Family makes do in squeezed home

"We're three checks behind right now," she said. "They're saying we'll get the money eventually, but for now I'm living one day at a time. I owe money up the yin-yang."

The sleeping arrangements at Hernandez's house are enough for her children to know that they live differently than most of their friends and classmates.

With only two rooms in the house besides the kitchen and bathroom, no one gets their own bedroom. Most don't even get their own bed.

Hernandez shares a queen mattress in the living room with her mother and her youngest daughter, 8-year-old Carol.

Squeezed into the house's lone bedroom are one traditional bed and one set of bunk beds. Hernandez's oldest boy, 18-year-old Orry, gets his own bunk. So does 12-year-old Katherine. The two youngest boys, 10-year-old James and 13-year-old Faustino, share one.

The family's three dogs, Damien, Digger and Mr. Wiggles, cuddle up wherever they find room.

No one has a dresser or closet to himself either. "My kids are really good at sharing," Hernandez said. "They kind of have to be."

Still, she is grateful for the house she and her husband bought from her father-in-law after they lost the place they were renting in Clovis. Her husband had stopped working because of a disability, and they couldn't afford to stay.

She tries to teach her kids to be grateful, too. "If it hadn't been for his parents selling us this place, we probably would have been homeless," Hernandez said. "Yeah, it's embarrassing to have people over, but I tell the kids at least it keeps the rain and sun off our backs. That's something."

For the most part, Hernandez said, her kids don't complain. But that doesn't mean they don't prefer that things were different.

"I wish we had a bigger house so I could have my own room," said Katherine, her feet dirty from playing outside with no shoes. "That would be cool. Maybe I'd have my friends over more if I had my own room."

She quickly added: "But I'm glad I'm not spoiled. I wouldn't want to be like that."

There's been a little more space in the house since Orry left in June, but Hernandez hopes he'll come back. "We had a fight," she said. "He just grew up a little too fast for me."

Hernandez is careful about paying her bills on time, and she tracks her monthly spending meticulously. "When the budget's this tight, you have to watch it," she said. She did away with her credit cards years ago and hates that she's gone into debt since her paychecks have stopped coming.

Besides her mortgage, Hernandez's biggest expenses are food and transportation.

If you judged her family only by what they eat, it might not seem as if they're struggling. Hernandez attributes that to priorities and food stamps. "The food stamps help a lot, and I make sure my kids never go hungry. That's not a place I'll skimp."

Her kids go through a lot of juice and soda when they could drink just water. Most weekends they have a family barbecue. The spread on one recent Saturday was far from meager: hot dogs and hamburgers with all the fixings, beans, deviled eggs, two kinds of salad, iced tea and soda.

"Did you get enough, baby?" Hernandez asked her youngest son, James, as he cleaned his second plate.

"Uh-huh," he answered, his mouth still full. Most of the kids had seconds that day.

"My kids eat until they're full," Hernandez explained. "But that doesn't mean I don't try to save where I can."

Like most poor single mothers, she's learned how to stretch her food budget. She buys in bulk and freezes food. She cans food herself. She clips coupons. She shops at the dollar store, Wal-Mart and Food 4 Less.