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MrsBrown's guide to living on the cheap
Jun. 5th, 2004 11:02 amAs requested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nobble, here is a guide to living cheaply with chidren. It is based on the stuff I learnt while I studied fulltime, on government benefits and supported a largish mortgage for the time and a partner and 3 children. (Interesting side note, My mortgage now is more than twice the size of that mortgage aaarrgh!)
Worrying about money all the time can be the most stressful way to live. I completely understand why domestic violence and child abuse are higher in low income families. I watched us descend into it as money got tighter and tighter and we could only think about whether we had enough money or food in the house to last until the end of the week, or that a child needed shoes, but we didn't have the cash for a while. You can start to feel bad because you are not meeting society's expectations with respect to "the right clothes" in the "right state of repair" or even just doing the stuff your friends are doing.
People react to financial stress in different ways. MTB would often make the stress worse by buying a CD when I had carefully counted the money we had left down to"we have enough to buy 2 litres of milk on the day before payday." MTB's purchase made me feel better too, but bad at the same time. Another reason to cut up the credit card. Buying stuff was his response to always worrying about money, he pretended that we didn't have a financial problem.
To really live on a tight budget, a couple have to be playing the same game of money saving, with the same rules and understand how they respond to the money stress.
( The collection of the stuff that mostly worked and that I still do because they are easy enough to keep up. )
nobble, here is a guide to living cheaply with chidren. It is based on the stuff I learnt while I studied fulltime, on government benefits and supported a largish mortgage for the time and a partner and 3 children. (Interesting side note, My mortgage now is more than twice the size of that mortgage aaarrgh!)Worrying about money all the time can be the most stressful way to live. I completely understand why domestic violence and child abuse are higher in low income families. I watched us descend into it as money got tighter and tighter and we could only think about whether we had enough money or food in the house to last until the end of the week, or that a child needed shoes, but we didn't have the cash for a while. You can start to feel bad because you are not meeting society's expectations with respect to "the right clothes" in the "right state of repair" or even just doing the stuff your friends are doing.
People react to financial stress in different ways. MTB would often make the stress worse by buying a CD when I had carefully counted the money we had left down to"we have enough to buy 2 litres of milk on the day before payday." MTB's purchase made me feel better too, but bad at the same time. Another reason to cut up the credit card. Buying stuff was his response to always worrying about money, he pretended that we didn't have a financial problem.
To really live on a tight budget, a couple have to be playing the same game of money saving, with the same rules and understand how they respond to the money stress.
( The collection of the stuff that mostly worked and that I still do because they are easy enough to keep up. )
