Got No Money Guide To Good Living -3

Got No Money Guide To Good Living - 3
©Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2008

* You know, if you’ve never lived without money, this stuff probably won’t be very funny to you and personally, I don’t want you to ever experience it to understand it. That’s okay.

* If I didn’t find myself with a PhD in got no money living, maybe it could be taken that I’m making fun of people who are poor. I’ve lived it, I am living it and it doesn’t seem likely that I ever will live with money to do the things I want and need to do. It is funny after awhile.

* Good living requires us to accept ourselves as we are and work with that. A badly designed chair is a real expensive luxury if nobody in the family can safely use it.

* Good living with no money assumes we are already poor, we are confirmed poor, we know we got no money and we don't have anything to prove to other people because they all know we got no money, too.

* This is very important because if we are okay with having no money, we can sit in the durn floor instead of busting our butts falling out of some stupid cheap chair that looks good but falls over backwards when we sit in it.

* Remember, when you got no money and your butt gets broken or any other body parts get broken - there is no buying replacement parts like the folks with money can do.

* We are just stuck looking real impressive to other people as somebody walking around humped over with a broken butt or arm or draggin legs. Not real impressive and ass first, eyes closed - does not work well at all.

* Since we all agree, it's not worth impressing others when we got no money - we can focus on impressing ourselves instead.

* One sure way to be impressed with ourselves when we got no money is to do good living anyway.

* I can have freshly cut flowers in my home like they do in fancy magazines of fine homes, if I grow the durn things first and go out and cut them.

* Enough flowers in a mayonnaise jar stops looking like a jar at some point and starts to seem like a wealth of colors and textures and beautiful, magical, sunny days of good experiences.

* It works with wildflowers and weeds taken from wild meadows and abandoned service stations and with garden-grown or store-bought flowers. That's why they use them in magazines anyway.

* Never use plastic mayo jars for this purpose. No matter how many rocks are put in the bottom, it will tip over and if anything is nearby worth having - that is the place where the jar will spill.

* Other important got no money good living facts: never use a kid's toy hammer to put a nail in the wall. Never, never use a shoe to put a nail in the wall. Never, never, never use the side of a canopener to hammer anything anywhere.

* Then, you'll have to buy a hammer and a canopener and a pair of shoes. Well, it depends on where you started and when you got the clue that it would pay well to own an actual hammer.

* There are lots of tools for good living needed when you got no money. However, there are a lot that can be ruled out altogether since they will never apply to got no money living.

* Unless a boat anchor can be used to hold that chair from tipping over or to prop up the kitchen table, and its given to us real, real cheap - we probably won't have a use for it until we get a boat, maybe next lifetime.

* In fact, a boat would be nice - we could sit it in the front yard, fill it with water and go swimming.

* We might not have the money to get the boat to a lake or the gas to drive it on the lake once we got it there, but we could turn the garden hose on it in the front yard.

* We could practice skiing on the porch and picnic under the nearest sandy shade tree where nothing would grow except moss anyway.

* With enough Christmas lights and neighbors with parked boats and no money - we could call it a regatta and have every poor man's excuse for a party.

* Nearly forty boats all lit up filing down the street and around the block driven behind cars is still a parade. Its worthy of a front yard dance, barbecue, block party, street party and celebrating. How often do the rich and famous see that from their dock beach house?

* We could hold regatta block parties twice a week for a month if the gas holds out. How many garden hoses do we have for some splash appeal and water fun?

* Good living when we got no money has to allow room to enjoy what might be too embarrassing for the status-seeking, money-making, people-impressing type folks to do. There is a lot of room for good living experiences in this area because so few dare to go there.

* When you got no money, they aren't likely to be impressed with your good taste in anything anyway, including regattas, frequent use of cheap Christmas lights and tacky glittery stuff.

* The bigger and tackier the older model station wagon - the more likely people with car payments to make, will yield the right of way with a polite distance. This is called, quality good living space.

* The more raunchy, stained, mis-matched and wrinkled the clothes you wear to the grocery store, even if they are clean and nicely smelling - the more likely that people will give you elbow room when you shop.

* They may stay off the entire aisle where you want to browse through slowly, if you do it right.

* You got no money to spend - take your time. What little bit you do have may be all there is for who knows how long and you best get your moneys' worth.

* Grocery shopping counts as entertainment, miscellaneous and travel when you got no money. You need as much quality time shopping as possible and its better if people just stay out of the way and let you enjoy it.

* The more polite you are with no money living - the more you can enjoy the good-mannered, calming effects of other people, including children. Why save good manners for strangers? It costs nothing to offer respect to those around you and it is good living with or without money.

