October Low-Income Thread - Page 9

[Satori]

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone's having better days then I am, the fun just keeps on coming!

Found another unwelcome visitor from friends visit 2 weeks ago running across my desk in plain day light. Thats the 4th one in 2 weeks, I think we have a serious problem! Bank of Dad paypal'd me some money for gas for school next week and I ended up using it to pay the over draft stuff and the $10 left went to walmart to pay for a big bottle of roach insecticide that I'm going to spray all along the walls and all over the machine I think is the source of these things (friends left me there stream cleaner to clean the carpets, I think it was filled with bugs, nice gesture but it never occurred to me it could have roaches) then sticking it out the back door which I finally figured out how to open (sliding door is half off the track and I can't get it back on) and covering the cement with the roach poison so they have to cross it to get out.

Got home from school today (barely, car is on empty now) to find a 48 hour shut off notice from the electric company since the bill is almost a month past due No idea when I'll get my next Pell disbursement, school couldn't give me an answer, only that it will be after my next class starts in another week and even after they start the refund process its still 2-3 weeks from then so I'm looking at at least a month. No idea where I'm going to get the money to pay it much less how I'm getting to school Monday. At least I get to start riding the bus to school starting Tuesday which means $6 day rather then the $15 I'm paying to drive. (Taking the bus will give me about 12 hours of study time a week! Right now I get about 3 hours if I'm lucky ) I don't know how I managed to get my mom to agree to my taking the bus, especially since it means dropping the kids off at 4:30 in the morning, I'm guessing she thinks I'll give up riding the bus after the 1st day since I have to catch it so early and I am seriously not a morning person. She informed me today that she will not be watching the girls AT ALL next semester, praying I have nursing care set up for both girls by then or at least SSI coming in by then (still waiting to hear on our app (its been 3 months!), I know the psych declared dd's mental health issues as severe and disabling so hoping they just go on his notes. That extra money would be a godsend and I could use it to pay a sitter for older dd at least. Need to get off my tush and apply for younger dd, just gotta figure out how to word the thing.

Any suggestions for getting rid of a headache? I almost never get headaches but I've had a killer tension one for 2 days now and the usual stuff isn't working. On the flip side I've had almost no pain in my hip the last 2 days


oh yeah, I failed yesterdays exam because I was 9 minutes late to class and got locked out, all because I stupidly got dd's infusion stuff all hooked up, needles in, everything was ready to go and realized I forgot to bring the pump to my moms so I had to run home and get it which made me late...

On the upside I went to bed with a big ol stupid grin on my face last night Reread a goofy fanfic I wrote about 10 years ago that I still love reading, tonight instead of studying I'm going to read one a dear friend wrote for me back then too, still makes me smile Then I'm going to blow off the dishes and laundry and go watch Kyle XY and drool

At least I still have my sense of humor

[cwat]

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a good Sunday.
Things here are about normal...
(a-f-u, as usual)

[LeighB]

Satori-Hugs to you!! for your headache- if you have any coconut oil, rub some of that on your temples, it may help.

Well, I guess things are going ok. Dh will get unemployment, so that will help us pay rent this month (we are already over a week late). He also found a temporary pt job. He works really long hours and it doesn't pay much, but I'm so proud of him for getting out and doing it. He doesn't complain about the cold or the hours, he just gets up in the morning and goes. I'm trying to make life really easy for him this month. So with unemployment, and our part time jobs, we will make rent. I am terrified that something is going to happen and we won't have the money to pay for it though.

I've been doing a lot of charity stuff and donating lately. It's been making me feel better to help others who are in our same situation, or worse off. I have 4 packages ready to send off to HH. They are light, so I should only put out $10 or so. I'm also taking extra food (bought with SNAP) to the food bank and to the homeless shelter. I just hope I can help one person at least.

I hope everyone has a great week!!

[averysmomma05]

Originally Posted by Jyotsna

Averysmommy, I know just what that feels like, and it is so scary. Did you spend any time in the dark? I hope not.

Cwat, sorry about your hearing.

Purity Lake, what is a PFD? Whatever it is, congratulations for you, because it really helped you alot! WHOO!

Maciascl (hope I got that right) - fingers crossed on your hubby's job interview! And good luck on deciding if it will work for him.


I got a letter from DHS saying that I didn't send in the bank statement. DRATS! So they didn't approve me for the next six months. I'm so upset that I will have to go back to the place and apply again, and bring my darn bank statement. We have been eating down our food pantry due to our move, and now I am worried if we will get through October. Ex hasn't paid child support yet, so I can't even pay my rent. That was due on the 1st of the month. I'm really worried.

