FYI read this

I am NOT a nutritionist or a dietitian. I am NOT a financial guru or an economist. I am NOT vegetarian or vegan.  I am NOT a doctor or a nurse.  I am NOT a professional writer nor do I earn money from ads on my blog.

What I am is simply a little old lady who has lived a lifetime being poor and learned a few survival things along the way.  The  two skills I seem to be an expert at is being poor and making quilts.  I’ve been a quilter since 1969.  How can I be an expert at being poor?  Its simple, I’ve been poor all my life.  I’ve learned alot over a long lifetime.  My poorness and being willing to talk about it is what makes me so valuable in a downed economy.

Baby quilt for a grand daughter.

I prefer to say “frugal” instead of “poor” because it sounds better to be living with less by choice than it does from circumstances.  I started my first blog in 1998 as a way to share tips with other professional quilters.  Over the years my blog has morphed and changed locations a few times to become what it is today.  A blog about an old lady surviving on social security in today’s uncertain economy.  Please don’t try to “rescue” me.  I’ll explain.

When I write about standing in mobile food bank lines the story is NOT about being too poor to buy food.  The story is about what to do with an odd assortment of food bank food after you get it home.  I use the old ways taught to me by my Grandma Mama to preserve the food bank food.  I can, dehydrate, and freeze as much as possible in the very same way I would if I had a garden or if I shopped a farmer’s market.

Mobile food bank truck

My blog is written to help and give inspiration to those who are “newly poor” and searching for ways to survive.  Newly poor being anyone who loses a job or has a sudden major illness clean out the bank account or anyone who was asked to take early retirement.  If people are not used to being poor it can be very traumatic.  They need poor people (like me) to teach what is possible if you only try.

My blog is written to show possibilities.  The cost of everything keeps going up and up.  I’m not the only one worried about the economy.  Just like so many others I’ve had to give up simple luxuries because the costs have priced them right out of my budget.   Instead of getting angry or sad about my situation I simply find a way around it by either making stuff for myself or finding something else that works.

I don’t get food stamps but I do get food most of my food from the mobile food banks.  Not many folks know what to do with the food bank food after they get it.  I use the old ways to preserve what I’m given.  I cook from scratch in the old ways taught to me by my Grandma Mama.  I’m absolutely not writing as a cooking expert.  Just as someone who cooks the old time way.  Yes, I really do stand in those food lines.  It kind of reminds me of what it must have been like standing in a food line during the depression.  Currently I’m also living without a refrigerator and having fun with it.  I do have a small chest freezer.

I can a lot of food bank foods.

I write about ways I save money on things like clothing or utilities or entertainment.  Sometimes I write about my feeble attempts to organize and rid my home of STUFF because being poor tends to make me a hoarder.  When I figure out a new way to do something cheaply I tell the whole world by blogging about it.  Geeze, I just can’t keep a secret. When I learned to cook and sew and mend from my Grandma Mama the whole world was poor.  Everyone had to make do and mend.  It wasn’t a fashion statement, it was survival.

I could be wrong but I see even more troubling times ahead of us.  I want to do my part to help the “have not” learn to make do and mend before a SHTF situation happens or someone loses a job or someone retires.  Its all the same, the person becomes suddenly poor and will need to know how to survive.  I write about saving money by using less utilities or less water.  I write about the ways I stretch my own budget.  If you stumble upon my blog when searching for a way to stretch your budget know that I’m one of you too.  I encourage all readers to read the comment sections.  There are people commenting with great ideas about stretching a budget that are worth reading too.  If you care to help keep my blog and my youtube channel going please consider leaving a dollar or two in the tip jar.  Na Na’s tip jar.

Note to the evil commentors:

If you don’t like what I write or how I write it then STOP READING and go someplace else.  Its as simple as that.  No one is forcing you to read this blog.  Sending me a nasty comment is NOT going to change me or my attitude.  Any cruel or extremely critical comments regarding my writing style and my attitude will be marked as spam and deleted.