Hi.
I went 2 weeks and not spending any cash but $1.00 . I set a goal and met it. Most people can’t fathom the idea of doing this and wonder how. Well…I bring my lunch to work and cook my meals at home. I have a water bottle at my desk, and I refill it at the chiller. To be honest, I can have a $5 in my wallet on Monday and most of it is there at weeks end.
You hear many people complain of being broke, then go out to eat for most of their meals. Worse yet, pay to have the food delivered. Yikes…
A bit of what I eat to make this work:
Breakfast: Typically a series of yogurt, PBJ sandwich. boiled egg or fresh fruit I cut up at home. and also have some frozen berries at home I may thaw to toss in my yogurt
Lunch: lettuce salad with a bit of shredded cheese. I buy head lettuce b/c the bagged stuff gets iccy once opened. I keep a bottle of store brand dressing in the work frig. leftovers. at times I make chicken or tuna salad for a sandwich. I always have some sliced ham around for a sandwich also. I keep a few cans of emergency soup in my drawer. Then if i dont bring food or leave it on the counter, there is something to eat. Fareway had Chunky Soup on sale if you bought 4, so i have 4 cans of Chunky Soup as my emergency meal.
Supper: I cook supper.. LIke actually cook real food. You know, peel a potato and make friend potatoes. Cook meat and other vegetables, or make a casserole. i have also been making rice once a week. I cook up a bag of frozen mixed veggies and toss that in with the rice. you can put it with so many things. Rice is super easy. I found a recipe on delish.com and perfect every time. which reminds me, I need to buy a new bag of rice.
Snacks: At times I will have a snack at work. Maybe some of those peanut butter crackers i buy in bulk at club store. plus fresh fruit and i love a big bowl of cottage cheese.
I admit I eat a bit carb heavy and show it around the belly. I do have plans in place to make some changes that will reduce the bread intake, as most of this is related to poor meal planning. I am going to say this as is needs to be said. YOUR BODY NEEDS CARBS. POTATOES ARE ONE OF THE GREATEST FOODS YOU CAN EAT. I grew up poor, we had potatoes at every meal – baked boiled and fried. But someone wanted to sell a book and said they are bad. Carbs are found in many foods, it is what makes up the calorie count in your fruits and vegetables. It is processed food that is bad. I can pronounce potato. I would rather eat a baked potato instead of some diet drink that is going to leave me hungry and unsatisfied. And who knows whats in the diet drink. Maybe I should write a book about the greatness of potatoes.
Eating like a stuck record
Decided to add some info on eating cheap. This is not advice I hi-jacked from reading others ideas or the overly cheerful know-it-all youtuber. This is my speaking from real life experience. Eating cheap and eating healthy are really one and the same. When you cook and prepare your meals at home, you are eating healthy. And yes, it includes eating potatoes and pasta.
Many years ago, I was a single parent of a special needs child. I raised her alone, no family helped me out. Not even my own mother. Times were tough, as I worked graveyard shift and had about 3-4 total hours of sleep per day. Since she had special needs to ward off cerebal palsy, I felt it best to be home during her waking hours to do her therapy and developmental stimulation, as I knew she would not get this in a day care setting. But I had to pay rent, food and formula, diapers, car payment, child care expenses, health care expenes, and all those things that go along with being a responsible adult. So… I had to work. Overnights was the most logical answer. I was blessed to have a child that was a good napper like me. So when I say I know how it is to struggle to get by, I speak from experience. As I reflect back on this, these were actually the happiest days of my life. We were poor, but we were happy. I have many wonderful memories living on Grant St.
We had to eat. It was then that I learned to cook and prepare meals on the cheap. It had to be filling becuase I get hungry. I’ve always been a big eater. I dont mind left overs, and am not a food snob, so fairly easy to do. One word can best describe my main go to food. CASSEROLE. I ate like a Bee Gees record with a huge scratch, which means repeat repeat repeat until you move past the scratch to the next casserole aka-big scratch and repeat repeat repeat. I think you get the picture.
I carry a lot of that with me today. I rarely go ot to eat, it seems so wasteful. Today, I just wanted to say you can eat cheap and healthy. Potatoes and pasta never made me fat, but they sure do keep me healthy. (menopause and beer made me fat – lol) It’s all in the food prep, but that’s a topic for another day. Thanks for stopping to visit my site.
Low Wages in Iowa
Hi. I recall last year New York passed a law stating all job postings must include the pay range. It is called the Pay Transparency Law (FARE Grant). Employers with 4 employees must note pay in job posting. I feel this is something that should be standard on all job posting nation wide. It is required that government jobs have a public pay scale, why not all jobs? Why waste time applying for a job that does not pay a liviable wage. For example, I just learned in the Des Moines Iowa Metro area that Hyvee and Fareway pay $13.00/hour. The rate of pay at Fareway is the same for a 14 year old as for a 40 year old – in my case, nearly 60 year old. Plus, labor laws restrict the type of work anyone under 16 and 18 can perform. yet same pay……age discrimination at its best. I wonder if the younger crowd gets special treatment in scheduling…hmmmmm???
