My introduction…

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The bus is a very “green” thing to do. But it’s definitely not an option for many people. We don’t have any combination of busses that will get my husband to work. He couldn’t even change busses many times to get there. There are many suburbs accross the nation that don’t have bus services. Yeah, I wish we didn’t spend so much to get my husband to work. But a person just can’t blow off a good steady job so we buck it up.

The car thing too is VERY annoying. We drove the modest cars for years. They broke down ALL the time. The loss of time on the job, trying to get them repaired, never having that money just lying around to fix them is bad enough. ADD to that how many times we find out later we were ripped off by some mechanic. We finally decided enough is enough. Our peace of mind is worth driving newer model cars. Plus, I drive daycare kids from place to place and I need to make certain I don’t break down on some highway with 4-5 kids plus my own daughter. And we don’t drive luxury cars by any means. But we do have one car payment and one is paid for.

Saving money on food….I’m willing but still not convinced. Any time I try and save I end up leaning toward higher fatning food because it’s cheaper. White rice, pasta, potatoes, pancakes etc… They are all huge money savers and butt wideners.

I’d like to do the bulk buying. But first I’d have to buy a freezer and find a place to put it all. Our cupboards are always overflowing as is. I feed a family of 5 plus another 4-5 kids at every meal. I can’t/won’t skimp on what I feed the daycare kids because too many providers do. They get fresh fruits and veggies, only whole juices without sugar added and watered down to further reduce the sugar, becauseeven natural sugar isn’t great. They get generous portions so that I can teach them to eat their veggies. Their parents usually will just give in and give them Micky D’s. It takes time and money to teach these kids to have a wider and healthier pallet. We probably do manage to feed the family and the daycare on around 1200 per month. That’s around 5 people, some drinking formula, whole milk etc. I wish I could go buy a cow! LOL.

Suzi

Quote:

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Original Message
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From: Lucy Anderson
To: Budget101_@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: Budget101.com : My introduction…

If you don’t end up able to work, then you reduce the bills.

We were spending like that for our family of 8 and then I realized that we
were spending $1,000 a month for food. YIKES. With a little care and
attention, I can purchase twice that amount of food for my family for about
half the money. I’ve dropped the spending to $500. We were spending maybe
$600 a month on gasoline. Another YIKES. We get up a tad bit earlier and
catch the bus from home to work instead of driving to the Park and Ride.
Gas has dropped to $150 a month.

As I tell my kids, you CAN do anything you put your mind to. When you pay a
high car payment for the nice new car you bought, you end up paying huge
amounts for a car that is worth nothing a few years later. Why not drive a
more modest car for a little while, save up and pay cash for that nice car?
You are going to make the $500 a month car payments – why not pay them to
your savings account and not GMAC? You end up saving thousands on the car
alone. And the peace of mind that no bank is going to take it away from you
later.

People seem trapped in the “entitlement” mentality and feel that they have
to carry all this crushing debt for “normal life.” And we don’t. We can be
free. We can work hard of course. And we should. And we should have peace
after it.

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 7:13 AM, Suzi McMullen <smcmullen@kc.rr.com> wrote:

> I bring in about 4,000-5000 per month. My bills are nearly as high.

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