What is your definition of "we have no money"?

[k2bdeutmeyer]

I've noticed over the last year or so that the majority of the people in my life (both online and IRL) have a very different definition of this phrase than I do!

 

I can't tell you how many people have said "we don't either" and then commented about how they were going to have to buy a new washer & dryer (or whatever the item of choice is) because theirs broke. Um...how?

 

When I say we don't have any money, I mean there is literally only a few dollars in the bank (if I'm lucky, sometimes we're even in the red), no savings, no CC to fall back on (it's maxed), no pulling from another area of our budget (there is ZERO wiggle room), etc. We LITERALLY do not have ANY money. That is us all.the.time.

 

So, I'm curious....am I in the minority? Do people just mean they don't have any extra without dipping into savings or credit (which they don't want to do, but will if they have to)?

[Murmer]

Yes, I think a lot of people mean they don't have the extra money in their budget to do what ever it is that is being asked of them. Basically for many it is another way to say our priorities are different than that of those they are around so we have no money to spend on xyz. That's why I have real problem with people that say we have no money unless they really don't because then those that really have no money get assumed they mean it the same way other's do.

[KnitWit]

Nope, we mean it in a literal sense like you.

 

It means we have ALSO scoured the furniture, vehicles and laundry for change and found it wanting. LOL!

[k2bdeutmeyer]

Yes, I think a lot of people mean they don't have the extra money in their budget to do what ever it is that is being asked of them. Basically for many it is another way to say our priorities are different than that of those they are around so we have no money to spend on xyz. That's why I have real problem with people that say we have no money unless they really don't because then those that really have no money get assumed they mean it the same way other's do.

 

Yes!! I run into this a lot! People assume that we have the money to take care of necessities if we HAVE TO. We don't.

[JaniceO]

I'm with you and you described our financial situation perfectly at the moment. We don't have any wiggle room in our budget. DH got rid of all credit cards a couple of years back, so we don't have those to fall back on. Luckily, we have enough to buy meals on and put gas in the vehicles, but there hasn't been a whole lot of extras around here for a very long time.

 

If our washer or dryer broke, or our vehicle, we'd be stuck. My DH needs stuff done to his motorcycle (his only method of transportation to and from work). I keep telling him it will have to wait because I can't pull money out of thin air to pay for it.

 

Hopefully, our situation will be improving over the next few months. But this past year has really sucked.

[KungFuPanda]

To me, it means we'll lose the house if things don't turn around fast. Been there. NOT fun.

[pooh bear]

nm

[k2bdeutmeyer]

How about sending some of that money you don't have over here please, it sure would be nice not to have mac n' cheese again for dinner.

 

:iagree: I AM glad to know I'm not the only one that means it literally.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I also mean it literally. I can't stand when someone will comment how something is so worth the cost and I'll love it, blah, blah, blah. What they (any person making the comment) do not understand is that it isn't an issue of "should I? or shouldn't I?", it's that the money doesn't exist!

[Caitilin]

We are very much like you. No money at all; no savings; no credit cards - can't get, credit score is in the toilet; paycheck-to-paycheck, if we are lucky. Savings, what are those?

 

We have friends, even family members, who say they have no money, but then they are buying a new TV, or dishwasher. How about sending some of that money you don't have over here please, it sure would be nice not to have mac n' cheese again for dinner.

 

I do think that when some people say they have no money, they mean no cash on hand, but they have money in savings or on credit cards.

 

Ding, ding, ding! This is us too.

[k2bdeutmeyer]

I also mean it literally. I can't stand when someone will comment how something is so worth the cost and I'll love it, blah, blah, blah. What they (any person making the comment) do not understand is that it isn't an issue of "should I? or shouldn't I?", it's that the money doesn't exist!

 

YES!!! It's not a matter of we have no choice (window is broken, whatever)....it has to be done! Um....it's a "I can't pull money out of thin air" issue. Sigh. Someday it will get better.....I'm hoping if I keep telling myself that, it will come true.

