I lost my job during the Great Recession – right when things got really bad. It was July, the summer was hot, and my daughter was going to start kindergarten. Losing a job, like getting divorced, is a shock to your finances.
In between looking for a new job and drooling on the couch I made a budget. The only things I could spend money on were child support, food, rent, and utilities. We’d been planning to go to Disneyland that summer. It was off the list. Telling my daughter was really hard.
We went to the coast instead. Friends had a condo at the beach and were nice enough to let us use it for free. One afternoon we packed up the car and went.
We cooked together at the condo every night. We made sand castles at the beach, rented one of those 4-wheel pedal car things (I let her steer – she went crazy!), and I splurged and bought her a new doll. We went to the park and played on the swings, we walked the dogs, and we played Uno. Of all the vacations we’ve taken together it was the most memorable.
I eventually got a new job, we went to Disneyland, and our money situation got better. And with all that, the times that are special are still the simple things we do together.