Budget Update

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I got my last paycheck from my former teaching job a few days ago.

Today we made a budget for our time when I am between jobs.  It involved things like paying the minimum on the mortgage and not putting anything in investments.  More drastic cuts were things like 'no spending money' and trying to cut our food budget down to half of what we usually spend.  I'm now trying to drink more water and less milk and asking myself if I can afford to take my niece swimming.

The most draconian budget we can come up with still leaves us $400 short.

I did some temp work in June, and I have some scheduled for July.  And we have a healthy savings account.  However, we don't know how long I will be out of work, or if my new job will pay decently, so we are going to try to live as frugally as possible and try not to touch the savings. So it feels like we are "playing" at what it would be like to be poor.  There will be an end to this.  We won't always have to say 'no' to what we want to do.  But some people live this way their whole lives, always scraping and pinching, and saying 'no,' and still just one disaster away from wiping out.

It's been oddly thought-provoking.

Plus there is this unsettling feeling: What if it stays like this forever?  What if I can't find anything and I have to scrape by with temping and freelancing for years?  Unlikely, but not impossible.

Trusting in Divine Providence is proving most difficult right now when it is most necessary.