Neighbors and Friends Helping Each Other Fight Inflation
Because the government isn’t bailing us out
I recently injured my leg. That means I can’t manage to get down my driveway since it is quite steep. So I have a neighbor coming over to pick up my mail. I called her up and she was like, “of course”. No questions asked. Only thing is, she is super busy so I need to wait until she has a spare minute. Which is not an issue. After all, she’s the one doing me a favor.
For me, having people help has become necessary since I was diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer last April.
However, for many people, it’s also making it possible to get through the oncoming recession.
And yes, it now seems clear we are going to have a recession. And it may be a really bad one. Inflation has reached a high we haven’t seen in over 40 years. The consumer price index (CPI) was up 8.6% in May.
While housing has “only” gone up by a little over 5%, groceries are up more than 10%. The price of gas has nearly doubled.
There are families who are choosing between paying their utility bills or paying their rent.
Some communities, however, are figuring out ways to help each other.
One lady in North Dallas, Lisa Jackey, advertised on Next Door, offering the services of her “Family for Hire”. She’s a single mother with four children who lost her corporate job in February and has a had a hard time finding a new gig in her field.
She talked to her kids and they agreed to her idea.
Neighbors and friends have always helped each other move. When I was a young person straight out of college, I never hired movers. I just offered to buy the pizza and friends would show up to help me move.
However, in this tough economy, Jackey decided to increase the parameters of what it means to be a neighbor or friend to take in the larger community she could reach through Next Door. The idea is to create a win/win situation.
If someone needs to move, for example, instead of hiring professionals for $500, they could hire Jackey’s family for $100. Jackey said not only would this allow both parties to benefit, but it would also allow neighbors to get to know each other as they spend time in conversation.
In addition to helping to pack or move, Jackey said her family would be happy to mow lawns, pull weeds, plant flowers, or create a garden. Her youngest daughter apparently loves gardening.
A financial expert, Derrick Kinney, was quoted as saying that in rough economic times, if a family can work together and get everyone on board then it will make it easier for them to weather the challenges of a recession.
He said recessions typically last up to 15 months, so people need to prepare for that.
One thing he mentioned was the importance of not cutting everything in order to save money. While frugality is important, he said it’s important to keep a couple of special things that provide emotional sustenance.
One way that Jackey’s family is working together — the teen-agers are all looking for ways to pitch in beyond helping their mother with small jobs within the community. One daughter is planning to work as a life guard, for example.
When families and communities work together to help each other, it makes it a lot easier to get through tough times.
