Once A Month Income

The Binghamton Press, January 5, 1939

Look at those prices! 

It sure seems like life goes by in a flash. One day you are a young man or woman, the next thing you know, you are at retirement age. I remember my father always saying that it seemed like he had just graduated from high school. "Where did the time go?" he'd ask. Indeed, that is how I feel now. Right now my business isn't making enough that it affects my Social Security check. Some day it may. That is okay with me, because that means I'd have more money to live on. For now though, times are tight.

How do you stretch the money when you get paid once a month? Actually it is not once a month, but some months it is will be four weeks until your next check, and then some, five. Those are the killers. The months that you have to wait to get your check after five weeks is really hard. I don't know how we'd do it if I did not grow a garden. In the summer we have fresh vegetables that are basically free, if you do not include our hard work. The seeds are heirlooms that I save every year.

Our grocery bill is basically dairy products, meat, some fruit (bananas for Hubby and Rabbit, our house pet and berries for me in the off season that I can't pick them) and vegetables we like that we do not grow. I stock up on bulk buys often. Meat especially. I can it and the broth from it. Part of our supply is ingredients like oils, nuts, flax seed meal, almond meal and butter, seeds, baking supplies from a low carb perspective. I buy organic NON-GMO as much as possible.

The coffee we buy and love!

We also buy organic fair trade coffees and teas online. Items that we had no way to buy before are available online now. That has helped me a lot in changing over to an organic diet. Do you think it is a lot more expensive? Not at all. Do you know why? Because when I stopped eating high carb and processed foods, I started using that money to buy the organic foods. I buy what we eat at meals and don't spend a lot on snacks or things like.

I am not saying it is easy to stretch that money. It isn't. When you live with your own electric system though, that is a big help. Electric bills are a big part of those pay checks. I don't know how people do it anymore. There are so many bills that others have to pay that we do not. I am glad for us, but feel bad for everyone else. Now Christmas is almost here and everyone will be scrambling to buy presents. We don't celebrate it any more than just having a bigger dinner than usual that day. If I had to buy presents though, I' d be giving everyone gift cards to their local grocery stores. Our life in the forest, somehow just seems easier when compared to what most people living on once a month income must be going through.

Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole

Updated 2018