An important part of managing on a low income includes not allowing your income to define you. It's important not to have a preconceived notion of what someone on a low income has or does. Many people make the mistake, for example, of just automatically believing their low income has to mean not eating healthy foods or not being able to allow their daughter to take dancing lessons. Automatically deciding to buy only macaroni for dinner, and automatically believing that a girl from your low income home cannot take the dancing lessons more fortunate girls can take, will put you and your family in a "poor" frame of mind in more ways than one.

People can manage (and manage amazingly well) on a low income. They just need to prioritize and plan.

Good ways to manage on a low income include:

THE LITTLE-OF-EVERYTHING APPROACH:

One approach to managing on a low income is with the "a-little-of-everything" approach. In other words, consider what the average person with an average incomes usually has in life, and then aim to have a scaled down version of an "average" life. There is a reason I suggest doing this, and it has nothing to do with "keeping up with the Joneses". People on a low income often lose perspective on what it takes to have a whole life. It is normal, understandable, and even sensible, to approach spending by focusing on the clearly important matters, such as food, heat, and electricity. I'm not advocating using the money for the gas bill to pay for dancing lessons, but realizing that "man does not live by bread alone" can help keep a low monthly income from removing you and/or your family from normal living. The low-income family that has nothing but macaroni in the cabinets, and children who cannot participate in normal childhood activities will suffer negative effects that don't have to be necessary - even on a low income.

Using what the average family has as a guideline, here are examples of ways to have a scaled down version of the same lifestyle: The average family may have cable television and a high-quality DVD player, and regularly run down to the video rental store for movies. A low-income family may have to forego cable television (there's only so much television children need to watch anyway), buy an inexpensive DVD player, and sign up for the most inexpensive movie plan that will allow only two or three movies a month.

With things like activities for the children, average-income families may have children in

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