Paycheck To Paycheck

If you've never struggled with money, this is probably not the post for you.

For those of you who have, this is likely to resonate. I'm exhausted of living paycheck to paycheck, and it still not being enough. My partner has a great, government job. He makes excellent money, for just getting out of college and being in the position only three years. Yet, it never seems to help. We've cut back, cutting out cable, paying off our additional financing cards, and limiting what we purchase and how often we go out to eat. Actually, eliminating eating outside the house is probably our biggest hemmorhage. Sure, it may only be five or ten dollars here and there - but now that we have our daughter, it's a minimum of twenty dollars for all of us to eat. I refuse to give her fast food, in hopes to avoid a predisposition to that junk - and avoid childhood obesity as well as the plethora of disease accompanying it.

We're now at the point of trying to save money on groceries. Counting every single item, seeing if they have generic comparisons. Is it too much to want food that is healthy, not overly processed, without tons of different chemicals and preservatives? I simply want to look at the label, recognize what everything is, and feed that to my kid. I don't enforce vegan eating on her - that's simply the way she's always leaned towards. She throws meat off her plate in exchange for veggies, fruits, and grains. The awesome companies I am favorable of, rarely send out decent coupons. I'm talking about Ella's Kitchen, Annie's, any "crunchy", doesn't test on animals, non-gmo brand.

Not to mention the price of produce (which I mentioned in this post), fruits, vegetables, herbs are all ungodly expensive. I've traded in buying organic and local, just to get a wide variety at a decent price, that we can actually afford. This isn't the way that I want to live, I want to give our daughter the best that I can. As she gets older, she's going to eat more (naturally), and our grocery bill is going to skyrocket. I can't even imagine adding another child right now, as much as we'd love to. I refuse to accept food stamps or WIC (Women Infant Children), probably out of pride, but more so because I know the quality of food that the government is paying for.

What on earth are we going to do when it comes to sending her to school? I have my heart set, currently, on sending her to a Montessori school. Not because I think less of homeschooling or unschooling, I just don't feel equipped to provide her with the education she deserves. How on earth are we going to avoid that? Hell, I just watched, "Waiting for 'Superman'". The state of most public schools is deplorable (although to be fair, I went to an awesome public school, non-charter system, and was accepted to both Harvard and Yale). Private schools are expensive, regardless of where you live, if you even have access to them - which we don't currently.

I pinch pennies, live off coupons. We're working on cutting out all snacking in the house - which is frustrating, but also a learning experience. It's giving me the opportunity to make more of the food at home, from scratch (which is how I prefer to cook). I just don't know where else to give, there's no flex. We have mandatory bills, mortgage, car payment, insurance, groceries, utilties, student loans, and our cell phones. We're wittling down any credit cards we have, and won't use them in the future, but I still fee like we're drowning.

It puts an incredible strain on our marriage. I've brought up the idea of getting a job, on several occasions, because my doula and midwifery clients are inconsistent and not a guaranteed payment (since I work with so many low-income families, I often offer services for free or reduced fee). This prospect is unrealistic, as any job I would get would have to be part-time. Otherwise, we'd have to pay for someone to watch her - and I'm extremely untrusting of any people, outside of myself and her father, watching her. With the limited number of hours I would be able to take my entire paycheck would go solely to gas for the car as there aren't any job opportunities where we live.

Where do we go from here? If you live frugally, what have you cut out - or - what are you doing to live most minimally? We already use cloth diapers, we follow baby led eating so that there aren't additional products to buy on a regular basis, we buy our clothes (usually) at consignment and thrift stores, or I sew them. We'll be gardening this spring, summer, and fall - so that should cut back on the number of produce items we need to buy. Currently, our town ordinances prevent us from having chickens (for eggs and meat) or any other farm animals. I'm learning to can, already make my own applesauce (in large batches), cook 90% of our meals from basic/scratch ingredients. Where could I cut back? Food is a necessity, having shelter is as well.

I'd love to hear all of your suggestions! Link me to your blog, a website, mailing list, whatever it has tips and tricks on living frugally. Let's hope we make it out alive.