But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?
Let me tell you a thing.
This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then.
This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together.
AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing.
You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already.
Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic.
She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days.
Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling.
Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.
I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that.
If you don’t need this now, pass it on to someone who does. Pass it on anyway, because do you REALLY know which of the people in your life is in need? Which follower might be staring at their own piggy bank? Trust me: someone out there needs to see this.
Reblogging for all the impoverished students. Jack is the breadline queen. And if you don’t need this – donate to your nearest food bank, stat.
fucked up how cooking and baking from scratch is viewed as a luxury…..like baking a loaf of bread or whatever is seen as something that only people with money/time can do. I’m not sure why capitalism decided to sell us the idea that we can’t make our own damn food bc it’s a special expensive thing that’s exclusive to wealthy retirees but it’s stupid as hell and it makes me angry
bread takes like max 4 ingredients counting water and sure it takes a couple hours but 80% of that is just waiting around while it does the thing and you can do other things while it’s rising/baking
plus im not gonna say baking cured my depression bc it didn’t but man is it hard to feel down when you’re eating slices of fresh bread you just made yourself. feels like everything’s gonna be a little more ok than you thought. it’s good.
bread is amazing and it’s also been sold to us as something really hard to make? Every time I tell someone I made a loaf of bread I get reactions like “you made it yourself???” and “do you have a bread machine then?” I haven’t touched a bread machine in probably 10 years. You CAN make your own bread, folks, and it’s actually pretty cheap to do so. I believe the most expensive thing I needed for it was the jar of yeast. It was about $6 at the grocery store and lasted me MONTHS (just keep it in the fridge.) The packets are even cheaper. destroy capitalism. bake your own bread.
You can also make your own yeast by making a sourdough starter, so that cuts cost even more.
But you have to feed the starter daily/weekly and that means it grows quickly, but there are tons of recipes online for what to do with your excess starter. Cookies, pretzels, crackers, pancakes, waffles, you name it!!
Make it even easier – “No-Knead Bread”. All YOU do is mix the ingredients together and wait until it’s time to heat the oven. The yeast does all the rest.
Here’s @dduane’s first take on itand the finished product. We’ve made even more photogenic batches since.
Kneading is easy as well; either let your machine do it, or if you don’t want to or don’t have one, get hands-on. It’s like mixing two colours of Plasticine to make a third. Flatten, stretch, fold, half-turn, repeat – it takes about 10 minutes – until the gloopy conglomeration of flour, yeast, salt and water that clings to your hands at the beginning, becomes a compact ball that doesn’t stick to things and feels silky-smooth.
Here’s what before and after look like.
My Mum used to say that if you were feeling out of sorts with someone, it was good to
make bread because you could transfer your annoyance into kneading the
dough REALLY WELL, and both you and the bread would be better for it.
Then you put it into a bowl, cover it with cling-film and let it rise until it doubles in size, turn it out and “knock it back” (more kneading, until it’s getting back to the size it started, this means there won’t be huge “is something living in here?” holes in the bread), put it into your loaf-tin or whatever – we’ve used a regular oblong tin, a rectangular Pullman tin with a lid, a small glass casserole, an earthenware chicken roaster…
You can even use a clean terracotta flowerpot.
Let the dough rise again until it’s high enough to look like an unbaked but otherwise real loaf, then pop it in the preheated oven. On average we give ours 180°C / 355°F for 45-50 minutes. YM (and oven) MV.
Here’s some of our bread…
Here’s our default bread recipe – it takes about 3-4 hours from flour jar to cutting board depending on climate (warmer is faster) most of which is rise time and baking; hands-on mixing, kneading and knocking-back is about 20 minutes, tops, and less if using a mixer.
Here ( or indeed any of the other pics) is the finished product. This one was given an egg-wash to make it look glossy and keep the poppy-seeds in place; mostly we don’t bother with that or the slash down the middle, but all the extras were intentional as a “ready for my close-up” glamour shot.
I think any shop would be happy to have something this good-looking on their shelf.
We’re happy to have it on our table.
Even if your first attempts don’t work out quite as well as you hope, you can always make something like this…
can we have more posts like this in future please? this is really useful and could help those who are struggling
…it’s not hard?………shit….I always thought it was
I had the most stupid idea. Breaking bad // Baking Bread 🤣🤣🤣🤣
It even gives you a description of the scene so you know when/where you heard it
Look!
you guys probably already knew about this but yeahh. I’m just really excited because I was wondering what that song was when Mickey walks into the club
Ninja Update: Wanna see something fun? Mention Shakespeare in a sentence and see what happens.
Poe kept writing distinctly into my sentences so I wrote ”Edgar, you’re not funny” aND HE BLATANTLY DELETED THE NOT I AM SO DONE WITH THIS ASDFKJL
OH GOD IF YOU TYPE “EDGAR ALLAN POE” POE ADDS A 😦 AFTER HIS NAME PRECIOUS BABY
Oh my God so I typed ‘Shakespeare’ and Shakespeare butted in and wrote ‘The lovely and handsome Shakespeare’ but Poe burst in saying ‘The dreadful and lonely Shakespeare’.
aND FYODOR DOSTOYVESKY ADDED ‘ I do not wish to make myself a laughing-stock before these idle listeners.”
I’M DONE.
