I think giving out of date food to people on the edge of poverty is pitiful.

I think theres a difference between out of date and old.

Old food is not bad food. Spoiled food is bad food.

Hm. I thought this was going to be another thread about how astonishingly bad that Marie Antoinette movie was...

gawd,,,100 dollars on gas??

and your phone is cheap!


and you clean your house alot too!


I find you funny and agreeable Marichinko. I hope saying that dosn't get me hated, or shunned. I don't like to belonging to clicks and groups if it excludes others esp. on a message board so I don't mind saying so too much.:p

I guess that poverty is relative Here in the UK, there are few true paupers as we have several layers of safety nets to catch the majority (and yes, I know we have low-income families..... but how many are truly paupers?).

In the US, without the welfare and socialist infrastructure that we have here, it must be truly horrendous to be poor. Not only do you have the problem of finding food and shelter for yourself and thine, but you have to ward off the slingshots of the self-rightous. I am so glad I am not american.

Here, here, me t-- Waaait a sec...

We have similar social services here Jay. It's why I'm always very glad to be Australian. Just in case...

I agree....but then again, I don't know if one can generalise across the whole of America. Isn't it different from state to state, as to what protection there is?

I know Mari has had a much harder time in her new home than she had in the last place she lived.

What is your profession marichiko?

Well DUH! She said she is disabled. If she COULD be doing what she used to do to make a living, this thread would not be here.

Eat cake? I got a can of apple pie filling out today, both ends were bulging out. Date was 10/?/ 06. Out the door carefully. I find that pineapple is the worst about storage?

Alright then, I'll be more specific. What did you do before becoming disabled mari? I'm assuming this was an injury or illness of some type, I never caught any details.

My keyboard shorted out in the middle of this, so I couldn't reply. I guess it was some electrical thingie, cuz when I finally got mad and gave it a sharp wrap on the desk, it began to work for now. A kind friend is also sending me a spare she has.

$100 IN GAS:

I live in a very small town that does not have a pharmacy, it has an expensive Mom and Pop grocery that charges twice what a regular grocery store does. My doctor is 19 miles away in one of the next towns. My specialists are 27 miles away in Durango. If I need hospital testing I have to go to Cortez, 16 miles. I also go their for groceries and thrift shop excursions. I try to do all my errands at once, but you know how that goes.

Two trips to doctor = 76 miles
Five or 6 trips to Cortez = 192 miles
four trips to Durango = 216 miles

Total: 484 miles @ $3.20/gal (its finally going down), my car gets maybe 20 miles to the gallon = 77.44, and then there's always some stupid trip to social services or the commodities place that brings my mileage higher. I'd say my gas estimate is pretty reasonable.

AND YOUR PHONE IS CHEAP

Glad to hear it, I'm stil paying off my installment fees on time, so its more like $35 or so at the moment, but it should go down to around $22 or $23 some day. That's plain phone service, no voice mail, no caller ID, no call waiting, no long distance or any other of those frills.

AND YOU CLEAN YOUR HOUSE A LOT, TOO

The HA makes surprise visits and expects the apartments to be spotless. I buy generic, $2.99 laundry soap, 1.99 fabric softener, $1.29 dish soap, $4.00 vacumn cleaner bags, those cheap garbage bags that rip and still cost $4.00/box. I buy 99 cent ajax type cleanser for the sinks. I buy generic pine sol for the floors -$3.00. Comes to about 18.26/month. Sorry I lied. I understand all about the economies of scale, but I can't afford to stock up on $20.00 boxes of Tide, etc.

I like Mari too, and I don't consider myself a member of any clique.

I like Mari too. I also think she made a very valid point. Someone else made the point that there is a big difference between old food and out of date food, but in reality even food that's old but within its sell by date may be spoiled, if it's not been kept in the correct storage conditions.

I remember someone offering a bunch of food to my mum for the Refugee Council to use in their emergency food packs.....bless them for making the effort but it was pretty much all unusable. It was thrown away. Just because someone is on the breadline (or below it) doesn't mean they should 'be grateful' for food which may make them ill and which none of us would consider eating.