[nono]

Well, when I say it, I mean, "We have no money coming in." So therefore, we act as if we have no money now, so that what we have in savings might stretch far enough until my dh finds work again. :)

[Audrey]

Usually, when I say "I have no money" I mean that we have no money for anything other than the regular expenses. Technically, we could bail ourselves out of a crisis if we tapped the farm's operating line of credit, but I have never, ever done that, and I don't ever want to do that. Farming is sucky expensive enough thankyouverymuch. We do have one credit card, but try not to use it if at all possible.

 

I know that there is a difference between not wanting to access credit funds and not having the means to access credit funds. I have been in the latter position and I understand how hard that is.

 

I think that people, in general, say "no money" to mean "no extra money." That is my experience anyway. In the future, I think I will clarify more and say "I have no extra money for xyz."

[Karen in CO]

I've had both kinds of "no money." I've had pennies in the checking account and still had bills to pay and groceries to buy. I've cried over being 34 cents too short for the cheap mac-n-cheese. I've also had no money in the household account, but money in savings and retirement. The later one is uncomfortable, but the first one hurts.

 

Which is why I say "We have no money for..." or "we have no money left in the house account" when that is what I mean. I reserve the "We have no money" for when we actually have no money.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Karen in CO

[Skadi]

Well, I think most people in today's culture define "being rich" as simply, "People who have more money than I do!" Whatever salary they make or stuff they buy doesn't matter...everybody who makes more than they do is "rich" and they are "poor."

 

Most people who say they don't have any money really do have wealth and just don't count it (cell phones? internet? cable? netflix? the list of non-essentials goes on and adds up to quite a pretty penny). In other words, they may not have any money in their bank account, but it is by choice because they have prioritized their life in a certain way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "We've made some tough choices that have left us in a tight spot," but that is rather different than acting as if there are absolutely no options available to you.

 

I'm not directing this personally at the OP or anyone else. I've just come to be very skeptical, considering that my parents are great examples of people who were always broke (macaroni every night here too!) but it was through their own inability to economize and budget.

[Crimson Wife]

Back when we were first married, that was so us. I'd pray that the gas in our tank and the food in our pantry would last until the next paycheck because we had no savings.

 

When DH was between permanent jobs for 6 months last fall to this spring, there was a lot of "we don't have the money right now for _____ " but thank God we didn't burn through our entire savings.

 

It's a scary feeling to be dead-broke and I hope those of you who are currently in that situation get out of it soon :grouphug:

[Melinda in VT]

I am not literal when I say it, but I only use that phrase in our home, speaking to DH.

[d.g.]

When I say "we have no money" I mean NO. MONEY. For a few short periods in the last several years, we actually did have some savings, and then I said that something "wasn't in the budget". No money is different.

 

No money means:

 

-- We have just enough (or not enough) to cover bare expenses, not including groceries.

 

-- We have NO savings, unless you count the few pennies we leave in the savings account attached to our free checking.

 

-- We have NO access to credit, and can't just put expenses or emergencies on a card somewhere. We don't have any credit cards, and wouldn't qualify to get one.

 

-- We have cut our expenses to the bone, leaving only Netflix and the internet. No cable, no nights out, nothing that isn't free. Cell phones stay only because it's our ONLY way of staying in touch when DH travels for work, which is pretty much always.

 

We've been in the "no money" situation more often than not in the last several years, and I've discovered that people have very different ideas of what that means. One friend of mine was sympathising with me last month, when I was trying to decide which bills to juggle so I could pay our mortgage, saying, "I'm right there, too." Then she went out a week or two later and spent almost $2000 on materials/items for a new HOBBY. :glare: Meanwhile, I'm thanking the gods that DH got a short-term job the week before many of his benefits were cut because he'd been out of work too long.

 

DH is in the middle of considering a major life/career change that may or may not pull us out of the "no money" situation, but until then, I'm stuck listening to friends talk about having no money while drinking Starbucks or telling me about the new toy they just bought. It hurts.

