Living on the Cheap with Value in your Life

Notice! I've decided to publish this as is for now even though the charts in the money section aren't quite right. there's a lotta usefull information here. I'll be updating regularly and I'm working on correcting those charts.

I’ve been living on the cheap all of my life. Now it’s time to share my knowledge.

Now what on Earth does this title mean? I define “Living on the Cheap” as follows: You get your necessities and even luxuries at the lowest price possible. ”Having Value in your Life”, I define as follows: You have your health including mental and emotional, I will even get into spirituality at some point. You have that in your life, which enables you to feel good about yourself, that life means something and you mean something in it. Notice “living on the Cheap” deals strictly with material and getting your material needs. “Having Value in your life” is all about the so-called intangibles, feeling good about yourself and life having meaning. I call them “so called” intangibles because in fact those “values” are at least as important as any material you will ever own, and indeed more foundational. Self esteem is a foundation from which you manage your life effectively if you feel good about yourself or poorly if you don’t feel good about yourself, and that is more foundational than all the material you could own! Valuing yourself leads to value in Life. Value of what you own does not lead to valuing yourself in any real way. It just doesn’t work that way.

How much does attitude count in your life? Attitude is the beginning of everything. I grew up with parents you would not call affluent. In the forties and fifties, my father would buy an old car for $100 and run it into the ground, then go buy another one. We grew up in the country surrounded by farmers who wasted nothing. The attitude was waste not, want not, make do with what you have and you’ll prosper. The joy of living is to do your work and know the joy of creating your family, not a bad attitude at all. Those same people in that same neighborhood near Root Road are still there today with grandchildren and great grandchildren. Today sustainable development with responsible recycling of everything is evermore obvious as the only way to live as a functioning society on Earth. The population of the U.S. is consuming half the Earth’s resources. We are not half the Earth’s population, yet we use fully half of what the whole rest of Earth’s population and natural resources produce. Then there’s poverty, those of us who do without, not by choice but by circumstance. So what’s important? Let’s prioritize. The necessities are: food, shelter, heat, clothing, at least a minimal support network of some kind, would you call socialization with other people a necessity? I would, if only to maintain that minimal support network, but also we simply need other people to relate to, to feel connected to something, to tell our stories, (would you believe I regard storytelling as a necessity? We do NEED to relate to people. We all spend a lot of energy ensuring the certainty of even casual relationships so our basic necessities include food, shelter, clothing and human contact.

Survival is for bees and ants. Insects in their simplicity may have no distinction between mere survival and the Joy of Life, but even squirrels may know misery from comfort. It’s More so for us Humans!!! So after the bare basics of survival comes level of comfort and then sense of fulfillment. Years ago in my hippie days, a friend of mine rented an apartment for $15 a month, no heat, gas or electric. This was in the summer. My friend regarded it as somewhat of a challenge, not misery, not circumstantial but voluntary. As fall came, he did carpentry and interior work and got a better place.

So we’ve established that the most basic necessities are pretty much the same for everybody but comfort level may very greatly from person to person. How about fulfillment? What on Earth is that? In 1992, I lived in a single room on Schenectady, received S.S.I. disability, and had paid a month’s rent to guarantee the room for a month. I had six dollars for the next three weeks and ate at the City Mission and Salvation Army. That’s tight living. In the meantime a friend picked up to go to Amsterdam one day so I could sing and play guitar at a telethon for the Animal Shelter. I am blessed with musical and artistic talent. What’s the point here? I was surviving, my comfort level was bare bones tight, but I could still volunteer my talent (not a paying gig) and do something truly fulfilling that would give myself and others joy. If you are gifted, living in poverty need not stifle that gift. It may not bring home the bacon, or be your main support, but if it is your ministry, your thing, your specialty, your hobby, your passion, your therapy, your gift, etc. by all means DO IT if at all possible. To bring joy to yourself and others if you share it IS part of your support system, your coping mechanism, sometimes your very sanity, and possibly even your fulfillment as a human being. It could be your therapy and someone else’s also.

