One of the many things that pisses me off immensely about being poor and struggling to get by without work is people who waste their money. Throwing away perfectly good and edible food is a particularly irritating habit in that category. I struggle to bring in enough each month to pay my rent (which includes food) to people whom complain about how expensive food is (and it is) and have their own financial struggles. (Frequently, I have to actively go to my European sponsor and beg for money I haven't earned, just to get by. I hate doing that, despite her willingness to help, including getting a horrible job of her own because she's that committed to helping others less fortunate than herself in any way she can.) Yet, the people I know continually waste money and food by throwing it away for no discernibly good reason and wonder why, after all these years of supposedly scrimping and saving diligently, they too are poor! (By the way, just earlier today one of them gleefully described to me just how expensive their last holiday was and how they're going away again over the next public holiday. Fortunately for them, I ended up paying for that holiday, indirectly, out of my savings while I ran myself ragged looking after their property and pets, on top of the other stuff I do during my day-to-day existence. I didn't get to have a holiday; I got extra work I would have gladly not done, all while they relaxed and swanned about in Johannesburg. I don't want to do that again, but I know it's going to happen again soon, even if my fortune changes. I don't think it's fair for them to live the good/high life off my money while I scrape, scrimp, stress and go without. All I will get in return is complaints if I don't do it perfectly, not that I don't already.)

WTAF is wrong with them? Do they not realise that without a job I don't have an unlimited supply of money with which to fund their retirement, let alone my own, that I am struggling to keep body and soul together in the here and now, that I would love to be able to spend as much as they do on luxury food items? Do they not understand why I harbor resentment towards them, that I don't want to be their meal ticket despite having been treated like it since I was first old enough to work for money? It seems they're positively clueless about money! Unfortunately, I learned my bad financial habits from them. Fortunately for me, I have learned better ones because I made an effort to do so, not that that helps me now. (Money is not for spending willy-nilly; it is for hoarding in case of a bad day where one has to lay out cash unexpectedly.)

I don't get enough to eat as it is and would very happily take and consume what they carelessly discard, but I'm not even offered the option of first refusal before it gets turfed. I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of my personal time and energy to help a starving man living under an oppressive government regime in a foreign country get enough crypto/money to buy food and medical supplies so that he didn't end up starving to death. Prior to that, he literally didn't know from where he'd get his next meal, if he was even going to have one. Just stop and take a moment to imagine living like that, if you even can. I don't even know the guy beyond his alias/assumed name for himself. I didn't have to do that, could have kept the crypto for myself (which was very tempting) and nobody would have been any the wiser without looking at the transactions, but I understood his plight and wanted to make his life better, even if briefly. (If you would like to make a donation to the Babylon project, for as little as 0.25 XNO, so that we can help more people, please use the Nanowall link to the fundraiser page on Send Nano. Thank you for your generosity.)

Seeing people needlessly throw away still-edible food that might be a day or two past its best at worst really grills my cheese. Well, it would if I could afford cheese in the first place (and I certainly wouldn't throw it out just because it was growing a bit of mold that I could scrape or slice off). Every day on which I get to eat meat is a good day, because it's maybe a once-a-week thing, twice if the going is good. By the time I'm done with a chicken carcass, there is very little left of it, maybe a few bits of bone, because I will crack those open and scrape out the marrow if I can. I save and reuse tea bags, because I get 1.5 cups of tea per bag. I've got a device for extracting the absolute maximum amount possible from various tubes of creams and pastes. I cut my own hair so that I don't have to pay a hairdresser a day's wages, despite the fact that it takes me at least twice as long as an appointment with a professional. I could write a list of tips on how to get maximum use from things in order to save money, because being poor has forced me to learn to do them.

I find it difficult to believe that people who have well-paying permanent employment are short of money. They are more likely short of the knowledge and good habits necessary to manage it to their benefit. If I can get by on eight thousand banana bucks and still put some away when I do earn well, then I don't see why others struggle. The difference between being rich or poor is a mindset, not a bank balance. Unfortunately for me, I learned how to be poor. It is only now that I have no money that I know how to manage it if I ever again get enough of a steady stream of it to conserve it, over and above my very minimal strictly necessary expenses.

Urgh, but people can be very disappointing and actively harmful to one's own chances of making something of oneself! If the opportunity ever presents itself for long enough that I manage to secure a way to strike out on my own, I am going to take it, run with it and get far away from them so fast that they won't know what happened! I honestly don't know how much more of this bullshit I can take, but I currently don't have a choice while I'm struggling against them and all of the little that I do bring in ends up going to them.

The fact that what I earn in crypto stays with me, in my wallets, unless I actively choose to give it to others is part of why it's so attractive to me as a means of earning, as opposed to fiat, over which I have no control. (All of what comes into my bank account ends up going out again, very shortly after it has arrived.)

On that note, it's time to go see what there is to eat ...

Thumbnail image: Photo of burning money by JP Valery on Unsplash