Many of you have been so supportive during these difficult 2.5 years and we are finally near the end of the dark tunnel....so I was wondering if you would like me to ponder (ramble) about our families journey. It may give strength and hope to others and you may glean some info to help you on your journeys....

In retrospect the things that kept me on an even keel was God, Faith, Church, hope , prayer and the ability to always look for the good....

I learned long before these two years of unemployment that you can have everything and still be unhappy, or you can have nothing and be immensly satisfied!

Having said that I know how stressful not having even the basics ( agood varied diet) can be and I will always be humbled and empathetitic to those undergoing severly difficult times.

I also feel having had a "frugal mindset" well before disaster struck "saved" us. Because we had no CC debt, no personal loans, drove old paid for cars (that wasn't the greatest....they kept breaking down and cost us a fortune just when we couldn't afford it never mind the stress), we didn't owe anything except our mortgage! So all you wise Frugal villagers who are trying to pay down and get rid of debt realize it is the single most important thing you can do to prepare youselves for a layoff, illness etc.....

The second thing is savings.... we had RRSPS.....but they didn't last long but they would been gone even faster if we had debt.

Then when the lay off happened the first thing to do is cut back all extras....everything....go through your expenses with a fine tooth comb.... presume you will be doing this for a long time ( I didn't do this GULP I presumed Dh would be working within a few weeks, he always had before....I only started panicking when I realized that this looked like a long term problem).

To be continued.......

Looking forward to more. Thanks! :)

Yep, your attitude to me was the shining light thru the tough times. So happy for you and yours & can't wait to see what the future brings.

Dh recieved a severance pkg and I was too optimistic and used it to pay off our sons orthodontic bill, and then it was 8 weeks before we recieved our firt EI check OOPS! Then things got even worse our water heater broke (we had no hot water for 6 weeks), our 2 cars failed aircare (so we couldn't insure them until we fixed the catalytic converters UGH), our computor died...... and so it went, it just seemed to go from bad to worse..... but what I learned was just how little we could get by with.... I learned that I could even live without hot water, cars computors etc etc... I learned that blackbelt frugality and a good atitude really works.

During this time it became Clear that Dh was not going to find work in his field locally and that it looked like we would have to move accross the country, which we were willing to do. But when he looked into that he found that the companies he was hoping would hire him weren't doing very well either and that they had been laying off employees as well and some were going bankrupt NOT GOOD!
So then Dh started to talk about retraining and I really began to panic! I thought I was going to have to work full time. But I homeschool! I just couldn't imagine how we would make it! My Mil started sending me suitable work positions and talking about when the children would be put into school..... Dh finally said NO. The children didn't want to go to school and that we would find a way to keep them home. So I found a part time job tutoring and did gardening for some seniors too. While Dh prepared himself (he needed some prerequisites like calculus and physics) to enter school.

Now after 2 years of school we are almost finished and we have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for quite sometime.......but we made it!
In fact I am amazed at how well we made it!

Our income was based on:
Student loans
Part time work
Child Bonus
Scholarships, burseries and grants.
In fact when I add up all of the scholarships, burseries and grant we recieved it is a WHOPPING- $18,000!!!!!! And I thing we will get another $6750 applied against our loan in Sept. And Dh still may get a graduating award.
I don't have a final tally on our student loans total but they are around $23,000. Out of this we had nearly $10,000 in tuition and another $2000 in books/supplies.
But whenever I thought I wouldn't beable to pay the mortgage, a grant would come through or I would get some extra work it always seemed to work out.

The school also had a foodbank which we had to use on occaision.
WE were given many hand-me-downs and as a result the children have been better dressed during these two years than they ever have before! I have spent nothing on clothes!

I was worried I would have to cut out the childrens extracurricular activites.... It started with Rythmic Gymnastics.... my 14 yr. old loved it but it was too expensive so it had to go.... she had been in it for 4 years and she was so sad. But just a week later we finally met our new neighbours who had horese. My Dd had taken riding lessons and so my neighbour asked if she would like to ride in exchange for stable work. She jumped at the chance! The one thing she loved more than anything else (even gymnastics it was horses).
We recieve $1000 for each child (that is about to change) for curriculum and extracurricular activities from the school that the children are registered with.
That paid for the childrens Piano, cello, violin lessons but then my Dd's both won scholarships $400 ea. the first year, and $250 ea. the second year and my DS won a $200 scholarship for composition. So this helped pay for additional extracuricular activites like scouts, judo and a simple gymnastics. Just when I thought we would have to cut back..... they seemed to be able to do even more..........

And wait it gets even better......

My son needed a new cello his was getting too small but of course that was out of the question.
Well his teacher found a patron who had found a 3/4 size handmade cello. It was made in the 1940's by a well known violin maker and it was BRAND NEW it had been sitting on a shelf! It is almost unheard of to find a well made child sized instrument..... but here was this cello worth about $8000 that he was willing to lend to Ds free of charge for as long as he needs it!

This past Christmas was very difficult we had run out of money and I had very little work..... I had become very discouraged there was very little food in the house and no money for presents....and even though I know presents are not the reason for the season, I had a hard time seeing the bright side.... things just seemed so hard!

The an amazing thing happened our neighbour phoned me and wanted to GIVE my Dd a horse to train and she would provide the horse with full room and board! I mean never in our wildest dreams could I imagine giving my horse crazy Dd a present like this! And yet she was going to have her own horse! all my neighbour asked for was that Dd continue to help care for the horses and stables when she was away.