Look what they did to All Star by Smash Mouth
“Somebody once hushedly told me the world is going to roll me. I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed. She was looking kind of glocky with her finger and her thumb in the shape of a “L” on her forehead. Well, the years start voraciously coming and they don’t stop coming; fed to the rules and I hit the ground running. It didn’t make sense absolutely to live for fun. Thy brain gets smart but your head gets dumb. So much to do, so much to behold. So what’s wrong with taking the back busy thoroughfares? In everything one thing is impossible: rationality. You’ll never know if thou don’t go. “You’ll never shine if you don’t glow”, he growled incoherently. Hey presently, you’re an All Star. Get your game on; go play. Hey now, you’re a Rock Star. Get the show on; get laid. As well as all that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break the mold. ~All Star by Smash Estuary of opinion…”
Imagine putting your research paper in here and letting them go at it.
OH MY GOD I WAS WRITING AND EDGAR WOULDN’T STOP FIXING THINGS SO I WROTE “Edgar shut up I’m trying to write” and he changed it to “Edgar shut up I’m meagerly attempting to write” THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE
I typed in “Hello” and Shakesphere erased it and wrote “Begone with this rubbish.”
HOW R00d
I typed “party in the Usa” and Poe changed party to “ill-fated gathering”
I just used it to yell at Dickens about Tale of Two Cities, I am happy now
I typed in ‘hello other writers’ and Edgar Allen Poe changed it to ‘Hello secondary writers’
After I had been writing for a while Edgar suddenly deleted my last sentence and wrote “THE END.” rude son of a bitch
I have to try this.
Rebageled again but to add if the link above doesn’t work, try this one instead.
I put my author bio into it and Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare started fighting over the werewolf puns.
Another woman utterly failed by our society’s devaluation of women’s reproductive health.
We can’t wait around for male doctors to decide what we need to know.
This is why we need to take control and educate ourselves about our own bodies.
and here’s some comments i saw under the post. why is this a pattern?? why is this a recurring theme?? why is this information not common knowledge? what the fuck are doctors doing??
This is news to me so let’s share it so people will know!
Gross tmi: but i passed a pretty big clot after having my daughter. It was about the size of a baseball. It actually hurt worse because while 15 hours of labor opened my cervix, i passed the clot in 30 minutes. I knew it was a possibility because of my midwife and reading, but everyone Ive told after this (mostly other pregnant women) were shocked that this could happen.
In our culture, it’s much more common to do deep research about what family cars we want to buy than we do about childbirth when we ’re pregnant.
Tmi: I passed a huge clot after birth in the bathroom of my hospital room and called the nurse sobbing because I didn’t know it was normal. She treated me like an idiot, but NO ONE told me it was a possibility. And the pain associated with healing for the first couple of weeks after birth was worse than the labor imo. Again, I had no idea. They didn’t tell me a thing besides “sitz bath regularly and change your pads.” Before discharging me from the hospital.
I was most definitely told about this in school. Fucking hell, 4-6 weeks of bleeding? My periods were/are bad enough, why the hell don’t we get told this?
I didn’t know it could last so long, wtf? Is the bleeding inevitable after birth?
Bleeding is inevitable after birth – your uterine wall is shedding a fuck ton of lining. It can last from three to six weeks (possible longer) and it tapers off.
More TMI – I passed a MASSIVE clot after my fourth birth. At this point I already knew this could happen – it’s normal. What I DIDN’T know, was that I had caused it.
My post birth contractions were so bad after the birth that it felt like full transition labor. And they don’t give you anything for the pain. So I used a hot water bottle, without the nurses knowing, and it caused me to bleed even more. I lost so much blood that by the first time they sat me up to go to the bathroom, I fainted. It took three more tries until I could sit up.
Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, the next morning I passed a clot the SIZE OF ANOTHER PLACENTA I KID YOU NOT, and I know what is and is not normal. So I called for the nurse and through the door told her I had passed a huge clot, and her response was – “It’s not big. I know what big is.” She hadn’t even looked. So I rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, no. It’s big, I’m telling you.”
So, sounding extremely put upon, she asked me to open the door. I did, and after a long pause she goes, “Okay, yeah, that’s a little big.”
YOU DON’T SAY.
The point I’m trying to get across is that this shit is so common – women not knowing this stuff is so expected, and it keeps getting reinforced. People don’t expect you to know anything, don’t teach you anything, and then make you feel like you’re totally ignorant and a burden for your lack of knowledge when THEY WON’T SHARE.
Fucking learn EVERYTHING you can when it comes to childbirth, girls. It is the single most empowering thing you can do for yourself. And if you missed something, that’s okay. But the more knowledge you arm yourself with, the more in control of your situation you’ll be.
A few post partum tips:
DON’T use a hot water bottle – lol.
ONLY pads – NO tampons. Tampons can cause severe infection, not to mention, you probably don’t want to be shoving anything up there any time soon.
If you’ve had stitches, sitz baths DO help relieve the pain. Another great pain reliever? Dampen some pads and freeze them. Let one thaw slightly and use it on top of another pad. This will help with the pain as well as reduce swelling. Change the pad out as soon as it’s thawed completely. This REALLY helps on the first couple days after giving birth.
If you pass a clot, don’t sweat it. Even the one I passed, which was fucking massive, just required that we keep an eye out to make sure it didn’t happen again. If it does, talk to your doctor.
Take a pain killer half an hour before nursing. Because YES – your uterus is contracting after you give birth, to get back to its original size, and nursing causes much stronger contractions. Taking nursing-safe painkillers won’t prevent the pain, but it will reduce it.
Buy disposable underwear for the first few days after birth. They will get VERY dirty. Or use your ratty old pairs that you’re ready to get rid of. Double up on pads – line them all the way up your ass-crack. I am so serious. And wear dark pants.
