Promises

No one promises that life will be easy, fair, or fun. At 39 years old I may be jaded but I can say it doesn't get easier. How many times was I told it would? If I only had a dime for each one then I wouldn't be making this blog.

Although there wasn't much money when I was growing up I can say we were never thrifty. I'm sure my mother thought she was by giving us her friend's hand me downs but she didn't even have a clue. My father didn't help the finance any either considering he never paid child support, but that's another story.

I started learning to be thrifty after dropping out of college. I ended up moving back in with my shopaholic mom so someone needed to figure out how to make ends meet. That's when I discovered dent can stores. Those were wonderful. The buy all the grocery stores rejects and then sale them to you cheaper.

Then I got married and it was like cold water being thrown in my face. Not only did I take on a husband but I also took on stepchildren, and ex wife, and child support. To make it worse the ex thinks we are her personal ATM and we were, are, and probably forever will be broke.

Right after getting married we lost our jobs after requesting time off for a family emergency. There went another cold slap in the face. My husband found a crappy job and I became a waitress in the grossest coffee shop in America so the tips sucked. We ended up moving into a one room apartment and I mean one room, not one bedroom. The whole apartment would fit inside the kitchen of our house now. For five months we loved on ramen noodles and cheap tv dinners. The ex even chipped off a piece of her stone cold heart and gifted us more ramen noodles which I'm sure was to rub it in our face but I was happy to get them. This is when I learned to become more frugal. However I'm not as smart as some people and it's been a learning process that I've learned over my 10 years of marriage and I'm still learning today.

I'm hoping that my misfortune and heartache will teach others that are in the same boat that there are ways to survive when you're living on empty. I also hope you learn from my screw ups too.