When we got married, we had about $3000 in savings, two (paid off) old cars, and not much else. I had not found a job yet, despite filling out applications nonstop. My husband had a part time work study job that paid an incredible (for a work study!) $9 an hour. That gave us less than $1000 a month to work with if we did not want to touch our savings.
This is where many people would say "Oh, it can't be done." We encountered this attitude a lot. (Still do, actually!) "Nobody can live on $1000 a month without using credit cards or loans from parents. It's not possible."
Gentle readers, it simply did not occur to us that it was not possible, and I think this one belief saved us financially. We did not follow our "We only have x amount per month to work with" with thoughts of how it could not happen, how it was impossible, how there was no way we could do it.. We saw that we had x amount, and then thought, "Hmmm...here's how we're going to do it."
It really breaks my heart when people look at their situations and immediately conclude that nothing can be done, so they may as well go on living as they choose. There are few situations that are truly hopeless. I'm not saying that it is easy, but it's not always as impossible as it seems.
It simply did not occur to us that it was impossible. We figured it would be hard, but not impossible! "Onward!"we cried, and rushed into our impossible dreams.
We're believers in the impossible, and this attitude has blessed us.
Tomorrow: Attitude helped...next step: Don't. Buy. Anything.
2 comments:
You are so right!!! Attitude is everything! It is amazing what you can do with a small salary. It is hard living in world that urges us to spend, spend, spend. And, it can be hard to keep the mindset that you can ENJOY life with very little money - but it can and is done every day!! It is amazing how much stuff we don't really need when we look at all of the blessing we already have in our life. Thank you for reminding us that attitude is the biggest part!
If anyone thinks that $1000/mo isn't doable even today, you might want to read the blog http://under1000permonth.blogspot.com/ A family of 4 soon to be 5.
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