It has been quite some time since I have posted here, and I thought I would finally write about the reason why. My summer wasn't spent on vacation or at the beach. I spent the summer being homeless.

It wasn't because I could no longer afford my mortgage, I got fired from my job or got caught up in the housing market bust. No, it started with something that seemed initially to be a very minor problem: a leaky pipe.

It started with a small wet spot on the living room floor. At first, I thought maybe one of my dog's had an accident on the carpet. By the next morning, the wet spot had grown much larger, covering about one-fourth of the living room. I knew then that there was a leak. We called in the plumber, and he confirmed that suspicion and gave us even worse news: a pipe had burst under the foundation of the house. The water would need to be shut off to the entire house immediately.

Within a day or so, the house took on the smell of mold and mildew. We could no longer stay in the house. I immediately called my insurance company and they made arrangements for my family to stay in a hotel. Little did we know that a weekend in the hotel would turn into a four month ordeal.

The house is actually owned by my father-in-law. My family and I just live in it until he retires. We found out the foundation of the house would need to be cracked open so the plumbing could be fixed. All of the furniture, which now reeked of mildew, would need to be removed from the house and put in storage. We would not be going back to the house anytime soon.

After two months we got more bad news: my father-in-law and his wife wanted to put new hardwood floors into the house, and since we had pets, we would not be able to move back into the house. We had to find a new place to live.

After cashing in a portion of my retirement funds, we found a house to rent. Living in a hotel with a pool and a hot tub may sound like fun, but it isn't home. It was a very trying experience for the whole family, and there were times we took out our frustrations on each other. No, we weren't on the street or living in a box, but we had no home for one third of the year.

My experience this summer was a good learning experience, which I will share with you now.

1. If you could not live in your house due to an emergency, where would you live? Do you have a "Plan B" if something happens to your house? Do you have emergency funds you can use to tide you over, or an insurance plan that will cover your costs if you are the victim of fire, flooding or natural disaster? If not, the time to think of one is BEFORE you need it.

2. Are you fully insured? Thank God I was smart enough to buy renters insurance several years ago. Not only does it cover up to $50,000 worth of damage to my belongings, but it gives me up to $10,000 for living expenses if I am displaced (which I maxed out this summer). Make sure your renters or homeowners insurance gives you this kind of protection.

3. Do you have emergency savings? I did, but this ordeal wiped out my funds. Thankfully, I had the funds to spend. Before we got a hotel room with a full kitchen, my family and I had to eat out every meal. That becomes very expensive, even if you are eating fast food and try to eat "cheap."

4. Don't touch your retirement funds unless....you are going to be homeless. Yes, I did dip into my retirement account, but I used that money to pay security deposit and the first month's rent on my new home. I know the common wisdom is you don't touch retirement funds no matter what, but if the choice is retirement money or homelessness, put a roof over your head. I'll replace my retirement money now that I have a place to live.

5. Don't think it can't happen to you. It can happen to ANYBODY, and as I learned, it can be something as simple as a leaky pipe that puts you out of your home. Plan for a worst-case scenario now, and you will save yourself a lot of stress during an emergency situation later.

As foreclosures increase, so do the number of extended families who are sharing the same house to save their homes and their cash.

Large extended families living together in the same house is nothing new. In many countries, this is the norm. In some African nations, when a young woman marries, she moves into the home of her husband's family. Many Italian families all share the same roof, as do many Asian and Hispanic families. In these cultures, family unity is extremely important and grown children moving out of the house as soon as they marry or hit the age of 18 is not as widespread as it is here in the U.S.

Now this practice is spreading in the U.S. as the cost of rental housing increases and older Americans struggle with rising mortgages. Saving on housing costs isn't the only benefit. Sharing a house also saves families on the cost of:

Food: It's cheaper per-person to stock up on food and serve one-dish meals than it is to cook individual portions for one or two people.

Utilities: With family members sharing one house, they are only paying one utility bill.

Child care: Why send the kids to a day care if you have family members available willing to watch each others children?

Transportation: Now that the family all lives together, they save on the cost of traveling to visit each other. Also, they have more opportunities to carpool.

Of course, shacking up with your whole family and their spouses and children isn't for everyone. Not all family members get along, whether they are related or not. Also, zoning laws in some communities may limit the number of people who live together, and rental properties set limits on the number of people who can share a home or apartment, so be sure to check those leases.

The Today Show also spotlighted the trend of extended families living together:

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I have to admit, I have felt a bit immune to the housing crisis this past year because, well...I don't own my own home. I don't pay a mortgage, and in fact I don't even pay rent. No, I'm not living in a box. I live in a home owned by my father-in-law.

He purchased the home as his retirement home about a year ago. At the time, he didn't plan to retire for about two to three years. He let my wife and I live in the home until he was ready to retire, so we figured we had plenty of time to stick aside our cash and save for a down payment on our own home.

During the past year, we have been using our savings from not paying rent to pay down debt, and we also had some unexpected expenses which came up, mainly veterinarian bills for our three dogs and our cat. Yes, we are animal lovers and they are like members of our family. I know, I used to roll my eyes when people would say their pets are like their kids, but I love our pets and not taking care of their health when they are sick is just not an option for me. I also could not get rid of any of our animals. That would be like asking me to give away my wife or one of my children. Our oldest dog has been living with us for 14 years.

But, I digress. This past week we were informed that my father-in-law and his wife plan to move into their house in about two months. Originally, they had promised to give us six months notice when they planned to move. Whoops.

This puts us in a bind for sure. Not only do I have to find a new place to live in the next two months, but I will have to either start paying rent again, or a mortgage. I have never been a homeowner because my previous profession had my family moving once every two to three years. I have money in the bank, but certainly not enough to pay for a down payment on a house.

We now have a few options:

Rent: When it comes to real estate, this is actually the worst deal. You are putting money in your landlord's pocket, and you are not building up equity in your own real estate. Considering the state of today's real estate market, renting may not be so bad, but on the other hand there are good housing deals to be had. I can't rent an apartment because of the pets. One or two pets might fly with a landlord, but not four. This might also make renting a house difficult, too. Even if a landlord does allow pets, there is usually a pet deposit of about $200 per animal. I would have to pay $800, on top of a security deposit and first and last month's rent. Pricey.

Buy: I could buy a home, but this presents a few problems. I am still paying down debt (medical bills, mostly), and as a result my credit score is not the greatest (about 630, the last time I checked). I do still have a VA housing loan available to me due to my prior military service, so it might be possible to get a home with no down payment, but I believe I would still have to pay closing costs, which can still be several thousand dollars. I can save some money in the next two months, but that's a tall order on top of finding a home and moving.

Manufactured housing: Well, I do live in Oklahoma, and there are many manufactured housing communities (i.e. trailer parks) in the area. Manufactured housing has actually come a long way since my mom lived in a trailer park when I was 12 years old. However, trailer homes rarely appreciate in value (unless it's sitting on your own land, then the land goes up in value, not the home). When you resell, you usually take a loss, like selling a car. Also, you can't just put a manufactured house anywhere. It either has to go in a trailer park or on your own plot of land (if zoning laws allow it). I could probably purchase a manufactured house, put it in a community, and pay about $600 per month for the house and the lot rent combined. That also included water and sewerage hookups. Due to the amount of time I have to work with, I'm considering this as a short-term option, even if I just rent.

Rent-to-own: This is actually widely available where I live. You rent a house, but a portion of the rent goes to purchase the house. Typically, you either pay a down payment at the beginning of the lease period and then make rental payments, usually for a term of 6 months to 2 years, until you are able to secure financing to purchase the house. The downside: the down payment can be steep, and the rental payments don't reduce the purchase price of the house by much. It's very expensive.

Plan of action: First, I will have to order my credit report and score, to see where I stand. Next, I have to submit my VA loan paperwork, to prove I am eligible. Then it's a matter of talking to my bank or credit union to see if I am eligible to receive financing, considering the state of my credit report and credit score. Then, it's time to go house-hunting. At the same time, I'll explore the manufactured housing option. Honestly, that only works for me if I can purchase the land/home package. Even some trailer parks frown on pets, especially when one household has four of them.

No matter what, this is not the best scenario in which to buy a house. I have a deadline, a short amount of time to find and purchase a house, and don't know if I will even qualify for the loan due to my family's medical bills.

I am a member of the Middle Class, and I have never owned my own home. Granted, my decision to rent was by choice. I used to work in radio broadcasting, which required me to move all over the country to take new jobs. In a span of 20 years, I probably moved 20 times. Now I have "settled down", changed careers and have lived in the same spot for about 5 years. My wife and I plan to buy our own home in a few more years.

But, according to this article on MSN.com, many members of the Middle Class may never own their own home. In a nutshell, affordable homes are increasingly out of the reach of many families because their incomes are not keeping pace with increasing home prices. The record number of recent home foreclosures further underscores the fact that many people purchased homes they simply could not afford.

I agree with some aspects of the article, but a couple of thoughts struck me: why not buy a home you CAN afford (the proverbial "starter home"), or simply move to an area where housing is cheaper? I'm not talking about moving to a sketchy area of town. I'm talking about a lifestyle change.

My father-in-law is doing this. He and his wife currently live in New York City, where they both work. They plan to retire in a few years, but in the meantime, they have purchased a home in Oklahoma City. They plan to retire there, and the cost of living is much, much cheaper than New York, which will help them stretch their retirement dollars. They paid about $148,000 for their 1,800 square foot home in Oklahoma. In New York, they probably would have paid about $500,000.

The cost of living is one of the reasons I moved to Oklahoma. I also lived in New York. Although I took a 20 percent cut in salary, my cost of living plummeted once I left New York. I found it was easier to meet my living expenses on less salary in Oklahoma. Sometimes, downsizing your life can result in gains in the QUALITY of your life.

People might have many reasons for staying in a high-cost area of the country: family, friends, jobs, etc. We weighed these options before we moved...and to be honest, we have kept in touch with our friends (and made new friends), our family comes to visit us and my wife and I both found new jobs which were much better than what we were doing before we moved.

The saying is true: sometimes less is more.

(This post is quoted on MSN.com's Smart Spending Moneyblog.)