I understand everyone makes sacrifices right now. The economy sucks and the current leadership of the country is oblivious to the fact. I also understand how lucky we are to still have a home and a vehicle. I'm not, in any way, complaining. I'm simply sharing our story with you.

Anyway, see the vehicle in my driveway in the image attached to this? My husband drives that to work every Monday and comes home every Friday. I'm not complaining because it's an SUV. We've owned it since 2001, it's a wonderful vehicle; the best we've ever had. It is not paid off because we had to extend the loan terms a few years ago.

My point is that due to gas prices being insanely outrageous, our family is separated five days per week.  My husband works - and lives - an hour away from home on weekdays. I know several people who drive an hour each way and still live at home but not on $30,000 a year and a strict budget.

The Durango gets about 17 miles per gallon and the one-hour drive is about 56 miles in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. My husband had to fill the gas tank every third day when he was driving to work from home every day. Gas was eating a major portion of our income and we were falling behind on the mortgage and other payments. My step-brother lives in the same town my husband works in so he said my husband could live there through the week if he wanted. One more month and our mortgage and normal bills will be caught up. Two months for the Durango payment.

I'm fortunate enough to work from home as a writer so we don't have to have 2 vehicles. It would be nice to have a more economic vehicle but if we take on another vehicle payment, where does that put us? Higher insurance + a second vehicle payment - less spent on gas does not equal saving money.

Some may ask why he doesn't get a job closer to home or why we don't move. He is a Network Administrator and jobs in any technical field are few to none in our immediate area. We feel fortunate that he has this one. That wasn't the situation when we bought the house just three years ago. Attempting to sell our home under current economic conditions and the housing market as unstable as it is would be very unwise. We considered renters but again the risks are too high.

So there you have it. My family's sacrifice is not having my husband home. The kids (11 & 14) and I miss him through the week and of course he misses us. We all understand that there is no other option right now.