We Broke Our Own Rule

I swore we'd never have a credit card.
It's common sense: If we don't have the cash on hand for something, then we can't afford it. Period.

But, no fuel + no money = freezing house, freezing kids, freezing pipes, freezing plants.

Now we just have to pay it off and forget we have it.
~sigh~ I sooo didn't want to go there. Ever. At least I know we aren't the only ones being pressured to the limit this year. It's getting ridiculous. I have older friends who are cutting their pills in half because they can't afford their prescriptions. Not a good idea in any way, shape or form, but what are they to do when it's a choice between dying of starvation or dying from health problems because you can't afford your meds and you need basics like heat, water, rent, mortgage, lights, food, clothes and to pay your property taxes so you can hold on to your freaking house?

I keep hoping the economic conditions around here will eventually get better, but they just continue to slide downwards. People aren't at the 'barely making ends meet' position any more. It's now the 'impossible to make ends meet' area.

Honestly, I don't know if these people are going to make it another year. A few have already lost their homes or moved to cheaper apartments, but social security and minimum wage still isn't cutting it. Prices on everything are doubling and wages aren't budging.

I help out where I can, even if it's something small like the excess vegetables I disperse from the garden to people I know really need the food, or the mittens I knit every year for the Rescue Mission, but I can only do so much.

It's all so depressing that I could just break down in tears. And to think we've been sitting at way below normal temps for weeks on end and spring is another month away only adds to the gloom (or maybe it's just the menopause).

I should just shut up and count my blessings - I have a wonderful spouse that I love to death, my kids are pretty healthy and happy, I have vegetables in the freezer from last years garden, I can sew our own clothes if I have to and we can hang on to our house for now. It may be over 200 years old, leaky, drafty and a maintenance nightmare, but it's ours and it's a roof over our heads.

It's gotta get better...right?