Family Matters: When Hard Times Hit your Home

It seems that everyone is cutting back. More and more people are falling upon hard times. The cost of living keeps rising, people are losing their jobs, getting laid off, having their pay or hours reduced and it seems many people just can't get a break. Even our home has felt the crunch. We recently had our gas cut off. As a single mom raising two teenagers alone, sometimes my paycheck just doesn't go that far. We are moving to a cheaper place in a couple of weeks (to ease our financial burden a bit) so I did not get it turned back on. At this point I really can't anyway.

It was a silly bookkeeping error on my part. Instead of paying the gas company, I accidentally double paid the utilities company. I am making small payments to repay the bill. In the meantime, we have no hot water and can not use our stove/oven. So, it was time for a family meeting. We discussed our situation and came up with a couple of solutions. READ More on Family Matters: When Hard Times Hit your Home