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Problem Solving

The most important part of problem solving is to GET THE PROBLEM PROPERLY DEFINED IN THE FIRST PLACE. That is the first step and it cannot be over stressed. The solution may just spontaneously and logically, obviously pop into view once you have the problem defined. Work as hard as you need to arrive at an understanding of what the problem really IS! Once the problem is defined and understood, the rest is logic and logistics. Limited thinking and he Gumption Trap Bugaboo can hinder you from solving a problem and getting something done. You can find out more about the gumption trap in “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Persig. The Gumption Trap Bugaboo is anything at all that you put in your own way by negative attitude. Here’s a hard but realistic example in my own life. I worked in Schenectady and lived in Johnstown in a committed relationship at the time. The car broke and went into the shop. To keep the job, I took a Trailways Bus to Schenectady and back for 3 or 4 days ‘till the car was fixed. It was tough getting up at 5:00 AM, walking ½ mile to the bus, then walking 1-½ miles to work, repeating that routine getting home by 7:00PM. Eight hours work, four hours travel, and this was in the cold, snowy winter. Was the job worth it? Yes! Gumption prevailed, not excuses. Gumption is a word that has fallen out of use a generation or two back. It means: having the will power, positive attitude to get up and go and do what has to be done. Maybe that word should be brought back.

Boxed in thinking is another hindrance to problem solving. In fact, the boxed in thinking may create the problem, otherwise the situation may not even be seen as a problem at all! Have you ever been overqualified? “I’m sorry; we can’t pay you the kind of money you are used to earning.” I had applied for a parking lot attendant position while my resume listed an Associate Degree and technical positions reflecting that level of work. I never told the interviewer I expected that much money. He made the assumption out of boxed in thinking. Here are some boxed in examples and counter thoughts.

                            I’m too old                                                   Maturity is a plus

                     I’m defined by my past                                  only if you tell yourself that

                  I never did it this way before                                 So there’s only one way?

           I don’t have a car and can’t afford                       How far is the bus route? How important

                      one right now                                           is this job? Can a friend get you there? Can

                                                                                         You ride a bicycle, take a cab? Can you arrange

                                                                                    a car pool situation? Is it worth moving to a bus route?

Booleanizing

Before the turn of the last century, George Boole defined a system of algebra for the binary system of counting by 2’s. His algebra is called Boolean Algebra and it is the basis of all digital computer design (If he were alive today, he’d be collecting royalties on EVERY digital computer made since the late 1800’s. Move over Bill Gates!) Mathematically, even though it is an algebra of only 1 and 0, off/on, yes/no, this/that, the algebra itself does get complicated, but for problem solving, I will stick to the simple aspect of BOOLEANIZATION 101!

I’ve done this myself, so I know it works. It is a mental discipline aid. ANY problem in life, no matter how insurmountable or impossible it appears to be, can be Booleanized in your thinking. You only have to break it down into a sequence of either/or, this/that situations. Once you do that, you have a plan of action for getting from ‘where you are now’ to ‘where you want to be’ regardless of how big or seemingly impossible ‘where you want to be’ is! Again, I will give you a situation from my own life as an example. While traveling around the country on a motorcycle some years ago, I got stuck in San Francisco with what I thought could have been serious motorcycle trouble.   Here is the problem Booleanized.

A.     Can I diagnose/fix the bike myself?

If yes, problem solved.

If no, goto B.

B. Can I get advice or help, and what will it cost?

If yes to first part, determine cost, within means, problem solved.

If no, goto C.

                        C. Seek work or other support system to pay for repair

                                             If successful, problem solved.

If not, why not?

Bike too far gone, too expensive to fix, unload bike,
Seek work or other support system and settle in for a time.
Seek work or other support system and seek other means to travel onward (including another motorcycle, bus or train ticket, serendipitously encounter fellow travelers willing to include me in their plans, etc.).

.

Do you see how this works? It’s all about how you think the problem out, and how you organize it in your mind. The success lies with YOU. Actually, the problem with the motorcycle was nothing more than two criss-crossed spark plug wires from yesterday’s maintenance routine, a very simple fix. Notice how the logic covers a lot of decision making territory.

MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

HOW DO WE HANDLE MONEY?