[NicAnn]

I'm literal when I say it. We've been poor for so long now, that I've actually had to stop hanging around certain friends who insist on using this term, as they drink their Starbucks and talk about going on vacation. It makes me not a nice person, so I have to remove myself from the situation! :)

[pooh bear]

Well, I think most people in today's culture define "being rich" as simply, "People who have more money than I do!" Whatever salary they make or stuff they buy doesn't matter...everybody who makes more than they do is "rich" and they are "poor."

 

Most people who say they don't have any money really do have wealth and just don't count it (cell phones? internet? cable? netflix? the list of non-essentials goes on and adds up to quite a pretty penny). In other words, they may not have any money in their bank account, but it is by choice because they have prioritized their life in a certain way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "We've made some tough choices that have left us in a tight spot," but that is rather different than acting as if there are absolutely no options available to you.

 

I'm not directing this personally at the OP or anyone else. I've just come to be very skeptical, considering that my parents are great examples of people who were always broke (macaroni every night here too!) but it was through their own inability to economize and budget.

 

 

[nono]

My dh makes $400 a week. So, $1600 a month. We have to pay rent, electric, gas for the truck, food, speech therapy for ds (thankfully they have us on a payment plan, only $25 a week), internet and home phone and the only extra we have is Netflix, no cable.

 

If you can see a way of trimming that, then please tell me.

 

I don't know how you do it on that. At some point, there's no more trimming to be done, and the only way to balance the budget is to increase the top line (more money coming in). In this economy, it isn't as simple as it sounds. :grouphug:

[meggie]

If ever I were to say it, I would mean it literally. We do have money, it's in a savings account. That savings account is supposed to be for emergencies and not to be touched unless absolutely necessary. DH doesn't include that in any equation.

Me DH, I would like to buy cloth diapers.

DH: "We don't have any money."

Me: :mad:We could pay it back within 4 months.

DH: Nope it's for emergencies only.

 

I had to put my foot down about donating to my cousin and her husband. That kind of thing is a family emergency so yes it counts.:smash: (and this isn't ever anything we really fight about, I only have to wait for him to see that I'm right and he's wrong. I'm patient.)

[Parrothead]

.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Parrothead

[jeffcolemanfamily]

Unfortunately it seems like many of us mean it literally. Us too! When i say we have "no money" that means basically that we probably have about $30 or so in the account or less... and waiting patiently on getting paid again... since we only barely seem to have enough to get by and that's it. Argh. I keep hoping and praying that things will get better soon!

 

Dh wants to get a motorcycle to save on gas money. We are still arguing about that one since I'd rather pay more for gas and have a live husband! :)

[AlmiraGulch]

For me, it changes depending on my current circumstances.

 

A year ago, having "no money" for me meant I really shouldn't go out to dinner at the expensive place, and I didn't have any extra for savings (on top of what I'd already budgeted to put in there).

 

Now? "No money" means that I'm trying to figure out how not to get my electric cut off this month, and pay for my daughter's arts program, and not go into the red in my bank account. Oh, how quickly things change.

[Jean in Newcastle]

When I use it now I mean that we're living paycheck to paycheck but I do have savings/credit to use if there were an emergency.

 

I have been (briefly) homeless and didn't eat for days because I had no money. And I've lived on food bank food for months at a time - food that was supposed to supplement what you get for yourself but ended up being my only food. Both of these situations were back in my student days.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Jean in Newcastle

[elegantlion]

We have no money to me means we are broke. Like I just put my last 5.00 of cash in the gas tank today, broke. That was me today. I don't drive anywhere because I don't have gas money, my car AC is kaput who wants to drive in this heat anyway.

 

Broke means I have yet to meet a boardie who lives 90 minutes from me because neither of us have gas money to meet halfway. Maybe this fall, once the weather breaks.

 

Now dh worked this week and got paid (yea! a rarity lately), so I went to the grocery and bought some food. I even ordered a few books for ds and spend 15.00 on myself. I feel rich. I agonized for 20 minutes on whether to spend the 15.00 on myself or not.

