Budget Excuses
Posted by Gail | Filed under Budgets, Take Control
While a lot of people are getting with budgets, there are still some holdouts who believe they have good reasons for not using a budget.
There are the folks who just can’t wrap their heads around their expenses. Every month they run short of money, going into overdraft or taking cash advances from their credit cards or lines of credit just to make ends meet. Their incomes may be small or large, that’s not usually a relevant factor. What is relevant is that they don’t have a clue where to start. This is reflected in the question I get most often on my website: “Where do I find the money for the jars?”
These are closely followed by the people who want me to make a budget for them. They can’t figure out how much to put into each category, so they don’t even take a stab at making themselves a budget. They’re disorganized; many can’t find their bills. Some of them put bills through the shredder without opening them since they don’t have the money to pay them. Budgeting takes too much energy and too much time, and it’s the last thing a body wants to do after a long day at work. And, besides, it’s depressing. There’s nothing uplifting about passing up a new outfit, cooking another bowl of pasta at home, or passing on a night out with friends because you don’t have the money to have some fun.
Some people are afraid. Looking at the numbers would ultimately mean changing their behaviour, and that’s so scary an idea that they choose to remain ignorant. Where’s the satisfaction in knowing you can’t afford to go out to eat three times a week? Where will all that deprivation lead anyway? In their minds it’s enough to say they know things are bad. Looking closely at the details would mean they would have to give up the freedom to blow money on any whim, and who wants that?
Some people hate even the idea of a budget because they don’t want to be told what to spend their money on. They want to be able to keep buying the crap they love to buy. They don’t want to set any limits. They don’t want to be constrained. And if they’ve been managing to squeak by because they have great incomes, what do they need a budget for?
And then there are the delusional folk. These are the people who won’t even admit they may have a sending problem. Even though every month-end brings a scramble to come up with money to pay the most basic bills, nothing needs to change. And the fact that they’re fighting with their partner is more about their partner being weird, or a control freak, or cheap than their own spending behaviour.
There’s no magic to making a budget. It does take some hard work, and it may require a body to look at some difficult truths. But life isn’t going to get any better, there won’t be money for the really important things, and you won’t stop fighting with your partner until you stop ignoring your money.
Call it a budget, call it a spending plan, call it a road map for your money. Having a budget is the only way you can see what’s really important to you, and put your resources, limited or not, to work for you.
The people who won’t take control of their own lives, make a budget, and make things better are perhaps best captured in this email I received from a viewer of the show (I get a lot of these):
“Dear Gail, we are despret for help. We don’t know where to start. Things are really bad but we can’t figure out where to start. I cry myself to sleep allot and me and my husband are fighting all the time. It’s bad for the kids. Please help us. We don’t want to come on the show because we’re too embraassed, but we need your help and would like you to give us the $5,000.”
Hmmm.
April 27, 2009 at 7:00 am
I used to be exactly like this. I am coming up to six months as a budgeter. It takes a lot of work but I can see the results already. I think the hardest thing for people is what you’ve said so many times- we’ve been conditioned for so long, we can’t understand why we shouldn’t have it as soon as we want it. At first, I felt really constrained by the budget. My friend fixed this for me by suggesting I write down everything I saw when I went out to a store that I would normally have bought pre-budget and how much it cost, then put it in a drawer at home for five days. Then she said to take it out, look at it and see how much of that stuff I really even remembered seeing and wanting, then total it and congratulate myself on how much money I’d saved instead of wasting like I used to do. I found that really helped over those first few hard months. Now I just kind of tot it up in my head as I go around and that’s enough.
Did anyone notice that all of the big banks are unilaterally increasing the interest rate on LOCs? My bank said everyone was doing it (and it appears they are). Why? I found it infuriating that there was a line on my statement saying the rate had been “renegotiated”. Last I heard, that takes more than one person. I told the guy that the page is wide enough to have put “unilateral interest rate hike”. He laughed. I’m glad my LOC is almost paid off.
April 27, 2009 at 7:22 am
renogtiating the LOC rates came after the credit crisis hit in November…the credit process was restructed in the way it is granted and yes even the rates on “UNSECURED” credit were raised (this was not true for existing SECURED credit)…and in the big scheme of things paying a half percent more for a LOC is still waaaay better than having the loan called…besides, since a ULOC is based on prime and prime has dropped more than once since they implemented the increase you are still saving and prime has decreased more than your rate would have increase so you are stil ahead!!:):)…
April 27, 2009 at 9:11 am
As a human, I feel bad for the lady who wrote to you about needing the money- but on the other hand, I think that she needs to wake up (I’m saying this in a nice way!) and start cracking; like you said, Gail- we are in this mess because we created it- we need to suck it up and deal with it.