I actually do daily book-keeping, and I never took a course in it. Here is an actual

example right out of my personal account book. I’ve never had a credit card until the last few years, and I use it judiciously and sparingly, but I do use a debit card. The seventh column (G) lists ATM balance according to the little ATM slips. I rely on them to help keep track of my bank balance. The column “To/for/about” is for explanations of payments. In the row dated 1, the $10.01 is for gasoline paid by card. Then I made an ATM withdrawal of $20.00. Gro. stands for groceries. Snr. Aid is a program that pays me when I do job interviews or certain subsidized job hunting related activities. That’s the $47.48. If I deposit a check, it is noted as in the row after date 15. MOW is Meals on Wheels, who now employ me to deliver meals. That’s why my gasoline bill is so high. The Statebal is from the monthly bank balance statements including service charge when my balance drops below $750, plus a dollar for returning my cancelled checks, plus any non-bank ATM charges. At the bottom is a summation. This was a good month! On the 30^th, I got a check from the Saratoga Hospital Nursing Home for performing. That’s $50 for a one hour of performance. See what can happen when you use your talent?

This may look like a lotta work but the name of the game here is good old discipline. If this looks good, remember it is compiled one day at a time. The trick is to DO that one day at a time thing and cultivate it into a habit. If you ever intend to work for yourself, this is an excellent habitual start. For me this habit pays off immeasurably. I don’t buy fancy ledger paper; I use a plain old lined notebook and customize my own columns.

DATE

CrdDbt

AtmWd

Chk#

ChkDbt

To/For

AtmBal

Income

CompBal

934.31

1

-10.01

-20

1139.49

904.3

2

756

-40

Book

864.3

3

-7.31

757

-77

AutoIns

779.99

6

758

-25

47.48

802.47

12

-10

759

-6.68

Bell Atlnk

785.79

13

-10

760

-129

AutoRepr

646.79

15

100.87

747.66

16

Statmnt Bal $931.69

$9.50 SC

18

-7.08

740.58

21

-8.16

-10

722.42

23

-20

702.42

24

-17.07

50

735.35

25

-9.2

-10

716.15

26

761

-70.67

Nimo

645.48

27

645.48

28

64

709.48

29

1080.58

285.66

995.14

30

-7.37

-20

967.77

Sum

-86.2

-80

-348.35

548.01

The above ledger is the left hand side of my account book, dealing with checks, electronic banking, etc. I may update this text with a properly readable table of day by day expenses. I've had some difficulty loading tables into these text boxes. I'm still working on correcting that.

The Automobile!

Oh, the blessing or curse of the Automobile!!!

Let me present you the case for spending less than $1000 on a car. Some people will say you are throwing money away on a car when you pay less than two, three or five grand. My ’84 Dodge Aries breaks down (pun intended) like this. [OH,NO!! Another chart? Another exciting romp through excel l with its dumb exasperating quirks?!!]

Date

Maintenance

Cost

Sep. ‘94

Buy 1984 Doge Aries

$650

Sept ‘94

Timing belt breaks

213.84

6/’96

Alignement

149.80

12/’96

Junkyard ignition control module

50

9/’96

New battery

58.84

9/’96

New exhaust system

279.50

6/’97

Service transmission

53.95

7/’97

Some part or other

23

7/’97

ASW valve

47.95

9/’97

Brake hoses & lines

133.68

9/’97

Parking brake cables

27.65

9/’98

Front brake rotor

138.68

3/’99

All new tires

100

11/’99

Fancy freezout plug

69.87

12/’99

Junkyard fan

35

2/’00

New battery

70

3/’00

Junkyard alternator

20

4/’00

Tire

39.95

4/’00

Junkyard radiator

55

6/’00

NEW alternator

123.47

7/’00

Replace warranty muffler

17.15

Purchase price plus

maintenance

$2357.33

My total mileage over the 5 years and 10 months I’ve owned the car is 45,000 miles, [98,000 when I bought it].

