February Low Income Mama Support Thread - Page 2

[triscuitsmom]

Mamas

I am back! I am sorry I didn't check in at all in January... things were crazy round here. They aren't much less crazy now, but at least I'm back on MDC.

Today was a crazy snow day here... and freezing rain. On top of that I have a baby who is fighting to breathe and coughing until he pukes The combination of the two means my rent is not paid because I couldn't go out... a job for tomorrow.

My gratefuls:

1. We are warm and dry... even if it is crazy outside.
2. It's February, which means my DP will be moving home to be with us for good in less than a month
3. My baby is asleep... he's wheezing, but he's asleep which should make him feel better.

Happy February Mamas! *hugs*

[mamamoo]

subbing

[Aura_Kitten]

triscuitsmom ~ I'm sorry your baby is going through that, I know how awful that is.

[Iris' Mom]

Welcome everyone! I'll catch up later; just subbing for now.

[gradmama]

don't have time to post 'cuz I'm buRied, but subbing and hoping to get back to chat with all you wonderful mamas before the thread is so long i can't catch up. which is what generally happens.
hugs

[ediesmom]

good morning mamas!

Originally Posted by sewsew

Thanks for setting this up!

Iam really struggling with our finances - moreso than ever. I *accidentally* bounced our checking account on Wednesday. Alright noone ever does it on purpose but still......... Bounced check fees UGH!!! All cuz I forgot that the cell phone bill is directly debited - UGH UGH

I'm so embarrased and upset all at the same time.

I joined the Feb No Spend Challenge thread. Hopefully I can get myself on track.

Well thanks for listening to me whine!

ah, the check fees i can't live without my account, but there have been a few months recently that i've paid more in fees than i have paid in bills....really freakin scary.

Originally Posted by justmama

Hey ediesmom, I've been mia a bit because of my computer issues but how's the shoulder feelign???

aurakitten, sorry to hear about your baby. that's so scary. I think not being able to breathe is possibly THE scariest thing in the world.

sewsew, I had a rubber check a few months ago and the fees just TOTALLY screwed me. It sucks to not only bounce a check but lose money on the fees too.

momof4sweeties, I hear ya on the taxes. if my ex and I file jointly like we did before(we are still married technically) we have to pay in. i'm not sure how to actually GET a refund back this year. i was really counting on that money so I totally know how frustrated you must be.


As for us, it's the first so we went grocery shopping. ex is taking the two bigger girls to the petstore for a new fish for each of them(tank is at his house) so that's a small break for me today! woohoo!!!!! bus driver has been picking Mady up in front of the house in the mornings (even though she could get in trouble for it) so I dont' have to walk to the bus stop with them and sit in the cold with the baby. she's a really really sweet woman! Grace is doing well gaining weight. She's going to be one month old in a few days and she's up to 6lbs!!!!! Big chunker! So that means I have just over 2 weeks left of maternity leave. I'm sad because I really do want to keep Grace with me and I'm worried about pumping at work(they basically told me no) but I am working short shifts for the first few weeks so I can nurse right before her daddy takes her and he'll give her one bottle, and I'll be back to nurse her before I get too engorged and start leaking like crazy. BUT it's still nerve-wracking to leave a 6 week old who isn't at her due date yet. I can only hope that her daddy will keep her at my house away from the smoke from his mom and step-dad.

the shoulder is okay....hurts, but i have hope

there has GOT TO BE a way to figure all this out.....housing subsidy?

and DEMAND that she be kept away from the smoke......really, it should be a no-brainer for him:

Originally Posted by Daniel's Kitty

Wow a new month!

My husband may have a buyer for a house. If he does we won't qualify for any help. We are in waiting for a foodstamp appointment but I can live with not having that. We may be getting unemployment money ($200 a week). I can't wait until real estate takes off! When we get out of this hole, I am going to build our savings up enough that we can live for a year!

We have good news though.
My MW found a copy of the info that was sent in with the birth certificate so we don't have to buy a copy to get that fixed.

My FIL fixed the truck for cost of materials $50 instead of $500

I gave the baby some tylenol for his teeth last night (he has been in a teething nightmare for a while) and it stopped the pain so he slept. I know so many people think this is bad, but I remember needing something when my wisdom teeth were coming in.

tylenol for pain sounds perfectly reasonable, mama.....don't second guess yourself.

and...YAY!....on the truck


back from my ani weekend i have a girl-crush

got to take the pooches to the low cost vax clinic: stella can't be groomed without a rabies vax.....this pisses me off..but, she REALLY needs grooming. don't know how i'm going to physically handle the two of them with one functioning arm....but the clinic is only once a month and she lookes like absolute hell...and shes filthy. actually f'ing gross. and i can't do it myself

and low cost....

okay mamas....see you soon

welcome to the new mamas! thanks for being here! (i need all the support i can get)

[cwat]

Another day. So far this month is going ok (yes I know it's only the 3rd, but I'm trying to look at the bright side of things)
I hope everybody's doing okay, January didn't seem to be a good month for ANYONE!
Anyways, just popping in to say "hi"

[Aura_Kitten]

Yeah January seemed rough for everyone, but February has kicked off to a half-decent start (other than being sick and all).





PSA: Everyone go check in at the Brag Thread in TAO!!!!! I'm sure we all have accomplishments to share... surviving poverty is a full-time job in itself...!

