How true Kathy!  And often times when people do get a second job, they just up their lifestyle to reflect the extra income, rather than using the funds to eliminate debt.  If we could just grasp this concept:  To live within (or below) the means of our income, and not of our credit.   

Kathy,

All so very true my sister. In my profession, we combine this poor stewardship with doing all things in the name of ministry and neglect our wives and families even more. I have a blog to share about this but just too painful to write now. 

I SHARE TOO IN YOUR VIEW AS A SINGLE MOM I WORK TWO JOBS .IT SEEMS THE MORE I HAVE I SPEND. GREAT BLOG KATHY GOD BLESS YOU.

Kathy, this is a terrific blog, with good timing.  We live this way and have for some time.  It is much easier...  

THANKS for this... I was glancing through my emails, and I got one from MyChurch.org.  Well, I usually skim through and delete, but your blog caught my eye.  I have had my family all tell me I need to get a second Job.  I "need the extra money", plus with all my bills and the "economy the way it is", it seemed to be perfect sense to them.  I didn't want to get one, mostly because, actually I need a better paying job to begin with.. plus I'm very involved with my church and I really don't want to give any of that up.  I love doing it, and giving any time I can, back to God, is much more important than feeding bad spending habits.  I know I do have those too, and I'm praying, and with God's help, working through them, but I seriously do not believe that a second job would make things better.  Last for Christmas and the end of the year, I had a second job and it did nothing for me but eat my time.

Sorry this is so long, but I guess I'm just sorting through my thoughts.  Thanks for the reassurance.  I feel like this was from God, an answer... God bless!! =]

this sounds good in theory, but too much like what nancy reagan said in the 80s about adjusting your lifestyle.
I did a political cartoon of her driving by in a limo telling that to a homeless woman on the street corner with 4 hungry kids and baby in her arms.) thats all very well and good if the person is in a higher income bracket and there is room for adjustment,  and I totally think those people need to do just that, but what about the rest of us who have been constantly adjusting their lifestyles downward for the past 30 years and are now at the bottom of the food chain?
cable tv? well, I have a package for my internet, phone and cable which makes it cost the same for that as it did cost for just the phone. I cant do without the internet and phone, because what little work I do get depends on having dsl and phone connections. so cant change that. my man is disabled and has one eye and his tv is all he has for entertainment. we dont go out. we dont eat out. we live partly on the food I have left over from demos, cant afford to buy meat very often. we dont go to starbucks. Ive always shopped at good will and st vinnies and I go on monday when the clothes are 75% off. my car is 14 years old, paid for, and has 165,000 miles on it. if something breaks down I will have a problem. I was getting tires paid for because the les schwab tire guy had promised me he would hire me to paint the window signage til the tires were paid off, and he has now renigged on me so now I have to figure out for myself how to finish those payments. customers I have done window splash for for years are now cancelling becaue their own business are in the toilet. I had to buy tires. (both of the two jobs I already have require travel, which of course also requires 4 buck a gallon gas to get there.) and the Les schwab guy has renigged on letting me paint the windows to make the tire payments. 
 I stopped coloring my hair 5 years ago because that cost too much. I stopped doing my nails 2 years ago. I dont go to starbucks even though I love it. I had to stop the physical therapy on my right arm ( fell and broke it in June which also stopped me from doing much work for 2 or 3 months and its still only about half the strength it used to be and painful) because the insurance ran out.
travel? cant afford that any more either.
I am 58 years old and have RA and fibromyalgia which makes a lot of the jobs I used to do undoable.
I go to a native reservation clinic and get a discount there on calls and meds, but if I get any kind of other job that makes my income go up, not only would the people I owe money to guarnish the checks, but it would lose me the discounts on drs and meds and then I wouldnt be able to afford to go to the doc at all. the chances of me getting hired to a company that provides insurance and enough money to actually improve my income at the same time half of it is being guarnished is slim to none considering the economy and my age, and my physical limitations.
I have already cut up the credit cards but that isnt going to keep me from getting sued by 10 card companies because I cant pay the bill. I cant even afford to file bankruptcy. it cost 900 to file even if I dont hire a lawyer.
I have to wait another year and a half before my age will qualify me for free legal help.
I have already sold all my earthly belongings or given them to people I owed money to to pay for my debt and it wasnt even a drop in the bucket.
we burn pellets in a pellet stove so we dont have such a high electric bill in the winter, but now pellets are 5 bucks a bag ( thats one day's worth of heat) so now that costs nearly as much as electricity does. they say we are going to have another horribly cold and long winter in the pacific northwest. oh goody.
fortunately I was raised by a mother who lived through the depression and she brainwashed me on how to be frugal or we would be in worse shape than we are, but I really dont see a lot of ways left that I can cut back.
I just need more of the work that I know I can still do. www.artwizzerd.com

Thank God for  Kathy's Blog,  I am sure  that the credit cards or password or PIN that we use to access our easy life can't give us an access to the Kingdom of God! ....

"Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" Mt.6:10
www.cssi.org.in

Hello,

That does make sense.  It sounds like you have common sense. That is great! It is indeed often necessary to have both spouse to work but there are certain case where a spouse can't work. I agree people spend to much money on things they can't affered. I agree it important to magement of your financial. Thank you share your testimony.

Kathy,

I wholeheartedly agree with you.  My husband has been laid off going on now for 8 weeks.  We have had to make adjustments.  While it is not easy, we are doing what we can to be good stewards.  As far as our government goes,  they are in Gods hands.  We are trusting in the Lord for all things!!!!!!!  God bless you!

Great blog, Kathy! I think society pressures people to live beyond their means largely because of society's intolerance of both the poor and any one who must live below the standards that society imposes, even though those standards are unrealistic and artificial.  And, yes, we consumers really do tend to buy things out of a sense of entitlement: I deserve to buy these shoes/video/dress/boots/bracelet/latte because it's been an awful day/week/month and it'll help me feel much better.

I can't help wondering how much of consumerism is the manifestation of emptiness/loneliness/frustration and a cry for help...

This is from Kathy's original post: 

"Wisdom teaches us that the best gift we can give our children is quality time with them.  This is what they will remember and appreciate throughout their  lives, not that you bought them a gaming system you couldn’t afford.  Of course they do not understand this yet, but we know it to be true! "

I'm sorry but wisdom also teaches us that the worst thing you can give to your kids is a liberal, ungodly education in the government funded youth propaganda camps we call the public school system. I work a second job to give them what I wasn't able to have.  I do this primarily because there are no longer any differences between a humanist seminary and a Public school.  Secondly, though, I want to give my kids a chance at life I didn't have.  If they get a good education, maybe they won't have to work two jobs when they're raising their family.  

Just "Thank-you!"