HUHO (since I am too uncreative to think up a better name): This compilation of how-tos, written by you and me, aims to help people with little in the way of resources and expertise get through unfortunate situations relating to money, finances, and bureaucracy.
It will be an open-source document, likely a Word doc wiki?, that can be edited and added to as the contributors see fit. Not only do I want it to include our stories, but I want it to include details, specifics, the steps in the process, what one can expect, what hurdles one may come against, and suggestions for how to get around them. This should be a pragmatic resource that takes a person in need through all the steps and details of the situation at hand. If you know of websites or other resources that include excellent step-by-step instructions, send them along as well. There may be a place for them. The tools for self-betterment are in the details.
Things I have brainstormed include:
- how to get financial aid (think traditional and non-traditional students here)
- how to scrape up money quickly when you’re in a bind
- how to get your money’s worth when your $800 car breaks down
- hell, how to fix X, Y, and Z on your car
- what to expect when you find yourself in a custody battle
- how to find a lawyer, and how to find a good lawyer
- what to bring and what to expect when you sign up for HUD housing or any other sort of public assistance
- how to find healthcare when you don’t have insurance
- how to get a small business off of the ground
- tested, effective home remedies
- cheap (and I mean cheap) recipes that still taste good
- tips for thrift store shopping
- things you can do with your kids that don’t cost anything
- how to get a loan
- how to get a wheelchair for free
- how to budget your money
- how to leave an abusive relationship
- how to entertain some friends without breaking the bank
- how to save on your utility bills
- how to start a babysitting co-op
There are a ton of things I’m sure everyone can contribute — skills you’ve picked up to save money, something you did that saved your ass when you were down and out. Professionals, please share the tricks of your trade.
Secondly, I hope to keep this project growing by hosting a carnival on the first of the month every month. (This date is not a mistake.) I will need volunteers to help arrange these carnivals, so if you’re interested in hosting please drop a line. Blog posts and letters submitted to the carnival will also be arranged and dropped into the documentation for later distribution, attributed by date, author, and website if necessary. Non-bloggers are welcome to send their contributions to me and I will include them in the carnival and documentation.
This thought came to me while reading through the comments on my posts bitching about my lack of insurance and inability to deal with student loans. People were all too willing to share advice that I have actually put into motion. I’m a person with few monetary resources, but women I barely know approach me to ask about legal custody issues and sexual health issues all the time — and I love to share. Wouldn’t it be great if we could offer this kind of help to one another, and to people outside of the blogosphere? I’m tired of hearing advice that amounts to “suck it up and figure it out.” Feminism requires that we take responsibility for class difference — and if not, we are not a movement of parity.
CALL FOR POSTS: by Tuesday 11/27/06
Put out the word. Trackback your posts to this blog or pop me an email.
All ideas, for the project content and the project itself, welcome in the comments. I’m half afraid I’m planning a party and no one will show up.
UPDATE: According to the comments a wiki is a better idea. Can anyone point me to a good resource for building a wiki?
I’m not sure what I could contribute, but I’ll surely tout this to my tens of readers. It’s a wonderful idea.
One quick question: do you plan to have the wiki open to all comers, or to use regular blog carnivals to generate content for the wiki? I think I’d suggest the latter: you could have volunteers (hey, there’s something I can do) use the blog posts as source material, which could be easily reformatted into wiki pages or used to update existing pages. That leaves the wiki less vulnerable to spam/edit wars/etc.
There’s actually something out there called wikihow that works a lot like what you seem to be imagining, though I can see why you might want to segregate your own stuff into its own progressive space. Anyway, you might want to check it out when deciding how to put this together.
Hello, I will try to put something together to email you. I used to buy and sell cars, I am a builder and run a small business. I have gone through the school thing, raised three kids both while working and a stint on welfare, dealt with housing assistance, been divorced and dealt with custody issues, dealt with counselors, child therapists, dealt with being harrassed by child protective services, harrassed by bosses and other males a women must deal with in order to survive.
And I got some food tips, thrift shop tips, dealing with the landlord tips.
Oh yeah, I got some stuff for you. Finally, all that I’ve learned might be useful to someone! I am enthralled!
I’m with Sara. Why not use an already existing site that is trying to accomplish the very same task—plus more? I think this would create a better and more thorough web site that could actually succeed in what you are doing. A wiki works with more exposure.
But if you’re wanting to go down in the annals of the Internet, by all means start a project by yourself.
The downside to making it a wiki is that it is open to editing by anyone. At least, that’s how it is by default — it may be possible to close it down to a few select editors, which may be what you’re planning already. I’m thinking of how hard it will be to keep up with the antifeminist crowd’s vandalism the first time this site gets linked to on a Little Green Footballs comment thread.
I’m with Sara and NotNot on looking into wikiHow, which I’ve searched and already has several of the How-Tos you’ve brainstormed already started. It’s an existing Wiki with high popularity, which you could sign up for a name and add to existing articles with your knowledge or start additional pages, etc. You could also set up another Category for more specific things you’re looking for, say, Survival or some-such.
