Fighting the Battle on the Home Front

The Enemy Within

Everyone is there. We are all in it. The struggle to survive against unbelievable odds. 

Nearly every family, every household, is on the brink of economic disaster or failure. Most of us are only one or two paychecks away from being sunk into trouble from which we may not recover. 

And the problem is ourselves. 

We start living beyond our means. We don’t mean to. But a few decisions are made, and then the reality of other needs or urgencies come up on us unexpectedly. All of us have made tons of mistakes, misjudgments and stupid choices that have pinched our home economies and squeezed down on our families. 

My family is in the same place. You probably are, too. But the good news is that we don’t have to stay there for long, IF we are willing to work hard at getting where we should be: out of debt, paying our bills, fulfilling our family’s needs, providing for their future.

What I will do

I am going to write this blog about the kinds of strategies, ideas and planning that can show us the hope and light ahead of us. 

Not that I am any expert at all. But I am learning. And I hope you will follow along with me as I journal on the things that I know work, that I am working on and that I will take up to do in the near future, in order to keep our family economy afloat.

I will tackle topics that are probably pretty common to everyone about once or twice a week, I think. There really is no end to the ideas people have for getting better with their finances. If I miss something, then perhaps any of you, my readers, can chime in on whatever has worked for you.

Cycles and patterns

When we first started out on our household economic journey, my wife and I were practically broke to begin with. I had no really significant job skills, working shipping and receiving at a small graphics shop. My wife was working at a Montessori day care. We were living in an apartment in a lower income part of town, which had plenty of questionable things going on. We had one old car my wife had bought before we were married.

Through the years, we have gone through cycles of lean living and then a while of getting by more comfortably than before. Then, after getting used to that level of living, something would happen to pull us back into the lean living. It got like breathing in that when our income expanded, then our expenditures did to, like air filling our lungs. And when we had to exhale, it was tough to accommodate the need to do much less with the little we had. Like when I lost my job the first time.

A new hope

Just like us, I hope you will be willing to engage in the fight for your home’s freedom. Many good things are possible, if we keep our wits, make ourselves aware and work diligently.