In a way, Stephanie Rogers started preparing for the current moment months ago, when she and her two daughters moved in with her mother about half an hour south of Denver. High prices for everything was certainly one reason.

"When you added up the numbers between both of our family households, it was going to be something that we could not keep going long term," says Rogers, who's 44 and divorced with no child support.

Rogers has been a microbiologist with the Food and Drug Administration for 16 years and is now among hundreds of thousands of federal employees not working. She is also a chapter president with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Another big motivation for living together? The uncertainty of a new administration focused on shrinking the government, plus Rogers'

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