I wish her (and all other viewers like her) the best of luck in getting out of the debt trap.
April 27, 2009 at 9:20 am
I think there’s probably a basic level of understanding missing. She seems to be under the impression that people enjoy giving financial advice SO MUCH that the adviser will pay her for the privilege of doing so.
April 27, 2009 at 9:27 am
Gail – here is your cyber hug for today. I don’t know how you do it!
April 27, 2009 at 9:40 am
It wasn’t long ago that I was one of the excuse folk. Now I have created a mini emergency fund, paid off my credit card debt, pre-saved for Christmas and am working on my loan.This is thanks to Gail and Til Debt. I wish magic fairy Gail had been in my life when I was first married and taught me about money and budgeting. I mentally kick myself to think where I could have been in life now, if I had been money smarter for the past 20ish years. Now if only I could convince my husband to give ‘budget’ a fair chance.
April 27, 2009 at 10:04 am
Wow Jolie- great job! I love your style! pre-saved for Christmas??! That’s great! I am on the road to pay off an LOC in time for our wedding…once that consumer debt is paid off- I will be flying high!
Thanks to all of you who encourage and motivate me to be more money-conscious (sp), and most of all to you Gail- who’s straight up and who tells it like it is!
April 27, 2009 at 10:33 am
LOC–yes, I know the rates are low, and going up .5% is very small (though I’ve heard it was higher for some people) and still keeps it much lower than it was previously–but it still bugs me. Prime rate drops so my LOC rate goes up? It feels like I’m being punished for having ‘too good’ of a rate, so they decided to take it away. And I will NEVER get a secured LOC. They idea that they could potentially make me sell my house to get their money (I know, worst case scenario) scares the bejeebus out of me.
The thing about the budget making is…I never have amounts for certain categories. Which makes me think ‘wow, now I have to start a _____ fund, and a ______ fund, and another _____ fund, just in case? ‘ I’ve already got everything going to various savings/emerg/RRSP funds, the idea of making even more makes my head hurt. And how do you figure out what your ‘monthly clothing allowance’ is when you only go clothes shopping twice a year, and the amount you spend then can vary greatly depending on what you need? The budget also tells me I spend way too little on transportation, too much on debt repayment, and too much on life choices. And too little on mortgage. Which makes me feel like I’m doing it all wrong….
April 27, 2009 at 10:42 am
Hubby and I were just talking this weekend about how surprised we were about our feelings on having (and keeping!) a budget. Neither of us was particularly keen on actually sitting down and writing one out- it seemed so constraining!- but we’ve both been pleasantly surprised. It’s rather freeing to know where our money is going, and more importantly, that it’s going towards the things we want it to go towards.
@Mellow: We found the micro aspect of budgeting to be a bit much for us as well. Instead, we divided our budget up into 6 categories: Mortgage, Property Tax and Maintenance, Debt Repayment, Planned Spending/Vacation, Savings/RRSP, and Misc. Spending. The first 5 are automatically deducted from our accounts on a weekly basis, and we take out cash for the Misc. Spending once a week. That misc. spending has to cover all our misc. expenses for the week (groceries, gas, gifts, clothes, etc.) but we don’t set defined amounts. Any money we have left over at the end of the week goes into a jar and can be used as “extra” any other week.
April 27, 2009 at 11:18 am
Fifteen years ago I moved to a brand new city. I was in my mid-20s and I had about $1500 in the bank. I got a job straight away and for the next five years or so I kept a strict account of my spending on my little Panasonic word processor that had a crude but effective spreadsheet function.
I didn’t have a set budget per se, but I tracked every single penny I spent and every single penny I earned so that I could see exactly what each month’s income and outgo were. At the end of every month I would take a look at what I could trim down on further.
