Homelessness-Clothing Needed

Pads Started This week and the homeless numbers have of coarse grown.

More and More Families left homeless due to foreclosures. More kids without a place to call home sleeping in different pads shelters nightly.  Its heartbreaking.

There was a new family. 3 Kids.  5, 2 and maybe 1. All in need of  Clothing and the basics.  Things change overnite for so many now. One moment all is well. The next everything is gone.

They broke ground on a permanant building in Illnois for the homeless this month. Something that they’ve tried to get off the ground forever but couldn’t. It’s finally a go and many families will be helped down the road with the new apartments.

I know there’s  the stigma of homelessness. Bunch of Drug Addicts and Alcoholics.They did it by their behavior.All the other things people randomly say or think is still running strong. Suffice to say its true Sometimes but its not true in many .

There are homeless of all shapes , Sizes , variety, creed, color and reason to be there. There’s many elderly. Many families. Many single with children. Many with impairments. Yes there’s those who are alcoholics or drug addicts. I don’t judge.  The road to homelessness shouldn’t be paved with judgements on how someone got there it should be paved with kindness because its a road we could all easily find ourselves on one day . There but the grace of God Go I.

There’s a great need for gently used clothing, New underwear items, Shampoos, Deodarant, kids clothing, shoes and were asking for your help.

We wash, sort and distribute clothing to our local pads site and we’d like to expand to the others in the area.  Anyone cleaning out those closets please don’t discard the clothing pass them onto us. We will make sure they find a new home where they will be greatly appreciated.

In the Chicago Suburban area drop us an email at ianproof@aol.com.  we pick up.

Were not an official non-profit so we can’t give you a receipt for your  taxes. We do this simply to help.  We also never mix business with charity so if you send us clothing or have us pick up items they will not be sorted and have items pulled it ALL goes to helping those in need free. 

Thanks again and if you want to start a drop box in your church, school, etc. we can also pick up on call once their filled.

Sandy    Past Times Vintage Clothing

Growing older and dying

Its funny but you never really think about it much as the birthdays pass until you get medical issues to call it to mind. At least for me that was the case.

I can’t say as I feel Mentally older as each year passes. I feel like I can do anything   and want too! Then there’s my body going “are you nuts, your not that young anymore lady”.

Every year theres a few more aches. Then a few more doctor visits. Then finally seems like your living at the doctors.  Today after what seems like a million doctor visits post being in the hospital for a pulmonary embolus (blood clot in my lung)  the nurse and then the receptionist said “we should get you an office here. Yeh I’ve been there that much over two weeks.

It takes adjusting too. As it gets harder to do some things some other things come easier mentally from experience. The been there done that syndrome.

 Another advantage is you’ve learned thru many many crisis you’ve passed thru to get to middle age that there’s peaks and there’s valleys in this life.  Be patient and hold tight and you’ll get out of the valley and climb to a new peak  Thats of coarse until that one day when there’s no more climbing to be done. Still all in all until that day comes experience gives you a certain sense of peace that you lack in younger years.

No-one likes to  talk about getting older or dying in America or maybe world wide for all I know. You mention death and people all say “you shouldn’t talk about that”. I guess I weird them out and they in  turn weird me out.

I can say death comfortably. I can say die , dying, and all the words related to the actual cessation of life we all experience. I won’t someday pass on, Be at rest or any other euphenism. I’ll die.

We all have to do it. Die. Cease to exist in this world. Whatever belief is held about a next life or lack of one we all still have to die in this one first.  We all have to come to terms with the finality of this existance.

All in all I’ve come to a comfortable place as I get older. Many times my body is un-cooperative. I want to jet ski and my body wants to sit on the couch with aches and pains and pulmonary emboli. So my body and I will compromise.  Some days it wins , other days Mentally I do and push it further then it wants to go.

I’ve learned to slow down a bit. I was always a reader and now I can spend more time doing something I love curling up with a good book.  Old age gives you an excuse to slow down, reflect, Give thanks for blessings in your life, and ultimately to think about dying and come to terms with it.

Stephen Levine in his book “who dies” talks about how we as a society shun death and all things associated with it. Its kept hidden. He give the statistics of the number of people who die in the world in any given day. The number of other living creatures that die . The sheer numbers bring the message home clearly. Death is simply a part of the cycle of life.

He also talks about the simple concept of making room.  Someone dies, A baby is born.  The world cannot hold unlimited life . There has to be death for there to be new life.

I love that concept.  I love children.  The wonder they have . The sheer un-inhibited joy they have in being alive. Their incredible capacity to love. I can ”Make Room”  without regret of any kind. I can Someday die so that a baby can come into this world and experience life in all its beauty and harshness.  That is the most beautiful gift I can think of . Simply make room for new life.

Perhaps down the road one of my children will have their first baby, my first grandchild .  Somewhere , Someone will die the same day and time  they will give birth. One life no longer in this world, A new life ready to embrace it.

Simply Making room . Uncomplicated. Natural. A cycle played out to perfection. Nothing to be afraid of .  Death. 

New life…….

Could Be Worse

So I haven’t written in a bit and it begs the question, So Where’d she go?

