So after sitting down with Matt to take a look at our finances this month I couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated, as I’m sure everyone is. After months of hearing all this talk about the economy, I finally feel like it’s trickled down far enough to actually effect us on a larger scale and it’s a little scary! Don’t get me wrong, we are still able to make ends meet but it’s not without a little rearranging and adjusting to say the least. We are just starting to make a lot of the changes most families across America are. Eating out less, making repairs instead of buying new, Matt also forbids me to carry my Costco card around. Haha. All this scaling down and cutting back really reminds me of the good ol’ days when I was a kid, growing up poor.
Do you know what I mean when I say poor? I don’t mean no food in the house kinda poor. That’s more in the category of destitute I would say. I mean paycheck-to-paycheck kinda poor. I mean buy most your clothes at the thrift store kinda poor (which I consider more of a hobby rather than a circumstance). Happy cause at least you have each other kinda poor.
Let me put it to you this way. If your first car was more than 10 years old then, you know what I mean. If you don’t feel at home at the dinner table until someone brings out a bag of plain white bread and a tub of butter as a side dish, then you know what I mean. If your reward for raking leaves was never money but permission to jump in them after, then you know what I mean. If you ever got hand peeled carrots in your lunch as a kid instead of a HoHo, then you know what I mean.
But being poor isn’t necessarily bad. I’d even go as far to say that it has its good sides. I mean perfect case in point with the carrots versus HoHos! Most of the bare essential foods in the supermarket these days are healthier than any of the other supped up, over processed, more expensive foods. Besides that, it builds character and imagination! I mean, how many rich kids do you know that have ever played the game “wilderness” or “shipwrecked” in their own backyard? How many rich kids do you know that even play in their backyard? The world is too saturated with technology these days that entice kids to be indoors.
I use the term “poor” quite loosely, as you can see, because there really are families and individuals out there suffering from true poverty. In truth, a lot of the things I had growing up were way less than some…but much more than others.
IF I were venting to my father over dinner about all the cutbacks Matt and I have had to make, this would be the part where he stops eating and starts to slowly shake his fork at me across the dinner table with a pensive look on his face. Then after a minute or two he’d say something like, “…have you ever stopped to think that maybe it’s a blessing in disguise?” and then go right back to eating like he hadn’t just crashed my pity party. Then of course it makes me think….like it always does. It IS a blessing after all. Its a way for us to get back to the basics of life. It makes me want to yell to myself, “don’t you remember? We can do this! YOU know how!”
When I don’t have the money to buy my kids new toys or I have to find cheaper substitutes when shopping for meals, in all honesty, it makes a part of me smile! Smile because it makes me remember how much fun we had making a game out of these challenges. Then, I start to teach my kids like my parents taught me and we find it’s one eternal round. It makes me feel like if I can help my family survive on a smaller budget… I am smart! Which is a statement that ironically makes me feel stupid when I say it out loud cause it’s so simple! Simple yet true.
In my church (which most of my readers belong to) we do this thing called fasting where you go without food for a certain period of time. We do this for many reasons but one is so that our bodies become subject to our spirit. In doing so, we have the chance to reevaluate where we are spiritually and how we can improve. Maybe in abstaining from most luxuries in life, we give ourselves a better opportunity to evaluate the kind of people we’ve become. We give ourselves a fighting chance to reintroduce the child within. That same creative, happy child. Full of energy and life (cause we eat the hand peeled carrots!!!)
So in honor of all this economic turmoil I propose everyone take a moment to share their favorite story about being poor. And I don’t mean sob stories that are gonna make us want to take you in like a starving stray puppy. I mean character shaping stories or stories you can laugh at that wouldn’t have happened had your uncle been Daddy Warbucks. A memory, a lesson learned, an old game, whatever!
In the mean time, feel free to send any donations to the Post Family Fund. A nonprofit organization. We accept birthday money, Christmas money, and buy you’re your kids a HoHo money. Have your credit cards ready and call this toll free number: 1-800- 763-6557. That’s 1-800-POFOLKS.
