Middle-Class

During Project: “Oh My God We’re 28 and We Need To Figure Out Our Lives” we’ve been mulling over several different options for the path we want to take to get what we want. One of those I’ve discussed on here is finagling our finances and bills so theMan can be a SAHHD (Stay at home hot dad).

This puts an interesting turn on things for me. I’ve spent most of my grown-up years (so what, like the last 5 minutes?) trying to make more and more dollar on my paycheck so I can gather things I love and such. So we can live comfortably, have fun and buy whatever we want. You know, work towards these dreams I have in my head.

Since I’m going to be bringing home the bacon solo and we are downsizing our material wants in order to make the SAHHD thing happen, it’s going to completely change my goals at work.

Now I will be making money in order to keep us in a home and keep us insured and keep food on our table. No more will I be working to try to buy that awesome car or support Target’s stock by cleaning out their jewelry department on a weekly basis. No more can I change jobs just because I’m bored unless I have something better lined up. No more will I be saving money for big dream trips. No more can I have that freedom.

Things are going to be tight. We’re sorta assigning ourselves to middle class forever, or at least for awhile.

We are about to knowingly commit ourselves to living barely within our means just for kids sake. That feels kinda strange. It doesn’t bother me, it’s just a weird shift for me and I wanted to put it out there.

Thankfully we have had to cut down our spending in the past year due to job losses and the fact that Chicago is so freaking expensive to live in. I’m almost grateful for it. We live without cable and eating out at restaurants (except twice a week and we usually split a meal) and I no longer buy anything full price. So we’ve been having great practice but there still is the option to go back to full-tilt crazy spending if we wanted.

When the kids come, we’re gonna be stuck.

Is it weird that I’m up for the challenge though? I say “BRING IT ON MOTHERFUCKERS!” Give me the coupon section of the Sunday paper, give me the thrift stores for hand-me-downs (I love a good hunt) and give me the used cars for our filthy farm babies to destroy anyways.

That doesn’t mean that I won’t keep doing whatever I can to earn more money. I plan on finishing getting my bachelor’s after one or two kids are born (please please please uterus work as planned) and I’m always on the hunt for opportunities for cash (short of anal, that will cost you extra). However, it’s going to feel so much more worth it to me now. Instead of jewelry made in China, I am going to be co-raising some humans.

I guess I didn’t realize I would be this excited to be broke!