I did have a potential client contact me today, but she is too far away from me to make it work with my family. I'm feeling a little scared and worried.

Hope you mama's have a better night. It is really a tough time right now. I really thought it would be easier by now. This move has thrown me for a loop, and I only hope I find a place by this weekend. Next weekend is moving weekend.

She came around 12pm and shut me off,hubby paid bill at 3pm and it came on at 5pm so we spent about 5 hrs outside! I am thankful it wasn't overnight or I would of cried a ton!

[Jyotsna]

Hi Mamas,

I hope you all have had a good weekend. We have to have some good times to balance out this stress. My kids and I went to something called a Harvest Eucharist today. It's a church service to celebrate the harvesting time, and a children's harvest activity.

During the service was to decorate pumpkins, make some pinecone bird feeders (you can do this with your kids...easy. You tie twine or string on the pinecone to hang it. Then spread with peanut butter. The more you spread, the better. Then roll it in a pan of bird seed. Hang it up in a tree, preferably outside off your kitchen window, so you can see the birds feasting off of it.

The girls decorated their pumpkins with this glue that had sparkles in it.

The adults attended the service (hey, I'm a Hindu, so I don't really do this for me, but for my parents who invite us). My son and I sang in the choir with my mom and the others.

After the service there was a very large picnic on the beautiful grounds of this historic church (over 150 years old). The church members made the food and brought it. Every vegetable you could possible make was there, in salads, casseroles and lots of deviled eggs. Their was a meat table too for those who eat that. Then of course the desert table, with these delicious wedding cookies, lemon cake, fudge, brownies, pecan pies, ect.

Our favorite part is the horse buggy rides that go on the entire time. The kids were on the buggy most of the time, or playing with other children and making more harvest things.

I usually take the kids photo there every year for our holiday photo, because normally they have hay bales, corn stalks, pumpkins ect arranged in one spot. I forgot my camera! Anyway, we had a good time. Oh, there was all kinds of wine and even a few beers, but mostly pop, juice and water. I had a tiny glass of merlot. I really enjoyed it.

And for a few hours I was able to push all my worries out of my mind. What a treat!

Sadly, I am now coming down with a cold. I wish that weren't the case. I just got back from taking the kids to temple for Sunday School, and I am at home away from everyone. I think I might take a short nap.

Happy Fall!

[Marlet]

That sounds so fun! I wish we had something like that going on here. They just had a harvest thing 2 towns over yesterday but I forgot about it so we didn't go. Probably better for my gas budget. I love this time of year and sadly most things like that are limited to the schools and cost an arm and leg. I have convinced my friend we need to go to the pumpkin patch here soon though. Last year I tried going and due to horrible directions got there too late. I just emailed them though to find out cost and if they had specific hours for the pumpkin patch.

I have some things listed on Craisglist that I am waiting to sell. I hate selling things online...I rarely get anything good from it (I refuse to use Ebay). I could use the money from it...not neccessarily in a "must have" sort of way but in a borderline way.

[ediesmom]

Originally Posted by Nature

Miss me?

I finally found this thread again! I belong here.

Originally Posted by averysmomma05

So I had a final notice light bill due on 10/7 for 75.00. Problem was hubby didn't get paid until 10/8 so I figured I had to chance it as noone had the money and they wouldn't work with me. Well about 12pm yesterday evening I was outside playing and the electric lady showed up to cut me off. I was outside with my daughter on my hip,crying and begging her not to turn my lights off as I could pay the bill in 2 hrs. She was really nice and almost cried but said she had to do it unless I had the total account balance right then. So she shut them off. The total ended up being 372.00 to get them cut back on and I had NO WAY to pay that money.

Needless to say we used our house payment money and I will have to pay that on the 22nd it will be 1 month late but I can't help it so. Anyways thats what happened to me yesterday. We finally got lights back on around 6pm and she came right back out and was so happy I had got the money.

OHH I have to tell everyone about this lady's random act of kindness. She works with my husband and is his supervisor (we went to church with her also). Well hubby had to leave earlier to get the lights fixed from work so he had to explain to her what happened. He was crying and she gave him 130.00 of her OWN money, he of course gave it back and said he couldn't take it as we couldn't pay it back. She said no not to worry about it take it and use it for whatever we needed. I thought that was so thoughtful and I plan to send her a card letting her know how helpful she was.

what a wonderful thing she did.... i'm glad the lights are on. its is so hard to constantly fight this fight.

