Struggling Family in Economy

[FarmerChick]

read this slow and true---think hard what is being written....can SS come in handy here LOL

and meager food? peanut butter, carrots and applesauce....more food than many people will see this day!




http://att.my.yahoo.com/_ylt=AiPL5Q...0bWw_eD0w/RS=^ADAB3b2oarJXFvu9MiUHg.ju5zL3zY-



just wondering about thoughts??

 

[Javamama]

I'm not sure what to say...seems like maybe there are some details left out. And what's wrong with carrots, applesauce and peanut butter for lunch?

 

[i_am2bz]

If they live in a house, I assume they have some kind of yard...could they start a garden, maybe? Or is LV too desert-y? :/

And yeah...PB, carrots, & apple sauce sounds like a decent lunch to me...!

 

[hillfarm]

Sounds like they aren't very smart with their money.
Why aren't they on food stamps. They would qualify it sounds like.
Also, they were employed in a seasonal and lay off prone career. Why would you buy a house with that kind of mortgage? They couldnt afford it then, and sure cant now. They may lose money forclosing and walking away, but they will save money renting a cheaper place till they find work. I dont know their details, but I would pick feeding my kids over my fancy brick house anyday.

At least they have a home and food. And obviously electricity. Seems they are doing better than alot out there.

I am layed off my job as of the end of the school year. I attend college full time. I have two kids. I pay 400 a month on my house because I knew I could afford that since times are getting so bad. ( I could of gotten a mortgage for four times that but I knew what I wanted to spend and not struggle. )Hubby has been laid off 4 times in the past year. We work our butts off. we have cheap phones, no cable and we invest in ourselves with home and yard improvements. I also have a ten year old car and so does hubby. They were used when we paid cash for them years ago.
I grow a garden. I raise animals. I have fruit trees, I can. I don't get the mentality that I am devestated cus i cant go to the mall everyday attitude.
Seems to me, this family and others like them should learn to live within their TRUE means, not their credit. Pay cash and don't borrow.
Sorry for the rant, just watchin a lot of people fail around me and im just not ready to climb onto their pitty pot.

 

[glenolam]

I'm gonna get yelled at here, I just know it.

I've never been in this situation. Ever. Even as a kid. My single mother raised 3 kids on her own. When my father died (my sister and I were 11 and our brother was 13) my mother found out he had cashed in the life insurance policy and she was left with nothing.

When we were 16 and 18 my mother lost her job.

We still weren't in this position. She wouldn't hear of it. She started a garden, found another job (yes, I know things may be different now.....) and got on with her life.

Issue #1 for me:
On a recent morning, she was yelling at Logan to take a shower when the car insurance company called. Mounds of dirty and clean clothes teetered near the laundry room, stacks of textbooks decorated the master bedroom....

Mounds of dirty and clean clothes/books....pick them up. You're never going to feel better about yourself if you let everything go. IMO, your surroundings have an impact on your feelings.

Issue #2:
....and Logan ran naked through the house, barreling toward the television.

Now, it doesn't say he turned it on, but we're left to assume he did. If that's the case, why do they have TV but can't afford the insurance? My car insurance is less than the TV bill, that's for sure.

Issue #3:

But Burbank can't let it go and Clark is growing increasingly frustrated. He threatened to leave her three times in the past year, including the week before Valentine's Day. He returned the next day to take their 5-year-old son Logan to the park and then a cartoon flick at the local discount movie theater. He wasn't ready to stop being a dad.

She needs to take a hint from him. Life isn't all about wants. It's about family.

Do I feel badly for this family? Absolutely. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Do I feel sorry for her? No. Pick yourself up and do something about it.

The storyline here seemed to be focused on "poor mother" struggling to feed her kids. Last I checked schools offered discount lunches to families in need - for probably the same prices as the carrotts, peanut butter and applesauce. She's being called upon to show her strength as a wife and a mother. Let's see what you got!

So....FC - can SS come in handy here? FOR SURE.


ETA - they made a country song about this - Darryl Worley sings it. It's called "SOUNDS LIKE LIFE TO ME"

 

[sekinkead]

glenolam, I am not going to yell at you. I agree with eveything you said in your post.

They made $38,000 last year in unemployment. My husband and I made that same amount together for the first few years of our marriage and we made it ok. We didn't go out shopping every weekend but we made do.

That lunch sounds fine to me to. It sounds like what my kids like to take in thier lunch.

 

[miss_thenorth]

For Burbank, surviving means ensuring her children's success and protecting the one place they could ever call home.

Well, then she is not surviving by her own terms. Threat of foreclosure looms, her kids re doing poorly in school...?

"They can take the car and we will eat cat or dog food. Come what may I'll keep that house." I think her priorites might b a bit mixed up. I would rather have good food in my kids bellies than a house that I was a slave to.

The debt on their five credit cards climbed to $6,700. They accrued $22,000 in student loans

FIVE credit cards?! what on earth for?!?!?

he said God would resolve their problems.

so, what, we get to sit bck in our recliners and wait for it?

He returned the next day to take their 5-year-old son Logan to the park and then a cartoon flick at the local discount movie theater

you dont' have to spend o=money (esp money you don't have to have quality time with your kids.

Since they do have a home, with a yard and a garage, they can put in a garden and do lot so ss stuff.

There are things she could be doing instead of whining about it and having her 'drity (and clean) laundry broadcasted all over yahoo.

Just my two cents.

And no, I have never been in this situation, and I never will. But we have seen lean times in the past. You need to have your priorities inthe right order. If you can't affod the house, you get rid of it and start living within your means. I would rather take my kids back to that"crappy apartment". You don't need to have lots of money to live happily and richly.

 

[lwheelr]

Most of their problems sound like they are completely unrelated to the unemployment. Undisciplined kids, a messy house, and marital problems don't come from a lack of money, but from a lack of motivation to do anything constructive.

Her kids are probably eating healthier now than they did before. And if they would not qualify for reduced price or free lunches at school, then I don't happen to think they are all that bad off.

I've BEEN poor. I've had a friend on welfare sit in my livingroom complaining that she and her three kids were not being given enough assistance. When we added up what Welfare, food stamps, lunch assistance, Medicaid, etc were providing for her, it was 1 1/2 times what our family of seven was living on at the time, and we were living better than she was. My husband lost his job, and went to substitute teaching days, and working as a cashier at a grocery store at night.

There's what you have, and there's how you use it.

And there's gonna be a lot more of this stuff, where people learn that what they complained about last year wasn't really trouble at all, compared to what they are dealing with now, and what is just around the corner.

 

[Javamama]

To me it came across as not being willing to try to make do with what they have. I'm not sure why the laundry and a naked toddler running around were even part of the story? That makes her sound totally lazy to me. Is there a reason why she can't do laundry? Am I missing something?

 

[glenolam]

Maybe the writer was trying to give subliminal messages without letting the woman know what he/she was really doing....