When a wrench gets thrown in the works.

My main objective about wanting to stay home with children was to be able to be finacially stable enough to enjoy my time with them. Of course, getting the money from somewhere is important. Financial stability takes money. But the part that I am finding myself struggling with more and more is the stress of what our financial situation will be... even before we have children!

After not getting an unemployment check for 2 straight filings, I was panicking. We have a lot of bills to pay; especially right now since we are just finishing the work on the kitchen. Jim and I have been quite comfortable in our lives. To go from comfortable to having to decide what bills to pay was a very, very scary thought.

Of course, we have planned for times when money is lean. We do have savings. Although, we had to heavily tap those to pay for the extra, unexpected, expenses for the kitchen.

The part of it all that makes the least sense to me is that we have income the whole time. Jim's paychecks have been better than usual lately because of all of the overtime he has been working. (The money is nice but the stress that comes with him having to be at work so much sucks.) I still have my security paychecks. I still have my (meager) CVS paychecks. But they arent enough to cover all of the bills. (And the security paycheck showed up a week late that had me panicking even more.)

I know that there are still several years before I will be the only making money for our family. But that thought scares me. What if something happens? What if the paychecks somehow get delayed? Can we really make it without getting paid for 2 pay periods?

Thankfully it is all working itself out. But the stress of it all really hit home to me. What can I do to make it less the next time this happens?

I have been trying to work on a budget that we actually stick to. At first it was going really well... until I couldnt cook because the kitchen was torn apart or completely covered in dust from sanding the spackle. I need to reset those numbers and work on that again.

Jim is very laid back about our finances. He lets me handle the paying of bills even though he knows what is going on. How does he do it? Especially when there are people depending on you (like it will be when we have children)?

How do families take care of the things they have to and still get total fulfillment out of life even when money is tight?

I guess I still have a lot more to learn than a I thought...