We're both 22, have a 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son.
I have always been the only income in the house. As of right now, I work 80+ hours every 2 weeks, making only about 1400/month. We already receive foodstamps (which covers the majority of the month's costs in food, sometimes we fall short though), WIC and medical assistance.
Our monthly expenses include:
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Rent: 485 (already live in a tiny apartment)
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Electricity: up to 130-150 in the summer
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Internet: 60.00
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2 Cell phones: 100.00
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Gas (car): 100-120
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Insurance: 150
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Laundry: ~40.00
There are, of course, other expenses that are hard to quantify like house hold products, bathroom products, diapers, wipes, general kid expense.
All-in-all, we barely end the month with less than 100.00 to our name. And frankly, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of working 80+ hours, living in a shit apartment, constantly stressed about money, and then having to worry that if I miss a day, or I get sent home early on enough days, that we really won't have enough money. We always manage to get by, but it feels like by the skin of our teeth.
And even though I'm the only income in the house, I get home and am expected to help cook dinner, help clean the house, do my own laundry, ect. Now, I don't mind being the only income, but I do mind barely making it with my income, coming home at 8:00, and being expected to spend the 4 hours I have at home doing housework that I feel like should already be done if her only job she has all day is to watch the kids and clean the house.
I've tried bringing up the fact that I think she aught to try to get a job as well, even if it's just a part-time job, to help out with the bills. Every time I get faced with opposition.
Her biggest hangup for getting a job is the fact that she doesn't trust any person at all, including family members, to baby sit the kids. She absolutely refuses. I tried to tell her we could try to find a baby sitter we trust. I have offered to have my family watch the kids. I have asked her to ask her family to watch the kids. Nothing.
And I get that. I understand not trusting others with our kids. But when it's our own family, and our lifestyle is suffering because of it... I think it's become a huge problem for us.
I've even tried to work with her and asked her if she would be willing to possibly babysit from home, since she wouldn't have to leave our kids with someone else, and she could still earn some extra money to contribute. She claims she can't handle more kids in the house. I've even offered to try to help her start her own crafty/DIY business (she has a lot of crafty aspirations she hasn't really committed to). I asked her to try to add up everything she would need to do so, and I would try to create a budget for her to do so, but she still just doesn't even try to do that. I feel like I've tried to offer every possible solution to try to get a second income in this household, so we can actually get somewhere instead of living check to check.
What else can I do? Do I just suck it up and get a second job? Am I unreasonable to expect her to provide some sort of supplementary income?
I need advice.
Sorry if this falls under more of a relationship advice, rather than financial.
edits: format, sry trying to make it look readable
Submitted January 04, 2017 at 02:17AM by TheSentientOne http://ift.tt/2iyvUEK
