Paying for Good Health

Carol:

I feel for your situation. My inlaws are both retired, in poor health, and living on basically one SS check (she worked for him at no pay).

Since I'm a stay at home Mom and we have a large family, we also have a tight budget. We had to make a lot of adjustments and get creative and resourceful. We have done things like:

cut out newpaper and magazine subscriptions (never had cable)
check out books and DVDs at the library rather than purchase them
buy a few items of clothing for each person and wash clothes a lot
cut out the expensive gourmet coffee habit ($32-45/mo)
buy produce at the farmer's market, esp the blemished products (it all goes in the juicer, so who cares what it looks like?)
learn how to cut our own hair
save the seeds from tasty produce and start a small garden
buy on ebay
buy at resale shops & markdown stores
own and operate only one car that we own free and clear (this saved $70/mo in insurance alone plus no car payments)
cut out all dairy and practically all meat, replace with veggies
cut out all sodas and junk/fattening foods (except for doughnuts which my husband puts on his expense account)
refinanced the house at a lower interest rate (this saved us $250 a month)
set the thermostat at 80 and wear shorts and tanks
don't eat out (except on our anniversary)
pet sitting (the children do this to make money)
volunteered at the World Hunger Relief Farm (makes us feel good to help others less fortunate than ourselves-great cure for depression)

Things we've talked about doing:

getting a part time job
selling the house and getting a smaller one
gardening
tutoring
selling baked goods
becoming distributors for a product
writing books or curricula (I'm a homeschool teacher)
baby sitting
breeding dogs
selling stuff on ebay
buying stuff at the Habitat For Humanity Re-store

Surely there is something you can do to generate more income, even as bad as you feel. You're in a lot tighter situation than we are, but pray, and the Lord will guide you to some possibilities. Put a sign up on church and library bulletin boards stating your needs. If you live in a town with a health food store, maybe the manager would let you post a sign asking for the donation of a juicer. Go to Walmart and ask the community director if there is any grant money available for your situation- seriously, Walmart has money available for its community and a lot of times they can't find anybody to give the money to. Look on Craiglist.org for a city near you, click on it, find the "free" section, and look for things you need there- people just want to unload stuff if you are willing to pick it up.

Maybe these ideas will stir up a few of your own.

Sending love and joy your way,
-Donna
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