Then the school my Dh attends gave us the most amazing Christmas Hamper with about grocery store certificates, bookstore GCs, Gas GCs, store GCs, restaurant GCs. There were also gifts for Dh, the children and myself! And so much FOOD!!!!!!
We were also blessed by people here! And by other friends. We recieved food, curriculum, clothes, other books etc...
It wasn't the worst Christmas it was the BEST!!!!!
To be continued......

Wow, this is an amazing story! Ever consider actually writing it out in great detail? You may be able to publish it! :)

I have a question... Knowing that you are a strong Christian, did you tithe or do any kind of financial giving during this time period? Did you donate your time to any cause?

I did tithe a little.... but not much! I couldn't afford to give much of the little I earned.... so it was often only a few dollars. But I did try to tithe from the grants/burseies/ scholarships we recieved. Sometimes it wasn't the full 10% because our outstanding debts were too high, and we desperately needed that money to get us back into the black. But I think it taught me a lesson.... I used to be "proud" of my ability to tithe, superior to those who didn't.... no more. I can understand that people in our society can be very poor, even though it is a different type of poor from the developing nations ....it is a very stressful, all consuming terrifying kind of poverity.

I did give what I could and helped whoever needed help within the range of my abilities. I baked and brought meals for those who needed it. I did child care as a favour and helped my Sil with her severely autistic son. I helped in Church in any and everyway they needed me. I did gardening as a volunteer..... I helped at Salvation Army kettle drives. Did walkathons for the Slums in Lima, Peru. And my favorite on going work. Helping in a soup kitchen in Surrey and downtown Vancouver (this is our families ministry). It really helped us to help the even less fortunate, it kept our problems in perspective!
And of course, I also passed on carefully outgrown and worn clothing, and books to other needy families.

I am looking forward to being able to tithe again! And to give to my favourite charities. I already sent a $50 check to our seminarial school and I am hoping to send a gift to help combat blindness in africa soon. I used to support many charities for the Blind and many others and I can't wait to begin again. It has always been important to me and always will be... far more important than any restaurant meal. Part of being a good steward.

Continued......

During the two years of school we also had some additional major financial difficulties including our 7 year old standard poodle becme criticallly ill (she is fine now but she almost died from a rare blood disorder), one of our hondas engines blew up (towing alone cost a bundle!), and we had countless other car problems (and I do again the brakes are acting weird, I think the master brake cylinder is going ! UGH! We need a new to us car NOW! I don't want to spend another penny on that car!).
When ever I though things couln't get much worse BOOM we were hit with another catastrophy.... but you know what? We made it! We made it and things aren't even so bad!

When I look at our student loans, I can't imagine how we managed to amass so little! There is ALOT of help for full time students out there! Especially those with families! You just need to look! I wouldn't have worried so much in the beginning if I had known.
People look at us increduously when they here my Dh is about to graduate and I am not working full time and to tell me that it is IMPOSSIBLE! Well I am living proof that it isn't!
But you have to be apart of this board to fully understand all the frugal tactics that are necessary to beable to manage such a feat. Right? The average joe consumer can't even imagine a quarter of the frugal tips that is needed to accomplish living on so little. Nor can they imagine that it can be a fun challenge rather than sheer drudgery (OK OK sometimes it was sheer drudgery.... because I had to do it, not cause I wanted to do it). So we had the most basic of dial-up, no TV (not even videos until we recieved a DVD player from Dh school this Christmas, it was one of our gifts), no cell phones, basic telephone, about $172 for groceries for some months but no more than $267 the whole time! Etc etc etc. You know the ropes.
But what I am trying to end with is, that by practising frugality on a day to day basis you are mastering very valuable skills that can get you through the most DIFFICULT of finacial circumstances!!!!!

Well Dh final exam is May 26. And we will be leaving on a 5 night trip to DIsneyland courtesy of Mil ( who is giving the same gift to Sil and Bil's family) because if she gave us cash she knows I would have used it to pay off debt LOL!
Dh starts his new job in customized automation on June 1!
I know I sound really jovial and I am. But there were times that everything seemed very dark..... It is much easier to be at this end of our journey!

I am looking forward to having a regular paycheque and yes I will remain frugal.

But I won't be eating out at restaurants or getting cable.
We will get a cell phone and High Speed access and perhaps a new computor!
We will get a new to us car.
We will eat far healthier. But I will still cook and bake from scratch and grow my own organic food!
I will still watch my energy use.
I will still be frugal in all the ways that protects our environment and will also spend extra to save our environment and to help others (ie: buy Canadian made, fair trade, organic) when ever possible.
And I will be able to give again!

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! What a story! You're amazing Hollyhill! WTG! Vancouver area is one of the most expensive places to live in Canada. You are truly remarkable. Thank God for all the goodness He's shown to you!

Jean

Wow Hollyhill, thanks for sharing your story! You should be proud of yourself and your family.You've done an amazing thing and are certainly an inspiration.

I agree, I think that your story would make an interesting book..... :-)

Very inspiring..thanks for sharing. :D

Hollyhill-- your story brings a tear to my eyes. Once when things seemed so insurmountable to me one of my good friends commented " You never know how good it feels to be on top of the hill unless you have been in the pits" Congratulations on your journey...it's a great story and so very inspirational. It goes to show that you can do it....if you're willing to make the sacrifices and you were. Now GO AND ENJOY THAT TRIP!!!!

An amazing testimony of faith and grace! I know that you give God all the glory! And YOU worked very hard on your end! Have a blast at Disneyland with your family!

PS I had to chuckle about your daughter and her horse. Who would ever think that THAT could happen in the midst of financial strife? I bet God was chuckling too!