 

Broke lately means I am broke and I don't know when we'll get our next paycheck.

 

To my parents broke means... well I don't know. They have money to eat out (they have a good place that is cheap), they go to auctions, they rarely stay home during the week. They buy what they need and pay the bills, yet they will say they don't have money. :glare:

[Rosie_0801]

I use that phrase to mean a few different things.

 

1. I am out of housekeeping money, and haven't a farthing in my wallet until pay day. (I probably do have some money in my account, but I wouldn't if made a habit of dipping into it.)

 

2. I have twenty bucks to last me until next pay day, so we'll be going without fresh veggies for a few days. (I probably do have some money in my account, but I wouldn't if made a habit of dipping into it.)

 

3. Either of the above, but I only have enough in the bank to cover bills.

 

4. I'm going to have to scrounge off dh to be able to pay the bills.

 

5. Sometimes it means I'm saving for something, like Christmas, so there is money there but not to be spent on anything else.

 

6. Very occasionally it means "I'm not so fond of you that I'm willing to spend money to not really enjoy your company." :blushing:

 

Fortunately for us, even when dh was unemployed, no money has not meant getting our power cut off.

 

Rosie

[indigomama]

People's idea of "broke" really do vary. I sometimes wonder if it is also a reflection of how they grew up.

 

Since being married we have always been very, very tight but never as broke as when I was a kid and we rationed milk and baked potatoes for whole summers at a time.

 

Currently my DH is making a joke of a salary, but we had a small bit in savings and got a small severance from one of his last jobs so we're not where I'd say we are "broke" yet. My kids can eat all the food they want.

 

Friends of ours were lamenting how "broke" they were, they make over 3 times what DH makes and have half the kids we do. And then we got invited to their 3 yo b-day party that I know for a fact cost over $200!! That is not what I would ever call hurting for money. But, in contrast to how both of them grew up, I can kind of see how they would consider themselves broke.

 

:grouphug: to all who are struggling.

[swellmomma]

We are very much like you. No money at all; no savings; no credit cards - can't get, credit score is in the toilet; paycheck-to-paycheck, if we are lucky. Savings, what are those?

 

We have friends, even family members, who say they have no money, but then they are buying a new TV, or dishwasher. How about sending some of that money you don't have over here please, it sure would be nice not to have mac n' cheese again for dinner.

 

I do think that when some people say they have no money, they mean no cash on hand, but they have money in savings or on credit cards.

 

:iagree: This is me too. My sister and bil spent the first half od the summer saying they had no money then went out and bought an RV (used, paid it in full up front), and booked several vacations using the RV for the rest of teh summer. Then my sister phones me bragging about the great deal she found on a swingset for my nephew *only* $500! because they bought it used.

 

When I say there is no money I mean I do not have 2 nickles to rub together. Like right now, no money in the bank, no gas in the van, picking bottles today to take the bottle depot tomorrow so I can have enough gas to deliver the papers I need to to make $15 for the week. Child support is still a week away. Fridge and cupboards getting bare with no way to refill them. Literally no money. My sister and bil count no money as having less than 10K in the bank at any given time. My folks claim having no money when they hit about $5000 in the bank.

 

If I maintained a balance like that in teh bank I would think I was rich!

[Upward Journey]

Yes, I think a lot of people mean they don't have the extra money in their budget to do what ever it is that is being asked of them. Basically for many it is another way to say our priorities are different than that of those they are around so we have no money to spend on xyz. That's why I have real problem with people that say we have no money unless they really don't because then those that really have no money get assumed they mean it the same way other's do.

 

yup.

 

I'm with you and you described our financial situation perfectly at the moment. We don't have any wiggle room in our budget. DH got rid of all credit cards a couple of years back, so we don't have those to fall back on. Luckily, we have enough to buy meals on and put gas in the vehicles, but there hasn't been a whole lot of extras around here for a very long time.