Started Off blogging daily and Then Phhhfft! Gone!

Turns out my Nagging right sided chest pain that kept getting worse and worse was a blood clot in my lungs.  Hospital stay later and some Resting at home and I’m back. Little shakier, A lot more tired, and really sick of taking the blood thinner shots in my stomach while the coumadin gets to a theraputic level in my blood.

Suffice to say not a fun month at all.

So I was reflecting as we all do when we get slammed with things we can’t anticipate. No-one knows why I’m throwing clots to my lungs. Thats to be determined as we go down this road by more tests and specialists.  Life as usual decided to take a hard left when I wanted to go right.

First thing  I learned from all this is there really is a desperate need for health care reform. I Already Believed in health care reform but this really drove it home for me.

I have insurance and  I can’t imagine being in the shoes of someone who would have to go thru what I just did plus the additional worry of no health care and high bills for continued care.  In any civilized country health care should be a right not an iffy wishy washy benefit that some have and some don’t.  Its simply one of the basic needs to get thru life. We all get sick and  we all need to be taken care of medically when we do…. Period.

Second thing I learned from all this is attitude counts for a lot in life.  Life is always taking lefts when we want to go right. I think there’s basically two attitudes you can choose from. 1. Why me? 2. It could be worse!

If you choose Why me it leads down the road to self pity and wallowing and feeling that for some reason life should never take those left turns down your life alley. Only the other folks should get the wrong turns. Your life should always go the right way. You can touch base on that question but not  dwell there if you want to mentally recoup. Ask the why me and get it out of the way and move on.

If you choose Could be worse you acknowledge that whatever unhappy un-anticipated event caused your life to take a left turn sucks… truly does. Still you buck up and realize that looking around at all the other folks out there who also have a lot of hardship in their life that it “could be worse”. It could…. Really.

So I’m back home… back working online… back writing …. and I am tired and yeh a bit worried  at times about the whole thing as who knows what other lefts life has in store for me.

Still I’m grateful to be alive as the clots in my lung and it could have killed me while wandering there.  I’ve got a long road ahead to full recovery but at least I have a road ahead  for now and many facing hardships don’t . I get to hug my husband and kids again all day long (got em running away now from all the hugs).

All in all its all good.

Could be worse!

Reading the Forbes Billionaires Issue

Our daughter had a pretty good day for her with minimal pain  with her periodic fever syndrome .We sat out in  the sunshine most of the afternoon and  She dug up the whole yard making random  dirt  and sand towers she decorated with Flower petals and leaves.

I sat and read the Forbes Billionaires Magazine issue because it was on the top of a pile of magazines I’d picked up at our local library for 10 Cents each and I was bored .

My daughter had banished me   from picking up a shovel and helping her  dig  in the dirt  and sand   due to my  inability to make lasting dirt /sand towers so I was informed. My last  tower did not have the right structure and had fallen down .

 Lucky for the U.S. population  I sell vintage clothing rather then build bridges or we’d all be in trouble.

So  I Sat reading  The Forbes  March 2011 Billionaire issue  I Bought   for 10 cents because it intrigued me. It was  good for a few chuckles and some introspective pondering.

I’m not laughing at billionaires, at least not at most of them. There were  a couple featured Billionaires who’s  “stuff” they had chosed to aquire with their money  gave me the giggles . They’ll remain un-named as its Each to his own on the taste scale.

What I guess I’ll never understand after reading it  is the amount of time you have to dedicate to get rich.

Sure there’s the fell into it folks who inherited their wealth. There’s the ones that had a bright idea that took off and then they sold the whole mess to a bigger billionaire and Voila their now a billionaire too. Still a lot of them work their whole lives to make money, aquire money, trade money….. Money , Money , Money!

Then they buy more stuff and some of its some pretty funny stuff.

Seems like a silly kind of cycle to me but then who Am I to say whats silly. My idea of a ”rich” life is a couple home run in Pizza’s , a bag of chips and a really good cup of columbian coffee.  Not starbucks, Whatever Columbian coffee’s on sale for the week. That and a night of rented movies from redbox or a few on our 7.99 netflix instant play and we all lounge around and hang out together on our recyled Vintage Furniture .

Thats it for me. Hubby and  the kids  with their beloved animal welfare dogs, some pizza, coffee and redbox. I don’t  even have to work that hard to afford it  all.

I guess I just don’t get why you’d want to spend your whole life  working  long hours to aquire a lot of money and to  buy a  lot of things and then when you die its just so much materialistic leftovers. Pass it onto the next generation so they can work really hard to aquire more and on and on.

Whats so great about more stuff?  Why would you want to spend your life  working  and working  when you can dial your lifestyle down and  just relax. Are the billionaires with the 26 room homes and jets and gucci and chanel happier then I am with my pizza and movie night?

Maybe thats why a lot of people are envious now of the rich. A lot of people are downright hostile now to the rich.  They truly think the rich are  somehow happier and better adjusted then they are. and their missing out  Are the super wealthy happier? Can money really buy happiness? 

I thought about it and this is what I thought but as usual I could be wrong in my presumptions. 