I didn’t deny myself of all treats but it got to the point where I made it a game to see where I could save a few bucks here and there. For a solid year I didn’t take a bus or a cab anywhere. I was able to walk both to and from work every single day despite the rain and sometimes the snow. I took a lunch every single day too. Coworkers would ask me to go out for lunch and I’d say, “No thanks, I brought my lunch. Remember, I’m saving for that trip to Europe.” (I did eventually get to Europe although it took me a long time to save up for it while only making $12/hr! But I did it!)
I bought the occasionally used CD instead of new. I traded old books for credit at used bookstores. I spent sunny days playing frisbee in the park with friends instead of drinking at the bar.
It was amazing where I could find my fun. A bar of nice soap or a milkshake were wonderful treats I would splurge on from time to time. When you get used to *not* overly indulging, it doesn’t take much to make yourself feel special. Simple pleasures.
I admit it helps immensely that I was raised by parents who are savers. They are immigrants who were raised in post-war England and Italy. They wanted better for their kids. They taught me only to buy what I could pay cash for now. They never bought anything on credit. Not even a car. They built their houses from scratch as time and money permitted. We moved into the basement of an unfinished house in the early 70s while dad was still working on the upstairs. This was back when you were allowed to do that!
This is the spirit of my relationship to money and I’m so grateful for it! Still, despite my lack of debt, I love reading this blog and I get so much out of it. I am learning so much about mortgages. When the time comes for me to invest in a home of my own, I know I’ll be financially prepared. No jumping without a net!
April 27, 2009 at 11:35 am
I worked on a loose budget when I first started working and was on my own. When hubby came along, and later home ownership, I/we made a serious one. It has helped us. Even with a reduction in our wages with the current recession, I found ways to trim. Things are okay. Budgets are a good thing, but they have to be realistic.
Gail, people just outright ask you for the $5000 ? Wow !
Jolie, we pre-save for Christmas too. It is never a bad idea.
Nadine, yes, it is frustrating to see the banks increase the rates on LOCs. The prime + ? must’ve been dropping too low for them to make their billions in profit. Solution… stick it to the customers. I don’t know who is worse… banks or insurance companies.
April 27, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I would love to see you blog on the “embarrassment” side of things, Gail. I know personally that things did not change for my partner and I until we started telling our families: “We can’t travel to see you as often, we have mounds of debt and will never pay it off.” It was tough to admit but otherwise there is so much guilt involved in not going to their place for Christmas, summer vacation etc. I wish we had clued in about this years ago. But telling the truth was way easier than I thought it would be and pretty much everyone understood and had already guessed our situation!
But I think the shame factor is extremely important as demonstrated by the woman who asked for $5000.
April 27, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Ah, simple pleasures. I totally agree. This weekend we treated the kids to a movie in 3D. Bought the popcorn, the drinks, the whole ‘deal’. Oh what a deal, $75 for hardly two hours (thankfully did not have to pay for the toddler to get in). Afterwards, we took the dog to the dog park and ran around as a family. For free. Guess what activity the kids actually enjoyed the most . . .
I used to be a lazy budgeter too. If you can imagine, I actually bragged about being sloppy with our finances. As in ‘oh we make enough we can be sloppy about what we spend’. HA! Sloppy enough to have always had a balance on the credit cards. Thanks to Gail we have a plan in place now, and better communication about what we really want. Oh, and no balance on the cards anymore . . .
April 27, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Yes, the excuses are brilliant, aren’t they!?
My husband chooses to be completely in the dark and let me handle every minute detail… his excuse is, “whatever you are doing, it works, so I’m not touching it.” This infuriates me because if anything happened to me, he wouldn’t even know which mailbox is ours (I’m not kidding!). I have asked him to participate in the on-line banking and bill paying, but he just grumbles about not wanting to learn that crap. He tells me he takes care of the house and cars and I can take care of the money…. it’s great that he trusts me to do a good job, but I think he is being very lazy about it.
Now that having been said, he is very very good about following the rules, he never seems to want to spend more than we make and he doesn’t want to borrow money for anything, (so he is cool with saving up for the treats).
April 27, 2009 at 1:22 pm
yep, the mystery is solved…the banks raise the rates just for their billions in profit…NOT….interest rates are needed for a steady economy…just ask all those homeless folks in the States who took advantage of that great deal “sub-prime”…in hindsight I’ll bet you they would have been thrilled with their rates going up even a whole percent nevermind the .5 everyone is complaining about instead of the rates skyrocketing straight to the point of no recovery…we are very lucky indeed that our billion profit banks have half a brain and didn’t get us all sunk in that sub prime mess…we are not that bad off really…think about it in your home that you still own:)
April 27, 2009 at 1:23 pm
My personal experience has led me to believe that those who are Delusional Budget Avoiders fall into two categories. The Delusional Optimist and the Delusional Pessimist.