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9 comments:
Loved this post- as always your words are all things I wish I knew how to articulate! I know exactly what you are saying because I to grew up the same way! Drew has been saying lately that he feels "bad" because we don't take the kids out enough and do fun things like a bounce house or the discovery center, etc... I try and tell him that I turned out really humble because we didn't get to do all those things and they ARE NOT deprived!!! They have plenty and more then I ever had. He just says what's wrong with spoiling them?... Anyway, we are cutting back a ton and I can't believe how hard it has been for us considering we are making the most we ever have are whole marriage. Milk costs too much, gas, even frickin cereal!!! I go grocery shopping and buy the cheapest snack foods that are Wal Mart brand because I can get a box of Vanilla Wafers for a buck. I try and have fresh fruit for snack time and I have stopped buying yogurt as much because they go through it so fast! I always remind them that once the food is gone, it's gone til the next pay day so go slow on the snacks. That doesn't seem to make a difference...YET! They had Rhodes bread and butter for breakfast one morning because that was litterally all we had besides apples! Okay, so it's not always that bad, but I am worried with the economy it will get way worse. Boy, we need to listen to our prophet and keep our food storage on hand. I am sorry if this is a rant! I hope you get all I was trying to say!!! Love you Amie Ripa!
Oh boy, you're dredging up some repressed memories. Way back when, when we were living on food stamps and dressed in Goodwill clothes, my cousin and I would usually entertain ourselves with outdoor adventures. We were frequently out from sun-up to sundown. We would walk cross-town to the city park. Along the way, we’d gather discarded bottles and return them to the grocery store – to collect the deposit and use the money to buy ourselves a ride on the park’s carousel. If you were lucky, your horse would stop at the yellow line and you’d win a freeze-pop (which, to us, was a rare treat). Wading in the cold stream, catching crayfish (crawdads) from beneath large, slimy rocks was always fun – and occasionally painful. We’d explore the “woods” (any undeveloped area of land) and climb trees, build forts (without the use of tools), construct new paths (‘cause that was important), and feast on wild berries. By the end of the day we were exhausted and reeking of the outdoors, but it left us with a sense of accomplishment.
I love it! My favorite toy as a kid...a 2 sticks shaped like a "Y". Perfect for roasting imaginary wild beast in the wilderness. (three sticks and several leaves...depending on the size of the beast)
You know what I loved about my Mom growing up? I never knew we were hard off or "poor". She worked at the snack bar to pay for my softball uniform and entry fee. She made my tu tu for ballet. My Mom made thrift stores cool before "vintage" was cool. To this day she could walk into a thrift store and find a new cashmere sweater with tag still on and get it for 5 bucks. She is just cool like that. I hope to be able to be as cool as my Mom was in that respect.
While Dan is deployed and we are bringing in extra money, we are paying off debt and saving. We are eating out less, making more homemade meals that last longer, paying tithing, having less wants, and more needs bought....and it feels great. I highly suggest it.
:0)
PS My favorite car I have ever owned? Turquoise blue; 1987 Toyota Corolla. I miss it. What I don't miss? My first car - 1980 white Ford Tempo. First car and it caught fire on me!
PSS Don't ya hate it when your parents are right? I could totally see Barney doing that.;) He is a wise one. Like a younger version of Mr Miagi. ;) I am always telling people of how your Dad and Carolyn are such great examples of the gospel. I learned a lot from them in the short time I lived on the Zauss Farm. :)
We had our own fruit trees in the backyard, and mom would blend up the peaches, bust out the dehydrater, and make "fruit leather" the poor kid's Fruit Roll-up. My friends all loved it, but I thought it looked like barf and just wanted a fruit-roll up like all the cool kids whose moms weren't quite so awesome :)
Yep, I know what you mean about being "poor", although my family wasn't as "poor" as Joy's 9 member family. She told me she ate cheese sandwiches as a kid and thought it was normal. I mean sandwiches with just mayo, mustard, cheese and bread and she just revealed that sometimes she would have mustard only sandwiches. She grew up in a barn and had to share a room with all of her siblings while sleeping on the floor. While I like to spend money on little things like coffee and Gatorade she tells me to stop wasting money on things like that.
I've never been much of a "spender" but I also have never cared much about having lots of money. Joy has helped teach me the importance of budgeting and knowing where your money is and building up savings for the future.
By the way I'm actually the only one who writes anything on the blog, I just use Joy's name so that no one knows I killed her.
Just to set the record straight, we were not poor there was plenty of good food in the house. You were on bread and water for other reason that will not be talked about here. Now back in my day....... #:-) (that's hair on top of the smiley face)
Amie you inspire me!! I wish I had the ability to write and phrase your thoughts the way you do! We use to use Weeping Willows as Tarzan swings and Whips. Jeruselem artichokes stems were swords or spears. Or if you had a bon fire they were long cigars. Yuk
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