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15 Feb ’12
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great article on living on less
As a middle class American, it's been difficult for me to understand how we are supposed to make a living when there are so many things working against us. How can we go on day after day with the rising cost of food, fuel, utilities, car insurance, taxes and health care, while dealing with the insecurity of unemployment? In the past, whenever I considered these things, I felt a hopeless sense of impending doom in the pit of my stomach. There is so much talk about how to solve these issues, but nothing ever seems to stop the downward spiral of struggle and stress that millions of folks are experiencing.
Like many working people, my life went along fine during the 1980s. I had a good paying job ($42,000 a year) and though I didn't enjoy the kind of work I was doing as an industrial draftsman, receiving a steady paycheck every week kept me going without much complaint. But then came the Gulf War in the 1990s and after that point I faced nine layoffs over the span of 10 years. By the time September 11 happened, I hadn't been able to maintain steady employment in the petrochemical industry for over a decade. I would work about three or four months, then back again to the unemployment line.
It was at this point that I realized that something was wrong. The life strategy I had grown up to believe in was no longer working and there didn't seem to be any answers. Obviously no one was going to get me out of this, so I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands and figure out a way to redefine my basic approach to living.
Lucky for me, I have an adventurous wife. She was on the same page with me and was willing to make some drastic changes in our lifestyle. As a committed team, we decided to figure out another way to survive despite these uncertain, hard economic times. Since we didn't have a lot of money and because it was getting harder to find steady employment, we decided to rethink our basic values in order to create a life for ourselves where we could be independent and free of needing a career or a full-time job.
17 Feb ’12
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I wonder how this works when u have kids
15 Feb ’12
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Are you depriving your kids?
By Jill Cooper
Kansas
One of the main questions I get asked about frugal living is, "Won't I be depriving my children if I live the frugal life?" Maybe I can answer that question with a question. How am I depriving my children by having them drink water for every meal instead of juice and soda? Isn't one thing doctors are always complaining about is that we don't drink enough water? Cutting out just one glass of soda per person per day for a family of four would save $547.50 a year and make them healthier.
How am I depriving my children by having them eat an apple or homemade granola bar for a snack instead of a bag of chips? Obesity is a major problem among children in the United States. If you cut out just one bag of chips a week you would save $104 a year and make them healthier.
How am I depriving my children by having them walk to school or to a friend's house instead of always driving them there? Lack of exercise is a big problem. You would save time and wear and tear on your car by having them walk and make them healthier at the same time.
8 Mar ’12
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Hmm...depriving. well let me see...Access to competent health care (lack of insurance) exposure to math and science and emerging technologies. Limiting exposure to possible career paths that might interest them.
Nothing wrong with it, but its kinda like saying i'm out cause i'm tired and i'm takin the kids with me cause i know they aren't gonna contribute to the future technological, medical, or other scientific good of society.
And the monkey presses the button.
15 Feb ’12
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competent health care? I think that can be a issue anywhere. Was at our accountants the other day and we were discussing healthcare in this country. She told us a friend of hers 24 year old daughter had just passed away. She went to a doctor for stomach pains, was told it as woman problems, was given pain killers and given a referral 2 weeks later. Went to second doctor and was told you need to go to the hospital now, it was a ruptured appendix, she died on the operating room table. This was in NYC
Lack of insurance? Some people can't afford it even as is. Let's take us as a example, in Maine we have only a couple insurance options available to us, when we got self insured we went with the cheapest policy we could, 530 a month, 15000 deductible and 80/20 after that, no prescription, testing, nothing. My daughters appendix ruptured, was in the hospital for a week, Our portion of the bill was 20,000, we just finished paying it off a couple months ago, luckily another insurance option has opened up and we still pay around 530 a month with 3500 deductible each person and a 1000 dollar deductible for testing. I had some testing done a couple years ago for a thyroid issue, this was before we had the current testing on our policy, spent several thousand on that. Any time there is a claim, it is a constant fight.
So here we are 8 years later and have spent about 76000 dollars to cover 34000 in medical bills. looking back I should have just gone without the insurance and paid for medical bills directly, would have been farther ahead by about 40,000.
I think there are plenty of homeshcoolers who provide great exposure to math and science without needing technology
I guess it all boils down to what you are comfortable with
1 Jan ’13
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Back when we lived in Florida, we had become friends with some very simple Mennonite families. Without getting religious, they believed having insurance was a sin. They believed that you should only depend on each other and G-d to take care of you. Yes, they believed in going to doctors, but insurance was a no-no. The states they lived in required that they have car insurance also, so they took this into their own hands.
Instead of having commercial insurance, they instead had funds (within their branch of Mennonite) which were governed by a group of elders. One for medical needs, one for auto needs, and one for home needs (I believe). Each family put a set amount into these accounts each month. The amount was decided by the elders, and they took into consideration your income, how many children you had, etc. The amount was much, MUCH less than anyone of US would normally have to pay an insurance company...for example, a family of say, 6, would pay in maybe 100.00 to the health, 50 each to car insurance (these are not exact amounts but in talking to them it was a ridiculously low amount.) How did they do it so cheap?? There was no middle man...no insurance agent to pay, no building or rent for the company, no commercials, no overhead, and on and on. Think about it...it's like paying a thug for protection!
So, when we were living there, Hurricane Andrew came through. One of the men owned a sign company, and had one of those huge "cherry picker" trucks. It went off a bridge during the storm and was totaled. Within about a week, the men of the church had found a comprable replacement vehicle, and paid cash for it out of their fund. I believe for regular visits/check ups, or small things, the people had a local doctor who gave them an extremely discounted fee because they were paying cash. But for catastrophic illnesses, the medical fund worked the same way. Another reason they were able to do this, is that the other people whose money they pooled with, were ALSO responsible people from the same conference (Eastern Mennonite) who did not drink, smoke, or seek psychiatric help, no STD's,...of course there's always going to be a bad apple, but don't think they weren't expected to straighten up or get booted out of the "pool." Same with the cars...these were plain people, they drove simple sedans, no hot-rodding, drunk driving, etc. Anyhow, after learning how they take care of each other through these funds, I've hated insurance companies ever since. LOL
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