This is a household profile of a participant in the U.S. Financial Diaries project. Lauren Walker, 29, is a single mother living with her four-year-old son Riley in a rented townhome in a small town in eastern Mississippi. Lauren works full time as an administrative assistant for a local construction and engineering firm, and she covers her frugal needs with her annual income. But the annual perspective hides months lived very close to the financial edge. She carefully manages her spending, all the more necessary because a prior bankruptcy limits her credit access and she does not receive child support.