 

If our washer or dryer broke, or our vehicle, we'd be stuck. My DH needs stuff done to his motorcycle (his only method of transportation to and from work). I keep telling him it will have to wait because I can't pull money out of thin air to pay for it.

 

Hopefully, our situation will be improving over the next few months. But this past year has really sucked.

 

yup.

 

To me, it means we'll lose the house if things don't turn around fast. Been there. NOT fun.

 

and yup. I agree, not fun :(

[mo2]

I'm with you. We literally have *no* money.

 

But, I think a lot of people will use that as an excuse not to do something or say it meaning they don't have enough *extra* money. But then these same people who are saying it will go eat dinner at McDonald's. :confused:

[JeneralMom]

When I say it, I mean there are zero dollars in the bank, we don't have credit cards, and I don't keep a persoanl savings account. When DH says it, he means that we have no more money in the checking account, no coming in until payday and he will not touch the savings/emergency account unless it is a real emergency.

[Wheres Toto]

I grew up very poor which meant no money for anything. We had no car, no television, no cable, food was whatever was cheapest and stretched every which way (one chicken could do 4 or 5 meals if handled right), not even a nickel for the gumball machines at the grocery store.

 

Then my first marriage we were broke due to poor choices. Worries about the electricity being turned off, juggling bills, mortgage 2-3 months late but eating out all the time.

 

While I was a single mom, I was broke to the point of having to get cash back on a check at the grocery store on Wednesday or Thursday night and hoping it didn't get to the bank before my paycheck hit with direct deposit Friday morning. I needed the cash to put enough gas in the car to get to work.

[kewb]

When I say it there is no money coming in, no savings left, no credit cards, we will lose the house very soon, I have been through the sofa and all the winter coats looking for change.

 

If I have money but am questioning a purchase then I say xyz is not in the budget right now.

[mo2]

How about sending some of that money you don't have over here please, it sure would be nice not to have mac n' cheese again for dinner.

 

And hot dogs. Don't forget the hot dogs!

 

We have to pay rent, electric, gas for the truck, food, speech therapy for ds (thankfully they have us on a payment plan, only $25 a week), internet and home phone and the only extra we have is Netflix, no cable.

 

If you can see a way of trimming that, then please tell me.

 

This is us minus the Netflix. It's hard to trim back when there is nothing to trim back.

[NotSoObvious]

When we were in college, it meant that we had less than $20 in the bank.

When I worked, it meant we couldn't go on a big vacation or make a major purchase.

Now, it means that we are over budget for the month and can't eat out or go anywhere fun.

 

When people don't have any money, but use credit cards, I still consider that "not having any money" because of how I feel about credit cards. :) It's just digging yourself in deeper.

 

After our huge move, I feel like we have no money because we have to be very, very careful about what we are spending since we are recovering from the cost of a move.

 

Although, I suppose if we truly had "no money," my butt would be back to work and we wouldn't even be talking about adding another child to our family. I feel like being home is truly a luxury that could be taken away at any time.

[pooh bear]

And hot dogs. Don't forget the hot dogs!

 

 

 

This is us minus the Netflix. It's hard to trim back when there is nothing to trim back.

 

Can't forget the hot dogs! And the fine china - paper plates.

 

What would Mac 'n cheese with hot dogs be in French.?At least it would sound fancy, and ds might think we were having something different for dinner.

[Pretty in Pink]

If I said that we had no money I would mean that we had no money in the bank and pretty much empty wallets (of course, we don't really every carry cash so what we do have is in the bank). I am very thankful to say that, during 9 years of marriage, I have *never* had to say that we had no money. We've always had enough somehow.

 

If we are running low on funds in the checking account I just tell dh that we need to watch our spending until payday.

[Mynyel]

I've noticed over the last year or so that the majority of the people in my life (both online and IRL) have a very different definition of this phrase than I do!

 

I can't tell you how many people have said "we don't either" and then commented about how they were going to have to buy a new washer & dryer (or whatever the item of choice is) because theirs broke. Um...how?

