How I Will Survive Aggressive Cuts To Disability By An Uncaring Government

How I Will Survive Aggressive Cuts To Disability By An Uncaring Government

So making changes to fit the new you don't got no money for anything life I am about to start and phoned up Shaw Cable...

Me "Hi I would like to cancel the cable so I can afford to eat".
Rep "We have packages that cast less".
Me "No I need to cancel it".
Rep "you are on a service agreement and we can't do that till October"
Me "I want to do it in October because that's when they are cutting my disability way back".
Rep "It does not look like we can schedule you that far in advance, you will have to call back in September".
Me "Well OK if I have to, but it's a bit inconvenient".
Rep "OK have a nice rest of your day OK".

Think about it - I just said my disability is being cut way back and that it's a choice between cable and FOOD. "Have a nice rest of your day". Sigh...

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So then I got on Sasktel's web page and was able to get things done in chat (Shaw made me phone someone - I hate being on the phone). So in like 3 or 4 min, I was on a less expensive cell phone plan and still got all the toys I like, like unlimited long distance and texting and picture sending. Just got rid of the voice mail and went from a limit of 13GB a month to 10GB a month. I can live with that for a saving of $20. The cable thing I had an extra package or two on so it is a saving of $98 a month. So a total of $118 a month I can spend on things like toothpaste and what not when I need it...

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Then I did the math. Found out with the lower bills I will have $170 left over for the random things I need and a trip or two a week out for coffee. This is good. I of course kept the internet (or will be keeping it as I am NOT ALLOWED to cancel the cable till October. Being the changes to my benefits don't start until October, this will work out just fine. Here are the numbers:

First 5 things are my benefits coming in. The 3 under that are the money going out. Finally we have the left over for any random thing that comes up. After all sometimes we just need to get a few things in the middle of the month.

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So when I shop for food I generally get over 90% of what I need in one go and have it delivered. This way it comes to my door and I don't need to literally cause myself to risk a heart attack (have a bad heart) in the process of getting it up the stairs, not to mention how much pain I would be in trying to do it. Well then there is the risk of some twat taking my stuff before I came down to get the rest.

Why all at once? Then you don't have to spend more money later on more delivery (as I really can't carry stuff).

I also tend to wait till it's on sale real good like. This never happens right away at the end of the month when we get paid, so it's a good idea to have a week or two worth of food left over at the end of the month. Sometimes the start of the next month will be a great sale time and other times it's the second week. Not often it's the third and if it is I generally have to just suck it up and do my best.

I go to Co-op and generally they have one big sale one week out of the month. This lets me save a bunch of cash. I budget $300 for food and can actually feed myself well for that - not just a bunch of noodles and pasta. When I do get pasta it lasts for 3 months and it's low carb kind. I do get canned tomatoes to cook with as they keep and the fresh ones will be dead in a week and I have to go get more. Frozen veggies are the thing to get. Fresh ones are not all that much more healthy for you and the frozen ones are a fraction of the price as fresh. Another good rule when getting a few things to make a salad with is organic is a flipping scam, don't be tempted to pay way the heck more for no real reason. Just get the normal stuff. BTW organic does NOT last as long in the crisper as the normal stuff. Fruit I get as a treat once a week. The stuff is not all that expensive but it has a lot of sugar in it and being that I have fibromyalgia the sugar in the fruit will cause me problems if I eat too much of it, so I just go and get a couple of things and snack them down.

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Keeping yourself from going crazy and running naked threw the nearest Walmart is easy enough. Just keep yourself distracted. This is why I am spending money on the internet. I am disabled and can't just up and go for a walk and I don't have the money to go to a movie or what not. So... I tend to go out for coffee with my friends once and a while. This ends up casting my on average of $20 a month. This is not bad to get the hell out once or twice a week. We tend to go to places that are NOT Starbucks or Timmies. They are expensive, not too good and make you pay for refiles.