45,000 miles at a nominal 18.5 MPG equals 2,432 gallons at a nominal $l.l0 per gallon equals $2,676 for gas [Remember gas at $.89 per gallon a several years ago?]. I must interject something here. My old Dodge Aries got about 25 miles per gallon when I first bought it. As time went by, it deteriorated in mileage to 12 miles per gallon! You may hear about these great car engines that go on and on, but you can’t kill them. They don’t die but they do deteriorate in performance. The old engine had a weak cylinder that cut its gas economy in half! My newer 1988 Plymouth Reliant got about 25 mpg average! So an old poor performing engine will cost you in gas.

Purchase and maintenance of car

$2357.33

Gas

$2676

Insurance

$2500

Total

$7533

Cost per month

$107.62

Cost per mile

$0.1674 or $0.17/mile

Cost per month equals Total divided by 5 years, ten months, or 70 months.

Cost per mile equals Total divided by total miles, or 45,000 miles.

Notice how gas, insurance, and purchase price plus maintenance happen to equal out.

Notice how more mileage does more than anything else to make value of it all worth it. That makes sense.

I have more than the average auto-fixit savvy for a woman, but I am still a

“shade-tree mechanic”. What is over my head goes to the shop. I can heartily recommend Pete’s Auto Parts in Schenectady, N.Y.

Owning an old car means it’s gonna break!

Ask yourself if you can put up with that for the kind of figures you see above.

You also gotta be lucky selecting a good old car.

This car was single owner. I bought it from a private owner, no dealer.

Do you have any friends who know their stuff about buying second hand cars? Enlist their aid.

Clothing

I am a total thrift store shopper when it comes to shopping for clothing. Underwear & socks are new. The rest comes from City Mission, Salvation Army & other thrift stores. Again, attitude is everything and makes the biggest difference. I’ve looked over my books over the years 2000 and 1999. My clothing expenditures are $88.66 and $72.42 respectively. That’s what I’ve spent for clothing in the past two years! That adds up to $161.08. If you must have new clothes, that changes everything. Your clothing expense over a year may be 10 to100 times what I spend. If your lifestyle and income can support that, fine! My purpose here is not to judge lifestyles, but to simply show you how cheap you can live if you need to choose or go in that direction.

Somewhere, years ago, I made a choice, partly driven by growing up with poor (supposedly middle class in appearance, but still poor) parents. I’ve also had a couple of very serious downfalls in my life affecting at least my perceived earning power limits and career equity. It made me re-evaluate my value system. I’m not materialistic except in conformance to my needs of present day living in this culture. A $20,000-$30,000 car and necessary high output, stress-laden, high-demand job to pay for it, are totally superfluous and meaningless to me. If a windfall came along, it would go into my music CD that I am presently finishing up to market on CDbaby.com, using my creative energy to do what really mattered to me, and share my creative results as I am doing with this info sharing publication. That, in essence, is my agenda, which also includes other creative things. So when I say I am stretching a dollar to do the work or 10, I’m not exaggerating, not by some people’s standards. Attitude, life philosophy, and choice of lifestyle and value priorities all come into the mix

Food

I just recently suffered my second heart attack. (The first one was 1986). So now I watch what I eat with near fanatic devotion. Some measure of fresh fruit & vegetables every day is a must. I eat heart healthy foods like fish, garlic, red grapes (which I keep around and nibble on all day), vitamin E rich anti-oxidants, like cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil, multi-grain, whole grain breads, and foods with the LEAST or NO processing, those are all highest on the list. Hydrogenated stuff is out. It is a downright strain sometimes to avoid hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup which may do liver damage. The greater the amount of processing, the more likely you are buying and eating something which will put you in the grave all the quicker, while filling some CEO’s snuff box. For me the greater consideration is not what does it cost, but how much are you poisoning yourself! The United States makes the most poisonous food on Earth!!!! The only fast-food I eat these days are vegy submarine sandwiches. Chinese take-out vegetables and rice are OK too, along with all-you-can-eat Chinese or salad bar buffets. That’s about it for me.

