November Low Income Thread - Page 5

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by zebra15

OK, I think I'm going to have a breakdown. I posted on here earlier this week how the school district was appealing my unemployment, I just logged on to the UE website and they think I'm going to repay $2400 !! Ummm excuse me... I dont have that kind of money sitting around... I worked one day this week at $85/day (friday if they dont cancel the job). I wonder if I can appeal the States decision on this.

There are NO jobs in this city. Unemployment is close to 20%... I'm expected to come up with 3k for my tution to student teach shortly (i think i can get that from my grandpa), but I'm overqualified for every stinking part time job ....

I need to cry... I'm going to have a breakdown again

We owe to UE too I think it is ridiculous!

[Peacemamalove]

Originally Posted by zebra15

OK, I think I'm going to have a breakdown. I posted on here earlier this week how the school district was appealing my unemployment, I just logged on to the UE website and they think I'm going to repay $2400 !! Ummm excuse me... I dont have that kind of money sitting around... I worked one day this week at $85/day (friday if they dont cancel the job). I wonder if I can appeal the States decision on this.

There are NO jobs in this city. Unemployment is close to 20%... I'm expected to come up with 3k for my tution to student teach shortly (i think i can get that from my grandpa), but I'm overqualified for every stinking part time job ....

I need to cry... I'm going to have a breakdown again

s

[waiting2bemommy]

zebra, if you're overqualified, is there a way that you could possibly write a "less qualified" resume for yourself and use your life experience instead of high-paying jobs? Things like working at your child's school for a daycare job, or caring for an aging parent as your background to be a home health aide....something like that. You could also enlist family and friends to be your references instead of former supervisors, if you feel a need to not share your real qualifications and experience.

Idk if that will help any, but it might be worth trying if people are just looking at your degree or something and telling you no based just on that.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by waiting2bemommy

zebra, if you're overqualified, is there a way that you could possibly write a "less qualified" resume for yourself and use your life experience instead of high-paying jobs? Things like working at your child's school for a daycare job, or caring for an aging parent as your background to be a home health aide....something like that. You could also enlist family and friends to be your references instead of former supervisors, if you feel a need to not share your real qualifications and experience.

Idk if that will help any, but it might be worth trying if people are just looking at your degree or something and telling you no based just on that.

Any suggestions for someone who hasn't worked in a couple of years? Before that yeah I had 10+ years IT experience but I've barely worked the past several years and not at all the past 4 or so plus I don't have any references that I'm not related to so I have no idea how I would fill out a job application, wondering if I could pull off 1-2 days a week some where as a seasonal worker.

[HappyLittleHouse]

The call came today that my car is totaled. The fix costs more than the car is worth. I have $20 in the bank and live in an area with very limited public transit. I'm so screwed. DH has a small amount of money saved for business taxes and if we use that for a car, we'll have fees for not paying the taxes on time.

In October, both my daughter and DH went to the ER for various injuries/illnesses and the bills should be coming in soon. I got a ticket last week. And now this. We were debt free but broke. Now we're broke and owe thousands. I don't know what we're going to do.

[PenelopeJune]

To the people who owe unemployment...that sucks! Obviously anyone on UE isn't exactly raking in the dough.

I put in three job applications today. A farm and home store, Walmart, and McDonalds. Wheeee. Eh, oh well. I still have four other places that I'm planning to apply at. After that...I have no idea where else to apply. I live in a small town and there isn't much here.

[Ianthe]

We went to the $1 store today, and I forgot how much good stuff you can get there for super cheap! I spent way more than I meant to ($17) but I got Xmas stockings for the family, a 16-pk of Xmas cards, toothbrushes and a bunch of photo frames for presents to our parents.. It I would have spent retail on all that it would have been over $50 for sure!

[Kino]

Well... discovered why I've regressed health-wise this past month and what has been going on with my blood sugar over the year. I have Sjogren's, an autoimmune disorder. A few years ago it was my liver giving me issues and now it's the pancreas.

There are a lot of good things about this though. I finally have a diagnosis instead of being the medical weirdo. I have improved dramatically these past three years even without a diagnosis. Now I can start a specific treatment protocol. I plan to be a healthy woman!

Looks like I'm going back into medical debt. I have a few family members volunteering to help out.

I used my recent money to finally buy a quality pair of winter boots. I have Raynaud's (which is not unusual for a person with autoimmunity), but always toughed it out every winter. Well I think I deserve a WARM pair of boots.

[Marlet]

Subbing real fast. I sort of dropped off at the end of last month. Things got a bit busy. Tomorrow DD1 goes for her dental work. I'm so dang anxious and nervous and I know I shouldn't be.

Off to read the rest of the thread!

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by waiting2bemommy

zebra, if you're overqualified, is there a way that you could possibly write a "less qualified" resume for yourself and use your life experience instead of high-paying jobs? Things like working at your child's school for a daycare job, or caring for an aging parent as your background to be a home health aide....something like that. You could also enlist family and friends to be your references instead of former supervisors, if you feel a need to not share your real qualifications and experience.

Idk if that will help any, but it might be worth trying if people are just looking at your degree or something and telling you no based just on that.

