“Tough Economic Times”
28 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in political laboratory Tags: budget, frustration
That seems to be everyone’s catch phrase for the last 3 years. If you can’t fund something, can’t participate in an activity, can’t help someone it’s easy to just blame it on the economy.
For the last couple of years the local community redevelopment board for this area has been scrimping and saving their revenues in order to purchase a plot of land and build a community center for the people living here. This area desperately needs a community center. The closest YMCA closed last year, leaving afterschool activities largely in the hands of a public school system that is also in the newspaper every other week plagued with budget constraints, problems, and closures. One really cannot be surprised that gang activity, delinquency, or teen pregnancy is high in this area. If there is no place to jump rope or get tutoring then what else are kids going to do?
I guess we should be happy that they are holed up inside playing Xbox 360 rather than running the streets or having babies.
What is even better is that years later when these kids have been left behind by the rest of society everyone is up in arms that they cannot read properly, are failing standardized tests, or don’t have the skills to get a job and become a contributing member of society. The saying is cliché, but the kids are our future. They need us to show them how to succeed, what is possible, and to tell them that they can be an astronaut, a vet, a chef…when they grow up.
This has gotten a bit long winded, and I promise I was going somewhere with this. The other evening I attended a local government meeting. It had been decided that due to the “tough economy” and ever present lack of jobs, revenue, etc. that plans for building the community center would have to be put on hold. Never mind that people in the community have been waiting for this. Never mind that people in the community NEED this center. It was just going to have to wait. It was going to have to wait because some guy in a suit sitting on the 12th floor downtown ran some numbers through an excel spreadsheet and decided that it made more sense to spend that money to lure businesses into the community. Exactly who is going to work at these businesses? The kids who joined gangs because there were no other opportunities for them? The single mothers who didn’t finish high school because they got pregnant at 14?
So once again, this community has been promised something by the powers that be, only to have it taken away again. This happens year after year. It’s not always a community center, but a community event or idea, a park, sidewalks, or a cleanup project. It’s no wonder that they have no trust or interest in attending meetings. What’s the point? Why bother finding a babysitter or missing dinner with your family only to be jerked around by people who pretend to care about your input.
So, we are now faced with the arduous task of (re)convincing the local government that a community center would be beneficial, and create jobs. We must show that the residents (the ones whose property taxes are paying for this!) deserve to have the funds spent on something for them directly. At the meeting we were given 3 “options” of how to spend the saved monies. None of which were “build community center.”
My next months are going to be incredibly hard and defeat is really not an option.
Trimming the Excess.
18 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in daily trials & tribulations, my project Tags: budget
I am in the process of filling out an application for a YMCA scholarship and they require you to list monthly expenses. In other years, when I actually had a job, I would constantly ask myself “After rent and utilities are paid, I should have $xxx left. Where does it go every month?”
So I decided to do that this time. My basic expenses per month are as follows:
Rent: $500
Utilities (internet $20, phone $15): $35
Credit Card pay offs $50
Student Loans: $15 (my US student loan is in deferment, but Canada did not offer me the same options).
Laundry: $25
Each pay I receive is $371.38 and I receive this bi-monthly. Which means my income is a whopping $742.76. I do get $200 a month in Food Stamps which I do not always use entirely. But, I rarely buy food with my debit card if I can help it. Here is what I have spent so far in Feb:
Rent: $500
Bottle of Wine/Medication: $6.03
Coffee/Muffin: $6.39
Cat Food/Dog Food/Pet Supplies: $31.68
Internet: $19.95
Gas: $20.01
Coffee: $2.29
Beer + Chips for Superbowl: $15.77
ATM Withdrawal (paid for some craft items and left overs were used for laundry): $20.00
Cat Food: $15.25
Dog Tag Renewal/Flea Med: $60.99
Coffee (meeting): $3.50
Credit Card: $50.00
Total: $751.86
So already I have overspent my funds for February. Luckily I usually have a float of about $100 that was likely left over from January.
Now you may be saying, “Woah slow down on the visits to Starbucks.” But February is truly an anomaly in the coffee drinking world. All three of those visits were for work-related meetings. Occasionally I will stop and have a treat at our favorite coffee shop, but that will be maybe once a month. My big splurges this month were beer for my Superbowl guest (and me!), a $3 bottle of wine, and some used vases from Goodwill. I realize pets are not a necessity, but I am hardly going to turn them into the SPCA for my year long hiatus from economic self-sufficiency. This was an unusually expensive month for pets, I won’t be buying flea meds again for quite some time, nor will I need a dog tag until 2012.
So, I guess that is where my money went for this month.