For example, I searched for ‘babysitting co-op’ and there are articles in place regarding babysitting and starting a co-op in general, you could just add an article specifically for how to ‘start a babysitting co-op’.
I suggest this because it would be like wanting to start a wiki dedicated to amassing information on various topics, when Wikipedia exists and has quite a name for itself so you’re already guaranteed a wide audience of potential helpers.
The reason I avoid Wiki-How is not that isn’t a great resources. I’m looking for a way to put our expertise to use while avoiding articles like “How To Always Look like a Model” and “How to Handle a Surprise Bowel Movement in Public.”
But if you’re wanting to go down in the annals of the Internet, by all means start a project by yourself.
Wow. The only two times you’ve commented on my blog you’ve done so to tell me how stupid I am. Does this officially make you a troll?
Wikihow seems like a reasonable plan. Kudos for all!
I could desperately use some ideas for cheap dental work without insurance. An implant is $3000.00, which is completely out of the question, (and I think bridges just put holes in the remaining good teeth,) but I can’t eat in company with the dental appliance I have now. Going on 3 years with no social life…
Hasn’t Lauren already gone down in the annals of the internets?
And wouldn’t “How to Avoid A Surprise Bowel Movement in Public” be a more useful article?
Then for avoiding pointless articles, you’d have to set up something yourself with a select group of moderators.
I was mostly concerned with starting something from the ground-up when there’s frameworks in place.
Of course, some feminists like to look like models, don’t they? ;)
If you’re going to do this, make it your own. MediaWiki‘s pretty good, it takes maybe an hour to set up. You’re using WordPress, so you’re already used to pointing stuff to an SQL database, same thing here.
That other commenter has a point about your legion of trolls, though, so you might want to consider something with a little more security, or at least moderation, built-in. Drupal is free and, at first glance, seems to have some unbearably sexy features.
Lauren,
I have absolutely no suggestions on the wiki debate, but, when it all comes together, I would like to write about what to bring when applying for public assistance and I think I have at least two good, cheap recipes.
I can write a nice article on how to avoid getting UTIs, and what helps me when I do get them.
Also, basic knitting, crochet, sewing info/recommendations about which books are the best.
[[makes note to self that she has made another committment to fill in the next week or so....]]
Here’s my contribution:
http://www.parentsconnect.com/home/profile/blog.jhtml?q=/node/1448
It’s about how to avoid getting your car repoed. Other than, you know, paying the bill, which works, too. ;)
Lauren,
Figured i’d give the whole thing a little shove: I’ve created a ‘sandbox’ MediaWiki installation for you to play with. It’s at http://www.helpus.eidolongroup.com ; however, you’ll have to EMAIL me for the password.
My email address is (altravis) (at) (eidolongroup dot com)
I left EVERYTHING at the default settings (except user permissions, but including the TRULY AWFUL default theme), so you can play around. Feel free to drop me a line anytime with questions, comments, etc., but really the best thing to do is just goof off in it.
User permissions are configured so that anyone can register to be a “user” of the site, but users cannot edit pages (unlike most wikis). Only users whom YOU define to be ‘sysops’ (read editors) can actually create and edit pages at the moment. You can decide to fix that if you want, but i’d rather not have a pile of abusive wiki usage going on on my host. :)
MediaWiki’s database-driven, so you can actually start to SET UP the site, if you want, and you’ll just be able to move the whole shebang, articles and all, to a hosting provider of your own when you choose to.
Again, email me at the above address for the password.
I agree that a wiki is probably more helpful than a blog carnival, because most people who will benefit from it won’t know that they need it until they suddenly do.
Here’s a good site for looking at what benefits you might be eligible for. http://www.earnbenefits.org/home/
It’s area specific, and only in 4 cities so far, but the info on needed documents (eg. if you don’t have a driver’s license, what can you use to prove your identity) is probably relevant in other places:
http://newyork.earnbenefits.org/needed_documents/
Hi, Lauren,
Laurie Edison and I have blogged this entry as an especially important piece in the 27th Carnival of Feminists, now up at Body Impolitic
I want to come back here and work on the wiki as soon as I have a free moment. What a great idea!
So, would the first “howto” be about how to make a wiki?
I like the idea, but wonder about the focus – it would seem that it would be mostly the US – am I right? Or are articles about other countries of interest as well?
Got here from Pandagon.
My tip: Unless you push the issue, your doctor will perscribe the latest drugs that have been marketed to him. Be extra sure to remind him if you’re living on a fixed income or have no health insurance that you cannot afford name brands and must get something that has a generic. Very nice doctors will “sample” you from their office, and very smart docs will rewrite the scrip for an older drug. Came to this realization after my bf got perscribed an $80 antibiotic that did the same thing as penicillin, and I got put on Celebrex which is the exact same thing as an anti-inflamatory dose of ibuprophin, only not as safe.
I could use info on what do to when you know a former employer is blacklisting you.
Godless Heathen: Celebrex is not equivalent to ibuprofen; it significantly reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and other gastric side effects. On the other hand, if you’re not having stomach issues with ibuprofen, there’s not really a point to taking Celebrex instead. (Also, some of the newer COX-2 inhibitors like Celebrex (specifically Vioxx and Bextra) were judged to have unacceptable risks of side effects like heart attacks and strokes.)