The super wealthy  spend  a Lot of their day working and working and working.

They buy a lot of  expensive stuff that when they die doesn’t go with them .  

They don’t seem to leave much of an inspiring  legacy as the next new start business is right around the corner  and You don’t hear much talk about them after their gone.  Their not revered like  a Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King . I may be missing it But I don’t ever remember people saying Wow that big  company   from the 50s really inspired me they were the best.  (Note: The super wealthy that start off aquiring  and aquiring then end up giving and giving don’t fall into this category they get shuffled off into the Revered group of folks  who do get mentioned in the history books)   

 It must be   tough to aquire  real friends as you’d have to question the motives of anyone  they’d call a friend unless they were friends before the wealth came into the picture. Do you Like me  or like my money right?   

How many of the really rich get to spend time  off relaxing with an upscale version of  a pizza and movie night and how often? Do they really get a lot of down time?  They always  seem to be plugged into the business world even when their supposed to be taking time off.  Do they ever  really have time off? How much is sacraficed at the alter of Materialism.

So next time your feeling a little irked at all those rich people while your having your  cook out with the little 4 foot pool you purchased at walmart and your watching the kids chase fireflies while drinking a beer ask yourself why your so irked at them.  Ask yourself who’s really the wealthier person in the long run. Ask yourself how much of what you have now and take for granted you’d be willing to sacrafice to make it to the forbes billionaire list.

Would you give up the barbeques and beer nights with friends and family. Would you give up the Cheap hotel trips or camping but your really away when your away and off when your off. Would you give up spending time hugging your kids and being the ones who are there day and night when they need you the most. Would you give up Watching your child make sand and dirt towers decorated with flower petals in the sunshine for a gucci purse and corporate jet? When your irked about their wealth truly think about what they sacraficed to get to the top. 

When you really think about it a lot of the stuff they sacrafice to become billionaires is the stuff that truly  matters to the rest of us. The Mundane, The Cheap treats , Funny moments that are priceless, The simple  Family Fun orientated crazy life of the rest of us ordinary people.   Would you really want to give that up? Would more money and stuff be worth the sacrafice of what a lot of   us hold  to be the most valued?

So really who’s the richer when you compare the two? The Billionaire  with the bling or the Average wage earner with their average wage earner life.   Why do we resent them or envy them? Whats up with that?

I’ll take our  pizza and movie night with our family in our average suburban home with our recyled furniture over the 26 room mansion , fancy stuff , and long work hours anyday .

If   basic needs are met and  there’s a little extra  left over for some  cheap family fun  Why do we need anything more ?  

The  funny thing is we Don’t really NEED  anything more we just DESIRE  more.

So I guess the question really is   Whats really missing in a life  that  makes a person crave more  once  their basic needs are met.   

Why isn’t a pizza and movie night surrounded by the ones you love the most  just not good enough  to make us content  anymore????

Resting In Uncertainty-Economy,Periodic Fever Syndrome

Its been a Bad week as weeks go.  Actually its been a bad 3 months.

I think we’ve all had to rest in uncertainty at one time or another. For us its the uncertainty of our youngest daughters health. She was  diagnosed with periodic Fever syndrome a rare genetic disease that causes pain and fevers and inflammation.

Watching someone you love suffer is  always difficult but when its your child it seems at times unbearable. In a childs eyes a parent  is the one who makes all things better. Makes life fun and Kisses the owies so they go away.  

I guess a part of growing up for a child that can come too  soon with  long term illness is realizing that your parents can’t always Make all of lifes  hardships go away.

I guess a Part of Growing up as a parent is learning that you can’t ”fix’ all  hardships  your child will  endure  and you have to rest in that uncertainty and learn to bear it with grace .

I think  many  people   feel this now . Its sometimes a childs illness but for many there are  hardships due to  the economy. So much uncertainty.  

Maybe  its the uncertainty of a job, The uncertainty of paying the mortgage,   The uncertainty of putting food on the table or  Filling a medication or paying a utility bill. We all feel uncertain. Its an uncomfortable place to be.

After months of one thing after another with our child having no relief  I could feel the drag that  makes someone feel helpless.  I know what it feels like to feel overwhelmed and uncertain.

So I had a choice. 

Let   the uncertainty and misery of the situation  Drag  me down further or Choose Constructive Hope and  make the best of the situation I could.

I chose to look  at  our daughters issues again from all  angles  to see if there was something I could do to make the situation  better. Something constructive.

I formulated a plan.

I called the National Institute of Health to find out about being referred there for our daughters care. The doctor there is THE expert in her rare syndrome.

I called around to see if I could expedite the MRI that was ordered two weeks ago to find out whats causing the swelling and pain in her foot for the last 3 months. I found a childrens hospital that can cut the wait down from another 6 weeks to only 10 days.

I did more research to make sure I knew as much about her condition as I can so I can be her advocate thru all this and make sure she receives the best care we can give her.

We talked to her doctor about a referral to the NIH and he kindly agreed to refer her and fill out the paperwork.