Pee in the shower. You do NOT want to wipe down there right after birth because ow. Peeing in the shower lets you just rinse afterwards. Especially if you’ve had stitches, peeing in the shower, with the shower-head rinsing AS you go, keeps stinging to a minimum. And fuck everyone else – keep on peeing in the shower until you feel ready to move back to toilet paper. Middle of the night and need to pee? Get your pants off – get in the shower and just go.
This is just a few things, but PLEASE feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions about ANYTHING childbirth/pregnancy/nursing related. I have four incredible kids. I’ve done it all – c-section, vacuume birth, episiotimy, stitches, with an epidural, without an epidural. I’m here.
….I know I keep reblogging this but people keep adding super important information.
I feel like no one tells women this stuff because if a woman was even a little on the fence about having a baby before this would kinda make them run for the damn hills.
…..you are correct, typing.
300% EXTRA SURE I’M NOT HAVING BABIES.
peri bottles, witch hazel or anti-pain anticeptic spray are your friends. Also passing large clots after birth is a WARNING SIGN. Bigger than a half dollar is a sign that you have not passed your entire placenta (this is most common in hospital vaginal births where the mother is not allowed to naturally birth the placenta and instead has it ripped out by the doctor) if there is any placenta left in your uterus you can get extremely ill. This happened to both myself and my mother in law
WOW I didn’t know any of this and I’m terrified of what more I’m unaware of about my own body 😦 Honestly when will we fucking abolish this taboo about the female body…
I had pretty great sex ed in school (lots of contraceptive information, and totally acknowledged that teenagers might have sex) and all of this is news to me.
And, as a 28-year-old person with a uterus, I’m extremely appalled I’m just learning this.
Long, but very important information, even for those who don’t plan to have children, because you will almost certainly know someone who will, and you might be able to to help them. Or at least increase your level of empathy for them.
…HOLY HELL. REBLOG TO SAVE A LIFE, SERIOUSLY.
people loooove to make out like pregnancy and childbirth are this beautiful thing that a woman’s body is made to do, and leave out all this incredibly important and scary info.
the healthcare system fails women in so so many ways, especially around sexual and reproductive health, and it needs to stop.
I think I left the teller at the bank genuinely disturbed when I told him that “If I can’t afford it, I just don’t buy it.” “What about a car? Do you drive a car?” he inquired, his voice toning on the edge of fear. I told him, “Yeah, I have a vehicle. I bought it used for under $3,000.” He looked physically pained. “What about if you want to buy some kind of new appliance? Or furniture?” he persisted. I stared at him blankly. “My couch was $5.00 at Goodwill. Like…I just buy shit cheap or I don’t buy it at all. The only thing in my life that I make payments on is my house, my bills, and my insurance, and that’s split five ways because I have housemates.” The young man looked horrified? Appalled? And somehow also awed? This guy couldn’t have been much older than me. But it seemed that he’d never even considered the option before of saving up for something to purchase it outright instead of using a credit card. Am I the only person in my general age group (just turned 26) who’s never owned a credit card, and who has forgone basic comforts in order to save up for items so you don’t owe money to anyone, like, ever?
If you’re living in the US without a credit card at 26, you’re playing with danger.
No credit is viewed as the same as bad credit. Which means you could be denied if you ever do need to rent an apartment or a car. Hospitals and clinics are also less likely to allow payment plan programs for people without good credit.
The best thing you could do at this point is apply for a credit card you’re eligible for and pay a few things (I do gas and groceries myself) with it each month. As long as you keep it to zero balance each month there is no interest and there will be proof of you not having debt (instead of just the absence of debt).
what.
This is legit how it works. The system requires records on you, or else. So you need a credit card and worse, you need to have a record of using it, even if you pay it off every single month. Unfortunately, the formulas used to determine credit score are secret, so we also have people suggesting that your credit rating is helped if every so often you do pay a bit of interest. The whole thing is a complete mess. If you don’t have a credit rating/history, then any loans you manage to get will be at extremely high interest and will require much more effort than they really should.
what
yeaah let me just go get a card that i can’t pay off because capitalism is shit, even if i literally only buy a pack of gum that’d go well
If you pay it off in full every month there is no interest. Do what OP is doing but put some of that on your credit card and pay it off every month, and soon you will have a very good credit rating.
you skipped right the fuck over the “can’t pay it off” part huh
like credit cards are just not a viable thing if you’re poor and have shit income
And I’m saying to literally not put anything on it if you can’t buy it in cash. And I’m aware that they fuck over poor people, but yeah, that’s the system that’s in place. This is advice for navigating it, which is how to obtain good credit which helps a lot.
Right like don’t make minimum payments, put your gas on your credit card then that same day pay the credit card company online then don’t worry about it for another month. It’s an absolutely shit system, but in the event of an emergency it’s good to have.
I have had to explain this to a lot of people in my life, but it’s true- no credit is the same as (or worse than!!!) bad credit. What having (and using) the card actually shows is that you are capable of (and actually follow through on) making regular payments: ie, it is proof of having a steady income (even if you do not actually have a steady income). It is showing you reliably can pay for things you purchase (you do the same thing with cash but there’s no record), and that if you borrow money you’re good for it when it comes time to repay, which is what your credit score is all about.
