I'm pregnant

Actually there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that buying power has barely changed over time.
For most Americans, real wages have barely budged for decades

Look at what things cost 50/60 years ago vs income at the time be now it’s virtually flat. Life choices are the primary reason for person debt not rising costs.

 

Whatever you say, you’re the one making emotional claims not me. Run and hide if you want,

 

No you can’t, you’ve just been told you can’t afford it.

I judged you before I put you on ignore.

 

It can be done with some suffering, which is actually pretty good for a family.

We are going on our 3rd winter in a falling down camper out in a rough, rough place. One stay at home and one OTR, we live on $500-750 a week. But my land is paid and my kids are behaved. Theyre fed and clothed and happy. Tough times make tough people.

 

I applaud you for your efforts. I profited 40k on a house, moved to an off-grid farm slave gig lol. No rent and no utilities, tenency paid with labor. I stretched that 40k for 7 years. Works out to about 110$ a week but I canned a lot of our food and raised chickens for eggs and meat
It is doable. But I'm an orphan and my kids are basically orphans as well since Dad bought a Philippine woman and moved over there. Not being able to help either of them with college is painful for me. I could have stayed in the worker bee role and maybe they'd have more money from me now... but I relish the time I was able to be a stay at home mom.
Nobody else has the right to judge how we manage our lives if we are acting with integrity and love...

 

I still haven’t figured out who is judging anyone.

 

as someone whose social media is pretty much...this forum lol... I agree. I ditched FB and never tweeted or followed or whatever. My kids are still on FB and other groups I'm sure. I set them up the FB accounts and I set the privacy settings etc back when they were in middle school, I get where you're coming from.
My kids were prime candidates for bullying. We were known to live on 'that farm' with composting toilets etc!! (we did have running water and showers etc tho) The vast majority of all our outer clothing was thrift store. I won't buy Walmart so even cheap imitation trendy stuff never happened for them... But neither of them reported bullying then or since, they are now 21 and 23. My theory is that when you live a life that highlights the meaningful things vs the fleeting, stupid or trivial, you develop an internal sense of values and self worth that is like an immunization against too much concern over other peoples opinions.

But- internet education is WAY bigger than social media when done correctly. teaching kids to discern opinion from fact, how to research facts, what social pressure looks like, how to spot website bias...
how to have meaningful dialog with intelligent but non-native English speakers, how to not fall for troll bait, click bait, polarization and isolation in news feeds....these are all skills to develop young thru experience and with guidance- not stuff to be figuring out once you're 20...with a credit card and professional reputation at stake.