* We can use those respectful, kind ways for each other here and now when we got no money because we are capable of it and because giving the feelings of respect and honor - we gain them. The more we do that - the richer and stronger we are - it is the basis of true wealth.

Got No Money Guide To Time Management - 2008

Got No Money Guide to Time Management
©2008 Cricket Diane C. Phillips

* You got no money - you got lots of time.

* Or so it would seem to anyone who has money but no time to do anything.

* Got no money living is some seriously time-consuming living in reality.

* Everything takes more time and other resources when you got no money to throw at stuff.

* It ain’t the bicycle repair shop that’s gonna be fixing that bicycle - it’s you.

* Fast food means you’re having a tuna sandwich on a papertowel and calling it a happy meal.

* It all takes longer because you’re going to have do most things yourself. And, about the time you get that going, something else will need to be done.

* About the time you get it going again, its time to fix food again. There is no run out and grab something real quick at the drive-thru.

* That is, unless you count the children running through the kitchen to grab the sandwiches you just fixed.

* Or husband sliding the truck into the side wall cause he gave up trying to wash the truck in the red mud, grabbed a sandwich and failed to mention that the truck is stuck.

* Drive-thru takes on some interesting meanings when you got no money. Doesn’t always have to do with food, though.

* If you’re lucky enough to have a washer and dryer at home, there will always be someone in the family throwing laundry at you on their way by.

* I don’t know what gave them the idea it was a drive through laundry, but I figured out pretty quickly not to stand in there for long.

* Didn’t matter - my husband would run by me in the kitchen and hand me his burnt motor oil soaked jeans to wash.

* I was going to use them to hold up a table after they hadn’t been washed for three weeks cause we were trying to save money we didn’t have.

* He found them standing in a corner of the room as I was figuring it out and yep, took them to his Mom’s to wash them.

* His mom didn’t have the money problems we had - she sent her biggest budget buster to live with us.

* I’ve had three husbands - if you got no money - don’t get you one of those.

* You only thought you were broke before having a husband.

* Getting a husband is like getting a credit card you can’t pay off - ever.

* If you got no money and think you’d like a husband - go get your penny jar and count them.

* Remember, when he’s done two weeks of being around you - those will be gone too.

* You’re better off just flinging those pennies out in the yard, sit down on the couch, hug your remote control, watch some telly and be happy.

* When you got no money things can get worse and there’s no use inviting it on purpose.

* I only thought my husband’s clothes were the dirtiest things impossible to wash until my daughters made a hot tub out of a red mud hole filled with rain water.

* They were orange from top to toes. I was covered with multi-colored paint, my girls were orange and my husband was covered with burnt motor oil. Got no money living at its finest.

* Now I understand when people suggest that we lead colorful lives. The colorful characters comments, I’m not so sure about.

Got No Money Guide To Good Living - 2

Got No Money Guide To Good Living - 2
Written by Cricket Diane C Phillips 2008

* I have an active living environment. This means a got no money good living environment dedicated to actively living in it. Things to do, workspaces for doing them and living by doing.

* You’ve got to ask yourself what you’d be doing if you had all the money in the world anyway.

* If its sitting around reading books - get some books. If its cooking special meals for people you love - get some recipes and do it.

* This isn’t a hard concept to grasp. I found it in a book once. Then I bought seeds for gardening and planted them.

* It was during a bad drought and only one marigold and five tomato plants grew out of thousands of seeds - about $8 worth of seed packets.

* But the seeds from those six plants have grown tomatoes and marigolds everywhere I’ve lived since. They’ve provided flowers and tomatoes in my friends’ and neighbors’ yards, at my parents’ house and I still have some today from them.

* If I don’t have a yard to garden - I just go and garden somebody else’s yard or plant them in the window inside the house. Its all the same to me because if I were rich its what I would do. So, I do it. Why wait?

* Between books from the library, books on sale, books online and books at the thrift store, yard sales and friends of the library sales - there are whole libraries available to own when you got no money and want good living.

* Be aware that what you have in your hand may be a library book before you stick it under the couch where the leg used to be. And, as soon as you use the dictionary for that you’ll need to look up a word. Better go find a brick instead.

* May as well not sit around thinking about what you haven’t got. Build it, create it, do it with what is around you.

* There is always something - some way to do it - somewhere to find it - some way to acquire it even with no money.

* In fact, with money is one of the most inefficient ways to go about it for most things most of the time.

* By the time I’ve shopped for what doesn’t really suit the purpose I have for it, I could’ve built, acquired or reclaimed four things (at least) to solve the problem that suits the purpose.