Most importantly we choose to Tolerate our uncertaintly with  humor and as much grace as we can muster so we teach our children resilience and hope. My older Children Volunteer at Pads to help the homeless which puts a lot in perspective on the hardship scale.

We can’t change or “fix” everything in life but we can choose our attitude and redefine our meaning of blessed.

Were still resting in Uncertainty.  We don’t know if the National Institute of health will accept our daughter as a patient. We don’t have any answers yet. The important thing is we took steps to move towards progress. Simple, Pro-active steps.

Most importantly We choose to counter lifes circumstantial  uncertainties with  an  inner  certainty that can’t be touched.

The certainty of our love for each other. The certainty Of the love of our family and friends.  The certainty Of our Faith in all that is good and graceful in this world.

So if your  like our family and resting in uncertainty due to something that seems beyond your control look at it again.  

If Your uncertain of your job consider starting a side business of something you can do in your spare time and build it up. Go back to school if you can afford a class at a time. Look to see what jobs are still needed and see if any of them are jobs you could see yourself doing and work toward one. Simple steps.

If Your worried about the finances set out a plan to cut and cut some more. Don’t spend unless its on a something you truly need. Find free things to do with the family…. we do a lot of free stuff together when our daughter is well. Free zoo’s, Free days at museums, State parks, Local Movies and concerts in the park. If its free were likely to be attending.  Save Something for the future   even if its a   change jar you dump the change in. Its builds up.

 Unable to pay the basic bills then think about a room share where a person pre-screened stays with you and pays some room and board for a room. Its not always easy giving up your privacy but if it pays the bills until things improve its an option.

Only buy whats on sale for the food.   Spend a couple hours going over the sales papers they send every week and write down the super sales at all the stores. Buy only those.  Work your meals around the super sale items . Get creative! 

Re-sale, salvation armies for the clothes and other odds and end.

 There are  circumstances we  can find ourselves in  that are  so overwhelming   that  we can give up hope.  Every day I read another story of someone who’s been in such despair they’ve taken their life because of all the uncertainty and hardship they are enduring.

Please don’t wait until it reaches that point. You can’t avoid  lifes hardships but   You can choose Your response to  them.  

Rest in Uncertainty and feel helpless and hopeless or Become resiliant and resourceful despite the Uncertainty.  

Life will always be uncertain from one moment to another. All we have is the single moment we are experiencing . Everything else in unknown future or unchangeable past.  

Scott Peck Wrote a book entitled “The Road Less Traveled” that I have read many times. The opening lines are “Life Is Difficult”.

Life  is  very  difficult and uncertain at times.

Look again!

Life is also  joyful, Filled with simple blessings, Filled with people we Cherish and even when resting in Uncertainty There  is always  hope to be found . Looking with new eyes we can  Find  many moments that can bring a  smile and renew our hearts. 

We can choose to  move  our lives  positively towards a goal. We can re-define and re-define again what it means to be blessed as we move thru this life and its hardships. We can choose resilience and grace and love …. they are certain.

In the book Learned Optimism the author notes that the very thought “nothing I do matters” prevents us from acting. It stops us in our tracks. We remain in uncertainty and despair.

Look at your hardships with fresh eyes and Set simple goals.  Put one foot in front of the other and  never give up hope.Know that  EVERYTHING  you do matters. 

It matters to those you love and who love you.

There’s nothing more certain in this life then that.

Corporate Tax Rate Increases, Entitlements-Response

The reasoning behind not closing tax loopholes and raising the taxes on the wealthy and corporations are  listed as

1. They create jobs

2. If we raise the tax rates corporations simply take their jobs elsewhere.

Okay I can see Conservatives point to an extent but there’s an easy enough middle road again that can be taken with all this.

Not liberal tax the heck out of them, Not conservative no Tax increases period.

How about a common sense approach that balances both sides.

If a  corporation is in the U.S. and its jobs are in the U.S. not overseas and the factories and places of manufacturing are in the U.S.  and the supplies they  buy are from the U.S. then RADICALLY DROP THEIR  Corporate tax rate. Huge drop.

We reap the benefits of having these companies as they make the jobs, Give the benefits, Pay building taxes and Permits, Purchase   Supplies from other businesses. Basically Their a Plus to America. Even at a low Tax rate they contribute and with the lower tax rate they’ll grow within the U.S. aiding the U.S. economy even more.

For the Companies that Have their production out of the U.S., Hire their workers out of the U.S., Pay no worker benefits, Pay no Permits, Pay no Rent and purchase supplies Out of the U.S. BIG TAX INCREASE AND CLOSE THE LOOPHOLES.

Lets be Honest Their not doing the U.S. economy any good anyways.  Its a one way drain as  they make big bucks  as Americans buy their products but invest nothing in U.S. Infrastructure and U.S. labor.

Pro-rate  accordingly. Maybe some companies are good in one area and not in another . Some are 3/4 U.S. 1/4 Overseas. Etc.

The goal here is to Move the corporations back into the U.S. with the Jobs in the U.S. and  to REWARD the companies that Stimulate the U.S. economy FOR REAL.

Right not all we have is talk of job creation and A lot of smoke and mirrors that protects the corporations while hurting the economy.