Think of it this way. You have a credit card, which is your credit tracking device. You use the card to tell someone “I will pay for this thing with borrowed money.” They agree to allow you to pay with borrowed money. You then turn around to your credit card company and say “Thank you for allowing me to borrow your money, I will now pay you back with my own money.” (which, if you repay them promptly enough, you can repay them the exact same amount you borrowed, rather than paying them more than you borrowed [which is what interest is])
The credit card company then recognizes that you successfully borrowed their money AND returned it safely, and they pass that information along to credit tracking companies. Each time you do this, you gain credibility. If you do this enough times, you are considered a credible borrower of money, so that if you ever are in a situation where you need to borrow a large sum of money (for example, a mortgage or a car or a hospital bill or whatever), companies with money will look at how well you have returned money in the past, and say Ah yes, this person repays their debts well, so we can lend them our money.
So like, do what the above folks are recommending. Get a credit card and use it to reasonably purchase things you already have to buy- put a batch of groceries on the card. Go home (or wherever you can use the internet), pay it off as if you had paid cash in the store for it. There is no extra fee or interest for doing this, and you are leveling up your credibility in case of emergency later on in life.
More shit in adult life they never tell you about in school
As someone who’s credit history was wiped to zero after an ex stole her identity.
Having no credit is significantly worse than having bad credit. I’ve been fortunate as of late and nothing bad has happened to me, and I’m set to inherit a house and the like. But, if say the furnace dies, or the hot water heater, or I get sick again (since my insurance company jacked my premiums to $1300/mo), I’m proper fucked.
One of the big suggestions my financial guy (I have some stocks and bonds, planning for retirement) suggested was, getting a secured credit card. Basically, it works like a normal credit card, but you put your own money down as a collateral/financing base (generally between $200-500), the financing bank/institution then puts their backing behind you. Secured cards have a near 100% approval rate for those of us with zero credit, whereas normal bank backed cards you are less likely to be approved.
Before my husband and I married he had exactly no credit. We tried applying for an apartment, but had to do it in my name or would otherwise have been declined. It took a couple years to convince him to even have a bank account (he was 100% cash) and it was when someone stole his wallet that he realized how fucked he is. Cash gets stolen? You’re fucked. Credit card gets stolen? You call the credit card company (or the bank if you get your card through them) and report the theft. Then they deactivate the card and mail you a new one. Congratulation, you’re not fucked.
After a few years he was able to get one our bills in his name without having a massive safety deposit on it. It helped raise his credit. We have a shared bank account, and using his debit card has helped raise his credit. Because we’re married our credit score is averaged between the two of us, meaning if he has shit credit it destroys mine. We were able to get car insurance with low interest. We were able to get a rental home with immediate approval due to our credit score being fantastic.
We’re currently paying off our credit card. We maxed it out due to losing our home to a house fire. Yeah, we have renters insurance (GET RENTERS INSURANCE!!! It’s about $15/month and if shit happen they cover the cleanup, packing, replacement, and give you money for what you lost) but it took two months and they didn’t cover the cost of the safety deposit and first month’s rent on our new home. We had to replace all our food and various other things. We finally got our reimbursement money, slapped that right onto the card, and our credit score went from shit (due to maxing out the card) to AMAZING (because we made a huge fucking payment). We pay about $10-$20 over what our monthly payment is to keep interest down AND to make our credit score nice and pretty.
Get a credit card, pay your fuel or groceries or whatever with it, and when you get home pay it all off right away.
OP, I applaud you, and agree that it’s SHOCKING that somebody would look at you like you’ve got an owl on your head just for talking perfect sense. 😦
While I agree it’s not wise to have no credit, it’s not true that having no credit is the same as having bad credit.
A credit score of [–] is FAR better than having a credit score of 1.
For one thing, having BAD credit PROVES to a lender that you’re irresponsible with money. Having NO credit can mean many things to a lender, like you’re young, you’ve only just joined the workforce, you’ve just moved to the country, or even possibly that you ARE responsible, at least responsible enough to not get into debt.
For another, more important, thing: Lenders can (and do) always look at other factors, such as if you’ve consistently paid your rent and other bills on time, the regularity of your paychecks, how long you tend to stay in one home and job, your income versus the amount you’ll owe / the credit limit, the value of any collateral (house, car, whatever) versus the amount of the loan, and other factors, as well. Your eligibility for a loan is absolutely NOT based solely upon your official credit score, but upon the sum of all your available financial history. If it were only credit, then you wouldn’t be asked for a ream of paperwork when applying for a mortgage, for example, and many recent immigrants would never be able to get credit! Even if the places you pay bills to don’t report to credit agencies (eg a private landlord), lenders have ways of checking your financial past and may even simply phone up for references. But most major cell phone providers report to credit agencies, for example, so if you have a phone in your name, you most likely have at least SOME credit (so make sure you always pay your phone bill on time!) already.
I was able to buy a HOUSE with NO credit, because I was (and still am, actually) very much like the OP and didn’t buy things I couldn’t afford but prefer to save up for big purchases. But I was able to get the house, which I could never just save up for, all on my own with no co-signer and in my own name, for a few reasons. I got a very good deal on the house and had a big down payment saved up, therefore the amount of the loan was significantly lower than the value of the house, and already the bank had a viable backup if I ever defaulted. In addition, I had very steady income with paystubs from the same employer going back 10 years. I also had paid all my bills on time for like 20 years, and the lender was easily able to check references on that stuff, or at least enough of it to satisfy them. They straight up TOLD ME that I had basically NO credit, like the least quantity they’d ever seen, and that it was FUNNY to them and they literally laughed about how little was there (not in a mean way!), but that what they were able to see was very secure, so they were happy to lend me over 100k$.
My credit history now consists of ~5 years of paying a mortgage on time and a SINGLE credit card, and that’s it – as far as official credit goes, that is – and my score is nearly 800. It’s so good, in fact, that I have finally achieved a credit related goal of mine – I have been offered a fucking AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD! And the real one, too, not that kid’s stuff Blue card! Oh yeah, baby, I’ve made it! 😀 Starting with NO credit!
