I was talking to one of my sons at lunch today and said "We got $10 off this meal because I had two $5 off things on my reward card for the grocery store and I have $13 on my Starbuck's card (from Bing Rewards Starbuck's gift card) and your brother has a $4 gift card for Domino's that we will use next week. It wouldn't have been all that long ago (just weeks ago, in fact) that all these $5 here and $4 there would have been a big deal and how we were making sure to eat this week." He replied with "We are being nickeled and dimed back to life."
Even though I have other things to do, I wanted to comment on that today, while it is fresh in my mind. The concept of being nickeled and dimed to death is very familiar to people. No one has trouble understanding the "death by a thousand cuts" problem.
But when I try to tell people "Get a little solution here and a little help there, and it will get better" people seem to very deeply feel that it will not work. They think it won't be enough. They think the problem is big, so the solution needs to be big.
When I first hit the street, I had alimony and I had multiple payments coming out of it for various things, mostly debt payments. This left me with $300/month to support me and two adult sons. Thus, I ended up standing in line at soup kitchens, etc. That simply was not enough to support three people, even without having to pay for housing or a car.
There is still a debt payment coming out of my alimony before I see a dime, but it is no longer the case that the majority of my alimony goes towards debts. Additionally, I reliably get $5 gift cards every month from Bing Rewards and Coke Rewards and I get good benefits from the reward card for the grocery store I currently frequent. These various small things add up to about $25 to $30 per month, pretty reliably. Plus, I do freelance writing.
These days, I have over $1000/month to work with. It still is not yet enough to get me off the street, but life is a helluva lot better and I no longer go to soup kitchens.
The new credit card eliminates $45/month in interest I had recently begun habitually paying for Pay Day Loans and it adds some flexibility to deal with cash flow issues, like when my alimony is late (as it was this month due, in part, to the Fourth of July).
The first fifteen months will be interest free. I have hashed it out with my sons and between the interest, bus fare, stopping to eat at the McDonald's and lost productive time to earn money, the Pay Day Loan was costing us around $50-$100 per month.
So, I think I will be $50-$100 per month to the good and the debt I ran up in the first month of having the credit card should basically slowly evaporate over the coming year or so. That plus the ongoing Bing Rewards, Coke Rewards, reward programs at various retailers and doing freelance writing as much as I am able, when I am able, I am slowly being nickeled and dimed back to life.
This works. I don't need a job making $60k a year or whatever. I need small solutions in hand today that I can sustain, in spite of my health issues and other personal problems. I need things that net me real gains, no matter how small.
Often, big solutions don't represent real net gains. If you can't keep a job making $60k, that solution doesn't really work.
One of the problems with things like soup kitchens is how much of your day they eat up. If you stand in line 2 hours a day, three times a day, you don't have time to job hunt or whatever. If I can spend six hours a day on freelance work, I can make money to help cover our meals.
Anyway, I am not sure I have made my point as effectively as I would like, but I have freelance work to do. So, I shall leave it at that and que sera, sera.
Even though I have other things to do, I wanted to comment on that today, while it is fresh in my mind. The concept of being nickeled and dimed to death is very familiar to people. No one has trouble understanding the "death by a thousand cuts" problem.
But when I try to tell people "Get a little solution here and a little help there, and it will get better" people seem to very deeply feel that it will not work. They think it won't be enough. They think the problem is big, so the solution needs to be big.
When I first hit the street, I had alimony and I had multiple payments coming out of it for various things, mostly debt payments. This left me with $300/month to support me and two adult sons. Thus, I ended up standing in line at soup kitchens, etc. That simply was not enough to support three people, even without having to pay for housing or a car.
There is still a debt payment coming out of my alimony before I see a dime, but it is no longer the case that the majority of my alimony goes towards debts. Additionally, I reliably get $5 gift cards every month from Bing Rewards and Coke Rewards and I get good benefits from the reward card for the grocery store I currently frequent. These various small things add up to about $25 to $30 per month, pretty reliably. Plus, I do freelance writing.
These days, I have over $1000/month to work with. It still is not yet enough to get me off the street, but life is a helluva lot better and I no longer go to soup kitchens.
The new credit card eliminates $45/month in interest I had recently begun habitually paying for Pay Day Loans and it adds some flexibility to deal with cash flow issues, like when my alimony is late (as it was this month due, in part, to the Fourth of July).
The first fifteen months will be interest free. I have hashed it out with my sons and between the interest, bus fare, stopping to eat at the McDonald's and lost productive time to earn money, the Pay Day Loan was costing us around $50-$100 per month.
So, I think I will be $50-$100 per month to the good and the debt I ran up in the first month of having the credit card should basically slowly evaporate over the coming year or so. That plus the ongoing Bing Rewards, Coke Rewards, reward programs at various retailers and doing freelance writing as much as I am able, when I am able, I am slowly being nickeled and dimed back to life.
This works. I don't need a job making $60k a year or whatever. I need small solutions in hand today that I can sustain, in spite of my health issues and other personal problems. I need things that net me real gains, no matter how small.
Often, big solutions don't represent real net gains. If you can't keep a job making $60k, that solution doesn't really work.
One of the problems with things like soup kitchens is how much of your day they eat up. If you stand in line 2 hours a day, three times a day, you don't have time to job hunt or whatever. If I can spend six hours a day on freelance work, I can make money to help cover our meals.
Anyway, I am not sure I have made my point as effectively as I would like, but I have freelance work to do. So, I shall leave it at that and que sera, sera.