Snoop Puss
Head Chef
I remember eating an awful lot of lentil soup as a student! I'd agree with Claire - pulses are amazing value for money. Lentils, beans or chickpeas, a can of tomatoes and an onion or two and you're away.
I know exactly what you mean. It was my choice to be a stay-at-home mom with my kids, but when we really got in a pinch a few times, I looked into getting a job. By the time I paid for child care, I'd have gone in the hole. Instead, I did sewing and alterations in my home, which brought in extra money for the kids' shoes and such. Luckily, I had 2 little girls, so I was able to make their clothes and mine.Claire said:Choosing to raise your children yourself is not something I'd call "poverty by choice". By the time you pay everything it takes to keep a child constructively occupied for 50 hours a week minimum, you wind up more in debt (since you're working, you have a higher credit rating) unless you make the big bucks, which we are NOT talking about here.
auntdot said:I remember when I was a kid and working in grocery stores after school and during the summer.
I did the lousy jobs, for example, cleaning up the garbage room that was filled with rats. When you went in you turned on the light and they scattered. You waited a few seconds before entering further to make sure they were gone.
The worst task was cleaning the worms (? maggots, anyway they looked like them) off the potatoes and saving those spuds that looked OK to be put back for sale.
One of my jobs was to put out in the trash the food that had to be tossed, and the store did not relegate items to the dumpster easily.
We had a routine and the very poorest folks in the area knew when we did it.
Some of the people working in the store would try to destroy the stuff before putting it outside. They would berate the folks waiting outside, big shots they thought they were.
They had a job. Little did they know how close to the people standing outside they were.
I always put the stuff out in a way they could take the edible parts (although I learned later that all of it was considered edible). They were all old, probably a lot younger than I am today, but clearly needy.
If someone wants to learn about needy would suggest reading Jack London's 'People of the Abyss'. Just Google and you can read it on the web for no cost (there are many books that are out of copyrite one can read that way).
If I have a point, and I guess I must have one, it is that there are many folks who are in true poverty, not the dude who scribed those 'tips'. To him it was self imposed.
And we, for several years, lived not too far from that, but never had to miss a meal.
But many folks still have to.
So I choose to direct my charity to those who truly need it, today's people in the abyss.
Sorry about the rant, just had to do it.
Corey123 said:It depends on how you look at it. Just in mental terms maybe.
It is sometimes paired with alcoholism and drug addiction. Or just a person falling on exremely hard times like in the movie and being forced to live out in the streets or subway.
What would you call it? A disadvantage, maybe?
Corey123 said:I absolutely HATE to see or hear of people starving and in poverty, especially children!! They just can't help themselves, and they should not have to go through that ordeal.
Cable and satelite TV are supposed to be considered a luxury as well, but who wants to be fighting all the time with rabbit ears?