GET GOOD CREDIT ANYWAY – IT’S EASY
ALL THAT SAID, it is OF COURSE true that having good credit, even just a little, can make your financial life a hell of a lot easier. It’s definitely a good idea. Luckily, it’s not difficult to get, if you’re coming from NO credit. Cleaning up BAD credit is not something I have any experience in or knowledge of, so I wouldn’t dare offer advice in that department. @naturepunk as responsible as you are, you should have a perfect credit score in just a couple years or so, with NO hassle and NO money lost!
(because I’m a windy bag of farts and this is a complicated topic)
TL;DR HOW TO GET GOOD CREDIT, FROM NONE
-> Apply for ONE credit card —- Go to your checking account bank, Sears, or possibly Cabela’s -> Load up a decent balance fairly soon —- Don’t get anywhere close to maxxing it out —- 10-20% of your total limit is pretty good —- I don’t recommend going over ~60% of your available limit -> Keep activity going, especially the first year or so —- You want to have purchases at least once a month -> Pay the minimum balance ON TIME every month —- NEVER EVER EVER allow yourself to pay late! NEVER!! —- There is nothing wrong with paying a big chunk if you need, but… -> KEEP A RUNNING BALANCE AT ALL TIMES —- Do NOT pay the balance down to 0, ever —- When you get close to 10%, or if you get near 0$ balance, BUY THINGS! -> Every few/several years, request a balance increase —- Be SURE you’re eligible before requesting; it’s a real credit check -> REMEMBER: This is for CREDIT BUILDING, but it’s also YOUR CARD! —- Don’t be afraid to use it in emergencies if you need it! —- You can always pay it down, and it’s good to have a balance anyway!
(obv this is for anybody, not just the OP!)
NOW FOR THE DETAILS, IN MY SUPER WORDY STYLE: I cannot recommend strongly enough going to apply for a single credit card, then buying a couple hundred bucks worth of stuff on it right away to build up a balance. Go into the bank where you have your checking account and speak to somebody – an agent, not a teller – in person; your own bank WANTS you to have their card, and they’ll very very likely give you one with zero credit. The longer you’ve had an account with them, the more likely they are to work with you. If they won’t do it, though, a really great bet would be SEARS!! I know for a fact that Sears will extend credit to people with no credit score, and they’re pretty well known for extending to those with fairly bad credit, too. ALSO, Cabela’s owns their own private bank and issues their own cards, so they might be able to work with you as well. It’s definitely worth a try, and talking to a human being, face to face, is always a good idea if you’re having problems, no matter where you go.
If you get approved, just accept whatever credit limit they offer you, no matter how small (you can always change that later), and NEVER forget that number. [That’s your available limit, the amount of money that is, effectively, earmarked for you, available to you, and yours, whether you do anything with it or not. I’ll talk a lot about that number, and it’s important.]
When you get the card and get a balance
[how much you owe/have charged, total]
charged to it, don’t pay it off!Pay the minimumamount every month, or a little more, if you’re comfortable, but keep a balance. Also, obviously, make your payments ON TIME and never late. Of course, never pay less than the minimum (which will be automatically set on your bill), and remember you are under no obligation to pay any more, either. Paying the minimum or paying more will have no impact on your credit in any way, but the more you pay, the more frequently you’ll need to charge to the card and add to the balance again.
NEVER pay your balance off to 0$, whether every month or even just occasionally; KEEP a running balanceat all times. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but hear me out. It doesn’t matter terribly how much balance you keep, but a significant percentage is good, so say if your credit line is 1000$ (like you’re maxxed out if you charge up that amount, total), then keeping 50-100$ is a pretty good place to start. Keeping a running balance of only like a few bucks is pointless and may well appear to creditors just the same as zero – so let’s say aim to keep a target minimum balance of at least 10% of your available limit at all times – DO NOT pay that off! When you go to pay the bill every month, check the balance, and if you notice that you’re approaching your target minimum balance, or God forbid you’re about to pay it off to 0$, go buy something right away! Just keep a target minimum balance number in mind
(say around 10% of your available limit)
and treat that number as “paying it off” in your mind.
DON’T charge it up to max, either – in fact, I wouldn’t charge it up more than 60% of the total available limit – if you can help it. So if your max is 1000$, I wouldn’t recommend building up a balance more than 600$.
I don’t think I’ve ever charged up 40% of my total available limit, and even when it’s active it’s usually only about 20%, but it still builds the hell out of my credit every month! The card company would prefer if you maintain a balance of probably 50% of your total credit line or more, but fuck them, I’m not comfortable owing that much money at any one time. Plus it’s credit reporting agencies we’re worried about, not issuers! What the agencies care about is that there is activity, there is a high available limit, a nice big chunk of that limit still unused, a chunk of that limit still actively owed and being paid regularly, and the ratio of your income to the total you currently owe (all credit balances).
To build up and keep up that balance, you don’t have to use the card to buy things you wouldn’t otherwise buy, or to get things you can’t afford, just to build your credit with it. You can just use it to always pay for a specific and regular purchase, like your gas or your groceries or a bill. Then when the payment is due, pay the minimum, rather than everything you’ve charged, or pay whatever amount will get you down to that target minimum balance you want to keep. That said, it might actually be easier to use it to buy, for example, the nicer, more reliable item(s) that you’d usually just have bought the cheaper version of, or to donate to charities when otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford that, or to splurge on the occasional expensive treat. I do use mine to buy the occasional designer item or really expensive outdoorsy thing, because that way it puts one pretty big chunk onto the balance, and I can take my time paying it without needing to use it every month just to maintain a balance. However, my husband uses his every time he buys gas, and he has a hard time keeping the balance above 0 and has to buy other things on it here and there.
