Hello Dear Reader,
Thanks for your comments yesterday. I totally agree that people are finding just living extremely tough. I should know, I live in the second poorest area in Europe! My small Ćornish town has plenty of social issues, it suffers from worklessness and those in work have few opportunities for improvements.
It's desperate to see the effects on the few families who are dragged down by a poor income. I've said this over and over but when you are short of resources, you have to be resourceful. Dig for victory and grow your own veg, learn to sew and buy secondhand clothes and adapt them, use freecycle and go second hand. Don't succumb to the vile bloodsucking world of high interest credit just so you can be seen in fashionable clothes.
There are options, I should know, we took them. I took evening classes for two years and then went to university ( just paid the loan back in 2011 by having it deducted out of my wages) and then into teacher training. All in all, six years of training, I made it to a decent salary. Those options might be slim and in some cases, few and far between but they are there for people who make the effort.
I know what it is to have two people supporting two children on minimum wage as I worked in care work and Dearly Beloved worked in retail. We were on low wages but lived within our means. When DB was made redundant from the shop he worked in he used to take a five mile bus ride to work evenings in the only job he could get. We had no car, no days out, no holidays and channeled every penny into looking after the children and anything spare went into improving our circumstances. Since then we've had our ups and downs and have seen worse times and have seen the economy get better only to decline again.
The economy is improving albeit not enough to make everyone happy. I stand by evidence proved by unqualified non-English speaking migrants who are prepared to gut fish, make hotel beds, and pack meat that if you are prepared to do anything that you can work. In this economy, if you are a job snob then you will go without. If you are prepared to work hard doing anything to get by then you will make it eventually!
Whilst at college I worked three jobs! I worked at a teaching assistant a day a week, three nights a week in a call centre and both days at the weekend as a carer for adults with learning disabilities. I then studied hard and graduated with honours. DB worked from 2pm - 10pm each day and rebuilt a wreck of a house in the morning. We never had much money to give our children and we all went without. Our son did a three year apprenticeship and has been a carpenter ever since. Our daughter struggled to get work and has worked as a cleaner for a few years as that's all she can get but she does her job well and is proud of what she does. They are both proud of being self reliant and I'm extremely proud of their work ethic and tenacity.
Now, as ever, I'm not telling anyone else to live the way I do or did. I'm just just standing by my beliefs that we all need to be chancellors of our own exchequer and get more money in and keep hold of every penny you can.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx