Once again, the Uncommon Household is feeling the pain of a financial squeeze. And it sucks.
The never-ending "sky is falling" national news about the housing market, as well as general concern about the economy, has put a damper on Todd's real estate career. Which is to say he's had one closing in seven months. And that's in one of the best markets in the U.S.
To spell it out differently, for all intents and purposes I have been the sole bread winner for that whole time. Did I mention I'm a freelance writer?
My career has been going gang-busters. I've never had so much work. I love my clients, my projects are interesting, and we are so thankful that we've had my income to rely upon in the absence of Todd's. But as you might know, or at least guess, a freelance writer's income - even in great times - is not enough for a family of four with existing debt to live on.
We cut all the fat out of our budget years ago. And we've attempted several different things to heal our financial woes, only to find ourselves back at ground zero. Or ground below-zero, if you will.
We have a big house but small mortgage payments, so selling doesn't necessarily make sense because a) it would be equally expensive to rent a house or apartment, b) we would be able to pay off our non-familial creditors, but not my parents, who bought out our equity in a loan agreement a while back. In fact, our house is probably the biggest thing we have going for us right now because of the low mortgage payments and the increasing values in our neighborhood.
We have no car payments. We no longer take vacations or spend money on clothes (hand-me-downs for the girls and nothing new for me, unless I can talk my mom into buying me something). We've trimmed everywhere we can think to trim, including cutting back on Todd's only form of advertising, which really sucks since it has the potential to generate income.
Where am I going with this? Um, nowhere really. Except to get it off my chest.
We've given ourselves six to eight weeks to evaluate Todd's work situation. If things haven't improved significantly by then, we're going to have to make a change.
Here are our options as we see them:
1. Todd goes back to work full time (it would be great if it was something flexible) in a "regular" job; and supplements with real estate. You know - in his "free" time. Challenges: Todd has no college degree. But he is very "hire-able" and has a ton of sales experience. If he goes back to work full-time, we'll have to find at least part-time care for Caroline because we cannot justify giving up my income - which may average out to more than Todd's regular gig. Also, I may lose my mind from the stress of trying to keep up the same level of work without anyone to help with the kids during the day.
2. We rent out our house and move out to the cabin at the lake for at least a year, maybe more. We would make about $700 more than the mortgage each month. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Poor little girl, has to move out to her 'summer house' - wah!". But let me be clear: this would be hard.
The "cabin" was formerly a storage shed. It's one long building with a living room/dining room/kitchen in one room; a middle bedroom that would server as our master/office; another bedroom that would be the girls bedroom/playroom. The girls' room has exposed, uninsulated plywood ceiling with four bare bulbs and a metal support beam in the middle. Our bedroom would be right in the middle of the traffic flow. There are critters of various sorts living in the ceiling that would need to be eradicated. Bugs. Snakes (including the coral snake variety - "red and yellow kill a fellow"). Ticks.
We would need to build a fenced area for the dogs. Rent a ginormous storage space for most of our furniture. Move everything ourselves. Do something with the existing cabin furniture. There's no dishwasher or pantry. The list goes on and on.
BUT. It would be do-able, if we had to.
Good Lord, I really hope we don't, though. It would be great if Todd got a ton of business. Or wins the World Series of Poker (he's one nine-man tournament away from winning a free spot and plane ticket). Or finds a fantastic flexible job that gets us more stability without having to give up real estate. Or if a book deal falls out of the clear blue sky for me.
I know everybody - okay, not everybody, but most everybody - deals with this at some point. But man, am I ever tired. I feel like we've been treading water for a very, very long time. We just want to come up for air.
Thanks for letting me bitch. If anyone has any wonderful ideas, I'm all ears.
