Surviving with $25 and a Gym Bag

[Suicide_Run]

So this college grad....decided to live on the street with $25 and a gym bag without using any of his contacts, education history and what not. Just to see if he could climb out of his self-imposed poverty.

 

His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.

 

10 months in, he had to stop cause he learned a family member had an illness. At that time he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved close to $5,000.

 

I guess even if your poor, as long as you dont waste money and decide to move forward with a positive outlook....anything could be possible.

 

Source: Building a Life on $25 and A Gym Bag

[PoLiX]

Wow... Kind of eye opening, I like it. Will read the rest when I get home from work... back to work I go speaking of that...

[Shock]

That's a pretty lifting story. That's why I don't feel sorrow for homeless people. It's like, ok.. you're homeless, but you don't have to be for the rest of your life.

[»doc flabby]

That's a pretty lifting story. That's why I don't feel sorrow for homeless people. It's like, ok.. you're homeless, but you don't have to be for the rest of your life.

What people never understand about the homeless, is they are not homeless though lack of money.

 

The limits we put on ourselves are more than often in our heads.

Edited February 19, 2008 by doc flabby

[Cancer+]

Of course not. I don't feel bad for the homeless either because % of them are homeless because of drugs or other stupid things. I do believe some of them are homeless for better reasons (IE: money, losing !@#$%^&*ets, etc.) But still, as shown here, you can change your life around, IF YOU WANT.

[»doc flabby]

Of course not. I don't feel bad for the homeless either because % of them are homeless because of drugs or other stupid things.

I still feel bad, the homeless are the signs is where we have failed as a society in protecting these people.

 

Not everyone is born with a strong will of mind...

Edited February 19, 2008 by doc flabby

[X`terrania]

Well, I don't give a crap why they're homeless, 'cause when I see something like this I can't help but drop a few bucks into their cup/hats.

 

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/914/1203399100391nh1.jpg

[Shock]

Yeah, they bribe us with animals.

[Whisper0ak]

Of course not. I don't feel bad for the homeless either because % of them are homeless because of drugs or other stupid things. I do believe some of them are homeless for better reasons (IE: money, losing !@#$%^&*ets, etc.) But still, as shown here, you can change your life around, IF YOU WANT.

 

apparently you have never been homeless.

[tcsoccerman]

This is probably the best post of the year.

 

Nothing makes me more angry than going on vacation to a big city and being confronted by a smokey, acholic with empty beer bottles next to him asking me for money. What? So he can buy more ciggerates and alchohol.

 

Stop begging and earn money like the rest of us.

[Russky]

a lot of homeless people are homeless because of mental disability like there was this one guy that always stood at the corner of a store near my school didn't go to the shelter because he was afraid of water and at the shelter they made him bathe or something crazy like that

[Cancer+]

Like I said, if they are true about being homeless because something MAJOR happened, (major loss of !@#$%^&*ets, disability) then yes, I feel bad for them. But like I said, most of the bums out there are a waste of life because they can't break their crack addiction, or they need one more drink. If that is the case, where booze and drugs are more important than a home or a job, then they won't get one ounce of pity from me.

 

@doc: Why the !@#$%^&* should we try to protect these people if they don't even want help? If they truly want help, they can easily get it.

[Suicide_Run]

I find some/most homeless people are just a bunch of lazy bums that just wants to p!@#$%^&* their days without doing anything. I would not give any of my money to these ASSS cause they are useless and will waste the money I give to them.

 

But I wouldnt mind dropping some money for those who actually do something while begging for money. Cause I seen some people who doesnt have a body part and they still try to make some music with w/e limbs are left and they do deserve the money for their effort.

[rootbear75]

there was an actual book about this.

go read a book called Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Get...9023&sr=8-1

 

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

 

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home !@#$%^&*istant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

 

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

 

EDIT: after reading the article, this book is in fact mentioned...

i read this book myself.. and i got to say it is very good.

Edited February 20, 2008 by rootbear75

[No_Remorse]

Most of your judgements are based on stereotypes. A good percentage of bums have either a disability or just bad luck. Take it from someone who was technically homeless living in my car for a while. It can happen to anyone under the right cir!@#$%^&*stances. It's not because I chose not to work either, I was working at the time. Some homeless people are good, honest, working-class people like you and I so keep that in mind.

[Incomplete]

Very inspiring. Just shows how much money we must waste on crap we don't need.

[ThunderJam]

Hey guys consider the fact that he did have a college education though. Even though he didn't use his contacts and such to help, the fact that he had those show he was intelligent and well off, which already puts him ahead of the rest of the homeless people.

 

Not trying to negate the whole thing, but his accomplishment was definitely easier than it would be for most others.

[NBVegita]

"As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home !@#$%^&*istant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test."

 

That whole paragraph is bull !@#$%^&*.

 

How is "Some people work better when they're a little bit high" a trick question? It's a legitimate question to determine if someone has worked under the influence before, or would consider doing so in the future. The reason why they ask these questions is because at some point one or more of their employees did such a thing.

 

I'm sorry that if as a waitress being called "girl" offends her, she's lucky thats all she's called.

 

"In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.""

 

lol? I've managed retail before and the biggest things, in any area of retail you need to look for are sloth and theft. Humiliation of a urine test? Are you serious? Since when is a urine test humiliating? !@#$%^&* every company I've worked for required it for all employees before being hired. Should I be offended.

 

And even making 6-7 an hour, if you do it full time puts you over the poverty line. Everywhere you go there are either !@#$%^&*isted housing which you could get at that wage, or !@#$%^&* just get an efficiency, a one room place all inlcuded for between 250-350 a month ( depending on area). No its not glamorous, but its better than a box.

 

This kid proves what I've been arguing for a while.

 

I wasn't quite homeless, but I was living in a little tiny place that was falling apart when I was 18 and nearly had to move into a shelter, and had to work 2 jobs full time just to barely get by all while trying to get a college degree. But with determination you can do it.

 

the fact that he had those show he was intelligent and well off, which already puts him ahead of the rest of the homeless people.

 

Are you saying that to be homeless means you're not intelligent?

 

Also how does coming from a back ground where you're financially "well off" help you when you have nothing but $25 dollars to your name and a duffle bag with a few clothes?

 

I'll tell you intelligence doesn't help you much to become a laborer, or to get hired at a moving company.

[rootbear75]

Biggest waste of 1 hour in my life

ur whole life is a waste...

[»Lynx]

Biggest waste of 1 hour in my life

ur whole life is a waste...

 

Why whine about flamers if you flame people.. Anyways..

 

A lot of people are also homeless by choice due to mental instability, if you go to Cambridge University there are apparently past college professors who are living around Cambridge just begging because they've completely lost the plot - however I do agree that it is very easy to break above the poverty line, especially in England with the amount of government support available for your average Joe. - However, raising a few thousand dollars, or pounds is very far from finding a stable place to live for the rest of your life - that takes real devotion - and some cunning. From breaking that poverty line, to actually having the basic needs for a happy and productive life with a stable future are very far from one-another.

[Bak]

so he basically took foodstamps and spots in shelters that could have been going to real homeless people? nice

[Cancer+]

LOL.

 

That is a totally different way to look at it, but Bak is right.

[X`terrania]

Eh, somewhat related: Did anyone see that movie called Into The Wild where the man gives all his money to charities, packs up and heads into the wild to live?