I've been a bit better lately, partly because of the thyroid meds, partly because I am in kind of a manic phase. I've been cleaning my house like crazy, and organizing & geting rid of tons of stuff. It's not enough though, because we still have too much crap for our small apartment. With Christmas coming, I know we will get even more useless crap for the kids. We don't buy much, I only spend maye $50 per kid, and only my own. Besides that, I only buy 3 $30 presents for the kids grab bag on Christmas. We don't buy for adults, and no one buys for us. I would love to be able to shop for my nieces & nephews, (I have 4) but the truth is, their parents have a lot more disposable income than we do, and they get pretty much anything they want anyway. I won't let my SIL's or BIL's buy for our kids either, even though they sneak gifts in through Grandma & Grandpa. I feel bad. My kids always have a decent Christmas, which I am greatful for, as there is no way I could afford to do it by myself. My parents love buying stuff for the boys. If I even NEED anything that I can't find at the thrift store, or at Target, I ask, and usually it turns up. I ONLY ask if it's for the boys though, I don't ask for money to pay bills, or anything like that. I am thankful that small things can be taken care of by someone else, even though sometimes, I would really appreciate if they would babysit for a night or 2 sometime more. I know we are in bad shape financially, but it could be worse. We do have enough money to have a roof over our heads, it's just that some months are a bit leaner than others. We can handle it, I think. If everything goes according to plan, we will be mostly debt free in 18 months. Then we can start saving for a house :)