Response to Katie's blog...

So Katie's blog entry made me think (very dangerous as you read my ramblings below). I wrote a long comment on her blog and then decided to just post it here:

Nowadays, just having a college education will not guarantee that you will have an income to even survive in the US... we have friends that the husband was a teacher and the wife stayed at home and they qualified for WIC and DSHS health care for the children! Both college educated! And what does this say about how we regard teachers... they can't afford to take care of their own families? What does it say about how important our children are when we don't pay teachers a decent salary? I always try to look at things as needs v. wants. We need baby formula. That's a given. We need Paul's insulin and my meds. We didn't WANT to be in the hospital (and meet petros' and my out of pocket deductible for the year), but we need to pay the bill that comes in the mail every month. And sometimes we do need new clothes. or new shoes. The part I struggle with is that I would love to be able to buy the things we need with a minimal effect on the environment (Like what Fr. Paul was talking about in his sermon the other night). Like trying to by things that are not made by slave labor overseas. Or free range meat. Or organic vegetables. BUT when Pavlos needs new shoes and I only have a minimal amount of money to pay for them, what do I do? Most of the time we are fortunate enough to have hand me downs from my nephew and only need to buy a few new items. And right now, I am lamenting that I have two weddings coming up in the next two weeks and I would really like to buy a new dress because I haven't bought a new dress in two years (I did buy two skirts in June, though). I sometimes tear myself apart with should I, shouldn't I?!?! And I read articles about being frugal but I do all of those things they suggest!

I really don't want to complain because we are richer than most people in the world. And we do own our own home. And we choose to send Pavlos to Agia Sophia. And I remember the poor years growing up... but my parents made a decision to send us to private schools, even though we didn't have a lot of money. And they did own their own home and instead of buying a new one, they added two more bedrooms (and my dad didn't take out a loan to build the new rooms... every week, he bought with cash what he could afford to buy... whether it was two nails or another 2x4). And I had a wonderful childhood in a wonderful family... my parents stayed together (and are obviously still together) after 35 years of marriage. And we spent our vacations camping rather than going on exotic trips (OK, we did take a couple of trips to Greece, but my dad went for 14 years without seeing his own parents. Fourteen years! But we went to Greece to see family, not just a whim of a trip). And my granma would make my sister and I really nice dresses that we loved.

OK. I think that's enough. I think that there are more people in our stage of life that struggle financially. They say that we are the first generation that will not be financially better than our parents. I believe it.