Summer '11 ***Low Income Support Thread***

[Thystle]

Summer (June - August) 2011 support for those living with low incomes.

Support only, no flaming!!!!!

Link to last thread: http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1307753/spring-low-income-support-thread-april-may 

[Thystle]

Ahhh facing "Layoff Land" again. 

[frugalmama]

I'm so glad it's June - May was just brutal for us. We made it on selling books at Half Price books, but now I only have one load left to take. I have got to go down and reapply for FS and medicaid, we've been so busy with family stuff I haven't been able to yet.

[*LoveBugMama*]

Hi.... 

Having a pretty bad day today. I`m really, really broke, and don`t have money to pay my electricalbill. Hopefully they won`t do anything about it until I get some money next week. Hopefully. 

Luckily I do have food for the week. 

Big hugs to everyone.

[GirlBoyGirl]

So sorry LoveBugMama

Thystle, I hope you can steer clear of layoff land!



Well I don't know if anyone remembers but I had found the perfect job back in January, working weekdays 4-7 (DH gets off work at 3). Well we lost a big client so I got my hours cut to 0 on May 1! I am hoping they find a new client or something and I can go back but I am not holding my breath. I have a new business (very tiny) in the works so maybe I will get some extra cash from that!

We have decided to sell our home because the mortgage is too high. It is $1400 and our income is $1600! We owe $170k (bought for $185k 6 years ago) and we will list it for $190k and after closing costs/fees/etc, we will have "made" about $2k (there is a $5k allowance in there to go down in price or offer closing costs). The realtor is just about the top one in the state and has been selling homes like hot cakes so I only pray she can sell ours, too! We will be moving into my sister's empty townhome and renting that. She is giving us a good deal on rent, in fact she is losing out because her mortgage is higher than what our rent will be but she thinks it is worth it to have trustworthy people in there. She had it rented for the last 6 months to awful people who completely destroyed the house! She has about $8k in damages and the carpet guy said the carpet was the worst smelling her has ever smelled in 20 years and he has even been in homes with dead bodies on the floor for a week! My poor sister I was hoping we could have moved in last week but the repairs are still going on for at least another week.

We will not list our house until we can move because we did have it listed (with a terrible realtor) a couple months ago and it is just too hard with us living here- it looks like a daycare threw up in here! So we will be repainting the kids rooms and some of the other rooms and moving most of the stuff out except for a few peices of furniture to leave the house "staged". WISH US LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Once we start paying rent, it will be $950 which is so much better than $1400!!!!!! I will be so relieved when all is said and done!

[Koalamom]

I am joining this one.

Hope your home sells boygirlboy!

And for lovebug, Hope those lights stay on!!

Frugalmama, Oh sweet books. I am considering selling my nice diaper stash of expensive fitteds and just getting prefolds. So hard to do.

Hugs everyone!

[Mommy2Austin]

Had to take out the dreaded cash advance to pay the electric bill before it got shut off. Thankfully my check should be here tomorrow so we can pay it. I'm not sure what it means for the rest of the month though. I had a dream last night that I got fired from my job. I wouldn't completely against the idea, but I need my insurance payment at least until DH can get a job. Everything seems to work out without me freaking out about it, so I'm trying to stay chilled out and finish out my pregnancy without too much stress.

[justamama]

(((((Thystle)))) Hope the layoffs stay far away!

This month has to be better than May, but will be VERY tight. We have no budget for anything but paying mortgage payments, DH's gas to get to work, and paying MIL back what we owe her. Anything extra (utilities, groceries, my gas, etc) has to be figured out some other way. FINALLY getting to the office to apply for FS/Medicaid tomorrow. Seems like something has stopped me from being able to for the past 2 weeks. :/

Once June/July are over and our mortgage is all caught up, we are thinking of putting the house up for sale or rent and moving two states south where we can rent a house for much less than what we pay to live here and DH can work a normal 40 hr/wk job rather than working 50 hr/wk. The rent we could get will leave us paying $15-60/month on our mortgage. But we'd be where we want to be geographically, we could have more time as a family, and the state is more lax in their vaccine/hs laws.

[mamayogibear]

Oops, I just posted on the May thread today! I just got hired by a work at home company called leapforce, I'm hoping it's not a scam. I really want to spend the next couple of months at home with my kids since in September I will be going to school to become an RN and working part time as a CNA which will put me out of the house for 40 hours per week. I need to save up money for when school starts since I don't get my scholarship, grant and work study until after classes start. I am pondering taking summer classes that I don't need to jut to get some financial aid but I don't think that would be honest or right so I doubt I will, unless I can find a class that is needed for my degree that is offered online over the summer.

I think I need to pay off some of my debts before then too since I have really bad credit and doubt I'll be able to rent a house or apartment in the town I am moving too.  I am going to try to sell some of my old textbooks at the end of this term if they are still worth anything. And I will also be posting items on craigslist and amazon in an attempt to raise funds and declutter. I just wish my dead-beat of an ex would pay back the money he borrowed last fall, then I wouldn't have to worry about all this.

Thanks for reading I appreciate being able to vent here

[zebra15]

Doing resumes.... no employer is beating down my door, heck no one is even calling or emailing....

And to make matters worse I think the Monsoon is coming, we are getting cloud cover and the humidity is rising....its just way too early in the season for this....115 and humid is NOT OKAY...

[kbond]

So, we're considering renting out our extra room to make some money. (We never planned on almost 2 years of unemployment for me.) Has anyone here ever done this? I'm a little nervous about having a stranger live in my home with my two children. We have 2 people who have expressed interest and are planning to interview them and have background checks, but I just don't know. OTOH, we need the money.

[mamaofprincesses]

Just checking in. We're doing ok, getting by with DH's overtime and the little bit I can make subbing at the school I used to teach at.