 

When I say we don't have any money, I mean there is literally only a few dollars in the bank (if I'm lucky, sometimes we're even in the red), no savings, no CC to fall back on (it's maxed), no pulling from another area of our budget (there is ZERO wiggle room), etc. We LITERALLY do not have ANY money. That is us all.the.time.

 

So, I'm curious....am I in the minority? Do people just mean they don't have any extra without dipping into savings or credit (which they don't want to do, but will if they have to)?

 

 

I agree with another poster. It depends on the budget. Our in-laws said they were scraping for money, then found out they were making double what we were and only were paying slightly more in rent than we were. That was the only difference. :glare:

 

I definitely depends on lifestyle. I don't have the money for a new washer and dryer but I could put it on credit *IF* one of them broke. Wouldn't want to though. :)

[Diana B]

I think as I've gotten more poor, my idea of 'no money' has changed.

 

Right now we are running on literally $0 income. We get food stamps, but that is all. We have been paying the monthly bills using savings. I'm praying it'll get us through another couple months, but I'm not sure it will. (And I have no idea what will happen when it runs out...)

 

(I'm just thankful that we had a savings! God was definitely watching out for us long before we knew we'd be this broke!)

 

I know when we had money coming in, 'no money' meant either (a) no large chunks of cash hanging about, or (b) not enough to be comfortable spending it on what ever the topic at hand was about.

[Crimson Wife]

Can't forget the hot dogs! And the fine china - paper plates.

 

What would Mac 'n cheese with hot dogs be in French.?At least it would sound fancy, and ds might think we were having something different for dinner.

 

Or bean soup! I still have some bean soup in my freezer left over from when DH was between permanent jobs. Nobody in the family will eat it at this point except for me because we all got so sick of eating variations of it night after night.

[Parker Martin]

If I said that, it would mean that we were dipping into savings. I'm obsessive about protecting savings. We have a credit card but pay the balance every month. I would be unwilling to run up a balance and only pay part of it each month.

[Parker Martin]

Or bean soup! I still have some bean soup in my freezer left over from when DH was between permanent jobs. Nobody in the family will eat it at this point except for me because we all got so sick of eating variations of it night after night.

 

Heh. This is familiar. When our first son was born, and my husband was changing jobs, we had bean dinners for months. Can't beat the price of dry beans. Beans and eggs. Eggs for dinner was our great variation option when we were sick of beans.

[silliness7]

Nope, we mean it in a literal sense like you.

 

It means we have ALSO scoured the furniture, vehicles and laundry for change and found it wanting. LOL!

 

:lol::lol: Same here.

[Michele B]

A couple of months back, before DH started his new job, we were eating the jello and powdered milk from the back of the pantry.

 

We have some friends that "have nothing" so they went to Boston instead of Europe for their vacation. :confused:

[stripe]

My husband gets asked for loans constantly by people who make tons of money. Some of our favorites have included those with flashy cars and pricey cell phones, and (my favorite) a guy who wanted to take his wife on vacation.

 

People assume because we don't beg, we're secret millionaires. One guy is like a stalker to find out 'our secret.'

[FaithManor]

I do not use that phrases "broke, out of money, etc." because we've had two incidents in our marriage in which we were completely broke and though we've had periods of tightness and rationing, nothing compares to those.

 

The first was just after we'd gotten married. I was still finishing my senior year of college and my music history prof sprung on us that the class had to take a three day trip (two nights out) to a monastery for lectures on plainsong/neumatic notation. The Monastery was far enough away that we had to stay in the guest housing there and pay for meals in the cafeteria. It wasn't expensive by most people's standards. The cost of gas to use a college van (12 students, one professor) was divided by the number of students. So, it was cheap...$75.00 for two nights, three meals the day we stayed, and breakfast before we left on the third day. Dh and I just could not afford it. The professor could not imagine how broke we were and said he'd fail me in the class if I didn't go (not a good thing when this was the last class in your major). So, I sold a family violin at a pawn shop. They gave me $50.00 and that left $25.00 to come up with. We had $30.00 in the checkbook and four days until payday. Dh needed three gallons of gas for his car and that was back when it was 98 cents a gallon. So that left $2.00. I refused to take that with me as I didn't want our account closed.

