I have never felt homeless; I always hate when my mom tells people that we have been for the past year. We have always had a place to stay and haven’t had to sleep in the car or on the streets like typical homeless people. But we haven’t had a home since last December.

I had just graduated from college and my mom had just moved out to live with me because she liked it better out here than back with my grandparents she had been helping. Neither one of us had been able to find jobs. We were answering questions for ChaCha, trying to make a little money to get by, while paying rent with what little savings we had and trying to borrow from family without borrowing too much. We were buying only the food we could get at Kmart because we had to use the Sears card instead of cash.

We each applied to every job in every grocery store and retail store in the area we could find, but never got called for any interviews. We lived like this for 4 months, and finally had to leave our apartment because we couldn’t afford it anymore. We lived in relatively cheap motels in the area (We were in the San Fernando Valley, there is no such thing as a cheap motel.) for about a week before a friend at church found someone we could stay with for a while.

She ended up letting us stay so we could get back on our feet. I started working for a friend with a quilt shop a few hours a week so we could buy food. I also found a MOPS group to work childcare for which lead me to the nanny job I currently have once a week. My mom got a job at a non-profit home for pregnant women in the area and we were able to trade in her old car that pretty much broke down in the parking lot of the car dealership and get her a new(er) car. I was able to get my own car so I could get to and from work more easily, too.

We had so many bills to pay down that most of our money was gone as soon as it came in at the beginning. As we paid things down, we were able to have a little extra money and quit using the credit cards (as much, I still have to buy gas on mine, but pay it mostly off each time).

Then the lady we were living with kicked us out of the house. She went psycho one day about splitting the bills (which we had offered many times to help pay before this). We didn’t have the full amount to give her immediately as we had just paid all of our bills for the month and didn’t get paid again for about a week or so. She assumed we were trying to get out of paying and flew off the handle. So we moved in with a very loving friend of ours who had an extra room for the month.

We already knew we were going to be moving into a house at the first of October, and tried explaining that to the lady we had been living with but she was completely irrational by that point. We have been staying with our friend for the past three weeks, and it has been a good time.

We are finally getting to move into our own place tomorrow. It’s such a relief to know we have a place of our own and we don’t have to worry about psycho roommates anymore. It’s good to know that we are finally going to be settled for a while.

It’s good to finally move home.

Have you ever experienced a crazy roommate who would not think rationally? Have you ever had to live on friends’ couches while not having your own place? Got any ideas on what color I should paint my new room?