Economic justice, frugality, entitlement, compassion…
According to the US Census Bureau…
The median income per household member (including all working and non-working members above the age of 14) was $26,036 in 2006.
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My income is $6,876/year, plus $360/year in food stamps.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the people who tell me to be glad I live in the US. Yes, it’s waaaaaaay better to be disabled and poor in the US than, say, Bangladesh. Does that mean I should just shut up and smile? Perhaps.
I wish instead we could talk about my triumphs and challenges. I take pride in doing what I can for myself. I squeeze every bit of money I have until it screams. I plan months ahead of time for how I want to spend my money. I try to invest in things I need long-term instead of things I would like.
I do not have hot water here. I refuse to turn on the hot water heater because I really don’t need it and I sure don’t want to pay for it. I haven’t been to a movie theater in years. I do not rent movies. I do not have cable TV. I don’t go to any sort of entertainment events that cost money…like concerts, fairs, plays, etc. I haven’t bought clothes other than underwear in two years.
I cook almost everything from scratch. I bake my own bread. I preserve and store any windfalls of food. I do not buy junk food. I usually treat myself to a $6 buffet once a month, though 
Other than that, I only go out to eat if someone takes me out.
I budget one tank of gas per month. Mostly that’s for doc appointments, getting freecycle stuff, buying groceries and going to church. I stay home for days at a time without going anywhere. Theoretically I could take the bus, but it’s definitely a last resort thing for me. To get from my apartment to a store requires bus transfers and a bunch of walking. Also, the crazy driving makes me wicked bad queasy. Sitting in the sun waiting for a bus is killer with MG.
Heck, I’m having a hard time thinking about what people do with their money. I spend mine tithing, on electricity, the telephone, the internet, pet food, vet and pet meds, car insurance, license and registration, gas, maintenance, hair cuts every 2 or 3 months, food, toiletries, laundry, stuff for my garden…..
I don’t belong to any dues paying clubs or subscribe to any magazines. I have no life or other kinds of optional insurances. I do not have any savings or a credit card. If the tire goes flat or the window is shot out…tough luck.
I was homeless the last two years because I could not afford monthly rent and I sure could not afford deposits on rent or utilities. Now I’m living here only by the grace of my church. I still cannot afford rent of $494/month, as it is here. A great thing about apartment living is the built-in storage, paid garbage, water is included, maintenance is done by someone else, etc.
Through all this I am trying to do food storage, have a 72 hour kit, grow a garden, do church stuff, take care of myself, my pets and help out my friends. It’s a miracle I do as well as I do! For once I’d like to hear people tell me how remarkable I am rather than what a slug on society I am! Grrrrrrrrr…..
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I’ll be glad to tell you how remarkable you are. My knowledge of poverty comes from poverty, not expertise. You deal with poverty better than I do, and I feel and believe that I’m pretty good at it. I do not have what it takes to budget far ahead, nor have I been able to live without using a hot water heater. You have accomplished any number of other things that I either never thought of or was afraid to attempt. Those are still a part of you.
Also, I have come to appreciate through your postings here and on VanDwellers the value of my relatively good physical health. I can use the bus, the bicycle or the ability to walk much like the non-US world. You find ways to get around without those abilities being available to you, and I admire and respect you for doing it.
Wendy, I have come to believe that the people who will understand and respect your experience or mine are mostly those who have shared it. I find that mostly in recovery, and even there it’s limited. People who have not been out in the storms cannot understand weather.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other and minding your direction. You will get to another place that way.
Thanks Calvin…you are a good guy
I’m doing MUCH better physically than last week. I washed a week’s worth of dishes, cooked real good food the last two days, schlepped LOTS of water to my apartment garden and have gone on some walks with Zeke. Rhett and Judy keep telling me to take it easy. They both know the second I feel better, I over do it. Snicker…
I have been reading you for quite sometime and I think you are amazing! I can’t even imagine dealing with all you do ( health issues, finances, etc….) and still you are so upbeat and your blog is very informative. I’ve learned a lot about food storage just from reading you
Especially your older journals and your daughters. You have done so much!
Never judge someone until you have walked in their shoes!!
I can’t imagine anyone suggesting ou are a slug
I hope you continue to blog as I will continue to read. God bless you
Awwww…thank you
Between my wife and I, we make just over $140,000 a year. We could probably get by just fine (i.e. not have to make any major lifestyle changes) on 1/2 to 2/3 of that. But then we would not be investing or saving any, and not giving anything to charities, or investing for our kids’ education. I honestly don’t know where most of our money goes. Wendy, I admire you greatly, for your frugality and wise spending choices. I know I would not be able to do what you do, if I were put in your shoes.
