Money Obedience

Our household expenses are not out of control. We don’t really need to lower debt, because we don’t carry any credit card debt and we own our cars outright. And, on top of it all, hubby’s got a new job! I should be ecstatic, right?

Why am I still in a state of panic once in a while? Not because hubby’s new job is for contract work (which it is). Not because his job pays less than his old job (which it does). I think it’s because I know that the old “status quo” for our household is not attainable in the near future. We (like a LOT of people) are in a new financial regime. Our family’s collective belt has been tightened (see previous posts), and will not be loosed again for some time, if ever. But even that’s not really the problem because everyone in our house is on a financial diet (a.k.a. budget), and budgeting like this means we’re losing all the excess that our spending had before. So very soon that belt won’t feel as tight as it once did.

You see, I know that things will not be the same in our house soon again. But before, when things went wrong, I felt an assuredness that all would be okay somehow. Now when something happens, like the roof leaking (which it is), or my keyboard breaking down (which it is), it sends shivers up my spine, and my brain spirals around the thought “Egads, how much is this gonna cost to fix!” I didn’t worry before if I didn’t know exactly how much was in the bank account – but now, I want to know how much damage I’m doing to our lives if I buy something not previously accounted for.

I’ll give you an example of how the regime change works. Last year, we had the two littlest ones in day care and the big one in an after-school program. This Monday, hubby goes back to work, and we have to cut corners. So the big one cannot enroll in that after-school program, even if both parents are working again. I have my work schedule rearranged so I can be home to meet her after school three days a week, and we’ll ask a neighbor to take her the other two school days. That saves us a few hundred dollars each month. It also means I’ll have to work at home most nights after the kids go to bed to compensate for the time I’m missing at the desk. On top of this, I am also sacrificing my hobby, oil painting. And we’ve gone to an even cheaper family cell phone plan. Hubby is feeling bad about the whole situation, and wants to do drastic things like cut the cable off. (No! Not that!) He is anti-TV anyway, but now, because of the household expenses concerns, his argument is carrying more weight. Thank goodness that not everything we watch can be found on hulu.com, or I’d be staring at a blank TV screen for the few free minutes I have each week. True, we have close friends who live without TV, but I don’t know how they do it.

While hubby and I are not all consumed by the effects of the economic crisis on our personal finances, there is no doubt that the economic crisis features prominently in the news and in our household. But we are also very aware that we still have a good life to live. We make greater efforts now to appreciate each other’s contribution to our family, whether this contribution comes in the form of dollars earned or saved, or in the form of love for the family.