Brokeapottomus!

So my unemployment officially ran out, which means we're down a good chunk of income every week. It's going to be pretty tough, nearly impossible, for me to swing finding a job - I'll be going to school three days a week starting in 2 months, and Mike will be working the days I'm off. Working on the weekends and leaving Nathan with my in-laws is a possibility, but I'm trying to take a full course load because that's what financially works best as far as grants and tuition waivers go, and it'd be silly to fail out of school for a minimum wage job 16 hours a week.

What is in my control is keeping the expenses to a bare minimum. For instance, the dryer is off-limits until October or whenever it gets way too cold and gross to dry things outdoors. I didn't mind drying stuff outside, but I'd throw it in the dryer to fluff it up for 15 minutes to my jeans weren't all hard and gross, but not now. I just deal with it. It builds character!

The eating out? Not anymore. We'll set a budget of say, $60 a month for eating out - that's 3 trips to the sub shop or Chinese place, which I think is more than reasonable for a month. Of course, if any of us make an emergency pit stop for fast food or something, that counts against the cap.

I don't tend to buy much as far as clothing, and I have maternity clothes leftover from when I was pregnant with Nathan - sure, it's mostly business casual, but I'll look overdressed while I clean the kitchen - no biggie! Nathan's not in need of anything, neither is Mike - we're still pretty lucky in so many respects, we don't really *need* much of anything at all. We'll survive, totally.