Living Frugally in 2008
Like most people, I always thought I would have enough money to live on. I was sixteen years old when I got my first job at a fast food restaurant. I worked most of my life, either full or part time, even after I had children. My husband and I have been together now for about fourteen years. He used to work and had a great job installing underground cable and make good money. Things just had to change and I don't mean for the better.
Around 1999 my husband became disabled and even then things were ok because I still worked full time. We had to cut back a little bit but our lifestyle was never lavish. In October of 2000 my youngest son Caleb was born. I had many problems with my pregnancy and Caleb was premature. After he was born I worked only part time so that I could take care of him.
Everything kind of went to pieces in the summer of 2004. My oldest son Curtis was hospitalized after he almost died from a long undiagnosed kidney disorder. Only a few months later we found out that my fifteen year old daughter was pregnant. Talk about a shock! She was very young, very slender for her age and promptly put into a high risk clinic. At this point I realised I had to give up working outside the home at all to take care of my family full time.
We had to move out of the house we had lived in for eleven years. It needed more repairs than we could afford to make, besides being just too small especially with a new baby coming. The move turned out to be a disaster. The house was bigger but still not big enough and the landlords just didn't work out. So after less than two years we moved again. To a bigger house, yes, but a far worse neighborhood.
It was after we moved the second time that I began homeschooling all of my children. I had previously homeschooled my two oldest sons, so I was familiar with the process. However six children take a lot of work, research and effort. I wanted to provide all of them with the best education I could, one with a Christian foundation.
Homeschooling went better than I had ever hoped it would, the kids did great and I really enjoyed the challenge. So you would think at this point things would be settled, right? Wrong. Next big surprise...my husband became wheelchair bound due to spinal stenosis and neurological problems.
It seemed that more and more things were keeping me from being able to go back to work and our finances were getting tighter by the day. In looking for ways to work from home I found many scams and people who only wanted to take advantage but no real opportunity to make money. So I decided if I can't make more money I need to find a way to live on what we have.
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