Time to Take the middle road Guys. A compromise. Something new and Unheard of in our current political arena.

Want a tax break then prove your company does something for the U.S. economy. Its contributes real jobs and Real benefits and Real Dollars in for all the dollars it sucks out.

If Your corporation  does nothing directly  for the U.S. Enonomy in the way of jobs and benefits then  your company  is just another entitlement that the conservatives are always griping about. A Corporate Entitlement  thats simply a drain on the U.S. economy with nothing in and everything out.

The conservatives say its time to cut cut cut all entitlement programs to balance our budget.

Then that should include Corporate entitlements too, Its only fair.

Internet Sales Tax, States Budget Deficit Response

There’s many proposals for an internet sales tax on the table. States are missing desperately needed money from internet sales.

This effects me as I sell online and Yes I support it.

As usual not the way some of the bills are worded and would take effect but in general I would support an internet sales tax on all sales.

Problem is that the  bills the politicians introduce and pretty much anything else they do lately makes life more difficult for the average businessman or Woman ,not easier. They just can’t seem to keep anything simple stupid anymore.

I’m small potatoes, really small in the business world.  I don’t mind and would support an internet sales tax on my sales but I don’t want to be muddled in the black whole of a mess they call new policies and politics.

I don’t have the Time or Money or Manpower to collect, sort, send and pay taxes to a whole lot of different states at different rates. I’d just close up shop. Not worth it.

On the other hand if they could just for once pass some bill that makes sense and Keeps it Simple , Stupid  I could do it. So could all the other internet businesses.

How about a simple one rate internet sales tax applied to all sales period. No sorting, no fussing. Just collect the set rate on every sale and just send a check in quarterly or end of year of whatever to one agency in the goverment branch that distributes it  to all the states.

Now don’t get upset saying California buys more and illinois buys less. Or this state needs more and has more citizens and this one has less. Just divide  it based on population or some other easy formula . Right now there’s nothing coming in to any state that grabs a share of  ALL the internet sales taking place daily.

Isn’t a fixed internet sales tax on  every internet sale regardless of who bought it from what state being collected and then distributed enough to balance the states short falls? Wouldn’t that go a long way to decreasing our deficit, Stabilizing our programs for the poor ,disabled and elderly?  

Amazon would even support a reasonable  internet tax at one rate thats easy to collect. At least that was what was mentioned in the past. Hopefully thats still the case.

Think about how much money would be brought in just by Amazons collected sales tax and ebay’s. WOW! 

What amazon and me and all the other internet sellers big and tiny don’t want is the mess that our political leaders seem to churn out daily now.

Politicians get  so lost in the paperwork , grand schemes and need to increase income they don’t realize that  done in the wrong way thousands of small internet sellers will close up shop and walk away.    

You may not think thats a big deal but think of all the small internet sellers who sell on ebay, amazon, small web sites. They buy their product from somewhere. Usually from brick and mortar stores in their states, in their towns, in their resale and salvation army shops.

Drive them out of business with convolated political policy and then local sales die further.

So yes lets have a general internet sales tax. One set rate. On all transactions. I can tally up my quarterly or yearly sales and send that percentage to ONE agency .  They in turn can take all that billions and billions of dollars in new revenue and send it equally to the states based on population or whatever works.  I just want to keep it simple stupid on my end . My life is complicated enough already.

So Write a decent bill. Stream line Internet tax. Set up an agency that won’t raid it or spend it rather then send it where its suppose to go. Divide up the states by population or however is equitable. Internet Sellers Will  collect the one size fits all tax and send it on its way. You guys split it up and send it to the states where they take a deep sigh of relief and balance their budgets and stimulate business  growth and support social programs.

Now if anyone with half a brain in politics could simply write that bill and agree on anything to get the job done.

Koch Brothers, Insurance Companies Contributions,Tea Party Response

Well Here we go with the Debt Ceiling Deal. No tax increases on those who can afford them and plenty of cuts down the road for those in need who cannot.

Surprise?

Hardly.

We seem to be going about this the wrong way. Comments talk of voting and defeat and our voices not being heard (average and poor Americans) yet we fail to understand the most important thing.

We are the majority. The  Upper Middle Class, Middle Class and Impoverished  make up the majority in the U.S. Population.

Sure the wealthy have more money, more bankroll backed power. Thus the contributions by the Koch Brothers and Insurance companies to further their agenda of Big Business.

They have a right to do so. Its America where democracy is still at least an ideal we hold to even if it seems to not work lately in practice. The Koch Brothers and Corporations are Voting with their dollar. They have a LOT of dollars to vote with and Their voices are being heard and their Policies are the ones winning in the end right now.

So what are we to do if we don’t agree with the way our country is going. How can we make our voices heard. The Average American against the big Bucks guys out there? We do the same thing the Koch Brothers and Big corporations do.

WE VOTE WITH OUR DOLLAR. As a majority we have a LOT of dollars to vote with . Its time we Realize We have power in our dollars and how we spend them. Even a Single dollar bill Spread over the majority of the population holds GREAT POWER. Thats a lot of Dollar bills!

