Monday, September 24, 2012

My Bucket list

I am glad I was able to grow up & be an adult. When I was 12, 13 or 15, all I wanted to do was grow up. I couldn't wait until I could drive, graduate high school, go to prom(or in my case JR/SR Banquet). I dreamed what it would be like to fall in love, get married, be pregnant, have my own family, buy a house! I wanted to ride in a airplane and travel to another country. There seemed like so many things I wanted to experience!

I'm 35, and thank goodness, and I did grow up! I experienced so many of my dreams. There are still a few things left I want to do:

1. Go to NYC
2. Go to Paris
3. Go to Hawaii
4. Have my grandchildren
5. Live in another state, preferably Florida!
6. Visit two more continents. Already been to 3- N.A., Europe and Asia
7. Go to a home Pittsburgh Steelers game
8. Build my own house
9. Travel across the country by car/camper.
10. Surprise my hubby by taking him away for a week without him knowing, or him doing that for me!

I am sure I could come up with more, but that is what I can think of for right now!!!! What is your bucket list?!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Why I am poor

Clever title, huh?

Yesterday was just a normal day, and this is why I am poor.  This is just a list of day-to-day expenses, and why I never can get ahead with money!

$6.00: Something Boys needed for school

$5.40: My lunch(maybe a little extravagant, but I have to leave the office or I'll go nuts, and a sandwich with chips and a brownie just don't cut it, when you sit for 9 hours a day)

$42.00: Gas(not to be political but when Obama took office gas was 1.85, and I paid 3.59 a gallon yesterday, almost double.  Am I better off now?)

$14.86:  Papa John's Pizza - I bought pizza for the kids and Tim for dinner.  Could I came out cheaper cooking, I'm not so sure - 2lbs of ground beef, spaghetti sauce and pasta for 5 including two teenage boys who just got out of football practice, very, very close!)

$110.00: Insurance for my 2 boys to play football.  (Mind you, I already paid $20/each for physicals.  And from what I understand, this does not actually cover them if they get hurt, this is just to protect the school district, from being held liable)

This adds up to $178.26 in miscellaneous expense.  This does not cover the house payment, power bill, and other household bills that got drafted from my account.  If you split up our household bills, and divide by 30 days, it is about $130 or 26 a day per person in our family.  This includes our house payment, food, gas, and car payments.

Today in our chapel at work, we had our reps from Bangladesh here to share about the work.   According to WHO, the extreme poverty level is $1 a day per person.  One of the outreach projects that our reps oversee is for people with leprosy who have disability and their income is less than 30 cents per person a day.  They can never get ahead, they struggle to have one meal a day, of just rice.  These are the poorest of the poor. 

So, am I really poor?  NO, and I get depressed sometimes because we have a hard time paying for all the extra's or the power bill is $305.00 in a month.  But I can feed my kids, and give them a comfortable life, and take them on vacation.  I am rich, and most of the people who live in this country are too, compared how to others in this world live.  I think most of us in the county are the true 1%. 

Think about it....