<prompt> Human: Original post here: We got an extra 1700 and my husband is doing piece work til they need him back at his job. We have 2340 in the bank now which will cover our next months rent and insurance. He said that they dont need him back yet because the machines arent working and they need somebody to come fix them before he could do his job. The temporary piece work is back breaking labour but pays amazingly well, not sure how long he can do it for. Dr told him to rest his injured knee but he cant as after posting this we had a talk about our financial affairs and I expressed my concern about how worried it all makes me. He says it is no big deal really, and when he can get back to his regular job hell take overtime and we can pay it off quickly. He says that the possibility of homelessness is small I was quite worried after reading all of these comments because we still have 20,000 on our credit cards if it ever came to an emergency like that. Obviously that would be a possibility if we continued on our current course long-term, but it is not some kind of pending disaster and that the troubles we are in at the moment can reasonably be reversed. That I am just getting anxiety because of hormones and such. We think it is a good idea for me to take in some other children to help pay off our current debt sooner. We were thinking maybe one child all day at 40day plus after school care for 4 children for 1-2 hours for 10 each so another 40. Ending up with an extra 80day or 1600 a month. But he doesnt think I should do it until our baby is a little older and I have recovered some postpartum. With the 1600 for me and the 4800 from him, we should be able to make 6400, minus our expenses 3700 for 2700 to the debt, minus 400 for the interest means 2300 to the principal each month and we should have it paid off in a little over a year. I completely support him staying home with me for this postpartum period and see nothing wrong with it, and was surprised by the personal attacks when I simply asked for advice on a personal finance message board. He had to stay home. The children had to be kept separated. I was told that pneumonia could lead to babys death. What father wouldnt cut work to be with his child in the hospital? Clearly I cant bring a newborn baby there and neither of us could live with ourselves if she had to be in there all alone. My husband said that the thought of homelessness is melodramatic, likewise the thought of moving into cheaper housing, and Im being negative and discouraging. Our current rent is the average norm where we live. Rentals are hard to get here and there is huge competition for them - way more people wanting to rent than there are rental homes available. It took us two months to find a rental here. He says it is better to be in debt than to live in the ghetto where our children would be in an area with crime, drugs, and so on. Not long ago in the papers a child was raped over there. Better to be in debt a little longer. And even if we wanted to move, why and how would we break our lease? Our home and our landlord are both great. They have a semi-government funded housing complex here in town, but I looked it up and ALL of the units are on hold for the coming syrian refugees. Our situation is not all that unusual. We live in suburban Canada and there is no public transit. The average person has 21,000 consumer debt according to the most recent survey, a gallon of milk is 5, beef is 20kg. The urban areas are more expensive and the rural areas have no jobs. What did us in was the frequent moving, car issues, and the driving without insurance fine. The fine was 7000 on a credit card and his insurance afterwards ended up being 500. Most insurance companies would not even insure him. He had purchased a used car for 800 from a friend and it ended up needing thousands of dollars in repairs, we thought it would have ended up being a good deal in the end but it was not worth it in the end. After sinking so much money into it, he sold it for 200 and got a better car that we are making 130month payments on. My husband injured his back in my 9th month of pregnancy and could not work, and that was when I did lots of cash advances and we racked up a huge amount of debt in that period. There was also a failed business attempt that was hard too. The moving was extremely expensive. We first rented a cheap crappy bachelor basement apartment 750, and ended up moving because it was far too small. Then we lived in a 1 bedroom basement 950, but we had many issues with the landlords and they would not fix anything. Same with another cheap place we tried. Then we decided to go up a little in rent and try our luck with that, but the tenant in the basement apartment had a dog that barked all day if it was inside and roamed free jumping on people if it was outside. Tried for so long to stick it out but he and my husband argued so much and there was so much tension over it. Eventually phoned the police over the dog, and he got fined for its barking and for it not being registered, and he went ballistic and threatened me and I was afraid so I begged my husband to negotiate with the landlord to break the lease, and he did. The next place we moved to had an ok rent 1500 but there were so many repairs, new things would break every week and the landlords would refuse to fix it, so we went to a higher end place 1750 thinking we wouldnt have the same problems if we were willing to pay more. This place was great but somebody kept trying to break into our house and there were always footsteps in the backyard, police didnt catch the person, and I was afraid and again asked my husband to please break the lease so we could move. So we did, again, and now we are in this place. I did always cook from scratch for many years, baking my own bread, all of that, I invented my own homemade dry cereal and homemade protein bars. Every time we moved, and with each new baby, I would stop and get takeout food for a season. I have examined my own habits and feel selfish and bad about it. We eat a lot of meat and have to cut down on that now. Aside from that we are going to try to lower our interest rates on our credit cards, lower our insurance, and ask the tax agency if we can set up a payment plan to pay it off long term. We did taxes with tax software, would it be worth the time to do it by hand and see if we get a lower figure? Are there ever errors with the software? I was shocked by the large figure. If I did it by hand it would take all day 8 hours would I be wasting my time?Ironically I went to private school for finance hah, quit after a year because it wasnt what I wanted to do was pressured into it by my father, once he was out of the picture I quit immediately and it took me a year of hard living and not eating to pay off that school debt. I worked with show horses after that, but havent worked since I first got pregnant 5 years ago and have no resume. We intended to have a traditional family with me staying home, but I am ok with working to help pay off the debt. I may try applying for a coffee shop or something or try to get some part time work in my old field with horses. The jobs Ive had have been through word of mouth and I dont even remember when exactly I worked at which facilities and it might be tricky trying to make a resume and track down old contacts to help me as references. My midwife does not think I should work, but maybe in a couple weeks or something it will be ok to. I am skilled in childcare and housework if that counts for anything. I am especially great with tiny babies so I might try a night nanny or something like that which I think could pay well. I am getting mixed answers about the cloth diapers and the deep freezer and I am not sure whether to go ahead and invest into them or not. We are spending 100 a month on diapers now as my daughter who is about to turn 4 regressed and stopped going potty right after she watched my husband injure his back. I think it stressed her out some and she is troubled by it, and nothing I do seems to make her go back to using the toilet and I have her back in pullups for now :The new meal plan I have made has homemade cereal for breakfast, sandwiches with homemade bread and canned fish for lunch, fruit and vegetables for snacks cheaper ones like apples, oranges, carrots. For suppers I am going to do only 1 night of good meat, 1 night of sausages, 1 night of chicken, 2 nights of eggs, 1 night of liver, and 1 night of rice and beans or mac n cheese. Mostly served with homemade broth and cheap vegetables like onions, carrots, cabbage, frozen veg, seasonalsale. And then do the last week of the month with really dirt cheap meals like peanut butter toast and rice and beans every night for one week to save a little extra money. Once we run out of products I am going to go back to making my own like baby wipes and laundry soap, and try some other ones like deodorant and body lotion. I was kind of overwhelmed and found it hard to reply to all the responses, tried to cover everything in this one post. I am still feeling anxious and depressed about it but trying my best to stay cheerful for my husband and children. Feeling good with some hopeful solutions ahead :  <response>: Please accept outside help benefits etc for your children. They are innocent bystanders in this situation, and they need all the help they can get to grow up to healthy, stable adults who can contribute to society on their own, 15 to 20 years from now. 