I almost fainted when I read your income. Thank you for the compliments
Wendy, I live on $800 a month (no food stamps) with no problems. You might want to think of doing like I do and others like me with small retirements do. I bought a piece of land for $100 down and a $100 a month just three years ago. I lived on it in my van. I paid a local guy another $100 a month to start building a frame and roof to give me shade because spring was coming on. He put these gutters on it that feed into a barrel for water.
And after 4 months I had the land paid for (it was only $500) and then I could pay the builder $200 a month.
I got a nice little house now that is 400 square feet and garden and I am pretty self sufficient.
I also have a friend that lives about an hour away that has an income of just $585 a month and he has a very cute apt that he is renting for just $200a month and that includes utilities– it is subsidized for seniors and disabled. They do a sliding scale depending on your income. They allow pets too. It’s in a very nice neighborhood in walking distance to the post office.
So it can be done. I feel I have a very nice life. I pay my neighbor $5 a month to tap into her wifi
Rita
~Wendy, I have been reading your blog and website since like 2003. I adore you and think everyone can learn so much from you. You truly make the best of what you got, and don’t let other people’s negativity get you down. Just know that you have a faithful following of people that think your absolutely amazing and wonderful!!!
Keep postive and keep smiling.
Rita..I am in limbo right now, waiting for my legal stuff to be settled. Once that is done, I can move anywhere I want. Until then, this is home. My lease ends at the end of the year. It would be nice if legal limbo was over by then. It has been dragging on more than 2 years. There is no Section 8 available here and now…that’s the sliding scale thing. It’s an underfunded program with a many year waiting list. Is your real name Kathleen?
Oona…I’m still smiling! Thanks
Wendy you are amazing. I admire the way you stretch your money. I admire your attitude,you take care of you and others. I would never consider you a slug on society and shame on anyone who does. Again, you are amazing.
Wendy, it is unfair that people make you feel bad about your situation. Never let anyone define who you are. You cannot not control what other people think and it is irrelevant what they think. Instead stay consistent with who you think you are. Deep down you know that you are an inspiration to many people, a kind wonderful person, and ingenious in being able to survive under extreme odds. Do not defend yourself, because that means that you have listened to others and let them put you are the defensive. No one knows what you go through to make it through each day. Being ill is the hardest struggle I think humans are given. But still you overcome this hardship as best as you can, never giving in or giving up. Someday maybe health care will be more evenly distributed among the people and then you can get the care you need. I understand your plight, we are materially poor too, but we have our health.
Candy
That is very good advice! As you must suspect, I am struggling with myself at the moment.
Wendy, when you sold your Vermont homestead for cash you had more money than I’ll ever see. You gave it away to a very creepy man. In my opinion that qualifies you, at least at present, in what Michael Harrington (author of, among other things, Poverty in America) called the “voluntary poor.” I have yet to see you step up and acknowledge that. It makes me sad for you.
You have NO IDEA how much I would like to talk about that. I cannot because it’s ongoing and the judge asked me not to.
Oh well being stuck where you are puts you in a bind that is for sure.
No, my real name is Rita and I was born in Loveland Colorado. People started calling me Lovely Rita from that Beatles song as a nickname when I was still in school and livin in Loveland.
I’m in Oklahoma now. When you are not tied down there anymore, you are welcome to come out and visit me and see how myself and some of my friends get by quite nicely in this area for practically nothing. Oklahoma is still real cheap and the folks here are real nice.
Rita
Also, Wendy, my friend is not on section 8. You don’t need to be on section 8 for his apartment complex. You just have to show something that says you are on disability or are 65 or over and your income.
He’s walking distance from the post office.
Rita
Sorry, but I’m trying to send you a message of empowerment rather than victimization. That’s what my comment was about.
I have no critical comments about your life or lifestyle. It appears you do the best you can with what you have and try to help others along the way as best you can. We all need to strive to be better at those things.
Please, tell me that you do not EAT pig snouts, beef trachea and tendons. I pray that they are dog treats or even better, some sort of fertilizer for your garden. Just the thought………ughhhhh!!!
Lila
Remember what I said about what people say? Ignore Leslie’s comment. Everyone makes mistakes. It is how we perceive them, learn from them. and move away from them that is important. I believe that you have said in the past that you have taken the blame for losing your money to that man. It was not your fault, you are a trusting person and I would think that is a virtue. There is no reason to go on and on about the monetary loss and you didn’t. What good would it do you to stay stuck in the mode of hate and regret? You did the right thing, you have moved on. This is the healthy thing to do. I do hope the court case goes in your favor.
Candy
Lila…I guess you missed the post on my AOL journal about pig snouts, tracheas and bull penises. Heather went on a serendipitous trip to a pet store and bought Zeke and Aleka all the weirdest things she could find for treats. Aleka did not like the dried guppies, but Zeke ate those and everything else
Ah, Wendy. Something in you has taken a turn… for the judgemental.
