Yes, my dear Marianne, I’ve finally decided to tackle this challenge. It definitely got my creative juices flowing.
Many of my friends have found themselves unemployed, saddled down with debt…if this is you, keep reading. If it’s not…keep reading anyway, it’s very likely you know someone who is.
Here is the best of what I’ve got, it may seem cruel and heartless, but believe me, sometimes tough love is what is needed.
At this point, you may have to consider that you’re bloody poor. Welfare poor. Sign-me-up-for-WIC-poor and give-me-Food-Stamps poor (not that I recommend you do any of the above, you want to maintain your independence and WIC food is not quality). At this point, you might have to throw “living well” out the window. Or redefine what that means, in any case.
1. Lower your expenses until they can go no lower. This may mean getting rid of an extra car (or go car-free, and get a bike). Moving into a much smaller abode (and when I say much smaller, I’m talking the smallest you can get). If you have pets, ask someone you know who loves pets to foster them for you while you pull yourself out of the hole you’re in. Eat less meat, eat more beans, or eat one less meal a day. Look into gleaning. Cancel Netflix. Cancel Internet – go to the library or roam for free WiFi. Get the lowest phone plan possible. Shop Goodwill or see if you have friends who would be willing to donate their old clothes. Learn how to patch up old clothes, darn socks, etc. Dumpster Dive, especially behind stores/malls – you’d be surprised what you’d find in there (you and some friends in similar straits can plan a “mission” once a week, might be kinda fun!).
2. As to employment. There are jobs…craigslist seems to be full of them. At this point, being picky is really not much of an option. You might have to work at Starbucks. Or walk dogs. Or bath elderly people…all for the minimum wage. It’s ok, you don’t have to do it forever. It might feel like it, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. If you are a stay-at-home mom, who is a little creative and organized, consider doing child care. Find odd jobs for skills you have. Go to a temp agency. Mow lawns. Deliver newspapers. Drive a school bus. Play the piano for church services. Babysit. Seriously, this is not a time to be picky.
3. The debt. First, know what the statute of limitations is on credit cards. If you haven’t paid for a really long time (like 7-10 years) you may very well be in the clear. You have to check what the law is for your state. Second, take the smallest one that you intend to pay off and see if you can’t negotiate both a lower amount and a payment plan that you can manage. Make a little chart, post it on the fridge, and keep track. If you have a check coming from the IRS, use it to pay off debt, not to cover living expenses.
4. Live communally. Find another family or two, find a reasonably sized house, work out a reasonable food budget, get rid of all vehicles except for one that’s paid off (and get some bikes), and figure out how to put all your skills and knowledge to work for everyone. I imagine that if another family of three rented a three bedroom house with us in this area (this area being the Portland metro area), we’d only be paying $500 for rent, which would be lower than the $735 we’re paying for our little one bedroom apartment, and it would have the perks of having a yard in which to grow vegetables and perhaps house some chickens. Having lived in a large family myself (8 kids), I know that we could get by with just one car and a whole lot of bikes.
5. Be honest with extended family members about what’s going on, tell them that should they give any gifts that do not meet the basic needs of the family, they will be returned or exchanged for ones that do (and when this happens, do it!). Little Tommy will be better served by spending quality time having dinner at his Grandma and Grandpa’s than getting a new toy truck.
6. Finally, if all else fails, you may need to consider bankruptcy. Don’t worry about what other people think…if they cared so much about you declaring bankruptcy, they might have pitched in to help you before it got to that point. And, aside from that, it’s probably more about how they feel (perhaps guilty for having it so good, perhaps afraid because it might mean that they are a few steps away from it themselves). Don’t worry about your credit rating, at this point, it’s probably shot, and quite frankly, it doesn’t really mean anything (watch “Maxed Out” for more information about how credit ratings are determined).
Drastic times call for drastic measures. This is the most drastic I could think of. I would be interested in hearing what drastic measures others have taken. (One frequent visitor/commenter on this blog has moved into an RV -please forgive me if your name escapes me at present).