 

The night before the trip, I took stock of what was left in the house. I needed to leave some food for dh and I needed to take a lunch for the trip down and have something for the trip back. There was about two cups of oatmeal which I cooked in boiling water and there was a little brown sugar left plus about half a stick of butter and some oil to fry it in. I made fried oatmeal "cakes" out of it, melted the butter, mixed in the brown sugar, and drizzled that over the cakes. I left two cakes for dh. There was a can of tomato soup, one box mac n cheese, one can of tuna, one celery stick, and two carrot sticks. There were a few frozen peas and green beans left in the freezer, a little bit of peanut butter (no bread), about a cup's worth of salad croutons, and an apple. There wasn't going to be room for cooler so most of the refrigerated stuff was out of the question and no way to cook on the road so dh got the mac/cheese, frozen veggies, tuna, and carrot sticks. I took the peanut butter with me and three oatmeal cakes, the celery stick, the apple, and the salad croutons. I didn't eat anything before we left.

 

Most everyone had packed large lunches to eat on the way down so the professor pulled over in a rest area. I ate the celery stick and the apple with the peanut butter. Everyone looked strangely at me when they realized I would not be eating more and finally Prof M said, "You don't look like you weigh a lb. over 100. Seriously, are you dieting because that's crazy?" My reply, "No diet. I told you we were broke and I couldn't afford this trip and I meant it."

 

They ate out for supper. I sat in the van conserving the oatmeal cakes/not eating. We ate well in the cafeteria of the Monastery during our time there. On the way home, I didn't eat lunch when they stopped because I'd had a nice breakfast before we left, and for supper they chose to try to go through a drive through with all of those people - at least it was entertaining while they sorted that out. I ate the salad croutons and the oatmeal cakes.

 

A couple of weeks later I was really sick and the same prof asked me when I was going to see the doctor. "When money grows on trees!" I can't prove it, but when a bag of groceries showed up on our doorstep one night along with a $20.00 bill, I suspected he left them there.

 

The other time we were utterly broke was when dd was about 2.5. Dh's employer got caught doing some, shall we say, creative accounting and the accounts were frozen - no payroll, you're all out of work, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Dh and I only ate once every 48 hrs. for two weeks in order conserve food for dd. Thankfully, I had some piano students and that money kept us from being evicted. My brother found a position open at his firm and convinced them that they needed dh so badly they should pay our moving expenses in the form of a cash stipend. We sold just about everything except my beautiful piano, dd's clothes and her bedroom furniture, and a few family heirlooms, got a small moving truck, and headed out. We made it to my folks with $20.00 to spare.

 

We have had periods of tightness. Right now we are only paying bills and buying food because the house roof cost more money than the estimate (more damage was found once they really got going on it). That's just fine. I am ever so thankful we were able to re-roof the house. I know people who will be placing buckets underneath leaks this autumn and trying to tie tarps over their roofs in order to prevent further damage inside. I have no complaints.

 

Faith

[rwjx2khsmj]

This was a phrase dh and I struggled with when we were first married. In his family "no money" meant "we don't talk about money but we can afford to do whatever we choose to do with the money we aren't going to talk about". In my family "no money" meant we are looking in couch cushions to find money for milk or bread.

 

It took us several years to figure it out and now when we say we have no money we have NO money. When we choose to save rather than spend our money we say that. Speaking the truth about our money was a difficult lesson to learn.

[Sukale]

When I think we have no money that means our bills are paid but I have to add up everything that goes in the cart at the grocery store. We would be eating all the weird stuff in the pantry and just buying a few things to stretch what is on hand. This would also mean no extra driving. I would most likely have a couple hundred available on the Visa but would be scared use it unless we were totally starving. I try to keep that money on the card for a true emergency like one of the kids needing medicine or a car repair. I am not there now but have been before. It is a scary place to be.