I think I'm going to have to. I hate the thought of lying by omission but Im never going to get a PT job by putting my masters degree on there. And every career job I've had in the past 10 years has required basically security clearance (banking/fraud investigations/legal work) so putting those on the application/resume is a dead giveaway. I'm going to have to go with SAHM, homeschooler, sub-teacher since its been about 18 mos since my last corporate america job.

My problem with UE happened when the 'benefits' year eneded and it was time to recertify. (may 2009) I was claiming benefits from job A which was all well and good but I was working very part time for job B. The state told me to claim UE from job B, ummm NO, I should still get extended bene's from job A but the dumb state ran bene's from job B, well this was wrong, I told the state it was wrong but the state assured me it was correct since job B was a school district and it just happened to be summer break. Ugh... can everyone see where this is going... anyway the school district has no $$ and disputes every UE case, I obviously lost and now they want 2400$ back. This also means when I get my teaching license I probably have ZERO chance of getting hired on at the district. (not a huge loss, there are other districts) And there is ZERO chance the state is going to correct their error and get my UE billed to the employer A. This is probably why I didnt get called for subbing jobs this week. (again difficult to prove but very likely). You can bet your tooshie I will be filing an appeal though. And I will be faxing in a change report to DES so hopefully they will correct my foodstamp amount. Since now that I have absoluetly ZERO income we should qualify for max FS again. Somedays I really want to bang my head against the wall...

And just to max out my stress level my roommate / landlord is going tomorrow to pick up her new puppy... a BERNESE MOUNTAIN DOG... I maybe on a 72 hr pysch hold this weekend

[cwat]

Hi everyone
Things here are about the same (all f--ked up)
Still looking for a j-o-b (),
Got the paperwork Monday for MY 6 mth FS recertification, not sure what my workers going to say when she sees that I have NO INCOME coming in at all but I did mark off that I might need temporary cash assistance, so we'll see what happens (I have a feeling she isn't going to do anything, cause I reached my term limits a couple of years ago, but...)
Congrats on the people who got jobs

[Satori]

Originally Posted by cwat

Hi everyone
Things here are about the same (all f--ked up)
Still looking for a j-o-b (),
Got the paperwork Monday for MY 6 mth FS recertification, not sure what my workers going to say when she sees that I have NO INCOME coming in at all but I did mark off that I might need temporary cash assistance, so we'll see what happens (I have a feeling she isn't going to do anything, cause I reached my term limits a couple of years ago, but...)
Congrats on the people who got jobs

The term limit only applies to adults, your children can still get aided some what of a bright light


*says to self I will not let todays not so bright beginning get me down. I woke up with a raging sinus headache, stumble into kitchen and get coffee and go sit at computer to read email. Get greeted with blue screen of death, reboot and run chkdsk, its not looking good, there are a LOT of clusters it can not read, I'm not going to go back in there until I've finished my coffee so to make sure may day doesn't suck to badly..

This morning I am grateful that:

When I checked my email the now dead and for parts laptop my ex gave me a couple years ago sold over night so now the rest of the bills will get paid this month and I'll have $20 to take the kids clothes shopping at the thrift shop

I am grateful that the nurse is picking dd up later this morning and taking my 3 yr old to daycare so I can go to the courthouse without having to chase her around the courthouse.

Going to the courthouse means going to the city where I can get cheap food

This month WILL be better then Oct

[Mountaingirl79]

Hello, Can I join in? This looks like the place for me.

A little info on me: I have been a SAHM since the beginning of the year. Before that I was a waitress for 10 years. It was really, really hard to get out of work on time to pick my kids up from school with that kind of job/shifts. A lot of times my kids were the last two kids left at afterschool and it broke my heart so Dh and I decided this would be best.

THEN, in Aug of this year Dh lost his day job. He's a musician so he has gigs and teaches lessons so that plus my small amount of child support is what we are living on. It has been so hard and stressful. I've started grinding my teeth, and clenching my jaw at night. I feel like on top of everything else I am grinding myself into toothlessness. ( I still have all my teeth, I can just tell I am hurting them.)

I just wanted to join in and commiserate. This has been an exceptionally hard month for us. We managed to pay all our bills, but now our rent is going to be late again. That means an extra $40 charge and I'm sure our landlord can't wait to get somebody in here that can actually pay on time. I'm so worried.

I'm thinking about going and applying for TANF on Monday ( we already get FS) and maybe even donating plasma. I've started applying for min. wage jobs, so far I've applied for 7 jobs this week. ( One of them is the Dollar Tree, never thought I'd be so excited at the idea of working there, but I am. )

It's so hard. I know you guys understand.

[cwat]

Welcome Mountaingirl79, everyone is welcome here.

[APmomSoCal]

Originally Posted by sunanthem

YES!!!

I got the job!!! Hooray!!

So happy for you!

