As a single parent money is always tight. It’s hard to make ends meet with only one income these days. I’ve mentioned many times in previous blogs that I am currently a full time student. The university I attend is about a 40 minute drive from our home. I was putting 60 miles a day on my car and was driving back and forth five days a week. When I was teaching in the schools I was putting double the miles on my car. Needless to say, I was spending an insane amount of money on gas each week. With gas prices as high as they’ve been the last year, my wallet was consistently empty.
As you can expect, Logan and I were both starting to get a little sick of the car. Luckily, the frontrunner train just opened up near our home which made it possible for us to get to and from school without the added expense of putting gas in my car every couple of days. With the help of some amazing friends taking us to and from the train station we have been able to save a ton of money. Not only was money staying in my wallet a little longer, but it was a great opportunity to bond with my son. Each day we brought an activity to do on the train. Yesterday we brought a game to play on his LeapPad, today we read stories together, tomorrow we’re going to draw pictures for my brother who is on an LDS mission in Paris, France right now. Even though we’ve had to get up a little earlier to catch the train, it has been well worth it to spend the extra quality time with my son. It has already made our relationship even stronger. We both look forward to this special time together.
Sometimes we have to make little sacrifices to save money where we can. For us it was the convenience of having a car at school with us, but we have been blessed with the extra time together that comes from taking public transportation. The sacrifices may be different for you and your children, but in the end there’s always some kind of compensation for being willing to go the extra mile, you just have to find it!