So as you continue to use and pay, use and pay, use and pay, and MAINTAIN A BALANCE without reaching your limit OR paying your balance off completely, your credit will just stack up. Every few/several years, as long as you’ve made all your payments on time in the interim and maintained a good balance and kept up consistent usage, you can call up your card company and ask them to increase your credit limit. Some cards may actually do this for you automatically and just send you a letter informing you that they’ve increased your limit, but if they never do, you can request it yourself or at least ask them if it’s something they do on their own or if you have to request it. Increasing your available credit limit will boost your credit score; but remember it will probably be a good idea to maintain a slightly higher balance when you’re extended a higher limit, too. ALSO remember to make sure you don’t call to ask about an increase within a couple months of doing anything that will officially check your credit , such as buying a car, getting a new phone contract, applying for a mortgage or a new card, OR requesting your credit rating from certain agencies that appear on your history (among other things) – and the higher value the thing, the longer I’d wait, though I don’t know how necessary that actually is. It’s just what I do; I never do more than one credit-related thing within months of each other.
One important thing to be very careful about when considering requesting a limit increase is that it does appear on your credit. It’s a credit check, and it leaves a flag on your history. Therefore, if you are DENIED the increase for any reason, it LOOKS on your credit as though you were denied a credit card or loan or whatever, and that alone can really damage your score. You want to REALLY be SURE that you’ve been consistently using your card well if you’re going to do this. It’s NOT something that’s 100% necessary to build up solid credit, so it’s not worth it if you don’t know for a FACT that you’re an excellent candidate for an increase. But if you ended up with a Baby’s First Sears Card with a total limit of only 400$, and you’ve had a pay raise, paid all your bills on time, and been a good card user, then it IS going to be VERY important that you get that increase, because an available limit that low will hold you back from getting your score above a certain number. You really want to have extended (AVAILABLE, not USED) to you as much possible potential money as you can get! That’s the best possible way of boosting and maintaining a high score, and you don’t have to use it all!
More than anything though, remember that it’s your card to use (or not use) how you want! If you need to use your card for an emergency, USE IT! But if you’re not comfortable with that and can find another way, DON’T! If you need to max it out because you got into a car wreck and have to find a way to pay for a rental or whatever, that’s what it’s there for. IMO, that’s better than missing out on rent and getting evicted!
You can always pay it down, even if it takes a long time, and it’s not going to hurt your credit carrying a maxed out card for a few months. And even if your interest rate is high, try not to think of it like you’re paying XX% more for an item you bought; think of it as a monthly bill to which you pay XX$ per month. Paying that money now will save you THOUSANDS if not HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in the future, when the time comes to calculate your interest rate for a car or mortgage or business loan or home equity loan… Even if you were to max out a card with a 30% interest rate, you’re paying for your credit score, and that is a solid investment in your financial future.
Oh! One last thing! DO NOT CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT, if you can help it! Really, that should only happen in extreme circumstances, BUT some companies (Cabela’s is one, Sears is not) will close your account for you if you don’t use it often enough! Don’t let that happen! If they send you a letter warning you that you haven’t used it in a couple years so they’ll be closing it within 90 days (or whatever) – and they WILL give you plenty of notice – contact them, buy something with the card, something! It looks really bad on your credit to close an account, especially if you still have a balance to pay off, but even if it’s paid off it looks bad. It would suck to build up all that headway for a preventable setback like that, so just get in the habit of using the card, and don’t close it or let it get closed!
(Ohhhhhkay! That’s a LOT of words. I really hope that’s helpful to somebody! I apologize if it’s disjointed or if there are things missing or typoed, I haven’t slept well in days and I’m exhausted, and here I am up late as heck again! I hope it makes sense! Oh and I really apologize if any of this is really obvious stuff you already know. I wanted this to be info anybody could use.)
Something nobody has mentioned that my friends all did: go to your local Kay jeweler and finance a watch… that’s how almost all my friends established their credit. Just be sure you have enough saved back to afford it up front before you finance it.
OH MY GOSH, YES! ^^^^^^^^^^^
YES YES YES YES YES!!!
YES that is an absolutely BRILLIANT way to get a good little bit of credit history!! A place like Kay jewelers or Jared or something like that WILL report to credit agencies, and they WILL be able to work with you!
AND it’s a great way to get a line of credit going, while NOT buying anything you don’t have the money for and technically going into debt! If you save up the money for an item, and keep that money in your account (or even stash away the physical cash and go into the shop to make the payments!), you can still just get the credit for it and use that saved up money to pay it down!
And if you have bad credit or no credit and have a problem with getting a line extended to you, you may well be able to work with the people there and prove to them that you have the cash to pay it, and that may help them decide to extend you that line of credit!
REMEMBER, you’ll need to save up a little bit OVER the base cost of the item, since you’ll be paying additional in INTEREST. And DON’T PAY IT OFF EARLY! Make the payments exactly as scheduled, or you won’t see the full benefit of the credit you’re building!! It’s REALLY only good to pay off loans early and/or in full if you’ve already got good established credit. MAKE THE SCHEDULED PAYMENTS EXACTLY AS PLANNED, and KEEP A RUNNING BALANCE AS LONG AS YOU CAN! What the credit agencies want to see is regular payments, made on time. They don’t care much if you pay it off early, and the LENDER doesn’t want to lose out on all the interest you’d be paying if you stick to the schedule.