[Moss's Mommy]

I'm going to start following this thread because OH MY GOOD GOD has it been a year! Poverty poverty poverty. And NOW that I'm seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel, I feel like I'm becoming a hoarder of some sort!!!
I had to relocate out of Florida- the job market was incredibly horrendous. It was a bad crises for me. And so I moved to Georgia. After almost a year of no hope whatsoever. Within the first month I found an awesome job here grading the writing portion of the state test for 11th graders. I am living with a random person--- long story. POVERTY. And I have enough paychecks saved up to go rent a one bedroom place for us. BUT my job ended until Jan 24th and my goal is to have $2500 and a job. I'm almost there. If I can find at least a temporary job, I will be very very very happy. I know 2500 might seem like more than enough but after facing homelessness and starvation, you just always know it's right around the corner. So I'm riding this out until I have my goal. I lost all my furniture, everything when I struggled to move here. Living situation is far below the ideal line, but I'm trying to be easy on myself... so as to not fall into depression. One awesome thing... rent is a breeze here! Anyways, I'm going to follow this thread!

[waiting2bemommy]

Originally Posted by Satori

Any suggestions for someone who hasn't worked in a couple of years? Before that yeah I had 10+ years IT experience but I've barely worked the past several years and not at all the past 4 or so plus I don't have any references that I'm not related to so I have no idea how I would fill out a job application, wondering if I could pull off 1-2 days a week some where as a seasonal worker.

First of all, you give your references a heads up. That way they don't slip up and say "yeah, my niece is terrific....I haven't seen her since she was three, but I get a card every christmas!" Just used family/friends who have seen you in action doing whatever it is you need a reference for....cleaning, childcare, whatever. Not to have them lie, certainly, but they don't have to vlounteer information that wouldnt' help your case.

also a good way to get references is to do a few gigs on craigslist and save their numbers. craigslist has saved me so many times....in fact I'm supposed to be working right now on an online gig I got from there.

Honestly, if I had a car and was in your situation, I would print up a bunch of flyers for housecleaning and distribute them in the more upscale neighborhoods. That was my original plan, actually, but I dont' have a car so I can't get to the clients.

Also family type restaurants like chili's, hooters, applebee's don't usually call references or even do background checks. I know a LOT of people with active warrants who have worked for years in the restaurant business, file taxes, get paychecks/tips, everything, with no problem. You basically just walk in off the street, say you have experience, and get hired. sorta scary, actually. but it might be a good starting place to at least build a work hsitory.

[waiting2bemommy]

Oh can I ask a question for all you guys on TANF? I'm in VA and to get the $250/month we qualify for in TANF cash I have to attend a job training program 40 hours a week, and then if at teh end (I think it's 30 days) I still don't have a job I have to join workfare which is basically doing menial jobs for the city for free, just to "build a resume."

I already have a resume. I am very proactive about finding work. I know how to speak, dress and act on an interview. I am aware of every resource available to me and take advantage of them all. I search online. Everyone says that I can always find a job; in fact people twice my age will come to me or ask my mom to ask me where they can find work when they're in a pinch, because I'm THAT GOOD. There just aren't that many jobs *that I can get to by bus, that are also walking distance from a chidlcare facility that doesn't look like a cross between a dog pound and a jail.*

All that being said, have any of you had any success trying to get an exemption from the work/job training requirement? I keep seeing people say they "got their money" but I dont' hear anyone else saying they had to go into Social Services from 9-5 every day and leave their chidl in daycare.

I am almost tempted to do it just so that ds will be qualified for this insamely fabulous private montessori school that accepts the vouchers, but I really hate to have him there 10 hours a day (if I could even get him there every day), and I'm not even earning a paycheck. I just feel like my time is better spent job hunting on my own than sitting in a room being told that "ain't" isn't a word, and I shouldn't crack my gum and wear neon purple eyeshadow when interviewing.

And it would be a LOT easier if I didn't have to take him everywhere on the bus with me and could put him in daycare for just a few hours at a time, but they won't approve any daycare time, even for written notice of an interview. I keep having to turn down interviews because I have to bring him along, and people don't want him there while they're trying to talk to me.

How does your TANf work? and do you really live on that little amount of money? my rent is below market rate because I'm renting a room from my parents, and it's still more than $250 a month!

[PenelopeJune]

Arrrrgh. I have $8 to last me until Thursday. I couldn't pay all our bills. We have enough food that we won't starve, but we won't be eating terrifically. And if DH's paycheck sucks again on Thursday (it will, I'm sure) then we can repeat this again, then.

I had to spend $200 of DH's paycheck on food last week, because we had went through freaking EVERYTHING. I was out of flour, sugar, oats, bread, milk, canned goods. You name it, it was gone. So I had to spend a ton just to stock back up on the basics.

I really, really hope I get called back about a job. Like, really really.

[~Megan~]

Hey everyone,

We are facing layoffs and are really stressed by the idea. I've not had to file unemployment or for food stamps before and I've been thinking about it all day and worrying.
Normally, we are paycheck to paycheck but paid off two debts in October and we were really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, iykwim. We even had enough extra that we put kids in classes which they love!

I'm asking for good thoughts and prayers that dh not get laid off. I've also applied for a part time job that would allow me to work from home. It's just the thing I've wanted for years. It would only bring in a few hundred a month but it would help so very much!

My best wishes and hopes for all of you this cold season.