I’m just curious about what exactly you are looking for. Are you looking for ways to cut expenses or can you afford bills but not food? If you’re looking for others experiences to improve your own lives, just ask us that, many of us have been poor at one time or another and most of us got out of it thru sheer determination to succeed.
For myself, there were weeks in college I ate burrito’s or cereal every night, working two jobs back to back, living in a crappy studio apt, spending nothing on anything unnecessary.
When my husband couldn’t work, again I worked two jobs to pay bills alone, had no frivolous spending and a very lean budget. But I got through it, he’s back to work and medical bills are paid off. Even on a lean budget, I was able to make monthly payments to pay down his portion of medical. At one point I even had two judgements against us, and paid those off on one salary, along with current scripts, etc…
My husband was a contractor and he said a lot of the mexican crews would live in one room, eat the same thing day after day, sometimes even trading sleep times on the same bed/ mattress, so they could save to send money home. Working long, hard days with zero rewards.
I guess what I’m saying is that unless you want to give in to despair and just allow everything to weigh you down, try to become more aggressive at saving yourself. Have an extra bedroom, rent it out for extra money. Have an old junk car, sell it to the can man. Have things sitting around worth anything, sell them. Have expenses you can’t really afford, like cable, home phone, Netflix, etc….cancel them. Can’t work, but can you donate plasma? I can even help you save money on your water and electric bill with tricks I’ve learned. The biggest lesson for me was learning the difference between Need & Want.