It does NOT help you to pay things off early if you’re trying to build credit. I can’t stress that enough.
Now, I personally don’t recommend going to a privately owned mom n pop shop, or a pawn shop, or anything else like that, if you’re doing this. They are not guaranteed to report to credit agencies the way the major national chains do, so all you’d be doing there is wasting your time and the additional money for interest.
I wish I could make the text of your post appear in bright red blinking flashing… hang on a minute!
It’s not perfect but hey! There we go! 😀
I’ve never seen somebody excited for anything I’ve ever said… thanks, it’s a little bit of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day for me! I just hope it helps someone else along their way. One extra benefit is that you get a decent watch.
Well! 😀 It’s sooooo important, and exactly what you said REALLY IS the VERY BEST way to get your credit jump started from nothing, and I didn’t even think of it! I actually know several people who did exactly that, too, and I just did not think of it!!
And yeah, I really really hope this can help some people, that’s another reason your post is so brilliant – it’s such an easy thing to do that people NEED TO KNOW.
Credit is HARD, but it’s sooooo unbelievably important in this world, and probably more now than ever with the internet and online commerce! If you start building your credit young, even just a LITTLE, your whole future becomes easy. Not easier – EASY. And doing the jewellery shop thing is the perfect way to get started. And I know from experience that if you don’t work on your credit young, if you don’t think about those things, your financial future is HARD. It can take decades to fix bad credit, and years to start good credit from none, so if you start early and easy, it’s just a life changer.
Buy a bat (I have my old color guard rifle) or similar. Keep it in your room/near your bed.
Get a lock for your bedroom door.
If you’re moving into a new place, change the locks. Who knows who had a key to your place before you.
Keep your phone/a phone in your room.
Get a weather alert system set up. App, weather call, little weather radio that tells you about major weather events.
Adopt a pet
Wave at your neighbors. Take note of the ones that make you uneasy. Watch out for kids always.
Be nice to your mail person. No matter what.
If you choose to drink/etc alone, unplug your wifi router. You’ll thank me.
Have extra seating. People sit when they visit. Your one comfy chair is great for you. Not so great for you + grandma + ur five cousins, your aunt, and a couple others.
Learn the self-Heimlich
When you take a shower, bring your phone to the bathroom in case you fall your phone is no longer halfway across the house, it’s just on your counter
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Idk what else
If you live in an one-room apartment, put a screen around your bed. It’ll feel less like you visit people, esp. strangers, into your bedroom. Also you’ll feel much safer sleeping in the enclosure.
Cook enough for a few meals each time you cook, and freeze the extra food. That way you’ll prevent things from expiring and it’s great when you don’t feel like cooking or have no time or energy for it.
Give a key to someone near you trust, or hid it somewhere few people will look, like up in a tree. Shutting yourself out isn’t nice, esp. not at night.
Put something translucent like curtains or stickers for windows where people can walk past or look in. You’ll feel less watched that way.
Put some contant money somewhere in your room. Good to have in case your bag gets lost or stolen.
Feeling lonely? Remember, online contacts are not less valuable.
I would say maybe set reminders for everything too. Taking meds/vitamins, working out, going to sleep, waking up.
Buy a small fan for white noise at night if you’re the kind (like me) that gets anxious at all the little ambient noises that ANY building can supply in the dark.
Don’t watch scary movies in the dark by yourself, with no visitors.
NETFLIX, if you can afford it. It’s also useful because you can watch movies / shows with your online buddies at the same time, miles and states and (sometimes even) countries apart.
get an app like safetrek. never walk into allies or empty streets if there is a more populated/well-lit route to your destination. keep emergency contacts in your wallet and a red cross card with your blood type on it in case anything happens. carry a list of medications you’re allergic to, if any.
walking around with a headset or headphones discourages people from yelling at you on the street, and it’s easier to escape from hasslers. however, it’s pretty advisable to not have anything actually playing so you can be aware of your surroundings. if anything, have it at low volume.
if you get grabbed on the street (this used to happen to me a lot), immediately scream, and the person will usually get startled, giving you time to get away.
if you feel like you’re in a really bad place, call someone, or even pretend like you’re calling someone. say where you are. act like you’re planning on meeting up with them. be loud about it. make it seem like someone will notice if you go missing, even for a little bit.
also u should look up manufacturer’s coupons like damn i feel like a successful suburban mom every time i walk into cvs and save 2 dollars on my toothbrushes
PSA PSA EVERYBODY NEEDS
I read the first one as bat. Yes, friend! No longer alone!
I hope Wikipedia doesnt go bankrupt it will feel like the end times . I think I will literally panic
Encyclopedia Britannica is always there
there’s this place called a library. and they have these things called books. and then there’s this thing called Google Search. where you can find books in PDF form.
Wikipedia is user edited. you can literally put anything you want in an entry almost. I think you know where I’m about to go with this.
You’re condescending and annoying. I am attached to Wikipedia out of sentimentality it’s always been there for as long as I remember and reliable to me for some casual trivia. Wikipedia is iconic and I love her. go write a research paper or something
who let high school teachers find tumblr
me: hm i wonder how many countries drive on the same side as the UK
friend: let’s check wikipedia in 2 seconds on our phones
some asshole on tumblr: um excuse me why don’t you stop what you’re doing to go to the library and look it up in an outdated book that’s edited maybe twice a decade and that definitely doesn’t have a single page article called “list of countries with left-hand traffic”
also “user edited” really doesn’t mean as much as you think it does. there are millions of people displaying accurate information, for every one person displaying inaccurate information. and that inaccurate information is usually changed quickly, and the person who made it can get their ip blocked from wikipedia if it was bad enough. way more accurate than textbooks or a library.
