Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Now I guess this article doesn't give enough info really about the individual families they use for examples, but their little snippets about their lives are not enough to convince me that they're trying hard enough to really live cheaply.

In one of the families only the husband works. Now that may have been a decision they made a long time ago and I'm not trying to make some kind of stink about whether moms should stay home with their kids or anything like that. But the fact is, if you're struggling to pay your bills and your youngest kid is 12 maybe it's time for Mom to get a job! Sorry, but it seems really lazy to me to pretend otherwise. If you're scrimping your pennies to buy eggs (a quote from the mom in this family) maybe working at Starbucks part-time won't kill you, lady.

The other people they mention are a young couple in their 20's, both working and living outside Seattle. They have apparently cut out "most of their entertaining" and trips to visit her family and friends 30 miles away. OK, well I don't know what they're spending on entertaining but I guarantee they can cut back more. And maybe her friends and family can share the burden of visiting. And maybe they can visit less and talk on the phone more. And really, if you're a couple with no kids and both working and you're living in a suburb of Seattle (which is much cheaper than living in Boston, where we live) then you really should be able to get by. I'm sorry.

The guy alludes to their grocery bill "doubling". Well, food prices haven't doubled, so if youre grocery bill did then maybe you need to plan a little better and pay attention to what you're spending.

Listen folks, we spend $200 at the grocery store in a month, to feed two adult human beings, and we spend very little aside from that on other food or drink. It's certainly less than ideal, and in fact a lot of the time it totally sucks ass, but you don't have to act like the sky is falling when you haven't even made a decent effort yet.

I'm just saying.

Sorry if this makes me sound bitchy but it's just that I know feeling poor as dirt and these people aren't there yet.