MAKING ENDS MEET
A term I often heard growing up, “Making Ends Meet,” was a term I never really paid much attention to as to what it meant. Although I was oblivious to the fact that we actually were quite poor, I realize now that we were poor only in monetary value. My parents had little money for anything more than the basic necessities, but we had a very warm and loving home, and had more than most people have today in the way of what one would call security and a perfect home life. Of course, back then there was no such thing as credit cards and whatever one needed to buy you had to have the money for the purchase, so now I understand why that comment was occasionally used.
There has been considerable, if not constant discussions nowadays regarding the economy, and most generally folks are blaming one administration or another. It is human nature to want to blame others, or the government for our financial woes, and that can certainly be part of the blame, but how much of those woes can be self-inflicted? In a recent discussion regarding the economy, one person stated, “A lot of us are struggling and have to have more than one job to make ends meet.” Most of us can understand those sentiments, and most of us can also agree that the economy is certainly something of concern, but I could not help but recall that same term used by my elders in years past and actually, there is no comparison in conditions back then to today’s financial woes, mostly in the expense category.
We all live in a higher lifestyle than our parents; not only do we have nicer homes, but have so many conveniences that they never dreamed of. Most families only had one car, which was far from new. My husband’s parents, as well as most farmers and ranchers, only had a truck that was used for everything from hauling horses or livestock to being their only source of transportation. They would pack the whole family in the cab of that truck for an occasional trip to town or to visit Grandparents. No one had stock trailers or horse trailers. Most food was raised, canned, and cooked the old-fashioned way…by hand, and we had only the basic clothing needed and just one or two pairs of shoes or boots. But fast forward to today, where landfills are overwhelmed with barely used household items and tons of used clothing. I can’t say we watched ball games on TV, because very few folks had a TV set, but we never heard of traveling far from town to watch a ball game. When I was young, we never ate out, in fact restaurants were far and few between and we never heard of steak houses. After all, it was all we could do to “make ends meet.”
The person complaining about needing more than one job was no different than many folks, many in my own circle of friends and family, even no different than me and my husband. In a quest to try to “make ends meet,” I wonder if it is necessary to have several vehicles, a SUV, boat, tickets to far away sports events (when most of them can be better seen at home on one of our multiple TV sets); gourmet coffee (when you can whip some up on your latest programmable coffee maker for literally pennies per cup); and the list goes on and on. It does not take very long to make a list of the many things you can cut from your shopping list that will enable you to “make ends meet.” Who knows, it might be enjoyable to tally up the savings and by cutting out many of the wasteful expenditures, you may not have to get a second job and actually have more time at home to enjoy what you have there. Many of us cannot agree with the method currently being utilized by our government, but most of us do agree that the time has come for said government, from the national level on down to our local cities and counties, and in our own households, to try to “make ends meet!”
