Surviving Poverty; Lessons from My Grandmother

When I was a child the world was a very different place. Growing up we had everything we could have wanted. Dad was a skilled tradesman, working for General Motors. Back then he had the kind of job that gives a family a sense of security and stability, so when I was a kid and I went to visit to Grandma, I used to wonder what was wrong with her...

Grandma grew up in a different time. She used to tell stories of the Great Depression. She told us how my great grandfather would take her downtown when she was just a girl. There on a corner she sang and danced for whatever nickels or dimes or pennies the passerby's would drop into her little tin cup. She talked about how happy she and her brothers and sisters would be for those nickels, dimes and pennies. "To us they were like a million dollars" she often said.

Visiting grandma's house was always different than being at home with mom and dad. Grandma saved every penny in a big jar "just in case". "Waste not, want not" was her favorite saying. Mom and Dad, on the other hand, never seemed to worry much about pennies, or nickels or dimes. "It's just change," mom would as she left it on the counter in the store.

At the grocery store my Mother would always choose the brand name items. Grandma, on the other hand, always selected the store brands. "Why would you pay money for a label, when it's the same thing inside?" she would ask. Like I said I used to think grandma had something wrong with her, until a few years ago that is.

After my divorce, I found myself a single mom with 3 children to take care of. In the beginning things were tight, but we managed to get by. After the economy began taking a down turn, however, there were many times when I found myself barely able to make ends meet. Survival became the key focus of my life. For me survival meant change... It meant forsaking the ways of my parents, and adopting the ways that my grandmother taught me, when I was just a child. It meant learning to make a pot of soup out of whatever I could find in the house, and baking our bread from scratch, rather than buying it from the store. Survival meant learning how to presoak whole beans, rather than spend the extra pennies on canned. Survival also meant saving every penny that was left in a big jar on the counter, and cashing the pennies in on really bad days. It meant finding kids shoes in thrift stores, and learning to repair ripped jeans and torn sweaters. It meant giving up my life of little luxuries and conveniences, and opting instead for a life of cutting back, working hard, and being thankful at the end of the day, that I made it through after all.

Things that My Grandmother Taught Me:

1. "If you can live without it, you don't need it." You don't need to spend that dollar on a cup of coffee from the mini-mart. Sure, at the moment you really want it, but the truth is you don't need it.

2. "A penny saved is a penny earned." Every penny you don't spend now is a penny that you can spend later, when you really need it.

3. "There's nothing wrong with a little hard work." We spend a lot of money on convenience. We look for the quickest, easiest, and least difficult way to do everything today. Those conveniences also cost us more than we realize. We pay others to slice, dice, chop, peel, grind and precook our food. We pay others to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, trim the hedges, and weed the garden. We also pay them to tune our engines, change our oil, vacuum our cars... All because we don't want to do the work ourselves.

4. "Exercise is good for you." Save on gas by walking to any place within reasonable distance.

5. "Do it yourself." Don't call the repair man every time something goes wrong. If you aren't sure how to fix something get a book, go online, ask a friend, or neighbor. Avoid paying anyone else to do something you can do yourself.

6. "The early bird catches the worm." Many supermarkets mark down their baked items, meat and produce first thing each day. It's worth it to get up early to do your shopping if you can get the things you need at half price, or less.

7. "Beggars can't be choosers." If you grew up like I did, wearing only name brand clothes or buying only name brand items, now's the time to get over it.

8. "Waste not, want not." When I was a kid I used to marvel at all of the things my grandmother saved. Not a single pea or grain of rice ever went to waste. It's amazing the things you can do with the things you don't throw away. Old bread or rice becomes stuffing, or pudding. Meat bones and leftover vegetables make good soup on another day. Grandma had a place for everything. A freezer container for vegies, a big tin for pieces of bread. All of it was used somehow, even if it was just to feed the birds in her yard.

9. "Where there's a will, there's a way." My grandmother was never one to give up. She was endlessly hopeful, and optimistic. She had seen so many things in her time, and somehow managed to live through them all. In Grandma's mind nothing was ever considered "really bad." It was just "a rough patch" and she knew from experience that "rough patches" come along just before, and just after, "smooth patches." Basically you just have to hang in there, give it everything you've got, and wait for a while, for the tide to turn.

10. "Be thankful for what you have." As long as you have your health, your family, a roof over your head, clothes on your back, a warm loaf of bread just coming out of the oven, and a hearty pot of homemade soup bubbling on the stove, what more could you ask for, really?