Store brand and generic brands are cheaper than top name labels. Some years ago, someone talked me into one of those money saving coupon clubs. It didn’t save money at all, it cost more! The coupons were for all top name brands. Even with coupons, the food cost more than generic, or store brands, not a bargain at all. I got a guest pass into a Sam’s Club store. Their only value to me was cheap submarine sandwiches. All their other food was highly processed junk that I never buy. Always be careful of bargain stores & systems that may not be a bargain to you at all. If you’ve already cultivated some thrifty habits, you may find yourself way ahead of what some other people & advertisements call "bargain”.   Develop your own thrift sense according to your own lifestyle & try cultivating new thrift techniques as you feel the need to do so. Sensible food shopping is always a balance of nutrition, freshness, untampered-with, and price. Buy from farmers markets. Our farmers are an endangered species, and ALWAYS need your support.

Here’s a recipe for Fish and Rice

With Green Beans and Szechwan Sauce

Ingredients:

Inexpensive white fish, such as catfish, monkfish, or other white fish

Pure, raw, uncooked, un-tampered with long grain brown rice, such as River brand or equivalent. (Price Chopper)

Fresh green beans

Fresh onion, your choice

Fresh carrots and celery

Szechwan Sauce

Horseradish (optional)

The fish, green beans,

Szechwan sauce and optional horseradish are a great taste combination.

Cook rice in a pressure cooker, 15 lbs pressure. 1 or 2 cups rice to double the volume water. Cook until the pressure cap dances, continue about 1 minute, shut off heat & wait for pressure to settle.

Fish and vegetables are steamed, not boiled or fried. A wok kit will usually include a steamer platform. Some pressure cookers have steamer platforms. You can haunt thrift stores for steamer trays or cookware. Steaming is a great way to cook fish and vegetables. It saves energy; you have total control of softness or firmness of vegetables without cooking them to death. Nutrition loss is minimized. It’s worth it, in my opinion to get in the habit of steaming vegetables. The equipment need not be expensive.

I’m not showing any measurements. I’m a throw it together cook. This is with the assumption that you’ve done at least a little cooking.

Pile rice on a plate, pile vegetables and fish on top. Add a little Szechwan sauce. Be careful with the horseradish if you use it, otherwise season to taste, and dig in. This is basically a heart healthy recipe.

SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is YOU being YOU

And forever more so

Spirituality is cultivating your intuitive sense

And continuing to do so

Spirituality is caring

And seeing everything in terms of

Caring about people

Including yourself

Spirituality is DOING YOUR PASSION

If you feel gifted with something

PUSUE IT    DO IT    EMBRACE IT

And SHARE IT

Spirituality is FORGIVENESS

We all have a place deep in our spirit being

Which is ALL FORGIVING

Yet forgiveness is a process in our fleshly lives

If you can’t forgive, don’t guilt trip yourself over it, nor allow it of anyone else

Yet seek that part of you that is all forgiving

Spirituality is knowing yourself ever more so

And knowing God and all the Cosmos

Through knowing yourself

A Little About Myself

I was born in Schenectady, N.Y.

Grew up in the country

Started drawing at age 3 and never stopped

I was known for my artistic drawing talent all through school

Also became a wiz-kid science freak

Got hooked on jazz    took clarinet lessons at 14

Got serious with Ham Radio at 17

Got an Associate Degree in Electrical Technology

Got of on the “folk Thing” of the ‘60’s    taught myself guitar & singing

Became a Hippie

Built 3 guitars from scratch

Inherited the farm on which I grew up

Became an organic subsistence dirt farmer

Got involved with fundamentalists, bad, bad, bad news, blew them out of my life

Earned a reputation for being a good musician playing guitar, saxophone, folk, jazz & psycadelic

Eventually sold the farm

Spent one year traveling around the country on a motorcycle, built a special guitar for the trip    still play it today

Got married       bad news     got divorced

Today I play at nursing homes and other places. Work for Meals on Wheels. Did four semesters at Sage Junior College of Albany in art studies. Working on New Age, Folk and Jazz flute and guitar music to upload on the Internet to share with everybody. Writing stories, making cartoons, (Cartoons on this page are mine), playing music, and having a great time

I share more about myself on tinasart.20m.com which includes a family of web pages on two hosts.

If You want to give a free will donation, click the PayPal button to the left. My PayPal account will accept credit cards and direct account transferals on line.