"Lower Income Moms" October 2007 Support - Page 4

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by mrskennedy

We definitely live within our means and have no debt, etc. But we have nothing left over either. Yes, ATM we get social security. But I'm training to work from home as a medical transcriptionist, b/c I'm not proud of being on so much assistance and I also know it won't last forever.

Ya I get that...it sucks having nothing left over.

[janerose]

Finally have a few minutes to post...

s to everyone who's been struggling the past few weeks.

We are doing OK. I did alright on my September goals. I did get enrolled with Career Step. Now I'm just waiting for my pedal & books to arrive so I can really get started with my training. I got 2 of our 3 junkers sold & was able to set aside the $$ for a little emergency fund. I didn't get stuff listed on the TP/DS/TBW/eBay. That's now my priority for October. We did better with eating out. Not as good as we should be doing (which is basically not at ALL) but WAY less than we'd been doing over the summer when DH's was working more hours. That transition from summer pay to fall/school pay always gets me for the first few weeks...:

DH got a paid Research Assistant position on campus, which was awesome for the grad school resume, but stinks for the pay. It meant taking a few hours each week from his real job as an IT manager & making less than 1/2 the hourly pay. BUT in the long run this should really help getting into grad school & he really, really, really needs the experience since he's changing fields from computers to ecology.

My Breastfeeding Peer Counselor training starts today. Training is 2 hrs/wk for the next 8 wks & we found out today we don't get paid until the end since they want to make sure we complete the whole training before paying us. The upside is I should get a good check around December/Jan to help with the holidays. The down side is I now need to tweak our budget to replace the $80-$100/mo I'd been figuring into our income.

Have our interview for Food Stamps on Oct 15. Almost have all the documentation together. DH is having a hard time with the idea of us applying for Food Stamps. He's fine with WIC, and HEAP doesn't seem to bother him too much, the state health ins (girls on Medicaid, us on the HMO plan) kind of bugs him but he deals with it. Food Stamps though really makes him feel bad. I think it's because if he was working FT instead of going to school we actually wouldn't NEED any of those subsidies. He makes pretty good pay, but he's miserable in his jobs & after he gets his MS he should be making significantly better pay in a field that really fufills him. I really look at it as (1) He works & we do pay taxes, so it's not like we're not "paying" for it. (2) The system was put into place to help people who are trying to better themselves. (3) In the long run, the govt will benefit from DH's schooling as he earns more money & pays higher taxes, has more purchasing power, etc. Anyway, I'm hoping he'll change the way he feels because I'd feel bad getting food stamps if it made him feel bad. At the same time money is *so* tight, it will just give us a little breathing room you know? Cross your fingers & say a prayer!

OK...sheesh...this got a lot longer than I expected! Have a good night everyone!

[mrskennedy]

Prayer on the way, janerose!
Ask your DH if he wants to eat. If he says yes--and why wouldn't he?--then tell him food stamps will give you food. If that doesn't work, remind him it won't be forever. And/or tell him you're doing it for the kids. Pride tastes bad, but he needs to swallow it.
Good luck!

[sonrisaa29]

In working at the organic grocery store, it shows us how much food stamp balance is available on the card. Anyways, today I had a customer who had $1500, just out of curiousity, do food stamps roll over every month?

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by sonrisaa29

In working at the organic grocery store, it shows us how much food stamp balance is available on the card. Anyways, today I had a customer who had $1500, just out of curiousity, do food stamps roll over every month?

Yes, they roll over.

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by sonrisaa29

In working at the organic grocery store, it shows us how much food stamp balance is available on the card. Anyways, today I had a customer who had $1500, just out of curiousity, do food stamps roll over every month?

OMG! If they have that much... I can't help but wonder if they really need them! My gut says no... But I could be wrong. How in tarnation could you have that much though??? :

[mommy2maya]

Originally Posted by mrskennedy

OMG! If they have that much... I can't help but wonder if they really need them! My gut says no... But I could be wrong. How in tarnation could you have that much though??? :

Large family? Just got their benefits after waiting for an initial appt.

Why would you wonder if the family needed them?

[mum4boys]

Well maybe they screwed up like what happen with Krystal in July. I think she said she got almost $900. Of course she had a couple of months where she could hardly feed her family or maybe the family was a great shopper.

