Tightening Our Belts

I just got back from the garage. Again. It's bad news. It's leaking coolant and the mechanic can't find where it's coming from and there is no dealership in town. Bad. He has attempted to fix it twice. Both my dad and Mark's parents offered to pay but Dad paid. The mechanic is holding the cheque until the problem is figured out. I'm scared it is going to be a lot and as generous as our parents are in wanting to help, I cannot expect them to shoulder a huge bill. As I told Mark, I hate having all this money spent on something we could easily live without. Yes it would be hard and inconvenient, but doable.

So I have decided we are tightening our belts more, as tight as they can be cinched and save as much as possible. I am going to try to make this a zero spend Christmas. I am going to find more things to sell, everything I can. I am going to stop all shopping except fresh fruits and veggies. We are going to be so tight we squeak. The only things we have to get are boots for Ethan and sneakers for both kids. They have been growing so much and they can't wear crocs in the winter.

It's just so hard on a small income when big things hit. This is why I am leery of ever owning a home. What on earth would we do if a major house crisis hit? Things need repair, replacing and maintenance which we would find very hard. I don't want to rent forever but I would like to be in a more secure place than we are now.

I just have a lot on my mind in addition to all this. I know I need to write in our main blog but there is always a lot of junk going on and I tend to moan about the bad stuff. I want to be more positive and uplifting through our trials. Which reminds me, I am behind on my tithing. Gah, that's probably why a lot of this is happening. I find things go great and smooth when we've been paying our tithing but it seems when we get behind and everything starts to go wrong.