The Truth About Us
Currently we are away in Queenstown on a holiday with our family, and extended family. I have received several messages on Snapchat (happymumnz) saying how lucky we are to be able to afford a holiday like this – and by golly you guys are right. Except we didn’t pay for this – my parents did.
My husband and I are not “well off” by any means.
We’re not poor, but we’re not rich; we’re in the middle.
—————————
Phil and I started dating in 2005, and when things started getting serious, we decided that we didn’t want to rent a place, so scrimped and saved to buy a house.
We were both working full time, and both living at home with our own parents. My parents used to charge me rent to live there (it was a house rule once we worked full time), but stopped charging me to allow me to save for a deposit.
In 2007, we bought our first house together – in Mangere. Which is in South Auckland.
In 2012, we moved into the house we live in now; which is smaller than our other house, and not great condition. However, it is closer to the schools we wanted the kids to go to.
Because it was a rental property prior to us moving in, my husband decided to replace the carpet, bust out a wall and re-do the bathroom.
So we stayed at my parents while this happened; while HE did the work.
You guys have seen our house – it’s in a perpetual state of renovation. This is because we don’t have the money to pay someone to do the work for us, so my husband is doing it himself.
The bathroom isn’t finished (no vanity, or paint, or tiles LOOL), the walls in the entire house aren’t painted. It needs re-gibing and insulation put in. Heck, it took us a year to put the garage up.
Thankfully my husband loves projects like this, and loves doing it himself; but it does mean things take time.
—————————
We really are middle of the road when it comes to our lifestyle – and we bloody love it. Yes having more money would be amazing, but we are so fortunate and blessed to have what we have.
The truth about is us really simple: we don’t have a lot, but we are happy with what we have. We are also very lucky to have parents and family who are able to help us out where possible.
Otherwise we wouldn’t be in Queenstown right now; we are here because our parents paid for us to be here. And they are able to do that because they worked their asses off when we were kids … but that’s another story.
—————-