Originally Posted by ~Purity♥Lake~

so, here's some good news. We received our PFD, $1305 per household member the same day my husband's weekly check was deposited. We paid off our auto loan, pre paid 6 months auto insurance, and have quite a bit left over to pay off some of my husband's smaller bills.

wonderful!

Originally Posted by Paigekitten

We got food stamps today, it's about 6X as much as our food budget was.

After several months of the most basic plain cheap foods, we went to the store and had a blast!

DH was embarrassed because we were buying so much junk food, but I was so happy to get some FUN, SPECIAL foods for us after such a long time of feeling deprived.

It was a wonderful feeling to have my daughter pick something up and ask for it and say YES.

It is a wonderful feeling to have an abundance.

sweet

purity lake, satori and so many others......i love that this thread is back and here we are, supporting eachother through it again. i love that it feels just a bit better after we can just set it down here....offer a bit of support...then get back up and keep on truckin'

so, i still have the heat on....and, it looks like i wont crash and burn before i can pay the minimum on the long list of other crap wanting attention.

edie's b-day is coming up. i really have no frickin clue

oh, well. feels nice to be back-ish....

[cwat]

OMC, OMC, OMC someone somewhere is watching out for me & my family!!!!

I wrote a letter to my mom telling her that I had been "laid off" (I was NOT going to tell her the truth about that) and that I need monetary help.
Yesterday I got a call from my brother, and he told me that mom had told him that I wrote her a letter and that she was going to call me on Sunday.
SO, she called me today, and I told her what was going on (sort of) and she told me she was going to go to the bank on Tuesday when they open and send me a cashier's check for...


are you ready for this?


$1,000!!!!!!!!!!!

I am in shock!!!!!!

I'm still waiting for the strings, but for now, I'm just going to be grateful

[Marlet]

cwat! That's awesome. Hopefully there won't be strings...my mom would be the same way. That will be so nice for you!

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Can I just vent for a second??? So, I am loving my new job, but I am so super frustrated that my son's preschool is not lining up with my new job (also a preschool) for days off. His school if off tomorrow, mine is not, so I had to take a day off. A week from Friday, my school has inservice, and so does his, so I have to find a sitter (and pay them more than I make an hour ). Wednesday I have a staff meeting that goes until 7pm at night and I will be dropping DS off at 8:45 in the morning, so I won't see him for nearly 11 hours, plus I have to again pay a sitter more than I make an hour for the hours between 5:30 and 7:30. Oh, and I am paying a friend $30 a week to pick him up at work because I get out of work at 5:30, and his school closes at 5:30, so I can't get there in time to pick him up without paying $1 a minute for at least 15 minutes each day.

How on earth do I make this work???? I freaking love this job, love the people, love the kids, it will eventually pay well enough (not super great, but enough for us to get by). I am so, so, so, so frustrated right now.....

[Inci]

Satori, hugs! I hope your roaches are gone soon, and that you have electric bill money somehow, and the early morning bus arrangement continues to go well. Congrats for maintaining your sense of humor in the midst of it all!!

Leigh, that’s awesome that your dh has a PT job. And I know that feeling, of being glad to be able to help others in need! Actually, I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately... for almost 8 years, I’ve been sponsoring a girl in Pakistan. It’s really important to me, because it helps me keep perspective on my own problems – I at least have running water that’s safe and clean, a heated apartment with my own comfy bed, etc. But every single month, I come THISCLOSE to calling Childreach and telling them I just can’t afford to sponsor this girl anymore... it’s this horrible internal debate I keep having... I could really, really use that extra $22 a month. But I’d feel so guilty ending the sponsorship. I just don’t know.

Jyotsna, wow, what a fun day! I’m so glad you and your family got to do that. I love community events like that. I love summer the most, but this is my second-favorite time of year... all the harvest events and Halloween.

cwat, that’s GREAT NEWS!!! it must feel like such a relief!

Pumpkin Pie, that does sound awfully frustrating...argh. That pay-$1-per-minute-for-every-minute-you’re-late deal sucks!! I wonder if there’s a way you your barter for babysitting, or with your friend who picks your son up from preschool, to save money? Or maybe share a sitter with another family and split the cost – at least sometimes?

