IN APRIL 2024, MY HUSBAND AND I sold our 2,500-square-foot dream New Jersey family home. It had four bedrooms, a pool, wraparound front porch, a dream master suite with Jacuzzi tub, on an acre of land.
We lived there for two years when we shocked our friends and family by deciding to sell up-and move us and our two children, ages 8 and 12 years old, into our 34-foot camper.
So many people questioned why. But here's the truth: We were completely house broke.
When we first bought our home in 2022, we could afford it comfortably. Our total gross income was over $140,000 combined. My husband works as an electrician in a refinery and I was working for a pregnancy center.
I was also homeschooling our daughters, so after about 18 months in our home, we made the hard decision for me to stay home with the girls in order to focus more on their needs.
I picked up a small job making reservations for campgrounds from home. Then, our cost of living skyrocketed.
Our electricity bill doubled. We struggled to spend less than $300 a week on groceries. Oil, gas-all the prices were going up.
Over four months into life in the RV, I'm still seeing things happening financially in this world that make me want to vomit.
My husband and I thank God that we got rid of our house when we did because we would have been drowning if we hadn't sold up.
We are currently not traveling in our camper, which helps to keep costs down. We'll have to move on to a new campground in October because our current place doesn't do monthly sites through winter. But we're stationary as much as possible.
In our previous home, we were paying $2,000 a month on our mortgage and roughly $1,000 a month in taxes.
Bu hikaye Newsweek US dergisinin October 04, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Newsweek US dergisinin October 04, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Can Alternative Therapies Treat Cancer?
Doctor and breast cancer survivor Liz O'Riordan addresses misinformation around managing the disease
Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
