In my quest to make sure I don't spend money that has been budgeted for other things, I have been holding off on going to any stores. Today was my planned day to shop because it is the day of my favorite shopping event (the Salvation Army's 50% off day at their Thrift Stores). Near the thrift store there is also a WinCo food store, where I wanted to get enough food to get by for now. With the heat rising too high for me to go out, I decided I better figure out some meals with what I already had. I am beginning to feel like this is a survival challenge, but I'm not sure who I am competing with! :-)
- Money
- Food
- Health
- Weight-loss
- Exercise
- Emergency Preparations
- Budgeting
- Crafts
- Online Sales
Lots of goals that sometimes interfere with each other, and all take time to deal with. Which one do I focus on first?
It often seems like I have to focus on one goal for a day or a week or a month...and all the others have to wait. Finding a way to prioritize my goals has always been the first challenge, the second challenge has always been money for what was needed to accomplish a goal.
It isn't easy to achieve in poverty, within your personal skills and limitations, but we try our best to find a way. I still remember biographies I read where business were created from the smallest amounts of money and the need/ability to sell.
Right now, my focus is on money, food, and weight-loss, including building an emergency pantry, finding healthy recipes, eating smaller portions, and stretching my money as far as it can go.
I don't know if any of those things matter to you, but I will share my experiences so you can see what it is like for another person.
In my constant focus on food, I often wonder if I am a "foodie" or scarred by years of poverty and the ongoing struggle to find enough food to get through each month with my children. Creating as much of an emergency food pantry as possible has been an ongoing priority whenever I was able to set up a household. Emergency water supplies has also been part of the preparation process.
When you have children, the priorities are urgent. When it is just you, the options change, but the basic needs continue. We have to find a way to eat, a way to prepare food, a way to stretch our food budgets, and some way to store our food supplies, if we can. Eating is a human requirement... we cannot survive without it.
As a senior, I am entering a different struggle for survival...and health issues affect my ability to create solutions to my survival problems. Here I keep reminding myself of Colonel Sanders and Mary Kay and Grandma Moses (?) and others who started or succeeded in their senior years. With the internet as a sales opportunity, I am hopeful I can rise economically once I discover the best path to that goal.
So I have been trying to find that key to success for me... what direction is the most important, and which direction can I actually afford to go in? I am hopeful that my continued efforts will lead to some level of financial blessing and the establishment of what will go on beyond my life. Conflicting goals has been a challenge since the beginning of Working Together, and it still is. Like Edison, I know the thousands of ways that don't work.
Pray that GOD will open the way to a better future for me and for all those I planned to help. Thanks.