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I wish I could barter for babysitting. Both friends that I spoke with to ask if they could help with weekday/evening sitting were like, "Oh! I would love to make a little extra spending money!" I think that because I have a job and they don't currently that it seems like I have more money than I really do. This job does not pay well, and I am actually bringing home less per month than I was when I was extremely underemployed. I also have higher bills now, so I am worse off than before I accepted this position. My one friend who I usually count on to do babysitting exchanges isn't available for the two days I need. She originally was, but she was asked to sub at a preschool, and she desperately needs to make money too, so she had to bail. Plus the two friends who are watching DS both have partners/exes who do childcare for them, so they generally don't need care. Honestly, I don't usually either, but somehow the stars are just not aligning for me right now...

So freaking frustrating.

ETA: Why oh why can't I find another mama who needs childcare at off hours so I could pick up some extra cashola too????

[Inci]

I’ve been feeling so anxious about money lately, calling my bank’s automated teller line so many times to check my balance that I got charged a $3 “excessive use” fee. I didn’t know there was a limit to how many times you could call!!

I am barely scraping by, by working several VERY part-time and per diem jobs. Job A is 6 hrs a week, Job B varies between 3 and 10 hrs a week for reasons I can’t control, and Job C is outdoors and thus canceled when it rains, and also will end soon now that it’s getting cold. Other than that, I rely on sporadic babysitting and petsitting gigs, and it always seems like no one calls me for weeks and then suddenly everyone wants me on the same weekend. In the meantime, I scour the online classifieds twice daily in search of other part time/per diem jobs that would fit into my very bizarre and unpredictable schedule, but it’s hard. It feels like finding and scheduling work is itself a part-time job!!
And now, trying to find a roommate who can move in less than 3 weeks has become like a part-time job as well! I’m still so mad at my roommate for not even giving me a month’s notice that she’s leaving. I have to spend hours cleaning the apartment so that potential roommates can come and see it, but there’s so much junk on the porch that I need to bring to the dump to throw out, and just can’t afford to. I was looking at my town dump’s website, and it costs $12-$15 to throw out a set of tires, or a TV, and other misc. stuff that I need to get rid of. I’ve been just throwing a tapestry over all of it on the porch for the time being, but it still looks awful and uninviting. I’m so worried that no one is going to want to move in here.

Meanwhile, my car is now regularly making this hideous squealing sound for 10-20 seconds every time I start it up or press on the gas after stopping. It’s so loud, and thus embarrassing, especially when I’m pulling out of a parking space in a crowded parking lot and people turn around to stare and wince. I have an appointment tomorrow to have my car looked at, but I’m so scared about what it might cost. Already this year, I’ve had to replace all 4 tires, front and rear brakes, the exhaust pipe, the alternator belt, etc., etc... I can’t afford any more and my credit card is nearly maxed out!!

Before I start feeling too depressed again, I need to again make a list of things I’m grateful for:

-There are lots of organic fruits and veggies right now at the discount natural food store. I got organic salad mix, 2 peaches, a plum, and 32 oz. of sweet potato soup, all for $4.50!
-I got a surprise phone call from the local consignment store, saying 2 of my items sold and they had a check for me to come pick up! (It was for $10, which just covered the cost of the parking ticket I got last week. :P )
-I saw a movie in the theater for free! It was a movie that came with a free promotional T-shirt, which I then sold on eBay for the price of the movie ticket!
-Waking up in the morning and brewing fresh coffee makes me really, really happy.
-Picking apples at the orchard was so fun, and now I can eat an apple every day for WEEKS for only $3 total!
-A local pharmacy has a massaging chair in the waiting area, which I can go sit in for 20 mins when I’m feeling stressed out.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

ETA: Why oh why can't I find another mama who needs childcare at off hours so I could pick up some extra cashola too????

Have you considered posting an ad to find another mama in the same situation? Maybe check the FYT area here at MDC


On a very happy note I have been bummed out that my back up drive got toasted from a major power surge (yes I had it on a surge protector) and the data got all scrambled. The original drive got destroyed by some freaky virus from my moms computer that none of the AV programs could detect and the back up was all I had for pictures of my 3 yr old from birth to now and it got fried or so I thought. I decided to slave the back up to the new computer (finally setting up the replacement for this dinosaur!) and ran chkdsk and it was able to fix it! I've already transfered the most important stuff to the new computer and I'm going to set it to transfer another 200gb during the night so I don't lose all my data. I just hope the drive holds out since its making a very ugly grinding noise indicating its going to die and very soon! In the mean time I just very happy I got my most important stuff!

