A little more about me and my money situation.
Long story short, I spend more money than I make. Always have, and, I suspect, always will.
I have a student loan, a bank loan, multiple credit cards, and a car I can’t afford.
I got married 7 months ago and we had a great wedding that my mom helped us pay for, but we still spent way beyond our means. On budget, but waaaay beyond our means.
That’s the bad news.
Here’s the part where I tell you it’s not all my fault.
It actually isn’t.
I got laid off ‘packaged’ out of my job 11 months ago. When the ‘package’ ran out and I still couldn’t find a job in my field (overqualified for entry level work, under qualified for what the market was looking for at the time), I went on (un)employment insurance. I quickly discovered that panhandlers make more money than what you get from the government so I lowered my sights, changed my career path, and 4 months ago got a job in a different field that I love, that I’m great at, but that pays way less than what I was making before.
Therein lies the problem. Our bills, everything that we could afford on my old salary, suddenly became unaffordable on my new salary.
So, after cashing in some (not all) of my RRSP’s to keep us afloat for a while, the man and I finally made a hard decision. To save money on rent so that we can use that money to pay bills, pay down our debt, and save money to buy a home of our own, we have moved in with my mom.
Thankfully there is enough space here that it isn’t too cramped, but let me tell you it’s crazyweird staying in my teenage bedroom with my husband. It’s a strange mix of feeling like a kid again, and feeling like I’ve failed as a grownup.
In any case, here I am. Almost broke and hating every second of it. If I can just stay the course and work really hard to get us out of this hole, our lives will be better for it.
That’s the plan anyways. And we all know that life sometimes has other plans for us than the ones we make for ourselves.