If you’re tired of people calling you a slug on society, then stop being one. It’s amazing that you always have the money and ability to go gallavanting around the country and go to disneyworld and go do this and that but you can’t work? You are a mooch, plain and simple. I know people with far more serious and REAL medical problems than you that work and support themselves. You can spend hours online copy-n-pasting crap to your blog and writing about how poor you are and how those evil rich people that work for a living and have things you don’t are horrible people and blah blah blah blah blah. You have the ability to be a martyr and clean up everyone’s house and take them grocery shopping and take them to do laundry, etc…. But you can’t get a job? Bullshit.
Get a job. Stop being a whiney baby. Most of your medical problems are in your head or are caused by YOU. Stop being such a huge mountain of blubber, lose some weight and you’ll be in much better health. Sitting around like Jabba the Hut is not going to do anything positive for you.
Stop surrounding yourselves with smileygladhands who just pat you on the back and tell you you’re great so THEY will have someone to pat them on their back and tell them they’re great. YOU are not great. You are a pile of shit. Get over yourself.
I imagine it’s getting pretty hot in Florida about now. You must be sweating like a whore in church all of the time. How long until you drop all the stuff there and high tail it up north to mooch off of another set of people? People in the ward there must be starting to realize how full of shit you are and that you just leech off of people as much as you can.
You’re the epitomy of what is wrong with this country. Just do everyone a favor and fucking die already.
Your rent seems steep for a disabled person. I know Florida has better options regarding rent. I knew many folks in Palm Beach county that were living in some kind of subsidized rental apts. All were drawing disability and their rent was based on their income, usually less than $200 per month for rent. This was in the early 1990’s, before i left FL. As a matter of fact, i once received the same type of assistance while recovering from a long term illness way back in 1980. I only paid $125 per month back then, and had food stamps for several months. It helped me get back on my feet financially. You are in FL, use your head regarding hot water. Take a steel trashcan and paint it black, coil a couple hundred feet of garden hose (new preferably)inside the can, run some hose inside to your shower stall and have spray nozzle on the end of the hose. Make sure the can is sitting in the sun. Let the water sit in the hose for most of the day and you’ll have enough hot water for a shower. Crude but effective, and it beats having hundreds of feet of hose winding around the yard. If you don’t have a hose bib outside, you can add one to your indoor plumbing. You’ll need someone skilled in plumbing to do that. I added one indoors so we could hook up a washer in our old cabin.
The way you get Section 8 or a subsidy from the Housing Authority is to wait on a list. I’ve been on the list for this county for a couple of years already. The demand far outstrips the help. Right now they are broke, more $ coming for the next fiscal year. If it were easy to get cheap housing, the scads of homeless people around here would get a home. Been there, done that.
It was easy to get Section 8 in Missouri, but really hard to find an affordable house for rent. With only 8000 people in the county in MO that I was in, the rentals were far and few between…plus I could not afford all the deposits.
I used to heat water in black hoses in my solar greenhouse in Vermont. I’m actually happy with cold water in Florida even though most people aren’t.
I guess things have changed over the years, i had to read up some here http://www.hud.gov/ to see what is available today. I’m sure you’re familiar with that site. Looks like all new funding is on hold, bummer. My wife and i are planning to retire to an RV lifestyle and have already ditched the house, most of our furniture,etc. (have some left in storage) and have found it to be cheap living, even if one is not on the road actively. We are living and working locally until her mother passes, then we plan to hit the road full-time. Our RV park is also home to many mobile homes, it is split pretty evenly. With your limited income, you could buy a new 25 foot trailer for say $120 per month, park it in a decent park for fairly cheap rent (depends on the area). Our rent is $300 per month and includes unlimited electricity, which helps in the winter and we heat primarily with electric. We run our AC all summer without worrying about the bill. Truly, right now, a great deal for us. I know RV rents in FL can be much higher, one would have to choose a rural location. Heather can visit and build a ramp up to the door. The only issue i would see is if you need walker or wheelchair access inside to the restroom, and she could take care of that as well. We have a 31 foot travel trailer and love it. Instant heat or cooling as compared to our old farmhouse. Only a few steps to the kitchen or restroom, our last house was over fifty feet to the kitchen, and down a flight of stairs. If the neighbors are too loud, just move across the park. So far, so good. http://www.escapees.com/parkpages/rainbowsend/rainbowsend.asp
this place is supposed to have a full-time package for permanent living, and they have nursing available, haven’t read much about it yet. My wife mentioned it.Looks like you need money up front though, wonder if the church would set you up there, once in the rent would be affordable.