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Inci

-There are lots of organic fruits and veggies right now at the discount natural food store. I got organic salad mix, 2 peaches, a plum, and 32 oz. of sweet potato soup, all for $4.50!
-I got a surprise phone call from the local consignment store, saying 2 of my items sold and they had a check for me to come pick up! (It was for $10, which just covered the cost of the parking ticket I got last week. :P )
-I saw a movie in the theater for free! It was a movie that came with a free promotional T-shirt, which I then sold on eBay for the price of the movie ticket!
-Waking up in the morning and brewing fresh coffee makes me really, really happy.
-Picking apples at the orchard was so fun, and now I can eat an apple every day for WEEKS for only $3 total!
-A local pharmacy has a massaging chair in the waiting area, which I can go sit in for 20 mins when I’m feeling stressed out.

Thats a lot to be grateful for Things will look up, I'm sure they will, we just gotta get though the crap to get to the good stuff

[Pariah]

We are moving tomorrow. I am very excited because we'll be moving to a much safer area and I'll have a 10 minute drive to work...my current drive has been as long as an hour and a half, so this will be a HUGE improvement. It will be a tiny apartment all our own, no roommates, and nice and neat and organized. And since it will feel more settled and like our own, I feel like we'll be able to make a lot more progress with self employment projects and generally feeling more normal. We'll also be much closer to my boyfriend's brother and his girlfriend and his dad, all of whom I like a lot, so that will be good.

I am nervous about money with this move, things will be really tight...affordable, but tight. But it will get better over time. I can't wait to get my son's room set up and decorated tomorrow, that's the first thing I want to take care of so he has a fun new room to come home to. I also did major grocery shopping today, make stew in the crock pot, and a batch of cookies (all in addition to packing, I feel like super woman!) so he'll have yummies to come home to, as well.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

ARGH! I think I may have overdrawn my account, and don't get paid until Thursday. I have no freaking clue what on earth happened. I have been budgeting and writing things down like a mad woman and my bank now has "hold" on over $350 of my money and they are not open until tomorrow. They say that I have exactly 9 cents available to me, my gas tank is on empty, and I have no idea what to do. I don't have anything outstanding, it isn't from buying gas where they put a "hold" on funds. I just can't figure out for the life of me what on earth is being "held".

GAH!

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

ARGH! I think I may have overdrawn my account, and don't get paid until Thursday. I have no freaking clue what on earth happened. I have been budgeting and writing things down like a mad woman and my bank now has "hold" on over $350 of my money and they are not open until tomorrow. They say that I have exactly 9 cents available to me, my gas tank is on empty, and I have no idea what to do. I don't have anything outstanding, it isn't from buying gas where they put a "hold" on funds. I just can't figure out for the life of me what on earth is being "held".

GAH!

Hopefully its just a glitch!

[frugalmama]

I'm hoping some one on this thread can help me with a WIC issue.

I'm immune compromised, and DD is healthy. With the H1N1 going around I'm under orders to avoid contact with the general public and avoid sites they are going to be giving the vax at. We're currently only going to the grocery twice a month and that's probably going to go to once a month as flu season worsens.

I need to get her signed back up for WIC, as we just discovered that our food stamps are going to be cut in december, so we are trying to stock up as much as possible before then because our state is taking 45-60 days to recertify for food stamps currently.

I don't have anyone else who can take DD to WIC to certify her, and they are giving the flumist at our WIC clinic, so I can't take her either. We are in TX and have the EBT card for benefits and no one seems to know how to certify without going in with the EBT card. I know they used to just mail the vouchers {we've done this before}. Does anyone know how to do this?

DD was just in to the pedi for a checkup, so they can call the pedi for height and weight etc if I can figure out how to get the WIC benefits loaded on the card and do everything else over the phone. They keep telling me to "find a proxy that I trust" and I don't have anyone to use as a proxy.

[Satori]

ok mama's, this is me attempting to keep my sense of humor

You know your poor when...

You spend 3.5 hours on the bus a day for a 1 hour drive because the bus is $10 cheaper.

You ride the bus even when you have gas money when it rains because your windshield wipers are on strike

You ride the bus even when you have gas money when its cold because your defroster doesn't unfog the windows even though you could cook a turkey with the heater.

You find $1.17 in change in your backpack and are ecstatic because it means you can get lunch at walmart after not having time to pack your lunch that morning.

Yogurt .44
Banana .17
Mozzarella stick .25
Chips .25

Total $1.11 and the water is free cause you actually had a bottle in your backpack.




So, who else needs to keep a sense of humor this week?