Car payment $300 a month? Buy a car off of Craig’s list for $300 (that’s what I did and she lasted me 4 years). Shop at dollar tree, join freecycle. Don’t have a washer? Don’t want to pay for laundry? Trade babysitting for laundry privilages (that’s what I do). Pre-paid debit cards, to purchase online, Join a food program like SHARE where you trade community service for food packages (I tutored highschool kids in Biology for that). Get movies from the library or watch series on Hulu- the episodes generally come out a week behind.
Sound ideas, or so I thought.
She said she wouldn’t drive a “crappy car” or bother with traveler’s checks, no time for service as SHE was working. Only trailer trash shopped at Dollar Tree, she would absolutely NOT wait a week to see her favorite shows and be behind all her friends and there was no way SHE was going to “take care of anyone else’s brat for free”. Then she called me a beggar and unfriended me.
No big loss- to me. ;)
Many of our money troubles are caused by the economy to be sure, but moreso than that, many are caused by our reluctance to change. The point is, money is more than just a currency, it’s a paradigm. And it’s a paradigm that’s awfully hard to slip.
