Friday, June 29, 2007

Are Samoans useless shoppers as well as useless budgeters?


I'm not one to be racist, but I can't help thinking that of the many stories in the New Zealand Herald about poverty, most have brown skin and nearly all are Samoans who are in debt and tithe - apparently excessively - to their church.

Most say they can't meet their living expenses, and all are earning more than our family. I've come to a conclusion that these people are useless at budgeting, saving and shopping. If you can't afford to feed your kids, don't have 7 kids and bring them up on credit. If you want to buy a winter coat for your kid, don't go to Pumpkin Patch - get a good winter coat second hand at the Sallies for a single digit price. Cut your Sky subscription. Stop smoking. Use cloth nappies. Learn how to catch buses instead of taxis. Insulate your house - at a cost of $300.00 with the Sustainability Trust to cut down on your power bill. Use your washing line. Pay your credit card bill off every month and if you can't do that, then cut down your spending. Don`t go to McDonalds every week. Learn how to cook. Last night our healthy meal cost a total of $6.00 - feeding four people.

If you are on a low income and have a choice between paying the power bill and food bill, don't pay both. Pay the power bill and get a WINZ food grant. If you are not eligible for a WINZ grant and you cant pay the essentials, you need to go to budgeting advice and shop the specials instead of moaning about how little income you have while paying top dollar for meat and buying processed foods instead of cooking. Make your lunch rather than buying it.. If you can't shop for a family of four for less than $130 a week, email me and I`ll tell you how to do it. If you can't think how you can cut your budget but don't want to go to budgeting advice, open your mind, close your legs and your wallets. If you must send money to Samoa, but can't afford to feed your kids or pay bills, go back there and hand it to them personally every week.

In short, get your priorities right, or go back to Samoa and be a drain on their economy.

And if you can't feed your kids, for God's sake don't tithe so much to your church. God doesn't like it. If you believe that God thinks its a higher priority to tithe to a church before feeding your family then you a misguided little Christian who needs to understand the good book you claim to believe in but don't have enough time to read. And if your church leaders think its is more important to tithe than for their congregants to feed their kids and pay their bills - but are happy in reading tithes from families who can't afford if then then they have no right to be church leaders and they should be either investigated by the Serious Fraud Office or investigated for extortion and brainwashing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave
Well said.
Why hasn't "She who must be obeyed" not said this?
She pops up on telly all the time telling us how good she is at everything and how to run our lives.

Can you email me how to feed a family of four on $130 a week, I've got three and spend more than that.
Thanks
MikeNZ

Unknown said...

You hit the nail on the head with that "tithe" word. It totally stuffs up Samoan lives- thats why thy are poor! The pastors should get out and work, not be paid a living by the congregation.

Nigel Kearney said...

You should definitely post the budgeting information. I would be interested to read it and I'm sure others would be too, and won't necessarily ask for help.

Swimming said...

Well, I`ll have to do a post in it then. I`ll do it this week.

LDS_Girl said...

I stumbled across this post and I am not Samoan but felt obliged to comment on this super-ignorant post. You clearly don't understand what 'tithes' are all about. I pay tithes weekly on my income to church - it's about faith. I have truly been blessed because of the fact that I pay my tithes. I have a husband and two kids and we live on a modest income, but my business has been flourishing since I started paying tithes.

The Bible indicates that God’s people followed the law of tithing anciently; and now, through modern prophets, God restored this law once again to bless His children. To fulfill this commandment, Church members give one-tenth of their income to the Lord through His Church. These funds are used to build up the Church and further the work of the Lord throughout the world.

Now you can consider yourself a little more informed :)