The past years have been pretty hard on everybody and somehow we have made it. I call myself a pro poor person. I am not afraid to say I am poor, things happen in life and sometimes things just go wrong but there is always a way to make it and the most important part is that there is always tomorrow, and it's going to be better tomorrow.
After looking up info online when our hard times began (after my husband lost his job) there was all this info but I couldn't do any of those. Buy in bulk- how the hell if I don't have money to pay even for half of the bulk item price??? Clip coupons from Sunday paper- not going to work out, this $2 that the newspaper cost is my bread money! The things listed were just not working for us, we were too poor to "save money" and live poor.
So here are listed things I do/did:
1. Home cooking.
After moving to USA I told my husband I won't be eating out all the times anyways. But the cost of food got more and more expensive and then we were in a situation that we had to cook at home. We could not buy bulk, so we started eating things that kept us full longer, were cheap to make and lasted more than 1 mealtime. Potatoes-meat, spaghetti, macaroni, ramen soup and other things. Over time I will try to add few recipes.
2. Cut out "luxury food"
We didn't have steak for almost 5 years. We changed cheese to the weird imitation thing. We stopped buying whole bean coffee and bought the cheapest coffee ($2 for a big can) that tasted awful (added a little cinnamon to make it drinkable). We couldn't really afford meat, so we bought ground beef and chorizos. Lunch meat (ham) was out of the budget for the longest time, we just had warm cheese sammys. Fruit (I love fruits and that's all I would eat if I could) was a luxury and only when it was on sale.
3. We buy store brands.
We are not the brand name kind of people anyways so this was an easy thing to do. If you take a look on the label a lot of the things are actually made at the same place. (I just checked the baby formula- price difference is huge, yet I get 2,5 cans of formula for the price of one name brand. I buy 25.75 oz can of soy formula for $10.99)
4. We split bigger packs of items.
When there was something we needed, yet it was too big/expensive for us to buy we split it with our friends.
5. Laundry is done once a week.
I do all of my laundry, no dry cleaning. And what I do, I always do a full load, never ever will I put a half full load in. It's waste of money, waste of electricity and water. I do use a dryer, but only a little bit. I use the dryer until the clothes are just damp and then I lay them out to dry. It saves money!
6. Living (apartment, house and/or other)
When things got really-really bad we needed to swallow our pride and find a way out. It's better to do that than to have a broken lease on your credit that doesn't allow you to rent anything later on. We spoke with the manager of the apartment complex we lived in and explained the situation. We changed from a big apartment to a smaller one until our lease was up and then left. Apartment complexes rather take less money from you than have a broken lease and loss of money when you just move out. Also, shop for deals. Apartments have ridiculous deals, our street had a construction on and we negotiated an extra discount because of it. We did stay with relatives for a little bit. It was hard, but there was no way out.
7. Smoking
Smoking is one of the most expensive luxuries and like for many people, it's the only thing you might enjoy during the hard times. But it adds up to aaaaaaaaaalot of money. So instead of spending $6 a day, that comes to $180 a month, I started smoking electric ciggys. Not the super expensive kind that you have to buy for $150 plus the refills. I looked around, found one for $15, with refills for $7. I went from spending $180 a month to $36 a month the first month and then max of $21 a months later on. My Mister Hubby has been smoking cigars for the longest time, spending money of them and when we had money it was ok, it was his thing. So when we were out of money he had to make changes too. He bought very cheap cigars and smoked them in a pipe. The money spent on cigars went from $9000 a year to $300 ( YES, he spent that much on cigars)
8. Furniture
We had fancy-pantsy stuff, not some French super duper designer things but nice quality items. So we sold the things we had, used the money to buy less expensive things and saved the so called profit. We didn't have anything we didn't need. Bed??? Well, we had foam mattress for a year and we slept on the floor. This worked out. Dining table? Who really uses it, people usually eat in front of the TV so why keep it. Now, we don't buy anything new, all used furniture and we actually rarely buy something. There is always a way to get things for free.
9. Free items
As I mentioned there is always a way to get free or almost free items. We have 2 couches and a ottoman, all free. Our bed now, mattress and rails was given to us by someone who didn't need it. Most of the things in our house are free or almost free. We occasionally went to our local recycle center, they have this great thing called ReUse Store, where people drop off things that other people can still use. We got several things from there, including a TV. It's not the newest big screen thing that does everything but it has totally ok picture, it works and well, it was free. Craigslist has a free section. I visit it ALL the time! So many things there that someone doesn't want but you can use. Bulk trash day! It's like Christmas for poor people. It doesn't hurt anybody, the people who threw it out don't need it so why not get it. Many times I have asked nicely would they mind if I take something, nobody has said NO. Most of the people are happy they get rid of the junk.
10. Cell phone
Do you really need that iPhone that does everything? No, not really! If you are unemployed and need to look for a job, your iPhone (or other fancy phone) won't get you the job. You need the basic plan that receives calls, that's it. So sell your phone and get a prepaid phone. Your cell phone bill is app. 100 bucks a month, and you receive calls, well, $25 plan does the same thing. Want a touch phone...hahaha. you have to touch the keys on that simple phone too, so just think it's your TOUCH phone and the smartphone part... well, you got a brain, right? Me and Mister Hubby spent about $300 on cell phones, then we decided, well one phone is fine and we spent just 25 a month.
11. Phone, internet and cable.
Now-days everybody needs Internet, it's the way stay connected, look for a job and do other things. So rather than spending 250 on a bundle get a HotSpot or something like that. Cable shows are on the internet before the air on the TV, or the re-runs on the Internet, you can watch all the shows with out paying the super high cost of cable. Phone, you don't really need a land line if you have a cell phone. Or if you need another number, use Google Voice or get a MagicJack. We went from spending 250 a month to 24 a month.
12. Coupons
I do use them, but I don't buy Sunday paper. See, I am not the TLC kind of crazy coupon lady and lets be honest, I haven't had the money to buy 5 to get 1 free. So what I have done, is print the coupons online. I use the coupon for deodorant, razors, panty liners and other products like that. There has been this great coupon for Carefree panty liners, a dollar off, the price for the pack is 98 cents, so every time I go to the store to get stuff like that I check for that coupon.
13. Make up and beauty products
Everybody wants to feel pretty but do you really need makeup when you are at home, alone, not leaving the house...Noups! Save money and give your face a break. I use Petroleum jelly as moisturizer (works wonders), I use hair conditioner as shaving cream, I use brown sugar, lemon juice and oil as face scrub, used coffee to scrub my body. There are so many cheaper alternatives than the $30 mini jar of face cream.
14. Cleaning supplies
Homemade cleaning supplies ROCK! The saving are amazing. If you browse the internet you find so many recipes. I use vinegar to clean windows, baking soda to scrub, good old bleach for toilets. I don't need those cute looking scrubbing bubbles but elbow grease and good old common sense.
15. Planning, planning, planning and cutting back.
I plan ahead. I do my best to plan ahead. We had to use all of our savings but even though our life was hard the world did not stop turning. So, we plan ahead as much as we can. Meal planning, grocery list, coupons all these things save your money. We plan ahead for the bigger expenses and try to follow the plan. If we can't we look around us to find a solution. Cutting back on things we don't need.
These are 15 little notes I have done over the past 5 years. I am sorry if I insulted someone by calling this a POOR PEOPLE PLAN but lets be honest, what else you call it? Economically downsized walled syndrome? Yea right!!!
I hope somebody who is sitting in the living room, thinking what is going to happen because everything is wrong finds this post and finds little bit of hope.
Hard times are hard...You need you find your way of doing things.
But remember, asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of you being strong and fighting.
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
