One of them Carpenter nerd types.
I absolutely can’t focus on one person if two are talking about roughly the same thing at the same time. The only way for me to take in any information is unfortunately to apologize to both of them and explain that while I’m glad they both know how to handle the situation I’m asking about, I can’t handle the information overload of both of them explaining it at the same time.
At which point I have to re-ask the same person I asked the first time to explain it.
There are always moments in someones life where they have to stop and look around them to see how things have been moving along and if they are moving in a direction which is acceptable. It’s in those moments that one might realize the life they’re living is a bit lopsided in terms of give and take. From there the extrapolation of if being off balance is acceptable to that person given the struggles of those around them is worth continuing down that path. And in the final push of Altruism, a realization that the world will never be balanced and as long as you have enough, then you should do whatever you can do make sure others are brought up to a level of enough to not cause undo suffering.
I am willing to admit that there are a small subsection of people who cannot be appropriately helped as they are unwilling (but completely able) to help themselves, and any efforts to aid them will only make them reliant on the assistance.
It’s listed as risky for a reason. The thing the credit card companies want is for you to overspend, or buy something beyond your means that will take you awhile to pay back so they can make interest money. The way in which people can benefit from is purely by making it a stepping stone payment system. Never spend money you don’t have and just keep it purely for earning points.
This is going to be from my very American perspective on being broke. Your circumstances may be significantly different.
I used to be in your boat. I started working in the trades and being an apprentice at the same time. It wasn’t amazing pay to start, but it was enough and significantly better than the minimum wage I’d been earning before.
The way I managed for years on minimum wage was the following:
Live with others. Spread the bills around, have some good times, and save money.
Food prep and creation. Spend a bit of money to save some time and effort. I own a rice cooker and a breadmaker. The rice cooker is a bit extra, but the breadmaker is wonderful. Just load in the ingredients, set it and let it go. You can go to work or whatever and come home to an awesome loaf of bread. Another lovely one is a slow cooker. I spent 2 hours and 12 lbs of chicken with other ingredients and made 7 meals for 2 prepped and in gallon bags that can just be dumped into the cooler and turned on.
Side work or donations. If you don’t have family to rely on, another solid source of income is helping the elderly. 70+ year Olds often need help with daily tasks, from yard work to light bulb replacement. It may be a bit awkward to put yourself out there like that, but if you can put forward a decent enough impression at first, and you’re honestly there to help, they will pay you a bit and be very thankful. As for how to find the elderly, either wander around or take on a political canvassing job. The listings for political flyers on where to go usually have an age listed with an address. You could also donate blood or plasma. It’s very simple to do and (at least in my area) a quick way to get up to $100 per visit, which they allow up to 8 a month. Only annoying part of that is the diet restrictions. Hell, even a cooler with some Ice and bottles of water on the side of a road On a hot day can yield some mild results.
Couponing/second hand shopping/flea markets. Self explanatory. You can save quite a bit on food and some other stuff if you are willing to sacrifice your precious time to travel and hunt for deals.
{Risky} credit card. If you use it responsibly, there is free money to be had by spending money you were already planning to spend anyways. Getting a card with cash back, even with awful interest rates (mine is sitting around a lovely 26%) can be fundamental in earning you a bit over time. The way to do this is very simple. Pay for required items with the credit card, pay off the card at the weeks end. It doesn’t do much for your credit score, but earning card points on money you already have to spend is the goal. The thing you want to avoid is having a remaining balance on that account near a pay period. If that even starts to get away from you, it won’t be saving anything and actually costing you.
And finally 6. Government assistance. If you simply cannot make ends meet, applying for food stamps and/or medical insurance is something you should do. People generally don’t want to think they need it or just don’t know how to sign up for it. Having a bit of savings on food and at least some medical safety/help for any prescriptions is always useful.
The thing you will definitely run into as you more than likely know is a complete lack of free time.
It has a host of other issues besides basic ui problems, my largest pet peeve at the moment is town layouts being completely different. Picking a random nightmare dungeon to run and then porting to town is immediately followed by me opening the map to see which cardinal direction the blacksmith/shop is in.
I had thought it was because I got a new phone or because I reset the dictionary… but not having an option to stop the damned thing from correcting NUMBER INPUTS is absolutely infuriating. When typing in various lengths of lumber needed, I do not need a 60 to suddenly become a 50 without me noticing.
Aside from that, sweaty leg typing has made an absolute mess of my dictionary and there’s no function to edit “added words”. So I’m not sure if the auto correct has gotten worse on its own, or if it’s just a symptom of user error on my part.
There are still overlaps, I have friends in many timezones thanks to that there internets, and there are at least a few hours daily I can find to give em a shout if the need arises.
But more often than not some groups of mine can be radio silent for 6+ months at a time and then randomly strike back up like nothing happened. Catchups are had, games are played, and things are just like we never parted. The at some point we will drift apart again and it’ll be another however long until we’re brought back together.
By going out and being social. For me the issue isn’t anything more than self doubt and overthinking dumb stuff that others don’t actually care about. Head empty, go places.