I figured out how to pay off my pre-Kathy house in only six years and had enough money left over to not have any car payments. Going from two incomes to one did, however, cause some financial adjustments for the family. We manage money by clipping coupons, eating out rarely on the Entertainment book, shopping at flea markets and garage sales, buying in bulk, trimming car insurance premiums, using only 87 octane in the cars because that's all they need, and, perhaps very importantly, we rarely call on anybody to fix anything in the house or on the cars because I either know how to fix it or know someone who can tell me how. It's amazing how much even the slightest lack of technical ability can cost a family some hard-earned money. We are the type of people who would rather try to get our neighbors involved in doing things with each other than jumping in our cars and going somewhere to spend time doing things with people we don't know, even though it's hard to get the neighbors involved.
Community seems to be on the endangered species list nowadays.
I was used to doing manly active things before the new assignment. If you move to a cave, it will be much easier to avoid comparing yourself to daily reminders of what 'real' men and 'modern' families are doing for their children, such as substituting money for time spent with them. Remember that there will be new stresses on your mate, too. Prepare for the potential for JOY like you may have never known, especially if you focus daily on your belief that what you are doing will probably result in presenting a more decent human being to this God-forsaken world, and in the process will turn you and Mom into more decent human beings. But, under no circumstances, areyou to rub it in the faces of the people who don't have the guts to attempt what you have accomplished.