In My Own Defense

After re-reading my last post, I realized that some might wonder "Why are they taking a trip to Bloomington when they are destitute?" Or maybe, "Why are they going on this canoe trip?" Does it seem irresponsible to you that we are doing these things, because I mentioned that we are living at "poverty level"? Let me hasten to add, then, that we have had other back up resources that we have been using these past two years. And the trip was made upon Jay's recent loss of job, when we did still have another pay check coming from that. We only bought food out twice on the trip, and we did not have to pay for a hotel since we slept on Andy's apartment floor. Our biggest pay out, then was for the tank of gas to get down and back, and, in my opinion, it was well worth the expense. The canoe trip may seem like a splurge, but please read the rest of this post.

I attended a mini-seminar last year where the keynote speaker talked about poverty. She explained that you will see people on all kinds of Government programs spend money on what you might consider frivolous items and want to judge them because they could have paid bills with that money, but they went to a movie instead, or they bought something you wouldn't buy if you were in their shoes.  She explained that we should not judge these people, because we don't really know their circumstances. Sometimes, the thinking is something like this: "I can't pay all my bills with what little I get. I have worked so hard for so long, but I still can't pay all the bills. I deserve to splurge and use some of this money for what I want sometimes." Or maybe someone gave them some money for a birthday or other such occasion and said, "Please use this money to have some fun for a change. Or buy something special for yourself."

Whatever the case may be, I agree with this; we should not judge others when we don't really know their circumstances.

I do not believe in just throwing money away that we don't have. We have cut our spending way down. We rarely eat out anymore. I have been packing my own lunches. Most weeks we can get by on about $30 worth of groceries, especially here in the summer when we can eat from garden produce we get from friends for free. Both of us are probably a lot healthier because we ride our bikes or walk into town when we need something that we can get close by. We don't have cable tv, though we do both have cell phones. Anyway, the point is, we know how to be frugal and feel that we can allow ourselves some expenditures that would seem to others like we are being frivolous. We see a lot of live theater shows in the area because we usher or box office and in return, we see the shows for free. We should not cease to do things simply because we lack money. There are other ways to have fun if you are willing to find the ways around spending too much money.

We love all our friends and family and need your encouragement through this time. Please don't judge us?