As for my own cheap outing, I like to go to the local chain bookstore and read in their cafe area. They have more graphic novels than the local library does, and I’ve yet to be hassled about never actually buying anything.
grendelkhan -
I used to work for a B&N and there was no policy telling us to kick people out for reading UNLESS: 1) You spill coffee on it and you buy it or 2) you tear, destroy, pee on, barf on it, you buy it. Just reading, even if you break the spine on a paperback, wont send them out after you.
There are 2 pages on my website which address the 2 questions other grad students ask me with the most frequency which I would consider my contribution:
1) How to get a job in international aid and development: Click Here (Mostly for Canadians as I’m Canadian)
2) A list of resources for students who want to write a paper on education in Afghanistan. Click Here
And that pretty much summarises my talents in a nutshell. Unless anyone wants to know how to grow a herb garden, bake a cake, or make herbed vinegar.
Ok, sorry, I didn’t think about the fact that people have issues with ibuprophin. I’ll add then that my problem means I don’t need to take an anti-inflamatory daily, that the pain frequently wasn’t severe enough to warrant a perscription, and yet I was put on a perscription I didn’t need and couldn’t afford. It became my experience that the doctor I was seeing wouldn’t conscider non-perscription or non-drug remedies unless I spilled all the really gory and embarrassing details of being too poor to afford it every single visit. So it’s just my experience that unless you make a stink about it, the doc is going to remember his last visit from the drug rep and reach for the expensive new drugs.
Celebrex:
“FDA ALERT-[4/7/2005]: Celebrex has been linked to an increased risk of serious cardiovascular (CV) events (such as heart attack or stroke) which appears to be a risk shared by all medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (excluding aspirin). FDA has requested that the package insert (labeling) for all NSAIDs, including Celebrex, be revised to include a “boxed” or serious warning to highlight the potential increased risk of CV events, and the
**well known risk of serious, and potentially life-threatening, stomach bleeding. **
etc.
grendelkhan do you have a cite saying that Celebrex (your statement) significantly reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and other gastric side effects. Compared to ibuprofen, I assume you mean, because if it’s just compared to placebo …
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/celebrex/celebrex-ptsk.htm
leftistlooneylunch.blogspot. com/2006/11/getting-out-of-depression-some-personal.html (dead link, remove spaces)
My contribution to this thread… I don’t know if this what you are looking for, I just know too many feminists who get depressed. People are welcome to add their experiences to the thread, I would be happy to re-compile the list once people add more items on.
I’m a bit late, but I’ve linked with two topics that I hope help.
I followed the link from Feministe and this sounds like a wonderful project. I’ve got some things I’d like to share on career-related things (how to function at a business meal, particularly during a job interview, and resume/c.v./interview advice) as well as a few things on navigating government bureaucracy.
And hey, to the person above who mentioned herb gardening, that’d be great! Maybe then I could figure out why my herbs all died when I moved them inside for the winter.
I post a day by day primer on how to survive stage IV cancer when you have no health insurance but don’t qualify for any kind of aid. Well, not so much a how to, as evidence that it’s not easy, it’s justifiably everybody’s worst nightmare, but maybe it can be done. Sort of an ongoing paean at the Temple of the Royally Screwed. Might come in handy as inspiration to somebody.
Sir/Mam
My name is Raju frm India i was a business man (realestate)i had a big lose in my business i lose ny house ,office and what all i had ,I feel sorry to ask help like this ,when I was in good stage i also had charitible trust i helped lot of poor &needy people .now i dont have anything with me ,i want start business ,can u pls help me for that, a small amount will give a life for a family sir pls think sir .in my profit 35 % i am ready to give to people who need. .sir pls help 5000 usd and give me & my family a life pls.
Awaiting for your reply
Thanking you
Raju
Nb: Treat my mail as a charity and help me and my family . I hope your kindness will help us.Thanking you.
Sorry to be a Dawnie-come-lately to the party, but I wouldn’t mind hosting in the New Year. (I’ve just had a series of life tragedies and am having a few more.) I would also be interested in trying to come up with some how-tos on the stock market. I’ve never invested a penny (as I usually only HAVE a penny to my name) but I’m well-versed in it. I’ve got to be the only financial editor on the planet who can’t get a credit card. ;)
This sounds like an awesome idea! I try to be the go-to girl for birth control, sex, relationships and finances for my friends (especially those who are still in high school), so I can think of a few things to contribute. Keep posting, and we can make this a reality! :)
What about “How to Survive a Class 5 Zombie Outbreak?”
Once again, someone has shown a preference for focusing on the mundane day-to-day rather than face the inconvenient truth about zombies.
In all seriousness, I think this is a great idea.
Oh yeah, and I might add a “How to masturbate.” I don’t mean to be cheeky, but I remember being astounded at how many people either did not know how to do this or how to do it well. If you’d prefer to keep this wiki non-sexual, you might want to consider links to the resources. I think that this knowledge can be remarkably beneficial, particularly for younger women.