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

Large family? Just got their benefits after waiting for an initial appt.

Why would you wonder if the family needed them?

Sorry. That was the wrong thing to say. I meant you'd think they would have used them... And I know living in PA in general isn't cheap, although certain areas have a lower cost of living than others. But who knows? It's not my family, is it, so I have no idea, and I don't pretend to. The key word in my post is "wonder."

[Two Spunky Monkeys]

Just checking in - we had some good things happen today. DH did someone a favor and got $60 cash slipped to him in an envelope as thanks. I found out we were approved for a scholarship for DS2 for preschool - saving us $55/month.

I have send in a few more applications for part-time jobs and hope to find something that will work out soon. My latest is for a bank teller position.

In the meantime, I am still babysitting before/after school - and next week is an in-service day, so I'll get a little more $$$ because I'll have the girl all day on Monday. I also still have my Saturday job - and a paycheck is due to arrive Friday from that! Hooray.

We're still debt more than we'd like to be ($1500 on Discover, $800 on Mastercard, $300 on Kohl's) and are starting to worry about the holidays. But we're hanging in there.

[CaraNicole]

Originally Posted by sonrisaa29

Is it 3T stuff you're looking to get rid of? If so PM me Trust me I know how it goes with trying to find money to cover everything.....

No just pretty much 0-18mo.

[Petersmamma]

Originally Posted by janerose

BUT in the long run this should really help getting into grad school & he really, really, really needs the experience since he's changing fields from computers to ecology.

If you didn't already know this, ecologists use stats up the wazoo because you can't control for hardly ANYTHING in ecology, so they have to use all these really complicated models (that, IMO, don't actually tell you a whole lot because you need to make all these assumptions, but whatever) so having experience with computers will really come in handy.

Is he planning on becoming an eco prof? Because otherwise, an IT person is going to make a heck of a lot more than an ecologist (and actually, depending on where you get hired, an IT person will often make more than a prof).

[kittywitty]

Been awhile since I checked in!

We are doing better this month. Mostly due to our credit card limit going up. I know, bad. But we need it. I can actually buy baby stuff before the baby is actually here! I am not even going to go into how insanely high our rate or limit are...I hate credit cards but gosh their useful right now!

My landlords came and cleaned the carpets and fixed our water heater. Yay! We also found out we were lucky it hadn't exploded yet b/c it was pretty bad. We have been telling them for months...then we get a letter in the mail from insurance that they had apparently forgotten to switch over our renter's policy, so we weren't insured this whole time and we have been paying for somewhere we haven't lived since May!!! And our insurance premium that's due in 2 weeks is $170 more than it's ever been before for some insane non-sensical reason. We have no tickets or anything...I don't understand.

I also found a bunch of sales and cut my xmas list in half with dh's full support and finding a bunch of sales. Hooray! Plus MIL bought dd's cake and some party supplies for her party. THat's such a relief but it really makes me feel a little incompetent.

[mrskennedy]

to anyone who needs it... I'll be away from the thread for a while--don't know if I'll be back at all--but each of you and your families is in my thoughts!

[Petersmamma]

Originally Posted by mrskennedy

to anyone who needs it... I'll be away from the thread for a while--don't know if I'll be back at all--but each of you and your families is in my thoughts!

Is everything okay? Do you just need a break?

PM me if you need to! (I have had to take breaks from MDC, too, and I'm a relative newbie!)

[janerose]

Originally Posted by Petersmamma

If you didn't already know this, ecologists use stats up the wazoo because you can't control for hardly ANYTHING in ecology, so they have to use all these really complicated models (that, IMO, don't actually tell you a whole lot because you need to make all these assumptions, but whatever) so having experience with computers will really come in handy.

Is he planning on becoming an eco prof? Because otherwise, an IT person is going to make a heck of a lot more than an ecologist (and actually, depending on where you get hired, an IT person will often make more than a prof).

Yes, his computer experience will come in *very* handy in marketing himself. It was already how he got the Research Asst position. They needed someone who could help with processing their data collection.

