Comments on: Reader Stories – Doing What It Takes

By: Festival of Frugality — Almost Frugal

Festival of Frugality — Almost Frugal — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:49:43 +0000

[...] Happy Rock presents Reader Stories – Doing What It Takes posted at The Happy [...]

By: The Carnival of Pecuniary Delights, #6 - Are You Cashing in on Going Green? | Greener Pastures: Personal Finance

Thu, 07 May 2009 07:04:26 +0000

[...] The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Reader Stories – Doing What It Takes. [...]

By: 10 Great Sites for Personal Development and Inspiration | simplistic thoughts

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:06:37 +0000

[...] Reader Stories – Doing What It Takes [...]

By: Monroe on a Budget » Money blog carnival roundup

Monroe on a Budget » Money blog carnival roundup — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:35:21 +0000

[...] Happy Rock presents Reader stories – doing what it takes: “I make practically everything-from my own buns, to my own chicken noodle soup.” [...]

By: annakat

annakat — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:17:46 +0000

What a enterprising mother, her family should be very proud of her for all the short cuts she has thought of. When I was young there were 6 of us kids and my mother use to make all our doll furniture out of cardboard boxes and we would color them. It help her children become creative as they have to figure out how make and do things in an alternate ways.

By: The First Creditor

The First Creditor — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:08:05 +0000

I love how she saved five dollars off her internet bill. I wonder what she said? Great e-mail though, I guess when the chips are down, there are a great many things we can live without.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:24:23 +0000

Hi all, I appreciate your replies. Sometimes I feel like we’ll never get out of this situation…but at least we’re sustaining ourselves. And we have kept the farm.
thought I’d fill you in on a few things….my husband does have a second “as needed” part time job. It only pays $8.00/hr., and not many hours, but obviously it does help. Times are tough where I live-a factory inthe larger city near us just closed it’s doors to 250 workers on Monday. (a cabinet making company). Jobs around here are scarce. And the ones that are hiring want workers “as needed”.
As for me going back to work…checked into that….it would cost us 100/wk for our youngest to be in child care PLUS another 60 for the other 3 (before and after school) We live 20 miles from the nearest large town (where the jobs are) so it would cost about 70/week for gas. (it’s $3.69 here) So it would cost ME $230/week to go to work. So I look for other ways to be of help to the family.
We do live on a farm and are starting to raise organic produce and animals. It just had to go on hold because of my husbands illness. But, now we are on a fierce budget(that I got off of this site) and trying very hard to get this farm going-not just to sustain ourselves, but to make us money. Hopefully it will and no one will get sick again.
Thanks for the input-any and all suggestions are much appreciated. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we all are resilient -we all can get through about anything if we really want to.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:24:06 +0000

What I like about the personal finance community is by and large they seem to be people who are willing to take responsibility for themselves. They are not people who are looking to play the victim. This story, if true, is an example of a family willing to do whatever it takes to survive unfortunate circumstances. This can be a powerful message to the children about what is the most valuable in life.

By: John (Debt Defier)

John (Debt Defier) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:24:27 +0000

I agree with Ed that it’s inspiring to read a story where a family can pull itself up by their bootstraps when dealing with a tough situation.

I’m hoping not to fall into a “pretty bad financial situation” myself. Thankfully I still have my heath. And with my family history that fact is not taken for granted. But if this family is indeed in a “pretty bad financial situation”, I wonder what they are doing to bring more income in?

They’ve done a marvelous job of cutting expenses, but that is only part of the solution. Something as small as a part time job on the weekends could make a world of difference.

I’d suggest for this mother to look into teaching an adult education class on resourcefulness. As mentioned in another comment, hardly anyone knows to to do this type of stuff anymore, and with a lot of folks dealing with tough economic times, there will probably be a demand for this type of class.

I wish them the best of luck.

By: money funk

money funk — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:41:34 +0000

Although, I cannot imagine being as frugal (of course, would do if necessary) there are some great tips. I love the frozen cookie dough idea! And being able to create much of your own food (as it seems much of America has forgotten how to really cook). And fresh food from the Garden is sooo tasty! Plus, just think… you are helping out the environment by reducing packaging to using non chemical cleansers. It’s awesome to think the strides you’ve taken to make sure your family has all that is necessary. I wish you faith and good will to your husband’s health and your family’s well being.