Everyone should have a stockpile

Here is a quick pic of the pantry my husband has been building for me. And no, it still isn't done!

My husband and I seem to be on the receiving end of continuous bad luck. I've mentioned before that I had no debt before my daughter was born. Now we have so much we are drowning in it. And it wasn't frivolous spending that got us there either. In just the past 4 years so many things have occurred that I can't keep track. To mention a few: two transmissions went on our vehicles, one truck actually just died, we were asked not to return for a third year in a recent apartment with no reason given - and I always paid rent on time..., my husband has lost more jobs than I can count, he needed kidney surgery and back surgery, my daughter and husband needed tons of dental work, appliances breaking, basement flooding over and over again... And just recently, on Father's Day our truck was broken into in the middle of the night where my silly husband left our wallet, debit card, and cash for grocery shopping while in the same week the batter died in our truck. And the list keeps going....

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. People so often judge you based on your debt and just assume you were being stupid with your money. Well, that isn't always the case. And we have kept smiling and kept praying and have always made it through. AND we have always been thankful for all the awesome blessings we've been given. It is pretty tough to feel sad when you look at my two adorable kids!!!



















So about a year ago when my husband lost his job and I was told I wouldn't be getting another paycheck for a while due to an accounting error during my maternity leave, I started to look for help. Some immediate help came from family members in the form of food. The long term help came from some great bloggers (forthemommas, moneysavingmom, freestufftimes, etc.) who helped show me how to maximize my savings with coupons, use drug stores to get things for free, and programs like vocal point, kraftfirsttaste, and others. I owe them a lot of thanks for helping create my stockpile and I urge others to start saving now because you just never know when you might need it.