Right now we need to protect our rights as the majority. We need to make sure we protect those most in need . The elderly, The poor, The disabled children who depend on the “entitlement” programs.

We need to Protect Social Security which is NOT an Entitlement as their so fond of calling it , we paid for it with our hard earned money.

We need to Protect Unemployment benefits  for those out of work.

We need to have Medical care that won’t put us into bankruptsy court or worse.

We need The ability to send our kids to college with funds to help because we don’t have a spare half million laying around to pay our kids thru Harvard. 

We need Enough support to put food on our tables without cutting somewhere else like on meds.

We need the occasional  luxury like a  dinner out or a real extravagance like a  day  away somewhere.

Remember those days when at the end of scraping by there’d  be a little perk at the end of all the hard work . Nothing big like million dollar vacations homes or 50,000.00 purses. Just a  day away at a cheap hotel with a pool for the kids and a little fun.

Those days are gone and now even our  bare necessities are being put  on the table in the name of  raising the debt ceiling and balancing budgets. 

Its not Costing the Big Corporations, The Insurance Companies, The Big Bucks people a single dollar in increased tax revenue. Its all cuts. Cuts for the majority. The Average American.

So Is it time to stop this fianlly? I think so.

The only thing that the Big Money Corporations , the Koch brothers , Insurance companies, and The Tea Party BigWigs Understand is  the almightly dollar.

We need to VOTE WITH OUR DOLLAR.

Yes we can vote in the next elections and We should. If we want to protect the rights of the average and poor american we need to get the Tea Party supported Elected officials out of office. Thats next year.

This year we can Send a clear and definate message that will let them know what we think of their debt deal…. WE NEED TO STOP SPENDING.

If the majority  of  Americans STOP SPENDING on Things we Want and only purchase the bare necessities we NEED we will send a message they understand. Your buck stops here. We’ll hurt the corporations, the big business that  are  posting quarterly big gains while the rest of us are wondering how to pay our medical bills, Put food on the table, and replace a lost job.

We’ll vote with our dollar to say no to Social Security cuts, Medicare cuts, Cuts for disabled children,  All the Entitlement programs they so blithely talk of putting a drain on the great American dream.

Well the American Dream is for a few chosen now and the rest of the Americans are caught in a living nightmare of epic proportion and we can’t seem to wake up.

So Heres some Tips to send that message with the biggest one coming up right in front of us. The Big Businesses Depend on the Holidays for a large portion of their Big profits.

CUT  THE HOLIDAY SPENDING OUT! Its discretionary . We don’t need to Purchase Gifts from The Big Corporations. We don’t Need to spend 700.00 upwards per family where the dollars support big business profit. Put it in an account for your children. Save it with this debt deal you’ll need it. Make Handmade. Buy From a little Struggling local Seller. Buy Re-sale. Buy Something Made in America by the average guy or gal. Do some research, Make an informed choice of where to spend your dwindling dollar.

Do we really need More Game systems and games so our kids can plug into a tv sitting on their butts all day. Do we really need the  The next Kindle or Kindle book, More cameras and more bling.  Do we really need more stuff?

When do we say enough Blind spending is enough?

 When there’s No more programs for the Average American and The poor and elderly? 

Face it a lot of this mess is on our backs. We just keep letting it happen instead of doing something about it. We blithely and blindly spend, spend, spend watching our bank accounts dwindle, our stress levels rise as we try to pay back the credit cards. 

The Super Rich Pocket these dollars and smile and go on another vacation all at our expense.  So what do we do? Its so simple Guys Cmon Think about it! 

SIMPLY STOP BLINDLY SPENDING NOW.

Send the only message that the Koch Brothers, The Big Money making Corporations, The Big insurance Companies and the Tea Party Big Wigs  understand.

SEND THE MESSAGE THAT HITS THEIR QUARTERLY PROFITS. One that hits their pocket books. One that hurts them in the only place these people feel pain… their pocket books.

Were the majority here and its time we act like it!

Frugality, Going Green,Being Free

We Are frugal or as the common saying would have it “cheap”

Were not lacking for anything.  We have a home, a Van (17 years old and still going ), Food, Clothing, Second Hand Toys for the kids to play with, a T.V. (not several). All the basics.

What we don’t have is a lot of expensive new stuff and material things just to fill our house up to the rafters.

We don’t buy what we don’t need.

We live ”cheaply” and almost always buy second hand.

Call it going green,  recycling or whatever you like but its practical and we don’t have to kill ourselves working to support our way of living.

If you’d like to  try it here’s some tips for starting.

1. Try to focus on buying only what you need first. No charge cards. No spending what you don’t have. You’ll be paying the credit card interest and debt forever.  Cut up the cards. Pay down the debt you already incurred slowly over time until its gone for good.

If you need a  new fridge and you don’t have the cash save for it by allotting so much a week towards it. Better yet look on craigs list or in the local papers or barter sections for a freebie. Theres a lot of them.  Second hand stores have them for about 50.00 too from the people who discard them when they don’t go with their color scheme anymore.

2.Always Buy Used   if possible.

Everyones fine with buying a used car to save money but then they get weirded out at buying anything else used. Clothing, toys , lamps , furniture etc. Whats the fuss about used?

