I voted that we get substancial help.. but I want to clairify too:

When we purchased our double wide last year we were unable to qualify for a standard loan (our home is so old a mortgage wasn't offered). My inlaws paid for the house for us, and we make $100 payments for right now. When dh gets a raise, we will be taking 1/4 of it and adding it to our house payment, and another 1/4 of it will make some needed improvements around here. The rest will go to savings, and increasing our food budget from $150/month.

They have also loaned us the $$ for apartment deposits in the past... and were extreamly generous in fixing the roof & gutters here without adding any total to what we owe them.

My parents send generous birthday & Christmas gifts, and when they come to visit they spoil us.. They were just here, and I ended up with $250 in clothes.. including 3 bras that actually fit really well!! They also took me grocery shoping and I shouldn't have to buy anything except fresh veggies for the rest of the month!

These kind of gifts really impact our lifestyle, because we are going without right now. Our budget for clothes and gifts is a total of $40/month for the whole family... so there is absolutely no way that I was even going to consider buying myself a $55 bra... let alone 3 of them.

We receive no financial help from our families. In fact, my parents recently separated and we are helping out my mom. In the past we've fallen on some hard times due to our own inexperience dealing with finances and went thru debt consolidation but we've learned a lot and are doing fine now. We even paid it off in approx 2 years instead of the 6 it should have taken us.

We do get a little help, but that is because they choose to, not because we've asked. My parents pay for preschool. It's important to them, I stay home so they don't need care and like having them socialize for 3 1/2 days a week. There is only 1 in preschool at a time, but we can't afford it, so my parents pick up the tab. Also, I buy next to no clothes for my kids. Not because we can't, but because the grandmothers go a little crazy. My MIL works at The Children's Place just so she can buy clothes at a discount and she spends about 1/2 her check on my kids clothes. I've tried to tell her to stop because we have clothes coming out of our ears I did tell my MIL if she was unhappy at TCP, Gymboree would be an excellent job Mostly it's not "help" it's " Grandmothers Gone Wild"

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~*JAMI*~ GO RED SOX! WORLD CHAMPIONS!

We stay in my parents - house as they currently live in the UAE. I pay my mom a small amount which she puts on the bond. In return we maintain the house and look after her animals.
She also borrowed us money to pay off our medical debts for the baby, and I owe her money for my university fees that I will start paying next year.

we have never gotten any, would never ask. Actually we end up being the ones that give $ out since we are better off

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I am only one, but I am one. I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do. -Edward Hale

No, I get no significant help financially other than they watch my kids for me and I don't have a high day care bill.

Also, they loaned me the money to buy my car, but it was only because I was getting insurance money from it and I needed the money before the insurance check was processed. I paid them back as soon as I got the money.

I would feel weird asking my relatives to help me out unless it was something very critical that I needed.

We don't receive any help now but in the first year of marriage (we've only been married 4 yrs) we needed some help. Our parents were willing to help and did a little bit. We have always been hesitant to receive (or ask for that matter) help from relatives because it can put a huge strain on family relations. I've tried really hard to learn from the mistakes of my parents on that one.