Are You Making Ends Meet?

I think everyone is going through the same thing right about now. Not only are gas prices out of control, but food prices have been on the rise, too. I don't see how anyone makes it. I also have a very hard time making ends meet. Most of the time they don't. I have to decide which bills to pay on time, which to pay late, and which ones I'm not going to pay at all. With everything but income increasing, it just makes you wonder how much more a person can handle.

Perhaps you need a change of job. I do not allow my expenses to control my life. I just go out there and spend on what ever i want. It might sound like i have a high paying job. Trust me, am in a similar situation just like you. At the same time, for the amount of effort that i invest in my job, i always feel deserved to be better paid. So, try changing job and live life to the fullest.

yes, it is harder to make ends meet nowadays... especially if you have a mortgage and car loan as well on top of everything... but i just have to be optimistic and hope everything for the best... so far, me and my hubby are managing alright... fortunately, i will have a payrise next month and my hubby will have his in july... it will help a lot for us...

Yes we are. My husband is the only one that works, leaving me home with our only son. It's hard because everything is going up, from RENT to gas, to food and entertainment. I could work, I just recently resigned my job, but we only have one vehicle making it VERY hard. Not to mention, daycare would probably cost more than I make. Sad but true.

yup, you are right, everything seems to be going up except our paychecks! i do most of clothes shopping at thrift stores (unless its a real good sale in retail), we buy our meat from a butcher, we get our movies from the library, we try and limit our trips...hubby and i both only work part time, so we are pretty fixed too!

I have to live on as little as possible and spend money only on what is necessary to me. I am earning some money but not enough for me to live on. I have money in a savings account but it is worth less as the cost of living rises. I can see how anyone on a fixed income is now less well off now than they have been because prices are rising.

I definitely can relate.Its hard for me at times.Single mother of three.I recieve only one childsupport check and thats for one child.I do have a full time job but its still hard for me.Thats why I am working on starting a cleaning biz and get looking into a part time job.

I live in abundance. I don't think in terms of not enough. I am not saying that i have millions of dollars, cause i don't. what i am saying is i don't think in terms of not enough. because when you do then you will always have not enough.

We make enough to pay for our basics but still, with my grandparents being retired and only one person actually working, it's still difficult to pay bills (which desparately need to be paid) we still have food on the table and still can do some minimal fun things, even though we probably shouldn't. It would be nice if things were a lot easier though.

My partner is on a low income and I am unemployed but get no unemployment benefits. We find it very hard to manage our finances these days and have to scrimp and save just to pay the bills. With prices rising every day now, it is getting more and more difficult to manage

Yes it is hard to make ends meet. My husband is the only one working at the moment. And with three kids, always needing something, gas, and food prices. Whew!! you ain't kidding its out of sight.

sunkissed it seems a lotof us are in the same boat. I too live on my scocial security check which is not all that big and I have alot of month left and little money most of the time. This in spite of the fact that my son does pay the rent and the utilities for us. I buy my own food,clothes and medications and lately it seems as if by the time I buy food and pay for my prescriptions there is not much left for anything else. I make maybe thirty or forty dollars more each months from my surveys and of course I have a second payoff coming in may from Mylot so that all does help.

I think a lot of us are in the same position that you are. I'm able to pay the bills and keep food on the table, but I have some old credit card debt that I'm trying to get paid down and it's tough. I pay more than the minimum as much as I can and have been doing pretty well with it, but there's always something that comes up to where I can't pay as much as I'd like to. We're on a fixed income here too. myLot helps with groceries!

we are barely making it. my husband owns his own business and business is slow. i babysit, do online surveys and product testing from home so i can be here for our young son both before and after school and we still are not making it. there has to be a better way. our credit cards are out of control because we never have money for car repairs or house repairs and school clothes for our son. it is very frustrating and very worrisome for me. i came back to mylot recently so i can have another source of additional income even if it only helps with $10 of gas here and there it is still better than nothing. i also enjoy posting here and find it cathartic in a way.

same here Sunkissed. Both hubby and me are working our pants off day in day out even then we cant afford a weekend holiday and its been like this for quite a few years now. something or the other just crops up and our savings are back to zero. And with no savings and things becoming dearer by the day, holidays take second priority. I am not happy with the situation at all. Ideally I would have liked to give up my job and stay with my child, who at 9 yrs, needs me most. My hubby is trying his best, but somehow his income is just not enough for all three of us and I don’t want to put extra burden on him (I mean you hear of so many stress-related deaths these days). I have tried some home-based earning sites but here in India, such sites are not yet a big attraction. And then this inflation! Statistics apart, I can really feel the pinch in the prices of rice, pulses and cooking oil – all three staple food of ours. Its really hitting us where it hurts the most. the saddest part is that we loved dining out once or twice a month – just the three of us. Looks like we would have to give it up altogether. The little savings from grocery bills that could pay for the cinema and some unexpected shopping, are no longer accumulating like they used to. It seems this is a global problem. Have you any idea when this is going to end?

With God's grace, my family could still meet our everyday needs. Almost everything are getting higher nowadays. Here in my country, the price of gasoline, rice and flour are increasing every week, affecting the prices of other basic commodities. But to really support our substantial needs, we do some sacrifices particularly in our everyday lifestyles, such as buying branded clothes, weekly malling and other stuff like that.

Yeah my whole family is trying to make ends meet. My mother is not working right now she is waiting for the agency she works for to call her. I have to buy books and stuff for college and am trying to save as much money as possible for those times when my mother has no money to buy the necessities at home. So far I've been able to contribute a bit. Hopefully I'll receive my tax return soon so I can help out more. For now I was thinking of getting a new job but then I decided not to because I'll rather focus more on my studies this year and this unpaid internship i have to do for a college class.

We were having a really hard time for a while there. My husband just got a raise which really helped. Also I did a bold move and cut my grocery budget by 3/4 and used the money to pay off our credit card. It was really hard, but I used food that we had in the house, shopped really carefully and tried to stretch as many meals as I could out of things. I had a 5 pound package of hamburger meat, and I made taco's, chili, chili mac, a hamburger soup, spaghetti with meat sauce and a caserole that I created to imitate a Hamburger Helper dish, all with that one package. I was pretty proud of myself, I had noodels and cans of tomato paste, tomatoes, and tomato paste on hand so it was really economical. Now that we are debt free, and with the raise things are much easier. The cost of everything however, is getting out of hand. It is very difficult for those on fixed incomes and something needs to be done about it. You could always write for sites like Associated Content, Epinions, and best-price.com to earn some extra cash.

Yeah I find it very difficult to make ends meet. There is always something popping up that needs financial attention and food has gone up ridiculously in the past couple of years. We don't have much here food, tv, Internet, phone and we have a few checks coming in every month but it never seems to be enough. We always fall behind on one bill or another, Except for the rent that is always paid.

I'm 45 and disabled. I had a stoke 2 years ago. I can't work. It took me 2 years to get my SSI. It's not enough to live on. I have to live with my 85 year old mom. She hates to have to help me financially. She's not very understanding. I'm divorced and I didn't have a saving or retirement. My mother is wheel off and it's not a berdon for her to let me live with her. I pay my own way. It first I could but I do now and she needed my help around the house so we help each other. I never have enough money to go out to the movies or buy clothes or a Starbucks coffee though. Thing are so bad here in our town a restaurant that was in business for 48 years closed it's doors. People can't afford to buy food either. I hear people saying, "it's food or gas".