8 Comments
March 4, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Hi Maria~
I have been reading your blogs for quite some time now, and I have to say, I’m so glad your back!
Desperate measures? Well, my hubby and I have our home up for a “short sale”. Our housing market (also in Oregon) is terrible, like many other places. We have moved into a rental because we could just not afford our home any longer. This is the most desperate thing we have done. I have been a HUGE fan of The Tightwad Gazette books for years now. We were living as frugally as possible, with four children! I dried clothes outside or on racks, shopped minimally for food, was a general meanie officer when it came to showers, saved shower water for my washing machine, gave up the dishwasher, had no cable or internet or house phones. I have shopped at second hand stores for years now as well, and we STILL were strugging. Our move is almost complete and our next desperate measure will be to empty our tiny retirement accts to pay off our last debts. I have Lupus and Fibro and recently had to cut from a full-time management position to part-time because of it. Hubbys wages were cut by 5% as well. My ultimate goal, and I think would benefit us all in the end, is to quit my job and be the stay-at-home mom I’ve always wanted to be!
Well, sorry to ramble on! Keep on posting!
Kristine
March 4, 2009 at 10:55 pm
You mentioned some drastic measure I hadn’t even thought of! Thanks for your comment!
In the book, “Un-jobbing” the author mentions that sometimes it’s more costly to maintain a job. I’ve read in other places as well, that sometimes, it actually costs more money to work than to not work (in most cases these have been child-care related).
I hope that you’ll be able to stay at home with your children. I’m sure that it would positively effect your health – I imagine being around so many people and a variety of environmental toxins does nothing for your Lupus or Fibro, either.
I’m on a posting roll this week, so I’m happy to humor you and keep posting!
March 6, 2009 at 12:03 am
Yea! You’re back!
I see your goal for march is to do your taxes. Same here. I’m not sure how you, or your readers, go about filling out your tax forms. But they may want to know that the forms can be downloaded from http://www.irs.gov. OK, you knew that. But, did you know that the PDF forms that you download can be filled out on your computer? Just type the numbers into the right boxes then print out the completed form. Corrections can be made before the final form is printed. Saves paper.
Also, if your tax situation is not to different from last year, there is probably no need to hire a tax pro. Just get the same forms as last year and see where the numbers are on last year’s forms. Then put this year’s numbers in the same places.
Works for me.
HIGH OUTPUT: I always maintained that people get in trouble because they don’t plan for the worst. Every pilot is trained to know what to do when the engine fails in flight. Shouldn’t we all have the same training when it comes to lifestyle and finances?
CARS: Having one good reliable paid off used car is worth it’s weight in gold. It doesn’t have a loan to default on. It can’t be taken away. Get this: I am about to turn 50 and I am driving only the 3rd car I have ever owned. I tend to keep them for 10 or more years and run them into the ground. Talk about getting your money’s worth.
FOOD STAMPS: Yes, get food stamps. If you get $400.00 in food stamps, that is $400.00 of your money that you don’t have to spend on food and $400.00 you can spend on other expenses. DHS doesn’t limit what types of food you can buy, you can’t buy prepared food or alcohol, but other than that, you can buy whatever type of food you want.
CREDIT CARDS: I got universally defaulted (the bastards). Since my credit was lousy to begin with, I decided to deal with them. I don’t necessarily recommend my approach. I just quit paying. Six months later, they called me and we worked out a repayment agreement. Late fees forgiven, 6% interest, $100.00 per month until the balance reaches zero.
WORK: Anyone with a clean background can get a job as a security guard. Pay is better than minimum wage (about $9.50 to $11.50 per hour). It’s not dangerous. Usually it’s just sitting around in an office building handling the occasional access request. Boredom is the worst part. But I’ll be bored for $11.50 per hour. Depending on the assignment, you may be able to sneak in a laptop and find an open wi-fi hot spot. Oh, it can also lead to a better job. I know several people that worked as guards and let it be know to the people in the building that they were looking for better work. They eventually went to work for the companies in the building.
