How do you make enough money right out of college to provide for a family of 6? I suppose if that was our number one priority, my husband and I could join the millions of two-income families with children who pay for daycare and sacrifice traditional home-cooked meals for short-cut dinners and breakfasts on the run. But we chose not to.

I graduated with a B.A. in communications in 2003; my husband earned his B.S. in biology in 2006. We lived with family to help make ends meet while he was in school -- and we still live with family. And as long as we put family first, we may get into a home by the time we "retire." Maybe not.

It's a good thing we all get along well. My parents both work full time, although my dad plans to retire in the coming year or two. When I grew up, my mom stayed home full time while my dad taught school. People said it wasn't possible for a teacher in Utah to support a family, but my parents made it work.

When I had to leave my new job doing public relations for a school district because my family was falling apart and needed me at home, I cried for two weeks. The adjustment to full-time home life took months. But my 1-year-old couldn't make the daycare adjustment the way my older two children had, so it was destroy the child or put her needs first. I had only one choice.

I would not have had the option to stay home if my mother had not stepped up and offered to take us into their apartment. My brother and his wife were moving into their newly-built home and out of my parents' basement. Mom and Dad had planned to rent it out, but after a few interviews with prospective tenants, my mother became highly motivated to have someone familiar living there.

I tried to commute the extra 30 minutes (on the already 30 minute commute I had begun with), but gas prices shot up, and it turned out that with the cost of transportation, daycare and prepared food, we were losing money. When my mother suggested I quit my job and live with them while my husband continued his schooling, we had to accept, much to my horror at the time.

Now, almost 4 years later, my husband commutes an hour, I'm home with the children, and we still can't afford to live anywhere else. With the added expense of student loan payments; orthodontia for one child (whose troubles only began with an inability to bite corn-on-the-cob -- and anything else with her front teeth); health, dental and life insurances; diapers (even with cloth diapers, our 23-pound 9-month-old has outgrown 4 complete sets of home-sewn waterproof diaper covers); transportation that fits our family (our 4-door 1994 Chevy Cavalier just couldn't accommodate an infant seat, a booster, and 4 others safely); we make more than we've ever made before, but still can't afford to rent.

Are we happy? Well, my husband has that nagging "I can't provide for my family like a real man" feeling that always flits around in the back of his mind and sometimes makes its way to the surface. But for the most part we manage to be happier than we've ever been.

We talk about features of our home we'd like to build someday. We work in my dad's flower beds and help take care of the elderly aunt who lives next door. We share responsibility for fixing dinners, and my parents invite our kids up to play every weekend (and sometimes weeknights).

Our family overflows from the two-bedroom basement apartment into my parents' basement family room. So we've become a kind of 8-person household with a few loose privacy rules.

We save what money we can, and we teach our kids to save for the future. But those rainy days when the transmission needs work or the kids suddenly outgrow all their clothes always seem to eat up whatever we manage to put by. At this rate, we'll never be able to afford a mortgage. I don't anticipate we'll ever have our own home.

But not owning a home isn't the worst fate I could imagine.