How many of us have lived the pay check to pay check story? Every day wondering if we'll meet all the deadlines on paying all the bills, feeding the kids, getting enough gas to get us through?

When in your story did things finally start getting easy? What money saving techniques were you using that gave you that breathing room you worked so hard for?

well after my dad died we were paycheck to paycheck. My older sister and brother each gave my mother money. I was just starting college at this time as well. I often took extra student loans b/c I was worried my mom might need the money. I did occasionally give her money. However, after I moved out those days were over. I realize my case is probably different than most. If I wasn't going to college I probably would have had money I assume? Things got better for me when I moved back home during college. My mom was having problems adjusting to being home alone so I moved back while I finished college. I pretty much married just after college. Me and dh had good job right away and we both are frugal so we invested in our house rather than spending it. However, I always knew the paycheck to paycheck wouldn't be a long term thing for me as I knew college would pay for itself in the long run.
When dh was laid off we were okay for the first year. year 2 of him being laid off was more paycheck to paycheck but once again we knew once he found a job it wouldn't be an issue.
I think for some they feel like they are never going to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I never felt that way. I always knew we would come out. i think that mindset makes a big difference.

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

I did for a while in college, and I was barely making it. Like I posted in another thread - I was living off a very balanced diet of canned green beans, ramen noodles, and canned tuna for 8 months. I started out with almost no savings, so my deposits (rent, etc) and bills (utilities, phone) were cleaning out my bank account at the end of every month. I quit school and moved in with M&D for 6 months, saved up some money, and DH and I bought/fixed up our house.

After we moved into our house, we were still living paycheck to paycheck, but could afford to eat (still frugally of course) and have a little bit of fun money. We had a house payment and a car loan that DH paid, and then I paid for all of the bills and groceries. We had a very low amount of savings from what was left over from my check at the end of the month. DH would use the rest of his to work a little more on the house, and he also saved a little bit.

After our wedding was over, we used all of our gift money to pay off our house, which was hard to do for DH, but in the end we both knew it was the best place for it. After that, things have gotten much easier. We've cracked down on paying off DH's vehicle, and also on saving, and we've really been able to relax a bit as far as finances go. We still need an income, of course, but we are not paycheck to paycheck.

In the early Years of Our marriage we had Many obstacles that often left us Paycheck to paycheck.

All I Can think of Now Is How our Lives would've been 100% more Easy and Better if I Had a Website like Mommysavers to come to!
If only I Knew about samples , Freebies and Coupons. -
If Only I Had craigslist and Ebay - and The INTERNET.
If you Are living Check to Check now.... Be thankful that you weren't Living Check to Check in the mid to Late 90's When internet was New and Not everyone had a Computer, and there definatly Weren't a Million Money saving Ideas at your Fingertips -
Also I Often think of The surveys I Do And Get Paid for , Would have Meant ALOT back in the days Of our First house ,Poor , Early Marriage days.
And How I wish I had CVS and I could've lived off Of Rolling ECB and Coupons ALOT of Weeks!
Not to Mention RX refilll Coupons I See every Week in the paper.!
These Would've been Gold to us! We had lots of Prescriptions and A Great RX plan... Still to Make 30 Bucks off Of A Transferred RX? WOW!
LOL !

When DH and I first moved up here we were living paycheck to paycheck. I have, with the tips from MS, got us on a good budget and we actually save 125 each pay period. I know that isn't alot, but we are proud of it! I just had to really examine our lifestyle. We have only basic cable, only have cell phones, and we eat very frugally. Just making those changes really helped our budget. I think when we move we are going to cancel cable all together and get our internet through att. That should save about $25 a month. We also only have liability on our cars. We have a 95 civic and a 2000 rodeo. Neither of which is worth any money, so we decided to cut back to liability.

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Check out my Mommysaver's Blog!

We still live paycheck to paycheck, but we don't get paid on a normal routine salary schedule. We can sometimes go months without a paycheck. It's the nature of the business we are in, and you learn to save & deal with it.

right now we aren't even making it paycheck to paycheck! we seem to have so many bills to pay that we have to use the credit card for at least one tank of gas each 2 week pay period, (we manage the first 2 all right) and some groceries. strangely, this has been going on for a long time now, and just in the past month have i realized how bad it actually is. So now we have lowered our internet speed, canceled our cell phones, and are making sure we keep our credit card debts consolidated onto low rate cards, and we are always reading through the credit card offers we get in the mail to watch for ones with lower rates. Another thing that will help is my husband working closer to home. he drives 80 miles a day for work, and since we only have 1 car, anytime i need it, it is at least 160 miles a day = lots of gas! His company is opening a new office that is only 4 miles away from our house and it should be open in about 6 months, and he has already requested to be transfered. so on days that i need the car, it will be 16 instead of 160! I can't wait till we are saving all that money!

When my ex first left and I had 3 kids, I didn't even have a paycheck!

But I knew what I had to do for my kids, so with my cooking skills and my determination to make it on my own, and to show my ex that I didn't need him anyway, off I went!

I shop goodwills and sales. We ate the leftovers from the catering business. We would lite oil lamps and play board games. Little by little we starting having a little more money and that money either got invested in the business and expanding it or collecting interest in the bank.

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When dh and I were first married, we lived paycheck to paycheck. My dh took out a small loan to pay for our wedding reception. I was finishing college and working part time. He was working full time. We came into the marriage at 22 and 23 with no debt other than the loan, and also with no savings. My Mom paid for my dress and some other misc for the wedding. Dh's parents gave nothing.

We lived simply and frugally. Our first apartment (this was in '87) was $300 per month which included everything - cable, heat, water, lights, etc. Ah, the good old days.

We went out to eat once a month. That was it, and it was a treat when we did go.

We were blessed to have dh's brother as a mentor when it came to finances and he taught us about saving, etc. I also read all I could on how to get ahead and slowly but surely we started making progress.

We really hit the pay check to pay check point when we decided that I would stay home with out DD. I was determined to make it work and am still determined though we have racked up quite a bit more debt part of our problem is that even though our income is increasing every year our expences seam to do the same. So we are still trying to get out of the pay check to pay check .

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma