Got No Money Guide To Good Living

* Most good living is going to happen whether or not you got any money. Trashy living will happen too whether you got any money or not. The trick is to do more of the good living than letting it slide into trashy regardless of your economic reality.

* I've got to say, though, there is some comfort in trashy living - nobody expects much and its easy enough to accomplish that.

* If you wanna do good living when you got no money - its really easy. Satin pillowcases for your head and day-old cakes, donuts and collecting stuff everybody else is done using.

* We had do it later mentality for a long time until one day I realized we were going to be poor for probably ever and ever so that day we started good living anyway.

* We bought fancy napkins that cost fifty cents each at the clearance aisle one week which isn't too bad if you don't mind that they won't match each other or anything else either.

* Those napkins were a one-time investment for years of imagining the fine dining of a fancy restaurant without leaving home.

* We were scared to get those nice napkins messy so we brought home a library book about folding them, set the table with them folded all fancy and used paper towels.

* My children loved folding those napkins from the directions in the book - this made it a multi-part family activity. I think there are still some around somewhere I'm saving.

* Appearances are an important part of good living when you got no money. Canned peaches really do taste wonderful with candy sprinkles and stars on top.

* Do not bake canned peaches expecting any improvement. *

* There are wonders you can do when you stick a pie crust under something, though, and put those little dough strips on top with some butter and sugar. Now, that's good living right there.

* I remembered that my grandmother talked about a peaches and cream complexion and yes, I did try using that for a facial mask - it is not the same with canned peaches and milk. This is not a good living experience with or without money.

* That mask would've worked maybe a hundred years ago when there was no way to compare it to anything else but now that I've thought about it - maybe the weather was just different.

* We didn't generally have air conditioning because we didn't need a $600 electric bill. Some things involved in good living need to be modified when doing it without air conditioning.

* When you got no money you might as well do with what works. Doing what doesn't work costs money that you aren't going to get to fix it. Then you're living with it that way for who knows how long.

* A chair could be a good example of things that have to be modified without air conditioning and an idea of the cost involved when stuff just doesn't work. Vinyl does stick to the skin when its hot and humid outside - and without cool air - its like that inside, too.

* Strangely enough, the cost of a leather chair at the thrift store is about the same as vinyl or naugahyde, but the difference is whether you pick the chair up on the back of your leg when you get up from it. Good living says the chair stays where you put it.