Where Should I Park My Trailer...

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I just about crapped my pants when I redid my household budget. Our unexpected move has not only upped our housing costs (renting in our area is way more expensive than paying a mortgage) but our gas cost has gone waaaay up. Between my husband's commute being an hour longer and gas prices going up we are spending a ton. He does occasionally work from home which saves us a days worth of gas but, ouch- it still hurts.

On paper we are some poor folk and I suppose we need to start living like the poor folk. Don't let all of our nice crap and nice cars fool you, we are straight up out of the trailer park. No big deal to me though- I grew up with not tons of money so doing it now with my own family is doable. My husband is another story- along with his parents being the crazy jerks who forced us into this situation they also raised their children to think that they can have whatever they want whenever they want. Good thing he has pretty much snapped out of that mindset but I can see that it still hurts him to have to cut back on all of the creature comforts we once had.

What does this all mean? If it doesn't fall into our strict budget it doesn't get purchased. Pretty simple. What won't be simple is getting my grocery/household budget down to $50 for the foreseeable future (this includes food, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc.). I have been spending big bucks but I'll have to stop being so lazy and start being more mindful of what I am putting into my cart (this means I need to leave the kids home when I shop- they are detrimental to my budget). Things I will not be needing for a very long time are laundry detergent (have a huge bucket of Charlie's Soap laundry powder), diapers (cloth diapering), household cleaner (I have two jugs of BioKleen concentrated all purpose cleaner), dishwasher detergent (just bought almost six month's worth of Ecover) and paper towels (I have a big package of them which will last a long time because we use rags 99% of the time). I am also set with toiletries for the time being but will have to jump back into the drugstore game to keep up on my supplies. And luckily my kids are set for clothing- just the older two need winter coats (maybe boots? I bought the ones from last year a size big so maybe they'll still fit) but I should be able to find a good deal if I keep my eyes open.

So let this be a lesson to you- we thought that everything was smooth sailing in our lives but our world got rocked and now we are just trying to survive financially. Always be prepared for the unforeseen even if you think that you are set (and do not, do not, ever decide to buy your in-laws house from them, especially if they will be residing there in an in-law apartment- I promise you it will result in all sorts of crazy). I keep telling myself that we chose this outcome- as hard as it is we will get through it and be better people for it. Plus, being poor is way better than having some crazy father in law dude with OCD up in your business all of the time.