I am sick and tired of watching every dollar. ITs fun to get a deal but its not so fun when you can't buy it if its not a deal. My hd makes about 20 and hour plus overtime. HE also gets and extra 100 a month just for being on call one weekend. His over time is even paid in cash and he makes as much as 300 a week in over time during the summer. We ony have one car and its paid for, I dont have health insurance becuase we cant afford it and even with all those cut backs and extras we still dont have enough money. We dont live lavish and our morgage is low for this area. I buy used whenever possible and rarely buy more than just groceries. SO why do I feel so poor? I cant keep this up for years and its starting to feel like that is the way its going to be. Dh is going to starte school in january so he can change fields. But even that will take a few years. I just feel like venting. I want to run away and with my family and get a new life. Change our names and live in a log cabin with no phone so the collectors cant call.

I am so sorry that you are having a hard time. I can totally relate to how you are feeling. We recently DID move (our names are the same and it's not a cabin) but the fresh start was really nice. It gave us the opportunity to catch up and change how we live.

I don't really have any advice - I know you were just venting - but want you to know that someone is listening.

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I totally hear where you are coming from. Its SO frustrating to feel like you aren't getting anywhere. There IS a light at the end of teh tunnel, keep telling yourself that.

I'm trying to just resign myself that this is the way it is, but it won't be like this forever. My kids will be older and stop tearing up my house, and if I keep living frugally, we will have everything we need in time, debt free. I hope. Thats all I can do.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan8.Samantha7,Cameron4

I hear you. . . .I'm so sorry you are feeling so bad about this. I wish I had some great words of wisdom, but I don't. Please know that we are here if you need to vent any more. I wish you the very best. . .

we all get it. and are here to listen and sometimes cry with.

allgirls

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

I feel your pain. I feel like we got an awful start and have been playing catch-up ever since. I just keep telling myself that this is okay, because it could be worse.

Thank you girls. yes it could be worse and I thank god that its not I'm just getting tired. I want to be able to buy my girls good clothes and wear my favorit makeup again.

I understand completely. It does get frustrating but there is nothing we can do but keep going day by day. At least we have a home and vehicles. I heard that the average family is one month's worth of paychecks away from being homeless. Now that is scary!

I went to Goodwill today. Spent $14 on clothes for the girls and walked out with shirts from Abercrombie, Gap, Old Navy, Target and Gymboree. I would never pay full price for any of these items so it was great to find them so cheap.

The kids cloths at my goodwill are never namebrands like that. I wonder if I go to the ritzey part of town if i could find better stuff.

I find that I get in the frugal rut too and just get tired of being poor. One thing that helps me is to plan splurges. We need to splurge on ourselves once in a while to keep the frugal momentum going. Just like on a weight loss diet - if you wait until you are just really fed up with it, you'll splurge like crazy and eat a whole carton of ice cream - or spend a whole paycheck at the mall. Instead, I plan splurges every so often. Even if the spending splurge is just spending $2 to eat off the dollar menu at Wendy's or if it's spending $20 to have an evening out w/friends, it helps! When I want to splurge and it's not planned - I still have something to look forward to so I can stop myself from being crazy in the moment. This plan helps me when I get down.

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.