So I decided to go one step further and apply at Michaels , the crafting store. Pay is $10/hour. And JoAnn fabrics… a whopping $8.64/hour. WTF!!! I learned these hourly wages because I either applied or called and asked. What would the customers of these stores think if they knew the pay scale out there on people. I think I am going to reach out to my state elected officials on this matter . Will they really care? So posting this in hopes others pay attention to wages, as no matter what your education or age, everyone deserves to make a living wage.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/quick-facts-about-state-salary-range-transparency-laws/
Plus we have disabled people that do not get a fair wage, That is terrible. They the have the American with Disabilities act, yet pay people with disabilities less than others. Kind of contradicts the purpose of the act, but that is jsut my opinion.
This post has been on hold a while, but today I decided why not put it out there.
Is this really how prospective employers treat people
Hi, Quick post today on my experience in looking for a “GOOD JOB” in the Des Moines, Iowa metro area. First… I have yet to find a good employer; one that will treat a person with respect, pay a fair living wage, and have reasonable expectations. I will be posting on this more, but in trying to find jobs and land interviews, it has been a terrible experience.
I will share more details in future posts related to recent experiences I’ve encouted from recruiters that have stood me up , not scheduled the interview with the hiring manager; and most recently, tell me they are unwaware of the job posting I was following up on. In the back of my mind, when this happens, I wonder if it’s part their hiring strategy. Are they testing candidates to see how desperate they are for work so they know how shitty they can treat people once they bring them in????
So this leads me to feel the self empoyment route is probably the real way to make money. I just need to get myself out there. I’ve started to try this, and will share some odd stories related to this also. Since this is a blog about trying to get ahead, no better place to put it out there than here. Hopefully I can get the comments section active so others can share their experiences also. I want to get it set up correctly so nasty, insppropriate stuff is not public.
Tootles:)
FYI, still trying to master inserting normal sized photos for pending posts. As a reader of blogs, it drives me insane when one photo fills up my entire screen and the text is so spread out I can’t just “read it”.
Happy Days Sewing
This is a side hustle I am desperately trying to get off the ground. I can sew, have been doing it for a long time. probably about 50 years, when you think of myself dabbling on my grandma’s old Singer. I rented space for a while and tried the Farmers Market one season, but was not profitable. People would purchase a frozen and thawed coffee cake from a franchise, but rarely spent money on tangible items. You will hear me vent about this type of problem more, just not now.
I like making useful item. I also can fix those ‘holy’ work jeans, hem pants, and take care of those those little rips and tears. I’m a rather practical person and not into the trendy stuff; I find a lot of that rather wasteful. A person can buy a 10# tube of 90% hamburger at Sams Club for less than you would pay for a seasonal throw pillow. Not into doing alterations such a a wedding dress… would really hate to mess that up. Clothing is too expensive to just toss. I have piles of old jeans I can use for mending work jeans. I hope for this side hustle to take off and be profitable in 2024. I will share some of the items I am working on and how it is going as I work through the journey of self-employment. This all part of my plan as a means of crawling out from the depths of hell.
Gotta get it going
I have really got to get this blog going! I’ve sent myself numerous articles I want to talk about, could do a dialy rant and still have content to go off. Admittedly, I’m quite the procrastinator, especially when it’s about doing something new that’s not second nature. Learning WordPress is definitely new to me. Youtube makes it look so easy, but there’s much more to explore.
At this time I’m currently at home with the laptop on a card table while I watch youtube on the big screen. I’ve learned it’s best to take notes about what does and does not work, as there is no better way to learn than learning by ones mistakes. (if only I could apply that to my personal life – lol). So if you see some weird stuff, it’s just me learning the ropes on building my site. Sadly, you can’t yet contact me about the weird stuff you may see as I haven’t yet figured that part out. That’s probably what I need to focus on next – contacts and comments.
Welcome
Hi, It’s Beth. Thanks for stopping by to check out my site.
This is my work in progress. I will definitely be adding more content in the future, as I have a lot to say. A little about what you’re going to see here is my take on how things are in the world for the average person just trying to get by. Not much of a photo person so this is going to be more wordy than cute. Just not into cute, never have been. The format will be more like reading a newspaper or magazine article – which is how I grew up reading and prefer to read today. One thing I will do is use news articles and other source of information to support a lot of what I say, or at least give reason behind the topic covered. But at times, no reason other than just saying what I think needs to be said.
Who knows, maybe this blog will be such as success it will raise me up from the depths of hell.
Contacts coming soon
Hi. Its Beth. Working on getting the contacts and email set up. I’ve been reading up on how to do this correctly. Not going to just take a shot in the dark as I need to be sure the send and receive options actually send and receive. I would hate to miss your email 🙂 Hope to have this ready soon. I should probably get a photo of me out there too, but I dont have many since lead a rather boring life, but will work on it.