Librarian here! I’ve worked at both academic (college/university) and public libraries, and let me tell you this: most print encyclopedias are useless garbage we can’t get rid of fast enough. With the exception of subject-specific sets which we need to buy again every few years because the information has become outdated, most of the information in any volume of an encyclopedia is far more accessible and far more in-depth on the internet.
Wikipedia as a reference resource is fantastic because, just like print encyclopedias, it serves as a jumping-off point for research… and so do librarians! A librarian isn’t going to just write your paper for you, we’re going to point you to the books, articles, and websites that contain the information. Wikipedia is great for that, too, because any article that gets more than a bit of traffic will wind up with sources and external links. But print encyclopedias don’t go that far in citing their sources, and because they’re static media, the references may not only be outdated, they might be entirely inaccessible due to age, obscurity, or cost of access.
And there’s an interesting thing about all those books we have on the shelves… anyone can write one, and usually they only have a handful of other people checking their work. Academic journals are somewhat notorious for the ease with which a completely falsified paper can see publication (especially in cases of electronic journals), but printed books can also be easily falsified, whether as a result of publishers with an agenda or just fact-checkers slacking off.
As has been pointed out above, wikipedia is really great at getting obscenely specific in terms of the topics of articles. It’s an amazing collection of data, and more importantly, it’s an amazing collection of sources of data.
The role of a reference librarian and a wikipedia editor are basically the same: show you a brief summary of the information you need, and point you to more in-depth, reliable sources.
I was helping a friend clear out their dad’s old stuff from their home recently and we came across encyclopedias from the 90s.
They all went to the dump. They were ASTOUNDINGLY outdated. Totally fucking useless.
High school English teacher here–I regularly get crap from some of my colleagues, but I am completely fine with students using Wikipedia for info. Wikipedia does an excellent job of flagging articles that have been recently edited until someone can verify the changes, so pages with inaccurate info often have giant warnings at the top saying “THIS PAGE MAY CONTAIN IANCCURATE INFO”. Won’t find that in an out-of-date print edition.
Not only that, but Wikipedia cites its sources. It tells you right at the bottom of the page where all its info came from, so if you want to use a fact from Wikipedia but don’t want a teacher annoyed with you, just cite the source in the footnote. Teachers and professors are (a) not likely to check up on this and (b) it’s a real source so even if they do it’s legit?
The biggest problem I have had with letting students use Wikipedia is actually that Wikipedia articles are often written in such academic language that students sometimes struggle to understand them. That part kids have to overcome on their own or with the help of their teacher. But there’s nothing wrong with Wikipedia as a source. Hatred for it is a remnant of academic elitism, thinking that “peer-reviewed” can only mean some handful of crusty white dudes instead of literally anyone with enough knowledge and motivation to review it.
Honestly. My dad is a college professor and he’s told me time and again to always start my research at Wikipedia. You have to go further, obviously, but its such a great jumping off point for information.
Plus, where else can I find an itemized and updated list of every Cryptid known to human kind?
For the impenetrable articles, here’s my tip.
The list of other languages in the sidebar? Look at it and check whether the article has a version in Simple English.
Simple English is a mode for non-native English speakers but is also great if your reading comprehension is not super good, you’re having a slow brain day for any mental health or developmental disorder reason, or the English version is just poorly written.
Librarian here, and this whole post gives me so much joy.
I feel like people think “not a reliable source” means “not true” but it actually means “can’t be quoted because the words might change”
I’m here to add a bit about the other languages offered: they’re a godsend for when you need to do translation assignments. specifically for when you’re looking for a specific term and you need the equivalent term.
Okay so I’m sure you’ve all heard of the quiet place project. Well if not I am going to tell you because it has stopped me from doing serious damage more than once.
This gem right here is where you can literally create a 100% anonymous username and just absolutely spill your guts. Then people can read it and give you advice, and it honestly is so helpful. Because the other people on it are in the same situations as you, and they understand. You can comment and give advice on other peoples posts too, and it’s just really great.
This little beauty is similar to the comfort spot. Except instead of posting your thoughts, you type them into the box and then when you press enter they disappear and turn into stars against the blue sky. There is a whole bunch of different languages to choose from at the start, so if English is not your first language then you can probably find it here. There is the most comforting music that plays in the background as well, which is so great.
Which is so good for panic related things because it silences all of your other tabs and when you make it full screen it talks to you very calmly and then literally forces you stop for just 30 seconds and do nothing and just breathe.
Okay, so this is my actual favourite, it’s called the dawn room
The dawn room is so great for stopping you from self harming. It begins by telling you that its going to be alright, then it asks you to write something about someone you love. After that messages from other people, just like you, appear on the screen, one after the other, and the background slowly become brighter and happier. This page has genuinely stopped me from hurting myself more times than I can count. I’m not suggesting that it will work for everyone, but it is an absolute gem.
This page runs for about 5 minutes, and it is basically a typing simulator that tries to convince you that everything is going to be alright. It is very calming, and good for lonely times.
I can honestly say that this website has done me so so much good. I appreciate it with every bit of my being.
please reblog
this sounds so lovely
I love this
if you wanna help people, please.
reblog it.
So I reblogged (rebloged?) it before using, and now that I used I can say.
andtheytoldustotellyouhello 