Garage sales have adult, kids and teen clothes all the time.    Abercrombie, Hollister, bebe, Armani. All for a couple bucks or less each.  Why pay 150.00 for a pair of destroyed jeans when you can get them used for a couple bucks and throw them in the washing machine. The new ones get tried on in stores all day long too its not like no-ones worn them.

I stopped  at a garage sale where there had to be about 25 boxes of clothes all Armani, Bebe, Hollister, many NWT. Most in my daughters size. I waited until the last day of the garage sale and then went back and asked how much would the lady charge to  sell me all the boxes. She wouldn’t have to bring it all in again.

She sold me All of it for 50.00. There were at least 150 items in the boxes. All great stuff. New this would have cost a thousand dollars even on a clearance sale.

My daughters gets compliments all the time on her clothes and they all ask where’d you get that great “top”, “Jeans”, “Jacket”, “Purse”. I’ve told her tell them the truth so they can learn to do the same. Garage sales, Salvation armies, Goodwill, Craigs list. Re-sales. Anywhere you can find it “cheap”and “used”

Our home is all used. Lamps, Oil paintings, Antique furniture, Persian rug, Drapes, Books, Doors, you name it , its used.

Compare lamp in store for 40.00 and up to one at re-sale 3.00 to 5.00.

Compare Couch in store 300.00 to re-sale antique couch at church rummage sale 50.00. Mines prettier with the carved wood legs and gorgeous tapestry effect.

Compare Oil painting of 50.00 and up to re-sale 5.00.

Compare persian rug 1000.00 to mine from the salvation army . I paid 40.00 for mine. Its  a full size frontroom rug thats gorgeous.

Compare Drapes for 200.00 to mine are 38.00.

Get the picture.

So what if  you don’t like to by used. Whats the advantage.

Add up the difference in savings just from my daughters clothes, the couch, painting, rug, drapes, lamp etc and right there I’ve saved   about 2400.00  by buying used items.      

Depending on how much money you make in an hour for your salary you have to work those many hours to pay for it.  Buy new and work a lot. Buy used and have a lot of free time to be with family, hang out, go camping , just plain have fun living. Plus extra money not spent on necessities means extra money available for fun. Trips, Miniature golf, eating out whatever you like. Still haven’t charged a thing. Still putting money away toward the future. 

Best of all I’m saving a lot of items from filling up landfills that are perfectly useable and lovely. We as a society waste a lot and produce much more then we need. 

We need to live frugaly, Simplify, Be free from Consumerism and Capitalism that tells us were only happy when we spend a lot of money and work ourselves to death paying for it.

Were happy when were free. Free to be together. Free to live with basic needs and then some fun items and not be under a mountain of debt to obtain them. Free to Keep our earth healthy by re-using rather then mass producing and discarding. Free to Teach our kids a different way to live a life . One without stuff and more stuff and more stuff.

Its time we woke up and quit buying what their selling. Its not just products and materialism and capitalism. its selling us the idea were not good enough to be happy, content, and whole human beings unless we buy their stuff. Their stuff is what makes us who we are according to them. Its what makes our life complete and worth living and struggling for.

Well All I can say is their Wrong (putting it in polite terms).

We don’t have a lot of stuff. The stuff  we do have is second hand. We live frugally. Simply. We  Have time to be with my family. Go for walks, camping, play monopoly, sit around campfires and talk and have smores.

My family is  all complete and happy . We dont need to buy  self esteem.  It comes from strength of character, sacrafice and loving one another. Not from aquiring more stuff.   Not from materialism, Capitalism or any other ism their trying to sell as the american dream.

Sorry  but were not buying it anymore.

Debt Ceiling Response-Boycott Christmas Spending

Their about to make a deal on  the debt deiling.  Good News????

Rumors say  Its  at the expense  of Social Security, Medicare and Every Other program that benefits those in need out there.

Not a whisper of raising the taxes on the super rich…. Oh yeah their the jobmakers. We can’t touch them.

I’m all for sacrafice if its everyone  feeling the cuts. 

Silly me….. I  forgot making sacrafices  is only for the poor and middle class not for the super rich.

Well I’ve Decided I’m going to give my own response to what I think of their one sided solution that likely will hurt  every struggling family and  the elderly but leave untouched those who have  the most.

I’m going to boycott Christmas spending and While I’m at it back to school buying as well.

I’ve been cutting Spending  way back anyways. Little by Little the gifts have been less expensive , the stockings have less. I’ve added  re-sale and  home made items  to fill out  the lack of the  big corporations fancy toys and gadgets.  Nows the time to quit  spending altogether and put that money aside for the future

What I’ll save on holiday spending that will go to corporate profit I’ll save and provide my own social security and retirement fund. 

The 700.00 That the average family spends for christmas  could be saved for   retirement and to have for the proverbial rainy day.  Our future security is no longer very secure. We need to take care of it ourselves.

Now I know  were told to spend out way out of the recession. Its a mantra. Spend, Spend, Spend. Thats what gets us out of a recession. Thats what makes it all better.  I’m not seeing it. Not for me and my family.