The Delusional Optimist doesn’t want to bother with a budget because they think that it will all work out just fine in the end. These people usually have either had a very good run of luck (something always did turn up to pull their fat out of the fire like a promotion or a lottery win) or they have always had some loving fool willing to bail them out.
The Delusional Pessimist thinks a budget is a waste of time because nothing ever works out right and it is too late to make a difference now anyways. They are too uncomfortable (and possibly lazy) at the thought of how much work, how hard it is all going to be and how much deprivation is going to be involved to make the effort and besides it is too late to make a difference now anyways.
Both are wrong and a budget will make all the difference in the world. However if you have both a DO and a DP in the family prepare to have a lot of trouble setting up a budget that works. I once bounced an eraser off of my husbands head and he once ripped my beautiful colour coded budget chart into a hundred pieces and then flushed them down the toilet. Which plugged the toilet so we had to adjust the budget to cover the plumber by introducing a line for home repairs and maintenance. But then again the good thing about a budget is that it isn’t cast in stone and tweaking it is the challenge and half the fun.
Starting the budget is hard and time consuming. In the beginning I used to spend over 5 hours a month trying to make every thing work out right. Now it takes me about 20 minutes and I can do it while multitasking – watching TV, talking to my sister on the phone, drinking a glass of wine and rubbing the dogs tummy with my foot. It is all about organization and co-ordination and the desire to finally be free. But you have to start and you have to keep going and it isn’t meant to be fun but it is more rewarding than we ever thought possible.
April 27, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Hi Pol
Ditto on the husband situation. However you are 100% correct. If (and when) something happens to you, he will be in a big mess. And it doesn’t have to be a major event. Happened to us. I solved the problem by hog tying my husband to a chair and forcing him to work with our budget and finances. We started off slowly so that he wouldn’t get spooked and I kept him supplied with beer. In retrospect, and checking his addition of the numbers, perhaps not the best plan.
I have now set up a full spread sheet on Excel which keeps track of incoming and outgoing and does all the calculations for us and all we have to do is plug in the numbers. My guy now actually LIKES taking care of business. In fact we alternate who gets to do it each month. This weekend he learned to balance our cheque book. Said he couldn’t believe how easy it was. Yeah. Right. I had to leave the room twice and bury my face into a pillow to scream and swear and I noticed today that I have developed a twitch under my right eye.
My sister also does not even know where her mail box is located.
April 27, 2009 at 2:55 pm
The news is spreading. All of us here passing along ‘Gail Wisdom’. All trying each day to be the best that we can be. We are improving so much!
Maureen – you’re too funny! Glad your hubby is onboard now. Mine will be catching the train the first of July. He retires June 30th. I’ve always done ‘the books’ and he’s been 100% supportive.
This weekend he asked me where our LOC stood and when I told him he said I was doing an excellent job. At least he asked!
Shared a Gailism with my son and his wife yesterday about LOC’s and debt. I try to get a few words here and there when I can.
I’ll be starting my 7th month on the jars May 1st.
April 27, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Admittedly we don’t budget. I think I might go to Gail’s worksheet and give it a whirl. We do write down every cent we spend and at the end of the month break it down into different categories – House, Life, Car, savings, etc. and see how we did. More often then not we have extra money that we also add to our short term savings. Seeing where everything goes – keeps us honest and on track. But maybe we could do even better if we had an official budget.
April 27, 2009 at 7:04 pm
We have just finished our first month using the jars. I am so amazed at just even paying attention in the slightest bit to what we were spending cut it almost in half. It’s a bit modified for us, we continue to use our Mastercard (for the free Canadian Tire money), we have a Mastercard jar and every time we use it we take the money out of the appropriate spending jar. But it was a little hard to figure out how to start because we had to pay not accounted for bills from the previous month while have to stock the jars. But with a little figuring and temporary help from a line of credit we were able to get started and pay off what we had to use on the LOC just in the first month. We are debt free already but started the jars to try to cut back spending to save more. I can’t wait to see the savings grow.
