So, tomorrow is moving day…I’ve been bringing carloads of boxes of stuff over to the new house for the past few days, but tomorrow the furniture goes there, and I begin actually living there. And I’m going to be royally fucked.
The utility deposit was twice what I planned for (twice what I’ve ever heard them asking for). Every aspect of this has had some hidden cost or another. And while my wife and I are splitting our possessions equally and fairly, that still means that half the stuff I use to live, I need to replace. Ok, so I don’t have a TV for awhile – no biggie by me, and The Littlest Briston will have to just deal with it for awhile. But…no pots and pans. No dining room chairs. No couch. No microwave. Half of the day-to-day stuff, gone. And while I’ve been Freecycling and Craigslisting like a maniac in preparing for this, that means things are going to be unbelievably tight for the first month or two. I mean, geez…I’m looking at a budget of about 70 bucks for the next two weeks and a fridge that contains nothing but cold air.
Not exactly how I had this planned out in my head.
Been there, done that. I lived a month in one place with no dining table, and had two teenagers. You’ll manage. As soon as you start breathing the air of the truly free, you won’t notice that you’ve no TV.
I encourage you to get out and meet other single parents. That’s an awesome resource.
Is it garage sale season where you live? You might be able to pick up everything you need in one shot with one stop (or a moving sale via the newspaper or Craigslist). Or if you’re comfortable doing it, and on Facebook, see if anyone you know has some of this stuff lying around. Pots and pans, old TVs and microwaves… all the sort of things I regularly see curbed.
Goodwill can be your friend, too. You don’t really need much. While half the stuff you used to have is now gone, you can get along with very few “things” right now. Take your time and don’t forget to breathe.
Friends and co-workers are good resources. I gained a lot that I needed from both. Also, I don’t remember how old your little one is, but sometimes having nothing is really ok for kids. My kids and I actually talked and played board games for a while before I got a tv and wii for them.
what everybody else said…been there done that, trying to convince the current wife that “stuff” isn’t where its at…don’t beleive I’ve succeded but(good lord the thing i missed least is pay tv) with the budget cut, me and the kids (re)discovered reading via the local used book store and library as well (before the widespread advent of ereaders) and get this, i had no internet access or email for almost 2 years as well
You can press the utilities to accept your credit report if your credit is good in lieu of deposit. They’ll even accept the free consumer version you can secure yourself.
