Financial Situation- Poll

amother

Coral

Thu, Jan 10 2019, 5:45 pm

amother wrote:

Btw, Renovating house just to make it look more appealing, is considered being pretty well off in my eyes. Families in category 1 or 2 can't do that.
They also don't go on vacations or buy extra clothing.

rich, well-off, wealthy....

Make a poll with 5 'definitions' for what that means. It will show you ima's aren't on the same page.

amother

Goldenrod

Fri, Jan 11 2019, 3:15 pm

There are so many threads about financial situations lately. About living Frugally, going on cheap vacations, tuition breaks and much more. So many people claimed they are struggling financially.
Being in the lowest category myself, I was wondering what do people consider living Frugally. In what category do they fit in, being poor, middle class, wealthy.
I figured it might be a classy idea to create a support group for the ones who are in the low end bracket, and really can use support.

imasoftov

Sat, Jan 12 2019, 12:28 pm

amother wrote:

And than it occurred to me that how about the wealthy friends here should help out the poor friends...

Yoreh Deah 251:3
עניי עירו קודמין לעניי עיר אחרת
The poor of one's own city come before those of another.

(In case anyone asks about the following words that prefer the poor of EY to local ones, check my location)

amother

Mustard

Sat, Jan 12 2019, 6:45 pm

Zehava wrote:

The world doesn’t really work like that

Well of course it does!

But of course the poor of your own family/neighborhood come first. I checked the first box and we get stuff from tzedakah organizations, bh. Most frum communities have tzedakah organizations.

amother

Ruby

Sat, Jan 12 2019, 8:11 pm

I find this to be a fascinating social study once I see how everyone defines the way they voted. Here’s mine:
I voted second tier. We cover everything we need to, aren’t accruing any new debt (though cannot yet pay off our debt from a few years ago when we were in category one). We do have government programs, though I hate it and wish we didn’t need it—without it though we would certainly be in tier one. We live paycheck to paycheck, so once my food stamps runs out I cannot make a grocery order on Wednesday since my husband isn’t paid until Thursday, and that sucks because then I have to do all my cooking on Friday. So not falling in debt is a balancing act, usually I push off buying basics (new tights when the old are small and ripped, diapers, etc) until the first of the month, but at the end of the day our heat isn’t being shut off and no one is going hungry. Yeah, my kids might want cereal on Tuesday and if we ran out we have to wait until Thursday, but so what? They’ll eat rice cakes and tuna (or whatever we do have). I can even afford cleaning help once a week ( I work). It is annoying that all my nightgowns have holes in them, but it’s not like anyone sees me in them, so I would not consider that a basic need.