Beyond Basics

My neighborhood is in an area where an average home costs half a million dollars.  I live in a subsidized apartment.  My kids beg me for a pet, either a dog or a cat, but I keep saying no for two reasons.  It costs money and takes extra time and energy to take care of a pet.  The only pets I can afford is wild birds.  I bought two hanging bird feeding trays.  For $8 a month, I have a variety of birds, including doves, in my deck.  Watching them making reacting to one another and listening to their noises is fun.

Cars around here are a good wealth indicator.  Large SUVs and luxury sedans come in and out of these neighborhoods.  My car was bought used three years ago and given to me when I moved to this part of the country.  People in brand new, expensive cars tailgate my low priced American brand car even when I'm driving in the right lane and the left land is open.  Maybe they're young ones or the energetic type, I reason.   The SUVs are so big that they take up one and a little of another parking space next to it.  The parking in front of restaurants and after school studios has this problem.

I spend $30 a month on the internet and another $300 a year on two pre-paid minute cell phones: one for my kids to talk to their father and the other one for me.  Another $10 monthly bill is Netflix.  We don't have cable.

Since I started volunteering at a local library, I'm able to read more books and stop buying new ones.  But the state government is cutting budget for public services so deeply that borrowing books between libraries will not happen any more.

Recently, someone tries to get me to buy new clothes and accessories from a supplier she knew.  She looked shocked when I said plainly that I don't need anything.  A recent purchase was a replacement for a pair of walking shoes that were too big.  I want to get back to fit in my size zero clothes, but my friends said I was too skinny then.

A weekly grocery store tab is hard to kept down to $100.  My kids love sweets.  Ice cream is their favorite.  Meal for me is twice a day with a rare occasion of snacking in between.  This may fit a pattern of aging that the older one gets, the less one eats.  A vegetarian diet is a thought.  I love nuts that a conversion should not be that difficult to make and maintain.  

Helping Others

A retiree, I no longer make a living and live on a limited income.  So giving money away or spending it like before doesn't happen anymore.  Still time and energy is plenty around here.  That's where it begins.

Once a week I go to a local public library as a volunteer to help library patrons with computer questions.  It's not that busy at this branch.  Finishing up a book or two or reading up on reference books makes the trip there very useful.

Recently, a 6-year old boy came to my house.  His mother has two other children.  His older brother has learning disabilities, his younger sister autism.  A middle child, he probably feels left out.  He asked to stay and hang out with my two kids who are older than he.  He goes home to sleep in his own bed.

We feed him and help me with his homework.  We take him with us to my kids' after school activity classes on weekdays.  He spends weekend with us and goes to the library, too.  He walks with my children to school about a quarter of mile away.

The other day, I helped his mom briefly watch his autistic sister as she had to go drop off her son at a bus stop.

Like me, she doesn't work.  Some subsidies from the governments provide her with a three-bedroom apartment and paying her bills and gas and food.  She's not married to the father of her youngest child.  In fact, he's in a rehab.  The father of her two other children doesn't support them.

I gladly accept her offer of excess supplies of grocery.  I'm a gracious giver and taker.  Cannot take any of these with me at the end.  Enjoy it while I still have all of my senses.