Back online and hitting rock bottom

Well, I got the computer back on Monday, about a week earlier than expected, which was great! Although I missed having the computer, I did try and keep myself busy, and have decided that I need to map out my computer usage so I can get more non-computer relating things done during the day. LOL

I went back and forth about posting about what I'm going to talk about now - I don't want to come across as whining, because I am very, very thankful for what we have. We have a nice house in a nice town, no more car payments, my husband has the best paying job since we've been married, and in this economy I am SO THANKFUL that he still has this job. So, please do not take the following as whining or complaining.

As I write this, we have a total of $18 in the checking account, and my husband JUST got paid on Friday. WTH? I can do a lot with coupons, but stretching $18 until the next payday will be extremely difficult. My mother just helped me with some money that she was going to send to DH for his birthday, and instead of going to getting something for his birthday, it went to paying a partial payment on the cell phone so we wouldn't be completely out of communication with everyone. (I would love to get rid of the cell phones altogether, but we do have a contract, so we don't want to get zapped with cancellation fees.)

I have to resort to selling a gold ring to get some cash so we can get some groceries and pet food and the remaining school supplies for my son. Part of this cash flow crisis is due in part to a bit of bad budgeting, but the big problem is just too little income. And though I have felt that we hit "rock bottom" on previous occasions, this time we really have HIT IT.

Hitting rock bottom has really energized me to finally get started on REI. This is really the only way our family is going to get the income we need to get out of debt, meet our needs and most importantly, become a family that can give to help others.

So, in the next couple of days, I'll be outlining my plan and getting my goals set up, and I will get started on this ONCE AND FOR ALL.