April 27, 2009 at 7:21 pm
gail, i wonder about the lady who sent you the email…….too many folks out there are hoping for someone to come and save them……bail them out with $5000 they haven’t earned.
i’d like to have some of them speak with my little father…..who came here in the early 50’s from post WWII Europe and WORKED for everything ……………
geez.
hugs to you.
April 27, 2009 at 9:35 pm
To EchoLake,
I never budgeted, either, nor was I in debt. But, I do want to start to work part time and have been saving for a trip to England next month.
So, I started the famous jars (although I use envelopes so I can carry the ones I need in my purse).
In my first 2 week period I saved and additional $400 above and beyond what I was already putting aside!! And I didn’t feel deprived.
I really couldn’t believe that I wasted that much money just having lunch or “picking up a few things”.
Now I get excited when I put my 2 weeks allotment into each of the envelopes. My husband says I am weird, but I expect he is secretly
pleased.
To Mellow,
Just put aside your clothing and gift amounts in the jars. They will add up so when you do want to purchase something later on, the money has already been set aside. After all, no one really only spends the paltry amount Gail sets aside each week for gifts/clothing, it isn’t really enough for anything decent.
Many of you writers are way more disciplined than I am. I will keep reading to get new ideas.
April 27, 2009 at 10:14 pm
nikki: I was wanting to start to use my MC now that it is all paid off and I have a routine going but I wasn’t sure how to manage the ‘cash in the jars’ and using the MC. That’s a great idea of taking whatever you spend on MC out of the appropriate jar, tossing it in the MC and then paying it off out of there. Thanks.
Re: the email Gail received…am I the only one who is jaded and bitter and thinking perhaps that maybe the email is a load of hooey and she just wants fast cash? (perhaps there is far far more to the email than Gail showed us). I felt bad thinking that about the anonymous.
April 28, 2009 at 1:06 am
Jolie–maybe that particular e-mail wasn’t, but I’m sure Gail gets a lot that are just people looking for a cash grab. I know a lot of people, sadly, who think money is something that should be spent as quickly as possible (quick! before someone comes along and takes it!), and are always looking for the next easy score.
A $10/paycheque clothing jar might be a good idea. Then there would at least be something to draw from. For some reason I keep thinking ‘bank accounts’ for various funds, and I already have enough accounts. Plus a x per paycheque jar for car repairs, which we fortunately haven’t had in a while. I guess if something overwhelms you, baby steps are better than no steps, yes?
April 28, 2009 at 9:16 am
re: LOC increases – I was also notified of an increase in my unsecured LOC. However, I DID NOT ACCEPT what the bank was telling me. I went into my branch with my original LOC agreement. I advised them that I expected them to honour the agreement they went into just as I had been over the years. The rep checked my banking file (spotless) and decreased the rate rather than risk losing my business. So much for “everyone’s rate went up”. WE DON’T HAVE TO ACCEPT WHAT THE BANKS ARE TELLING US. We should always ask questions/object when people are “playing” with our money!
April 28, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I’ll also admit to wanting to do the budget and the jars but putting it off again and again. Even though we paid off all our CCs and halved our only remaining consumer debt (a HELOC) recently, we still have a long way to go not only towards paying it off but just being better about money. It is so easy to let money slip away – I can track it, that’s not the issue, I know full well where it all went – take out, convenience stores and incidentals. I know I need the discipline of a plan. So I have booked a date with the hub and we are going to lick the toad, make the budget and live on cash. What we recently spent in *two weeks* on crap (crappy food that is – expensive and unhealthy) could have paid for most of my son’s summer camp this year. I could stab myself with a plastic fork. Or make a budget.
May 3, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I have been struggling with the mechanics of the jars. Getting the breakdown of the amounts for the jars (bank machine gives only $20 bills). Also, similar to the Canadian Tire issue, since going to cash, I have not been getting PC points for groceries, which I use every year for Christmas dinner. Also, trying to manage the jars between 2 people is difficult. And I spend waaaaay too much time managing the finances, between the personal accounts and business accounts. In total there are 15 credit cards (including home depot). One was paid off in full and then hubby started using it again. I am sick and tired of spending hours on this. Yesterday I spent the whole day working on getting caught up on bill payments and credit cards. Granted, I did not spend any time the last 2 weeks on it but still, I feel like I am stuck doing all this by myself. Anyway, this has become a bit of a whining post so I will stop and pick myself up.
