Sorry, pet peeve of mine, people who assume we "make a lot of money". No. At our best we were still low income; these days "extremely low income/poverty". My pay's down to $400 a month.
That said, happily we are "house poor", sneaking in during the subprime rush, but our mortgage company has made plenty of money on our regular payments. We throw in $20 a month towards principal, not as much as we'd like but better than nothing.
As you know, last year we kept riding with an annoying woman who had known a VERY gossipy cab driver who used to give us rides back in 2002. He assumed we made a lot of money, we didn't. We were good tippers, though, so maybe it fed from that. At any rate he gossiped about us to this woman who was just 1000% convinced we were wealthy, and "fronting" poor.
Do you know how frustrating it is to try to convince someone you could get food stamps? Especially when I live in a "nice" neighborhood with lots of 2 story brick homes. They don't realize, as my aunt said "Heather lives in a little bungalow, surrounded by all these mansions!"
They don't realize I saved $30,000 off the purchase price by settling for one bathroom. The house needed work, you get the idea.
All she had was gossip and our home in a nice neighborhood (that was just a gift from God), so she assumed old Robert was right. And she made sure to tell EVERYONE, other passengers, drivers, etc. "Oh, they're rich."
I suspected she talked to the wrong person, who robbed us, and she certainly acted VERY guilty when I told her. I made a point to tell her, the thief only got one thing because I don't have stuff. I have a computer. I have a low-def TV, 20 inches. That's it for electronics (unless you count the $20 MP3 player in my backpack). I don't have jewelry, I have a couple titanium wedding rings (titanium can't be sized, so I had to buy different rings as I gained or lost weight). That's it.
I have plenty of precious treasure: the Bibles I hand out. My own personal "religious" library. Afghans I made. The cats, of course. Ron's wheelchair. Some parts in the garage. But they have no value to anyone else.
That's the way I like it.
3 comments:
Long time reader--just wondering, why not take food stamps? They are for people like you in current hard times.
Hopefully the vending picks up once you get your new spot, praying for you.
Well, I have enough to eat. Junk food, even.
I always figure interventions like that are for those completely without.
Happily, I save my change in a jar, so I cashed it in. I have a little extra to spend on fun things for me now. I feel pretty rich at the moment (grin). I use it for various things, charity, Halloween candy, cats, whatever... this is my turn.
I agree Heather, food stamps should be for people who would otherwise miss meals, without any other recourse. People forget (not speakng to anyone here) that that is not "free" or "government" money-it is taxes taken from the check of some working schlub who may be barely feeding his own family, or who (like my father) has too much pride to mooch off other working people when he can find a hundred other ways to feed his family-ie, buy old bread at the discount bread store and freeze a lot of it, buy meat in bulk and freeze it, buy huge bags of generic brand plain cereal (not the sugar kind), and other staples in bulk, and grow our own vegetables-enough, in fact, to sell the extra from the back of the truck-and this after feeding a family of twelve! Anything except take money to feed his family from another man working to feed his own, when everyone of us was able-bodied and able to pitch in to help in some small way (babysitting,lawn work, etc).
I remember coming home from school, gettng off the bus, and grabbing a cucumber from the bushel basket which sat by the back door, and eating it like a candy bar, with a little salt. Those vegetables were our candy bars! And gallons of ice tea, as a change from water-because when you make your own, you can control the sugar, and because homemade tea is one of the cheapest drinks going (not to mention, a Southern staple).
And pans and pans of cheese or cinammon toast, and a huge pot of oatmeal, for breakfast before school.
My dad was the "gourmet" cook of the family, so, my mom made the regular weekday meals, and my dad made the special after-church Sunday dinner-usually something like jumbalaya, gumbo, etouffee, sometimes a roast (he was from New Orleans-began working the docks loading heavy sacks of coffee beans when just a kid, and took care of his mother from a young age until she died. He had to quit school to do so. Once she died, he got his GED and joined the military). He also made beignets from scratch for a treat. Just watching him was an education. One thing I learned, was to clean as you go. (Poor people didn't have dishwashers and tons of extra utensils, and he like a clean kitchen to work in anyway. We got in major trouble if we even walked into the kitchen holding a brush). Anyway, we looked forward to Sunday dinner all week, and took turns lickng the pots and serving plates, lol (I know, yuch, but hey, we all had the same germs!)
None of us were fat, and none of us ever got sick (unless mumps were going around the school, things like that). We weren't allowed to watch tv, so we did a lot of playing outdoors-in the country, that's like being given the keys to the kingdom!
Now that I'm middle-aged and on the cusp of old age, I realise how much for granted I always took my wonderful health-never even gave it a thought that my body would do, effortlessly, what I wanted it to do!
That sure isn't the case anymore, though I imagine that without that good foundation, things could be even worse.
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