Stumble it!

Living on a Dime

There’s no chance that we’ll ever make it if we don’t find some way to at least pay the mortgage. I don’t know how on earth we’re going to come up with over two grand – but if we skip on a few bills for a month and put everything we’ve got to pay off that balance, at least we’ll have a place to sleep…even if there’s no electricity.

I can’t believe it’s come to this

Yesterday, Cindy made a comment that the kids needed clothes. I just started laughing hysterically.

“We’re going to lose the house, and you want to go clothes shopping?” I asked.

“Holly has holes in all of her pants, and Samantha has outgrown all of her shirts. Dan…they’re growing kids, what do you expect?” she said as she stood there with her hands on her hips.

I knew the day was coming – the kids haven’t gotten any new clothes of any sort in almost a year, and they’re growing as fast as weeds. I just wish it hadn’t come now – the timing couldn’t be worse.

Cindy and I sat down and figured out how much we could afford to spare. We took the budget for the month and after not paying the electric bill, phone bill, or internet and if we only spent under $80 on groceries again – we could bring the mortgage up to date. We had $35 left over for this month for anything else.

At first we both laughed – that would basically buy two pairs of pants for Holly. That’s it.

Then we started brainstorming and realized that we’ve never thought of shopping at thrift shops – mostly because the clothes are used and we always considered it disgusting. But I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

There are two major thrift stores in our area. Most towns have at least one thrift store, even if it isn’t one of the larger chain stores.

The Salvation Army (http://www.satruck.com/FindStore.asp) and Goodwill (http://locator.goodwill.org) are two of the largest organizations that have the most stores throughout the country. Our town also has a very small private thrift shop that we’ll check out too.

We’ll be riding around today, Saturday, to each store, to see how we’re going to multiply $35 into at least 5 pairs of pants for Holly, and 5 shirts for little Samantha. Personally I think it’s impossible. But they say miracles do happen…so we’ll see.

The saga of Jack’s family ( to be continued)