On the edge

[johnstonmr]

Ok. I know, intellectually, that Elli and I aren't doing as bad, financially speaking, as it feels; this is another temporary cashflow problem that will settle eventually. I know that the likelihood is that we'll muddle through somehow. But damn it if it doesn't feel like this is a spiral into oblivion and bankruptcy we'll never get out of.

We've given up just about everything we could. We don't have Cable or DirecTV, we have TiVo, but that's less than $15/mo. Our television comes off the airwaves. Our only not-completely-necessary expense left is our cell phones and internet, and neither of us wants to give those up. The 'net doesn't cost much per month anyway, but our cell phones are expensive, and I sometimes wonder if we ought to give them up. But we have a child, and not being able to get hold of each other if we're not home or at work is a problem--and if we didn't have them, today would have been a lot worse, as I'd have been carting a baby down the freeway looking for an exit. Which would have taken about an hour. Not good.

And it's not like our mortgage is killing us. We're only paying a little more than we were renting for. We did consider moving into a smaller place and renting for a few more years, saving the difference. But we saw a decent deal and went for it. Nobody to blame there.

But it feels different than the reality.

Comments

[jimbo-the-gecko.livejournal.com]

Tegan's old enough to understand simple instructions now; why don't you force her to get a job? It works for many 3rd world families and she could learn valuable skills like "Fake-Nike Construction" and "Sweat Shop Management." You could probably ask around at the Old Navy store, I am pretty convinced that they have mini-sweatshops in the back.

[elisandra.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that my job currently pays 1/2 of the cell phone and all of the internet, so technically, we don't pay that much for that stuff at all right now!