This is such an inspiring thread. I really needed to read these stories right now.
Our toughest time is right now. In December 2009, we had $20,000 put away in savings, my then-fiance and I went on a short vacation, he had given me a beautiful ruby solitaire engagement ring, and I was able to travel from Greece (where we live) to the USA (where I'm from) to attend my best friend's wedding. When the wedding was over, everything collapsed.
I flew from DC to London in order to connect to Athens. My airline (British Airways) canceled my flight for weather reasons and refused to rebook me for 2 days. I didn't have a cell phone and I had to use the credit card phone in the airport. It charged $40 per call for a connection fee (plus the talk time) but it didn't tell you that. It kept hanging up so I had to dial 20 times in order to get in touch with my fiance to try to find me another flight. I found out much later that those calls came to over $800. The flight he was able to get on another airline was $600. That was the first week of the year, and all of a sudden we had $1400 expense we weren't expecting!
Then, a few weeks later, I went to the doctor, they did some tests, and discovered that I had severe gall bladder disease and had to have my gall bladder out immediately; I also had some other associated infections that made it a complicated issue. I had a fantastic surgeon in Athens but the cost for the surgery, the hospital stay, the drugs, etc. was $12,000. I did have health insurance but it turned it down for legitimate reasons. I had to pay on the spot (no payment plan or discount) so I just handed them the $12,000 in cash from the savings I had struggled to put away towards a home some day.
The hotel stay for me and my fiance was $1000, plus travel expenses for my fiance and me to travel to Athens for the surgery was another $400. He had to buy restaurant food and anyway, when you add up all our expenses for the month of March, including the surgery, it was over $16,000.
Add $16,000 and $1,400, and our $20,000 savings just evaporated.
But that was just the beginning. Only a few days after my surgery, my husband (who is a schoolteacher) had his salary slashed thanks to the Greek economic crisis.
Before the crisis, he made about €1500, 14 pay periods per year (€21,000 / year) - so we weren't wealthy by any means, but it was plenty to live on. Now he makes €1084, (12 pay periods per year), which is €13,008 / year.
Now, it's the end of June. We have to leave our home, on a tiny island (where my husband teaches) because in the summer, when school is out, the island fills with tourists and our landlord rents our apartment to tourists. We pay €240/month for this apartment (it's one room) during the school year. He charges tourists €120/night (€7,440/month). So, we have to pack up everything and move for two months. Luckily I have found a 5-week job over the summer that will provide us with a place to live (NO RENT OR UTILITIES FOR JULY OR AUGUST!!!) and the job is LEGAL because it's through an American company and paid in the US!! (Sometimes, things DO work out.) It's very little money but every penny is important to us.
I can't work because it's illegal for an American to work in Greece. Even though we got married in April, I am not allowed to apply for a work permit until July, and it will take about 12 months to come through, so I have to remain unemployed til next summer at the earliest - finding a job is next to impossible thanks to the crisis anyway.
So we are now living on €13,008 / year. (A euro is about the same as a dollar, so it's like saying you live on $13,000 / year.)
I don't know very many couples that can live on that. Growing up, my mother stayed home and my father worked. We were quite well off; my father made a lot of money. However, his parents lived through the Great Depression - and were new immigrants to the US during it - and so my father was always VERY careful about money. He taught me so many things about financial responsibility. I actually sent him an email today (Father's Day) thanking him for those lessons.
Thanks to my upbringing, I have always put an emphasis on financial responsibility. As a result, I was able to pay a huge medical bill in cash, I have no credit card debt, and the only debt that either my husband or I have is his car payment of €200/month.
The car payment is because inflation is so high in Greece that pays to pay off large purchases as slowly as possible. The amount of money you save is considerable, since there's no interest on the loan, and by the time we reach the final payment, that €200 will be worth a lot less than it was when he bought the car. So we're not interested in paying it off early.
As far as how it's touched our lives: I cook everything from scratch. I make pasta, bread, tortillas, pitas from scratch. We eat a lot dried beans. We haven't had meat, chicken, or fish in months. We eat 100% at home. We don't drink coffee out. We don't drink alcohol at all, ever. We walk everywhere we can, and only drive when it's absolutely necessary. Neither of us has bought clothes or shoes in two years (neither of us is into clothes-buying) and they are starting to fall apart - instead of getting new ones, I'm gluing shoes and sewing clothes back together. I'm trying to get odd jobs like translating and teaching English if possible although so far, haven't found any. I have put up ads on Fiverr and am hoping for something through that.
I have things I can sell if it comes to that. I really hope it won't. I don't mean things of great value like a house, I mean a little jewelry, my laptop, the brand new iPOD I gave my husband for Christmas, 10 days before the ground fell out from under us.
We celebrated two months of marriage today. I made soup with dried beans and tomatoes, we had it for lunch and dinner. Things are difficult but we are going to be okay. We are both creative and smart, and I know we will make it. We canceled our wedding for financial reasons (we just did the paperwork so we are legally married) but we have dreams of celebrating with our parents someday, so we have a (so far empty) "Wedding Fund."