Our Life Story: Part 1

Bella and Bianca played outside yesterday (2-1-12) with NO coats!

Well, not really our life story, but the last few years, at least, from the view of our finances! :) And, it got so long, that I have split it up.

Our budget is squeaking by the skin of our teeth these days.  We've had a hard few years in all areas of our life, and those hits have brought us back to square one financially.  It has taught us SO MUCH, and our lives are different because of it.  I can honestly say that I would not change one thing we've been through in our short almost 10 years of marriage. 

And Jacob watched.

We started out in mid-2009 nearly debt free.  We owned two homes, but sold both in a month, and came out almost even, just before the market fell apart completely.  We had just a bit left to be paid off on the credit cards, and a student loan.  Then we moved to Pennsylvania, where living expenses were SO much higher than they had been in Indianapolis (oh how I miss you, Indy!).  We knew this going into it, and lived as frugally as possible, but life happens.  I worked for 5 months (Jan-May/June) as lead teacher in preschool/daycare, but I had to work for one week to pay for two weeks of (discounted) childcare, so I was essentially cutting my pay in half.  It helped us limp along, but we were still scraping by.  We couldn't continue in that way, and for various reasons and after much prayer, we chose to move to Kansas.  We yearned to be closer to family after being so far away.

There's more....  find it in Part 2!