May 3, 2009 at 2:50 pm
to the embarassed viewer:
Mechanics of the jar is still a struggle for me too. I adjusted my budget to round up or down to $20’s. At the end of 9 weeks of budgeting, I have about $3 in coins and haven’t purchased any of the clothes. Keep borrowing from one jar for some emergency -son’s school trip, unexpected vet trip. It took about a month to get beyond the deprivation mode of thinking but now my resistant hubby is accepting the jars. Getting him off the credit card addiction was hard.
I too am used to getting lots of PC points -700,000 in total. (Mostly because of a home renovation but still used to $20-40 a month in free groceries.) I started the jars in March and noticed my points dwindle. I now use my PC only for things I need to pay -online courses, dentist who wants payment on the spot (we have coverage so I know I will get the money back.) I was using the card and then paying it off right away but the way PC MC calculates balance owing etc confused me on what I actually owed them. -carries for 60 days etc. so I am giving up on my PC points for now.
Getting my husband on side for budgeting has taken years. I talked to much about TTUP and Gailism, turned him off. He is what Maureen would all a The Delusional Optimist. Don’t worry, we will pay for it somehow. I would then be up at night fretting.
Stick to your guns because budgeting will eventually pay off. 15 cards is incredible -can you agree together chop them up? Call the companies on the ones you owe and ask them to lower the limit as you pay them off so you can’t over spend on them again. What about a consolidation loan and cancel all the cards!
Budgeting is time consuming-especially if your budget is so tight it squeaks. No matter how you spin it, you can’t create less debt on an excel spread sheet. (I’ve tried) Take heart and keep reminding yourself of the progress you are making.
May 3, 2009 at 3:02 pm
@ Embarrassed Viewer;
seems like you might be a bit overwhelmed. Gail provides us with the tools to manage our financial lives but really its up to us to find a way to make it work. Like someone said above, they use their credit cards (to get the points) but then take the money from the appropriate jar after they have used the card and put it in a Credit Card payment jar to ensure that you are not overspending and keeping yourself on track. We are in the same boat with using just cash and not getting the PC points. Another thing is that you need to get your other half on board. Its the only way that you are going to keep yourself sane. My husband is self employed and I do the bookkeeping and work full time outside the home. I had to get him on board and it finally happened around Christmas – there are a few bugs to work out with the jars but he is working on it :0)
I have PC banking and I tweeked my budget to get me to an amount that would allow me to take the correct denominations from the machine. However, if you aren’t able to do that you may wish to set up an another account with PC that you transfer your grocery money into and only use it for that (I am considering this option now that we are getting used to the budget, so that we can still get the PC points to pay for my Christmas turkey). Or you can set up an account that you transfer money into to pay your credit card at the end of each month (similar to the example above but you are using an electronic method instead).
What it really comes down to is needing to get your partner on board, figure out the best method (jars/accounts, etc) that will work for your situation and keep track of your spending. Also, sounds like you might have a few too many cards on the go and it might be time to figure out which ones are necessary and pack the rest away for awhile.
Take a deep breath. It will be okay and you just need to get started and work out some of the bugs – it will be okay once you get started.
May 3, 2009 at 6:22 pm
For the issue of breaking $20s, I found that we only needed to do this a couple of times, getting smaller bills from retailers when we did groceries, and now we have a surplus of smaller bills and change that we use to “recalibrate” our jars every week with the amounts we get out of the bank.
May 3, 2009 at 9:40 pm
In case people have forgotten, you can go into a real bank and get exactly the denominations you need from a live TELLER!!
Once you are in the bank, then you can ask the teller if your bank is raising its LOC rates, or which accounts give daily interest, lower service fees, etc.
May 4, 2009 at 10:08 am
Every day I am watching Gail’s -Till debt do us part.
I am a man of 70 years old.My pension is $1,000 per month.I live in a house built in 1878[131 years ago] I have no debts and I have some savings.I have worked for 55 years before I retired and the most I ever earned was $25,000 per year.
One thing that annoys me is that the people that get helped usually have high incomes,live in nice houses,spend way too much and don’t pay their debts.They are like thiefs.At the end of a few weeks they get rewarded up to $5,000 if they make sugggested changes.What really got me was–one family with $3,500 /month income was advised to use the foodbank.
Where does one apply? My budget is about 1,400 /month.