We live in a pretty rural area, so his IT work doesn't actually make as much as many people in the field do. If we were willing to relocate to somewhere urban or somewhere where comp jobs are in demand (certain areas of CA or NC for instance) ITA about the pay. But we're not planning to move since our family is here. For our area he should make *at least* as much as a prof as he will in computers. Plus, most of the colleges around us are state so they have rockin' benefits & really good retirement plans. Not to mention that his job satisfaction will be MUCH higher, which you can't really put a price on!

In the meantime he'll stay on as IT Manager at his current job. They pay isn't spectacular, but it's enough for us to get by on, they *totally* let him set his own schedule, and the owner & coworkers are super nice. Too bad the job is brain numbingly boring for him....

[Petersmamma]

Originally Posted by janerose

Yes, his computer experience will come in *very* handy in marketing himself. It was already how he got the Research Asst position. They needed someone who could help with processing their data collection.

We live in a pretty rural area, so his IT work doesn't actually make as much as many people in the field do. If we were willing to relocate to somewhere urban or somewhere where comp jobs are in demand (certain areas of CA or NC for instance) ITA about the pay. But we're not planning to move since our family is here. For our area he should make *at least* as much as a prof as he will in computers. Plus, most of the colleges around us are state so they have rockin' benefits & really good retirement plans. Not to mention that his job satisfaction will be MUCH higher, which you can't really put a price on!

In the meantime he'll stay on as IT Manager at his current job. They pay isn't spectacular, but it's enough for us to get by on, they *totally* let him set his own schedule, and the owner & coworkers are super nice. Too bad the job is brain numbingly boring for him....

This might be a totally dumb q, but isn't IT a field in which you can telecommute....as in, could he help people that are in California (I have no idea where you are, I'm trying to go with someplace you are NOT)?

Or, at the very least, he could be a consultant.

I'm trying to learn R and I think I may offer my services as an independent consultant if I ever get good at it!

ETA: I understand it isn't that interesting to him, but perhaps there are ways for him to make more money at it while he has to do it.

[LankyLizards]

Wow, this thread is hard to keep up with when you don't have internet access for a while. I *finally* got "connected" today and my bill is going to be painful because I got high-speed, but it's really necessary for online classes that I will be taking in a couple of weeks. I'm glad to read that some people have improved their situations so much. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people are still struggling. Personally, lately, I feel like my situation changes daily. One day I feel like things are coming together and I'm making it and then I have a day like today where DD's father lets me know that he's not going to be able to pay off the child support arrears that he owes as quickly as he promised me that he would. And then has the nerve to hang up on me when I dared to get upset. I met a girl this week who, because her child's father is completely MIA and not on the birth certificate, gets child care assistance which means she pays $25 a week (I was paying $140 until I stopped taking DD), she gets TANF (Welfare), food stamps, income from the job that she can afford to have because of her low day care bill, and Medicaid. I like her a lot and feel bad but hearing how much assistance she gets compared to my every-so-often child support of $245 and inability to qualify for anything besides food stamps and Medicaid because of the measly CS really made me mad. BUT.....I am managing with what I do have (for now...) and I know that one day I will not be in this situation anymore and won't have to be jealous of people who recieve more public assistance than me. (Ugh....how horrible.) Anyway, I will be around more now until I can't afford the bill for internet anymore. And I have a paper that I need to start working on ASAP about Social Welfare Policy. Any ideas for a topic? I was thinking child care assistance because it is something that I think is really messed up and I would like to look more into it. Oh!! DD's potty training, actively. She has gone on her little potty twice and keeps trying. I think it will just be another week or two and goodbye expensive, gross diapers!!

[momma earthical]

I just got the papers to fill in for foodstamps and medicaid but I haven't even taken them out of the envelope yet because I can't imagine how the conversation with dp will go. I'm pretty sure he will object, and then I will have a hard time talking reasonably about it without screaming something about him getting out and finding a job. He's been out of work since Feb and has turned work down! because the hours were too long, or it was too far away from the family. In the meantime I've taken on two extra childcare jobs at home, which is really stressing out my dd who has just started school and when she comes home the other kids are here. So I'm feeling a lot of suppressed anger at dp, especially as his choice to only make minimum cc payments for three years helped us into this mess. I feel a ranty vent coming on so I'm going to stop now!

[LankyLizards]

I feel so bad for those of you that have to deal with resistance from your dh/dp when it comes to being frugal or just trying to get by. How completely infuriating!