Poverty Climb: Weekly Progress #8

You';ll have to excuse me please, I know these haven't exactly been "weekly" for about a month and a half now, but I'm trying to get back on the wagon, so I'm going to leave the title the same!

As for progress this week, we are really just still riding the wave of all the progress made with our tax return. Bills are still caught up, the pantry is still full. With spring whispering to us with temperatures above freezing, we've decided we really need to focus on our health, and so have been buying a little bit healthier things to eat and making healthier meals. While there is no progress yet in terms of weight loss, just being able to focus on something other than eating purely for survival is better than a few months ago.

Sadly we did have to take some money out of savings this week, because we needed some shelves desperately, and my husband had to have a new phone for work. A smart phone. Ugh, those are ridiculously expensive! But it saves him from having to carry around big stacks of paper etc. while also trying to carry big boxes of wood. And hey, we didn't deplete it, and it was there when we needed it. I can say with 100% certainty, that we should have focused on saving money loooooooong ago. I honestly believe it makes such a big difference that may even be the key to getting out of poverty. I will elaborate on that in a future post.

Also, after posting about wanting to start a small business to help us get out of poverty, I got a lot of wonderful comments and suggestions. I am looking into/researching all of it at the moment. I'm also going to edit the post with everything I find out, because the tone of it was rather hopeless, but I want others in my position to have some when they come reading! The minute possibility that I could get a grant to start it makes my heart pound with excitement and hope. I've got to see if I can get one!! My goodness, the changes that would make. I can barely, breathlessly imagine it. To be able to share that kind of good news with others with terribly low income, but a good business idea, would be awesome.

In the meantime, I've taken on some baby sitting for extra cash, because I don't need a babysitter myself to do it! It gets a little hectic, and a lot tiring (understatement), but it's extra money.

Oh, oh! Also! Ohmygosh. A family member had a spare queen size mattress and box springs that had been waiting for us for at least a month, but we didn't have a vehicle to get it home, until our tax return came and we bought a small SUV. We brought it home last night, and I just have so say, having an honest to goodness, real bed can make everything look better. Add in the fact that it's insanely comfortable as well, and we are both in a pretty good mood today. It's not perfect, or new, but it's a real mattress and not an air mattress, so it helps both our aches and pains, and it's a pillow top, which, wow, if you've never laid on one, is amazing. I've never in my life laid on or slept on a pillow top, and y'all, it feels like you're laying on a cloud. I feel so lucky and blessed, and happy. My toddler has been sleeping through the night for about a month, and now I can too! Haha. Yay!

I want to again thank all of you who continue to read & comment, and share in my successes and challenges. Poverty is such an isolating thing most of the time, I'm super grateful to have a computer & internet to use to negate that. You've all been wonderful!