INTERNET: Don’t give it up if you don’t have to. Give up broadband and get a cheap dial-up if necessary. Or share a broadband connection with the neighbor.
March 6, 2009 at 12:22 am
Thanks so much for the additional info, Gordon! I didn’t know that you could buy anything with Food Stamps – even organic? And, can you use Food Stamps at the Farmer’s Market?
I totally agree with you on being prepared for the worst. The Contingency Plan. When I was in the Navy, they would beat it into our heads to have 3 months worth of living expenses saved up (I think we only managed that once). Whenever I see those Vets by the on-ramps, I always remind myself that we’re a pink slip away from being there (and I usually give them something if I have – yes, I’m a sucker!).
I had a job as a Campus Security Dispatcher. Other than Air Traffic Control, it was the best job I ever had – I got a lot of homework done! I still wouldn’t mind a job like that. I recently saw an ad on craigslist for a Campus Security Officer that was paying upwards of $14/hr. For those in the Portland area, it was at Lewis & Clark College.
Yes, I love the way the tax forms are online now. I print out a blank one, fill it out, and then type in the information after it’s been corrected and send it in. Last year I saved us $250 by doing it ourselves (we had multi-state taxes, which we have again this year, so…).
March 6, 2009 at 12:18 pm
FOOD STAMPS: The only limits are that you can’t buy beer or other alcohol, and no prepared foods. So you can’t use them at a McDonald’s, for instance. And you can’t pay for a cooked Pizza, but you can use them to buy a Take & Bake Pizza. Unlike WIC, which approves certain foods, DHS does not care. So you can buy organic or processed, or even artificial food. Where ever your moral compass points. The only possible problem with using food stamps at the farmer’s market may be the lack of an EBT terminal (you know, the card swipe thing). Food stamps is done electronically, it works kinda’ like a debit card.
Of course it pays to be frugal with that free money and make it last as long as possible. Any balance left at the end of the month rolls over to the next month.
March 7, 2009 at 10:35 pm
WIC isn’t all bad Maria. It saves us about $100 a month on food. And, there are ways around their restrictions. You can shop at New Seasons, for example. You still can’t buy organic, nor can you buy specialty eggs, but at least you know those eggs aren’t as caged as Freddy’s. You can also buy hormone free milk on WIC. Regarding cereals… I haven’t found away round it. But, with the dried beans, you can get Western Family. And, you can get cheese… again, shopping at New Seasons or similar, just get your blocks of cheese Tillamook.
Some farmer’s markets issue token coins for Oregon Trail users. Check out the Portland Farmer’s Market website for more info: http://www.portlandfarmersmarket.org/sec_Experience/section/ShoppingServices.php.
Besides, regarding frugality, as I think you’ve posted… some of the best frugal (health) measures is to buy whole foods, and generally Food Stamps and WIC support those measures.
March 7, 2009 at 10:51 pm
It’s true, WIC isn’t all bad. I used it for a while when Seth was a baby, and it was nice to get the extra carrots and tuna for breastfeeding exclusively. I guess for me, it was more of a matter of the feeling I had – not one of damaged pride, but rather one of dependency and thus, vulnerability. There’s also a sense of reinforcing both my low-income status, as well as the dependency, and a feeling of low self-worth. It’s hard to explain, sort of a psychological thing.
My main worry is that once you start depending on something like this is that it becomes very hard to give it up – why pay for something you can get it for free?
Obviously, if it comes down to starving or eating foods from WIC, I’d definitely take it.
March 13, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I can understand your feelings. It was hard to take hat in hand and go visit the DHS. It’s hard to ask for help. But if you are not getting by, well, I just had to swallow my pride and do what I gotta do. It’s not just me, I have family to think about.
That dependency thing is very real. Last year I was working four days a week. This year I’m working 5 days. The extra income was offset by a dollar for dollar reduction in food stamps. So I’m working harder and don’t have much to show for it. Nothing extra to help reduce debts, etc. Just less free time. Not much incentive to shake free of the system.
I do want to get free though. I am pursuing some better paying jobs.