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Rhonda and Jason are the proud parents of two and live in a beautiful house in the suburbs. Since their oldest just turned 16, there are now three cars in the driveway. The garage can't house a car because it is full of storage and discarded items.

Jason works in a lawfirm and his annual salary has averaged a little over $150,000 for the last three years. Rhonda works as a social worker and her salary is ranged around $50,000. Rhonda feels very stressed and would like to be able to stay at home with her family, but financially they are in terrible shape.

Every credit card they have is at the maximum and the interest fees alone are killing them. The mortgage payments, which seemed manageable when they first bought the house five years ago, are now cutting deep and the property taxes have risen to almost $5,000 in the last two years.

Most nights the family goes out for dinner or Rhonda brings food in. She has lost heart in homemaking, shopping and cooking and Jason brings work home and is busy until the wee hours. They hand their children money every day for their lunches and it seems that a doughnut, danish pastry or muffin has to do for their breakfast.

All the neighbours look up to Rhonda and Jason, and are even a bit envious of their home, good jobs and lovely children.

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Bob and Marilyn have three children aged 4 to 8. They live in a very small house known as a wartime home. They both worked very hard to pay off the mortgage loan on their property and they know that they can't afford to carry credit cards. Bob works for a small company and makes around $35,000 gross. Marilyn suffers from chronic fatigue and with the small children she can't work out of the home. However, she does quite well with her pet sitting, child minding and a few other sidelines.

Bob and Marilyn know that Bob's job is not as secure as they would like it to be and they are always planning ahead to a time when he might become unemployed. They carefully follow a monthly budget. Marilyn has also become very interested in environmental issues and plans her homemaking and activities to include a caring plan for improvement.

Their children spend a lot of their free time playing outside, running, skipping and just being kids. They have toys that were mostly purchased at the charity shops and are happy with their belongings. They do receive one new toy at Christmas of their choosing.

Bob and Marilyn have three sit down meals with their children every day. When Bob can't make it home for his lunch, Marilyn packs him a nourishing take along meal including his thermos of coffee. This family rarely is sick and are the happiest you will find anywhere.

Bob and Marilyn's neighbours feel sorry for them because they don't have two new cars, a home improvement project ongoing and they really don't understand how a family of five can have so little garbage going out. Marilyn is devoted to the proper nutrician of her family and loves to create her own new, economical recipes...........

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A Tale Of Two Families - Part Two

The Power Of A Simple Life in action

Rhonda and Marilyn belonged to the same ladies auxiliary. Marilyn was always the first to volunteer to bake for their meetings and bake sales, while Rhonda was always pressed for time and just picked up something from the supermarket. She wondered how Marilyn could afford to do this when she was so poor.

The ladies had weekly meetings and would often invite speakers, watch an interesting film or have pot luck dinners. Quite my accident one night the topic of budgeting arose. Even though Marilyn was a shy person, this was a topic that she excelled in. The members were surprised at how knowledgeable Marilyn was in the subject of home economics and budgets.

What they were seeing in Marilyn was the result of many years of careful planning and intelligent decisions. She let them know that in time, it would become very easy, but in the meantime it would take work. In many cases there would be major decisions. Many of these decisions would be unpopular with their family, but things that are worthwhile are not always easy.

Each week the group would pick a topic to discuss such as stocking their cupboards, recipes, easy cooking and alternative ingredients or substitutions. Eventually the discussions let to energy and the environment. The members were amazed how small changes would make monumental differences.

One small suggestion would lead to fantastic ideas. One example: A member in the group wanted to cut back on transportation expenses. She owned her own car because she drove the children to school and did the shopping. Her own suggestion was to car pool. Marilyn's suggestion was for her to sell her car; save about $125 per month for insurance, gas and oil. Walk to school with the children and since they lived less than a km from the grocery store, she could take her buggy. An alternative would be to use the family car when her husband was home. Oh, the ladies were appalled by this suggestion. Eventually, however, they did come around and could see the benefit from this drastic decision. Even bringing into play the saving of emissions to the ozone layer, etc. The children needed exercise as did the member and lived within a few blocks of school. It was a good suggestion.

The members of the ladies auxiliary group are still involved in making changes to their lifestyles and look forward eagerly to their weekly meetings. Now they have evolved into cooking and recipe discussions again, but as a group have pulled together and saved thousands already with changes they have made.

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