Got No Money Guide To Saving Money - 2008

Got No Money Guide To Saving Money - 2008


* Can't save what you haven't got.

-- short chapter. . .


* This is what we call a "fantasy" - its a fantasy you're having if you think its a problem.


By Cricket Diane C Phillips, 2-16-08

Got No Money Guide To Good Living - 2008

* Good living does not require money to be done and it sure doesn't need to wait till you got some.

* There are all kinds of great ways to add good living to every day living. Throw a sheet on the floor and have a picnic.

* Or, if you don't mind ants and bugs - throw the sheet or blanket or old quilt on the grass in the backyard and call it a picnic. You can bring stuff out in baskets - even the pretty napkins and glass cups. Its your picnic - do it so it delights you and those you love. Its good living.

* We grew a beautiful trailing red rose bush to have rose petal baths with rose hips tea. With four blueberry bushes, we had fresh blueberries with the dew still on them warm from the sun.

* It was great fun until my husband put himself in the bath with burnt motor oil and diesel crud all over him. I will never forget that rosy smell.

* Some people just don't have prosperity thinking when they got no money. They would pay $6,000 for a rose petal bath at a spa but wouldn't buy a $5 rose bush to have that bath at home.

* A satin pillowcase isn't but a two dollar remnant or prom dress from the thrift store and a little sewing. Who needs a $50 hair stylist with a satin pillow to sleep on, a hairbrush and blowdryer.

* In fact, a blow dryer comes in handy for all sorts of useful stuff when you got no money.

* Its not real efficient for drying socks compared to the top of a good station wagon - but it is very useful for quick setting glue to fix upholstery on sofas, chairs and free-form macro furniture.

* It also sets the caulk on the bathtub when you redo it to get off the burnt motor oil from husband's baths.

* A good blow dryer will melt some good plastics for sculpting and making handles fit, too. Never melt plastics in a toaster oven - its an air quality thing.

* Every time you buy groceries - put back the cookies and go buy a hammer or a screwdriver or pliers or scissors. You can always bake cookies, but you can never find something to make do as well for the others.

* Although, a dime will make a good screwdriver and even an old phone book can hammer some stuff, its easier to have the tools for easy good living handy.

* I would definitely say "always have" to a few things like duct tape, scissors, hammers and screwdrivers, measuring cups, measuring spoons and some good glues.

* It helps to have nails, tacks, tapes - electrical and otherwise. They are all good living necessaries. When you have to glue something and there isn't any glue, then what? You're stuck with taping, stapling, nailing it or leaving it the way it is.

* Of course, I've caulked some stuff that shouldn't have been touched with caulk just to get it to stick together and there's something that's obviously been fixed poorly.

* I also used duct tape to stick a gutter back on the house and that didn't work very well either. It appears that water sources have to be handled a little differently than sticking it back on with a good long piece of duct tape.

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.

Got No Money Guide To Home Decorating 2007

* It doesn't take a genius to understand home decorating. It isn't rocket science but to do rocket science is easier when you got no money than home decorating.

* That's because there's more manure in the world for blowing things slap to the moon than there are fine and fancy things for no money to use for decorating.

* I wouldn't get too caught up in that, though. What can be done with $200 a yard fabric can always be done with other stuff given a freer sense of what's what.

* Sheets can be used as curtains, if you don't mind everywhere in your house looking like your bedroom.

* Yards and yards of fabric can be bought for $1.00 a yard or even 50 cents a yard that you wouldn't want to use to line the floor of a doghouse, but given enough of it - there's something Architectural Digest would be proud to display.

* It can always glow-in-the-dark with a little spray paint or poofs from t-shirt paint pods to make stars and planets or even fancy flow in the dark florals.

* Sparkle and spatter - these are some of the great terms of got no money decorating. If you can't sparkle it, I would be surprised.

* Do not use spray adhesive to fling glitter on curtains for sparkle. After about six months, the dust in the air collects on them which gives a whole new meaning to the term textured.

* If you want spatter effects, this is easy enough given just about anything with color including kool-aid. You won't learn this at kid's school but do not do spatter effects with children around to see it being done. Their little minds are not going to think limited use in a decorating scheme on this.

* Spatter paint and glitter on sofa pillows are nice effects and some have been done to cover an entire couch, chair or wall. This does not work well with absolutely every paint in existence. I know by experience. The nice little acrylic paints leave hard poke into you spots when dry that don't allow you to ever get comfortable on the same couch again.

* Do not assume that dust will not show up as much on dark surfaces. This is the same dust that looks darn well yucky everywhere else with its dark little greyed out lint but on dark fabrics, walls or furniture - it is bright enough to have its own zipcode.