Back in high school I wrote out a plan whereby the world could stop using money. If I remember right, we would all go on a honest bartering system and we would all be happy. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Never feeling like you're lacking or deprived as long as someone else will trade you. I'm thinking that idea won't soon be winning the Nobel Prize for Economics.
My life seems to be constantly tied up with the stress of money. My brain is taxed to the hilt on payday as I divide a decent amount among an overwhelming number of bills and responsibilities. My inner self struggles daily against the temptation of shopping. The weight of unwise credit card debt keeps us aware of our bad choices. My husband endures a lackluster job that allows us to leave adequately well. And we wonder how our parents raised families on considerably less.
So what are we doing? For awhile we've been half-doing Dave Ramsey's financial program. It worked really well in the beginning and now we've just drawn it out too long. We do have an emergency savings but need a shot in the arm to continue getting where we need to be. I know he always says, "Beans and rice, rice and beans" but it seems like it would take eating our food storage every night for awhile before that would get us too far ahead.
We talked recently about moving into a small cheap apartment as a way to build up extra money each month. Truthfully, that's what we've done for our whole marriage. The place we're living now is the first place we've really loved and for the perks that come with it, we'd be sacrificing more than just shelter to move out now.
And we've talked about getting part-time jobs. Indeed, I started applying for seasonal jobs this afternoon. I'm not 100% sold on the idea, but it seems like a better solution than asking my already hard-working husband to be gone from his kids even longer every day. If I think about it long, I do start getting excited about contributing again, especially imagining my check's chunk of money disappearing our debt directly.
We will keep on keeping on, but I'm curious...
when in similar situations, what do you do?
0 comments:
Post a Comment