It makes it  better for the corporations and those who are profiting by the spending habits of americans. It doesn’t help the pocket books much of those doing the spending when their borrowing and scraping to pay the debt down for those gifts and items.

They say that less spending will hurt jobs but aren’t  most of our products  made overseas now. Where are they going to hurt  the jobs…. in China? Thats where a lot of corporations make their products now. Not in the U.S. Not in factories around here.  The jobs are Overseas.

LETS CHANGE THE WAY WE SPEND AS CONSUMERS. Vote with our dollar.

How about buying from small sellers on sites like etsy or go to your local craft  fairs where the items are made in america. How about homemade crafts and thoughtful items we put some effort and thought into rather then toss money at some junk that breaks after a few weeks because its made so poorly.

Do some research and Support companies that keep their jobs in the U.S.  Buy only American made products even if it costs a few dollars more. Then were voting for our jobs.  If we keep buying from big corporations  who make t heir products overseas as long as they see profits they will keep selling us the junk that we don’t see the benefits of employment For.  

Heres some solid steps for changing the way you spend , saving for your own retirement and returning to simple values and thrift that Truly supports our economy by supporting the people who live , work and do business “here”.  

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT- If you have to charge it don’t buy it. Teach your children the old fashioned values of thrift, Hard work, Time together as a family, Simple pleasures. Cut the Expensive toys and games and bling . Keep it simple. They’ll adjust. Trust me my family has.

Do you really believe your kids or family will love you less if they don’t get a truck load of gift wrapped foreign made junk for the holidays? If it effects your relations then what kind of relations did you have in the first place?

Were down to bare bones on our gift giving now. Our extended family no longer gifts for adults at all. One small 5.00 grab bag thrown into a pot and we simply enjoy our time together as family.

For the kids we keep it simple and low cost.  We allow second hand gifts. We enourage hand made.  We even barter . Who doesn’t have a family members kid who’s outgrown the fancy bike who’s teen whould like an xbox game your kids in turn tired of.

Our families survived just fine and oddly enough were happier. We enjoy the holidays without the dread of the after holidays Bills in the mail.

Its oddly fun when you open gifts knowing  January 1rst you won’t be receiving  a whole lot of credit card bills  you have no  comfortable way to pay . Is it really worth it for a few hours of materialistic gift giving?

How many more hours do you have to work after the holidays to pay it all back?

How Much debt do you carry after the holidays on credit cards with high balances that keep adding up?

How much do you have to give up in simple time together the rest of the year simply  to fund the holiday gift giving frenzy.

We don’t Charge anything …. period. We cut up our credit cards a long time ago and only buy what we can afford cash.  Its hard but we did it and you can too.  You simply need to set a plan in motion, Set goals.

Stop spending number one.  Only buy what you NEED not what you WANT. Cut up the cards top priority. Repay slowly on the debt already piled up. Find other ways to get the things you really need.

Did you know theirs usually  applicances free for the taking on craigs list that work perfectly fine. You  Just need someone with a pick up or truck to help you move them. Check out the freebie sections.   Theres a lot of barter sites. Freebie sites.

 Its hard to go cold turkey but anyone can  cut spending slowly.Set yourself a goal for this year. Decrease your spending by 50% this year. Set it in stone. Ask the kids for that one item they really want and then figure out a way to get it cheap. Buy local and support Companies that make their products HERE.

Check out your local re-sale and salvation army and goodwill stores. Look at the barter sites. Check out craigs list .  Go to estate sales and garage sales. Go to the the used local stores that carry games and hardware.  Get started now. Buy one thing as you find it at a time and put it away for the holidays. I start January each year for that coming christmas.

Start a family and Friends barter list. If you Belong to a church see if their interested you’ll have more of a pool to pick from and add too.

Simply call or write all your friends and family and tell them what your doing. Don’t be ashamed or think they’ll be talking about you behind your back . The mojority of Americans are struggling  and trust me they’ll be happy you took the first step.

Everyone writes  down what they have  they no longer need, kids included. It will be quite a list . Xbox games and Ps Games kids are bored with, Furreal pets that cost a couple hundred . Bikes, Bling, you name it you’ll have it on the list.

Next everyone add  what you can offer as a talent or craft. There’s folks who can do scrap book, Quilters, Crochet, hand crafted toys, Hand crafted furniture, soap makers, so many natural talents and artists out there with one of a kind treasures not mass produced junk that supports corporate excess.

Next figure out how your system will work. What for what. Points or however you want to work it.

Then  Exchange.

You’ll be amazed at how many items you will amass free of charge that your family will love. Store them away in a bin in the closet for the holidays.

Start now and trust me by the time the holidays come around you’ll have a closet full of treasurers and toys, spare money put to the side for your retirement and for that rainy day.

Best of all you will be re-learning what really did make america great. Caring for each other. Helping each other. Simple living within your means.  Family , friends, Frugality, Simplicity.

Its is time to be conservative but in the true sense of the word. Time to plan our own lives. Set our own coarse. Take care of our own future.

Obviously our goverment lacks the ability and foresite to do it.