Other things I can do is take photos. I saved up money to buy a camera. I mean you get one for less than $100 that is very good quality. So I take photos and I play with them on the computer to turn them into a kind of art or I just post them on Facebook.

This brings up to Facebook and the reason for the interwebs... Social interaction all day and at night when I can't sleep. I have people on there that I call true friends and I can talk to them day or night, as most of them are just like me and home alone most of the time. They are all around the world, so time is not an issue - someone is always on. Now you don't need to spend a lot of money to get internet good enough for Facebook.

I do spend more money on the net though as I like to watch Netflix and for the price of $9 a month I get more HD movies and TV shows than I can actually watch in a year. So it's a good thing. I tend to watch 3 or 4 movies a week some times and other times none at all. I do also tend to watch Shows on there.

Then there is the wonderful world of YouTube. Now there is literally endless content on there. There are full length movies that are rather old. There are cartoons, there are any manner of entertainment on there. I also Vlog - I have posted at least one Vlog (video blog) a day for over 4 years now. I enjoy the interaction with others threw posting and watching vlogs. I have gotten to be close friends with several people on YouTube this way and have known them for years.

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Being rational. Do you really need to have a lot of space to live in? I saw one person facing the same cuts as I am but he is living in a two bedroom apartment and claims he can't find lower rent. Well I looked up apartments in his city and I know where the bad places there are. There are actually several small apartments like I have - studio apartments with everything in one room. He, like I, lives alone. Why then does he need all that space? The saving is hundreds of bucks and will end up in the difference between having quality food to eat or eating crap food and messing up his health even more.

There really is no need for cable TV as streaming services are a fraction of the cast. Lets see - I get rid of cable and there are literally 3 TV shows I won't be able to get on netflix or threw a TV app I have. On;y 3 out of the large amount of shows I used to watch on Cable. So oh well. I live with out Black Sails and the like. The rest of them are on Netflix or on the TV app. No need to spend a pile of money to be able to watch advertising and what not LOL.

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In summation. The vast majority of the anxiety and panic I felt over the loss of $287 from my monthly budget was for the most part - the loss of freedom I had to do things like once a week order a pizza or eat out with friends and on time to time have a few beer with someone. Then there was the Cable - this sounds stupid as I KNOW I can live without it. But it was a link to the past when things where better and I had a family to be around and we sat together and watched TV. We don't NEED to order a pizza and we don't NEED to get a few drinks at the pub. We NEED to eat proper food and keep our minds busy.

I do however have no delusions that others will be effected in a negative manner by this. They will be split between rent and food and what not. All I am saying is that I have options and I don't need to move as I am already in the low end for rent in my city and it would be a loss for me to be in a different location. I don't know everyone's needs but I know mine will be met.

Fear is a powerful tool that strikes the mind deeply. When you are at the control of others and literally have no choice in the mater, you fear change even if it in the end is for the better. My biggest loss is not being able to get a cleaner in to clean my apartment now. This is the only big issue I have. I am in heart failure and it is kind of dangerous for me to be doing things like cleaning as it takes a lot of effort. But I also know if I do it over several days and not in one afternoon I will be able to do it. Or at least I hope so as I have NOT done it in a long time. This is also the advantage of a rather small living space - it's easy to clean. I don't know how someone who is very disabled can clean that 2 bedroom themselves for example.

Now all that being said, if the benefits are cut even deeper, then I will be in a lot of trouble as I need to eat proper and if I don't I literally might die sooner rather than later. I also have little to no choice as for moving. If I move, I will be in a location that will cast me a lot of money for transportation and now I am centrally located and have very few travel casts. If I do move I need a place that is at least $150 less to make it possible to be there and have an advantage money wise. This would leave me in a place that is literally not safe to live in. A place that has no only rather questionable people and a high crime rate, but is physically not safe to live in because of the condition of the buildings. So here I stay on the 3rd floor of a building and being hard for me to do stairs and paying $650 a month in rent. If the rent goes up more than $50 in the next few years I will also be screwed. But we will crass that bridge when I get to it.