up to 4k in coverage, which everything I own, period, besides my car, put together is worth less than 2k, but this was the cheapest, lowest coverage they had, because they expect people to have at least 4k worth of stuff...)
13 dollars a month for the heating bill for the majority of the year, 7 months of it (This is literally the cost of just leaving it hooked up and not used. Honestly, if the stupid ancient furnace wasn't so difficult to get the pilot light on in, taking over 5 hours of effort and almost breaking myself to do, I would save that money monthly too.)
65ish dollars for 5 months of the year for the heating bill (This keeps my house at 62 degrees. I wear lots of coats and robes in the winter, always am under a blanket, and drink a lot of tea. Cannot afford warmer)
31 dollars a month for electricity. (I keep only the computer and modem plugged in at all times, and the fridge. Even the stove is unplugged, the microwave, the tv, all of it. Nothing stays plugged in when not in use other than these, and honestly, the modem, if it wasn't so very hard to get the ancient phone line to work with to get internet to work at all, I would unplug these things too. Also, we don't turn on lights in the house at night. My pupils don't undialate, so this means that my eyes are very sensitive to light. Helps with the bill)
30 dollars a month for the phone bill (I use tmobile, and share a plan with other family members. Unlimited everything including to Canada on my galaxy s4. Phone is a little older, but it means I save on my bill. My wife and I share our phone.)
49 dollars a month on the car insurance ( Because we are so low of income, we are auto qualified to be on the medicare system in the state. This is a GIANT relief. It helps so much. Also, because of this, we don't have to include medical side of things for our own selves in our auto insurance. Also, with State Farm, they give us a discount for how little we drive. Helps too.)
60 dollarsish, sometimes over 80 dollars, for gas for the car ( We don't drive a lot, so this helps. For people with long commutes, this would be very different.
The rest is for our needs. Cat litter and food. Dish soap and toilet paper.
I always calculate 2 dollars or less per meal, if I can, and then try to make that into as healthy of meals as possible.
It isn't easy.
In the winter, with all the above costs at their worst, that is 170 bucks for not starving the cat or depriving us. That is all.
But we make it work. We don't eat a lot. We don't in portion size, nor often. We never go over budget. I am a stickler about it. Honestly, I will fast and not eat at all, and just have my wife eat, for a meal or few in the month if we are saving or getting too close. The food we have in the house when our food money runs out is the only food we have. We ration when needed.
Most people wouldn't think this was ok. So most people get credit cards and go into debt and end up bankrupt. And I do get it. It isn't that dream life you see on tv. It certainly isn't what most people think of Americans as living like. But this is our life.
Now, what I will say, is that I do not hate our life. I actually am grateful for it. I am so glad I get to spend the majority of my time with my wife. I get to hang out with her, instead of working super long shifts and missing her. I can go to family functions at my parent's house. I can take a walk if I feel like it.
Please understand, I did, at one time, make over 2k a month. That does equal out to 25k a year. I did it for years. I was not in debt then either. In fact, I could go out to eat twice a week, I had a much nicer situation, and clothes, and so on. But I was miserable, sick all the time, and never got to see my family, because I worked 13 hour shifts. It was actually far worse doing that, constantly exhausted, than doing this.
So, I live on less than 12k a year, stick absolute to my budget, save as much and as often as I can, which is usually only 20 dollars or less in a month, and manage just fine.
Our entertainment is cheap. We walk together. That costs nothing. We play free games, or ones with a one time purchase, as much as possible, for instance, right now, Guild Wars 2, and we play together. We do puzzles, play cards, watch internet streaming free, read books, and the nicest things we have, we either saved for and then bought when on sale, or else were given.
I do bing searches to get that 5 dollars amazon money a month to help with Christmas gifts. We use coupons. I have volunteered years of my life in hours since I cannot afford to donate money. I do donate clothes.
We are saving right now, for our dream home, which for most people will probably sound silly, but we'd love to have a trailer, and when we could afford it, save up, and drive and visit the rest of the country.
We actually like spending all our time together. We are both recluses. We actually like our life so simple, so uncomplicated. This is how we live on little, and live without debt.
I realize there are better ways. I realize that this would never work for many people. I even realize some people who read this will think I am crazy. :D But this is what works for us, and this is how we are happy.
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