On the other hand, my mother's colon cancer has spread. We have a family reunion scheduled for this month (which we can barely afford but I'm not going to tell her no). She told my sister that she didn't really care if she lived after that, and she told my other sister she thinks she has four or five months left.

So I guess I need to save for plane fare for a funeral, and figure out how to tell my mom goodbye.

[Thystle]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Layoff is happening Friday.  

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~job and $$$$ vibes for everyone!!!!! !    

[maciascl]

Thystle: Sorry to hear about the layoff. Hope soemthing comes through quickly! Thanks for the new thread!

mamaofaprinces: I am so sorry about your mom! Big HUGS to you!!

GirlBoyGirl: Good luck selling the house. I know the market here is turning and things are selling faster.

We know we can squeek by for June and July but after that....who knows. DH's unemployment runs out in July. He really needs some clients quick or we will be cashing out his 401K that will get us through for about 5 months I think. But we would lose food stamps during that time. We could apply again after it was gone and even qualify for Medi-Cal I bet, but I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I mailed in 2 different applications for assistance with electric bill so if thpse come through that should cover it for til December. 1 less bill will be nice.

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by kbond 

So, we're considering renting out our extra room to make some money. (We never planned on almost 2 years of unemployment for me.) Has anyone here ever done this? I'm a little nervous about having a stranger live in my home with my two children. We have 2 people who have expressed interest and are planning to interview them and have background checks, but I just don't know. OTOH, we need the money.

I haven't rented a room but I've been a roommate. Those were the longest and most stressful 2 1/2 years of my life (and my son was ages 7-10 during that time).  The person I rented from I knew from the time my son was born and we had a pretty good understanding of how things were going to be.  I can honestly tell you the little things start to get annoying after a bit.  

Sharing the fridge, the whole grocery thing and dinner time.  The laundry room shuffle, there are 7 days in a week, 24 hrs in a day yet everyone wants to do laundry at the same time.

You are renting a room but the person is going to want to use the house, the living room, kitchen, bathroom etc... this person is going to be interacting with your family on a daily basis.  What are your kids going to call this person?  Mr/s Johnson, Sam, Mr/s Sam?  What happens if the kids get attached to 'Sam' but YOU can't stand them after 2 months?  What if "Sam" can't stand the reality of living with kids?  

What happens when the renter wants to have overnight guests?  wants to have a party and entertain?

**I found it very difficult to have any friends over when I was a roommate, and it was horrible on DS, his friends NEVER came over.

Thats not to say the roommate thing is awful for everyone but I think you need to really think it through, think about the logistics of it, some real life scenarios, and be honest about what you can and can not live with.

[zebra15]

Today I bought a dress (with money I don't have) but if I ever get an interview I'll look good.- or if I ever get a date I'll look good for that too.   The dress is conservative yet fun.... it will cover about 99.9% of events that I would ever need AND it makes me feel good.

I've been doing resumes right, left, up and down and getting no responses.  I really don't know what to do anymore.  I can't even get a dang temp agency to call me.

Thystle I hope your DH has better luck than I do in this wonderful state.

To end the day DS dropped a brand new jar of pickles, (why don't they use plastic containers, everything else comes in plastic these days), so we had a mess to clean up and I think I have a tiny tiny piece of glass in my foot.

Tonight I paid bills, everyone is paid.  I have no money but if everything goes according to plan and there are no surprises, everything will be paid this month.

[kbond]

zebra 15: Thanks for your insight. We have had people live, rent-free, in our room before for periods of time. One was my sister, which is a bit of a different situation. But, we did let one of my law school friends move in while she was unemployed, and it was okay. I'm still conflicted about doing this at all, but I'm not really sure that we have a financial choice.

We just found out this week that my husband's pay will be cut by 1.9%...as if teachers make too much to begin with. On the other hand, maybe this will push us below the line enough to qualify for food stamps. *sigh*

[mamayogibear]

When you apply for food stamps you should look into other assistance too. I was surprised by the income limits that you can still get on TANF here in WA. I have *heard* that you can get cash assistance if you can prove to DSHS that your income is less than your expenses, like a notice from the bank mortgage is past due or shut off notices from utility companies. That might be enough of a difference so you don't need to rent a room.

I am in your area and in the past I have looked for rooms to rent with my daughter (before ds was around) and only searched for ads that had the keywords of 'mom' or 'parent' in them. Renting to a single mom with one kids around your kids age would probably be a safe bet, you might even be able to turn them on to MDC. Plus a parent would most likly be understanding of house 'hours' and what not. Good luck deciding what do do!
 

Originally Posted by kbond 

zebra 15: Thanks for your insight. We have had people live, rent-free, in our room before for periods of time. One was my sister, which is a bit of a different situation. But, we did let one of my law school friends move in while she was unemployed, and it was okay. I'm still conflicted about doing this at all, but I'm not really sure that we have a financial choice.

We just found out this week that my husband's pay will be cut by 1.9%...as if teachers make too much to begin with. On the other hand, maybe this will push us below the line enough to qualify for food stamps. *sigh*

[kbond]

Thanks for the advice about TANF. When I looked at it last time, we also didn't qualify but I can check again I suppose.

[GirlBoyGirl]

Originally Posted by mamaofprincesses 

Just checking in. We're doing ok, getting by with DH's overtime and the little bit I can make subbing at the school I used to teach at.

On the other hand, my mother's colon cancer has spread. We have a family reunion scheduled for this month (which we can barely afford but I'm not going to tell her no). She told my sister that she didn't really care if she lived after that, and she told my other sister she thinks she has four or five months left.

So I guess I need to save for plane fare for a funeral, and figure out how to tell my mom goodbye.

I'm so sorry, that is really hard.