To the Haters

I don't really want to do this, but in an effort to be on the offensive rather than being on the defensive later, I am making the following two points now:

So here's the deal. Some percentage of the people reading this are going to say "You were just stupid and now you're in a hole. Who cares?"  To them I say: this is common. Not everyone gets educated in basic finances before they move out on their own. I was lucky to be one of them, but Jason either didn't get it or didn't care at the time (I'm leaning toward the latter too... ha ha). On top of that, things don't always turn out the way we planned, and a lot of students find themselves in over their heads with student loans just because they changed their major or experienced some life event that threw them off course. It happens. Making the assumption that every person out there should just "know better" and get it all right from the second they turn 18 is just stupid. It doesn't work like that. There are too many factors that can throw a normally well prepared individual into a tail-spin. The thing is, if they have read this far, they are obviously looking for a way out, and trying to learn about the things they missed the first time around. Good for them.

I'm also sure there are a number of people thinking "You make more than minimum wage, you don't get it." Not entirely true. As of today we have reached a level of livability. We're surviving but we aren't saving anything, and we have actually chipped away at the little bit of savings that we did have. In case of emergency: call our parents and beg because that's our only backup right now, and judging by the debt that we owe Jason's parents you can see that that life boat is starting to sink. Plus it's just embarrassing to have to do that. Seriously. Back in the day though, Jason worked at Walmart and I worked at JCPenneys and neither one of us was working 40 hours a week. We were lucky to be able to pay rent and buy groceries in the same week. Then I went on maternity leave with our son for 6 weeks, and it was just Jason's Walmart paycheck getting us through. We fell WAY behind on bills. A while before that Jason wasn't working and I was on a 3 month work/study grant making $8/hr but I couldn't work more than 20 hours a week. That was our only income (which is why a huge amount of those student loans went to paying for living expenses instead of actual schooling), and there were several weeks where we each ate 2 pieces of toast for breakfast and dinner and that was it. One time we scrounged up $3 to buy a jar of peanut butter to go with our toast. It was magnificent. So, by those standards, we have come a long way, but we still have a really long way to go. I will put some time into detailing how we got to this point, and hopefully it helps anyone that really is stuck at minimum wage and just not getting anywhere. That's the best I can do.