Mark O asked:


I volunteer at a low income inner city church. Many families don’t budget the small amount of money they receive & make many costly impulse purchases. We’re putting on a series of money saving workshops for these churchmembers and their community, at no cost to them. The church let us use their function room. We started last night.
Ten families signed up, 7 showed up, one left after only a few minutes…They spend the bulk of their income on the same items that we do food, heat, electric, gas, phone, cable TV, (section rent, city bus, calling cards, clothes etc… It’s suprised me that of the first 6 families that brought their bills for us to help them set up a budget, 4 of the six spent more on entertainment then rent, two of the families did most of their food shopping at the (7-11 type) convenience store. One family was renting a plasma TV!
Help us, help them… Next Monday we’re doing it again. I think we have to explain to them how to save rather than look at every bill…