a story and a money saving dilemma

Here is a story and a problem I often think about.

There was a baseball player named Mordecai Brown. He was a great pitcher and played for the Chicago Cubs. He was so great that the Chicago Cubs won a championship with him. The fans here in Chicago have been thinking a lot about the time Brown helped the Cubs win the World Series for them. It was in 1908, a hundred yrs. since they last won the championship.

Mordecai Brown was very unique, b/c he was born with only three fingers on the hand that he pitched with. They nicknamed him “3-Fingered” Brown and rarely called him Mordecai. Brown accepted the nickname, b/c in those days everyone had nicknames. People marveled that a man with one less finger than others could pitch so well. They used to ask him, “Isn’t it hard to pitch with 3 fingers?!?” He said, “No, because I was born with only 3 fingers on that hand. I’m obviously used to it.”

This story points out a very important lesson. You don’t miss what you never had. How many of you miss not living in a mansion? Not very many of you. However, if you have something and it gets taken away, then we really miss it!! I would like it if our household got rid of cable TV. The problem is that Maribeth and my 3 kids would definitely miss cable TV.

I’m in a dilemma, because as much as our household saves money, we still come up a little short when we pay for bills. We rarely go out to eat, and on the rare occasion we do, it’s to McDonalds. We always do our laundry at my father-in-law’s place rather than pay $2 for laundry at our condo. (bless my FIL’s heart! He’s helped us in so many ways!!) We don’t order out for pizza. We don’t rent movies like we used to. We don’t subscribe to as many magazines as we used to. We make our meals at home and then we eat them at work, we don’t go and plunk down $10 to eat lunch somewhere. We NEVER go clubbin’ and haven’t for well over a decade.

But if that’s not enough, the idea is to do more cost cutting. If we got rid of cable TV, we would save $50,$60 a month (enough to pay another bill). But if we got rid of cable Maribeth and our kids would raise holy Hell! They wouldn’t get to watch Cartoon Network and Maribeth wouldn’t be able to watch The Closer and Law & Order. I wouldn’t give a damn whether we have cable or not. But MB pays the cable, so I don’t have the power to get rid of it. Plus, it’s probably still not enough to solve our bill-paying problem.

So how far does one have to go to live an ascetic lifestyle? Should we all go around eating peanut butter sandwiches for most of our meals? Should we walk everywhere within 1 mile to save on gas (even when it’s raining)? Should we skip all snacks to save on the grocery bill? Should we avoid all plays, school productions, Market Days to save all sorts of money? Should we both work 60 hours a week and stop seeing and parenting our kids so much, but we’ll earn a lot more money? Should we stop our subscription to the Chicago Tribune, and get the same paper out of the trash for free? Should we go “dumpster diving” like some families do if it meant that we no longer suffer the anguish of overdraft fees and late charges?

Now you and I know the answer to the last 3 questions, but it still makes me wonder. We are used to living an easier, more pleasant lifestyle. It’s hard to cutback, so how much will we sacrifice?

I often come up with analogies about a certain situation or a certain plight.

I finally came up with one about the problem that bothers me most, my family’s financial situation. It’s a well known fact that many people are struggling to pay their mortgages, pay their bills, go into debt, lose their ass, etc. Here’s what it’s like:

It’s like a bunch of people walking around with diabetes, and the diabetes is the severe form because if we don’t make all the right moves we lose a limb. (That’s analogous to all the people with money problems.) So, I try hard and make 85% of the right moves, but since I haven’t made 95-100% of the right moves, then I’m forced to lose my right pinkie finger. But people come up to me and say, “It’s sad you lost a finger, but I know so many people who are losing arms, legs, one person I know lost all four limbs!!” Yet, I don’t agree with them at all. I feel bad that I lost my finger. I’m staring at my little lost appendage and thinking, “Damn, this is terrible! I tried hard not to lose this but I still did!”

The people who lose arms, legs, all 4 are analogous to the people who lose their cars, who are thrown out of their houses, go homeless, begging on the streets, are bankrupt. Yet, as hard as I work, it seems like I don’t deserve to lose my house. But then again, what did they do to deserve this?