raising godzillas

When being poor sucks more

Being poor always sucks, but some weeks more than usual.
When we heard the van needed a brake job, we didn't get it at first and the DM told me to research new ones. I did, and then he changed his mind. He thought they were 1/2 what they actually cost. Oy. So now the piece of go-se van is in the shop, getting several months of car payments poured into it's brakes.
It's the week we had to pay for camp for the eldest two, too. Now, our church has camperships and money is never a reason for a kid to miss camp. Unless they have a foolishly proud parent. The DMs rule is we have to pay 1/2, and if we can't they don't go.  (Yes, I sometimes " take care of " a camp when I *know* we don't have that 1/2. )
So this week I'm brushing my teeth with baking soda so the rest of the family can use toothpaste and it will still last all week. And filling the old 32 oz yogurt cup we put the ends of bars of soap into with water to make soap sludge to wash the laundry with. And thanking God I can hang laundry, and that my neighbour sent over two dozen eggs because OMG YAYS not having to buy more eggs means I can buy tampons, even though I feel guilty when I use them instead of the pads I made from the cloth diapers we used to put on our kids. (But, exercise and all).
I'll never bother with the lottery (more throwing good money after bad) but when we bought our new stove we entered a contest to win $2500 . And I entered a thing on Target to win a $500 gift card, and it also seems that since we have Farmer's insurance we're claimants in a 445 million class action suit. I'm really praying one of those will somehow represent any small break for us.

posted by gojirama @ 3:53 PM