[justmama]

Originally Posted by ediesmom

the shoulder is okay....hurts, but i have hope

there has GOT TO BE a way to figure all this out.....housing subsidy?

and DEMAND that she be kept away from the smoke......really, it should be a no-brainer for him:



back from my ani weekend i have a girl-crush

got to take the pooches to the low cost vax clinic: stella can't be groomed without a rabies vax.....this pisses me off..but, she REALLY needs grooming. don't know how i'm going to physically handle the two of them with one functioning arm....but the clinic is only once a month and she lookes like absolute hell...and shes filthy. actually f'ing gross. and i can't do it myself

and low cost....

okay mamas....see you soon

welcome to the new mamas! thanks for being here! (i need all the support i can get)

ha, I don't know about you Mainers but here in RI, we've got a 1-2 year wait for subsidized housing. Meaning, not a shot in HECK that I'll get in when I need it. And yeah, it SHOULD be a no-brainer for him but you knwo Dan. He's not exactly the brightest bulb. Still is convinced that he doesn't need to wash his hands after he smokes or when he walks in the door to hold the baby or kiss her. Says that it's his germs so it shouldn't matter. Okay right.

By the way, I love ani too! My girls aren't a huge fan, which slightly upsets me but hey I can rock out to country music with them if they rock out to Ani with me!

Here's a thought on the poochies. Any vet places around do just rabies only visits besides the clinic????? Are you talking about a rabies clinic at Petco? That's also an option if you weren't. But back at the vet I used to work at we did a $10 rabies only visit where the dog didn't get actually looked at by a vet. A technician(usually me) would go in and just give a rabies vax as long as the dog had no fever and looked essentially healthy and we'd issue the rabies cert and the person was on their way. Did you call around and check??? And that way you could bring the doggies on the maiden voyage in the van and bring them into the room at the vet separately to handle them effectively with one arm without Shelby bringing the baby bean along or waiting for Edie to help. Just a thought. Check it out!

Glad your arm is feeling better. Gracie and the big girls send their love and snuggles. By the way, I think Gracie may be fitting into the outfit you got her soon so I'm washing it tomorrow. We may actually be outgrowing preemie stuff!!!!!

[justmama]

Originally Posted by Aura_Kitten

PSA: Everyone go check in at the Brag Thread in TAO!!!!! I'm sure we all have accomplishments to share... surviving poverty is a full-time job in itself...!

It most certainly IS a full-time job and a huge accomplishment, especially when you can stay positive through most of it!

[Purple*Lotus]

Originally Posted by justmama

the issue is that I'm a waitress. I never know what my shifts are going to be. I'm not sure if you are familiar with it but we are "cut" in a certain order each night. I come in at 4 or 5pm and let's just say it's a Friday night and I'm 5th cut. That means that 4 people leave before me. If it's busy, they won't be cutting people because they need the servers to serve the guests. So I'll be there for longer than if it were completely dead. Obviously they'd cut people sooner because they aren't making any money to keep us and we aren't making any tips. So it depends on how busy it is and what cut I am. There's never a guarantee of how long you will be there. So you can't really say, "well she legally needs to be allowed a place to pump because she's there for 4 hours." Ya know? I sometimes come in at 4pm and leave at 8 because it's dead and sometimes I'm there from 4pm until 11pm and I'm the same exact cut. We don't get breaks either. So that's the other sticking point. And you aren't allowed to eat in the kitchen and since you don't get a break you can't eat out in the restaurant either. So that made pregnancy hard. It's just not a GREAT situation.:

Yikes.. what about bathroom breaks? I am assuming you ran to the bathroom a lot when you were pregnant. I am adding this to my list of reasons why people should tip over 20%!! No breaks, ack, that is miserable!

[ediesmom]

good mornng mamas!

need to be quick.....class at 830

well, the pooches got their shots.....its a once a month clinic at pet quarters, so i didn't want to miss it....again

i am so inspired by aura saying that surviving poverty is an accomplishment. its so true, and we will survive this. i feel like as long as i have the 'mamas' i can get through just about everything

okay....must clean myself before school

have a good day, mamas.....

[s_kristina]

I think we have managed to luck out and not get stuck with another overdraft charge. Dh had to get gas and it looked like his check might not get in the bank in time to cover it, but the gas is still pending this morning and the check was cleared since Saturday so hopefully it's all good. That extra $35 sitting there to cover the charge if it came through will come in super handy this week! Our LL has also realized that he isn't going to be able to rent the other side of the duplex we live in for what we pay him and has in lowered our rent. Of course he wants dh to do some basic yard work in exchange for that, but not spending $100 a month in rent is well worth a morning or 2 a month fighting weeds. Not something that would need doing if he had decent lawn service guys, but the LL tends to do things as cheap as he can. He fixes stuff quick when it needs it, but if he has a friend or family member that could do it he will get them to so he doesn't have to pay full price.

[justmama]

Originally Posted by ~*Jaime

Yikes.. what about bathroom breaks? I am assuming you ran to the bathroom a lot when you were pregnant. I am adding this to my list of reasons why people should tip over 20%!! No breaks, ack, that is miserable!

yeah no bathroom breaks. BUT you compensate by not drinking a lot(ironically drinks are free!) and you learn to hold it. I probably only peed maybe once or twice a night between getting drinks and running food to people when I was pregnant. But it dehydrates you because you aren't drinking AND you are running around quickly dealing with your tables.

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I'm starting to freak out about my credit card debt. Right now I have it divided between 2 cards and I got awesome promotional balance transfer rates. One is 0% and the other .1%. The promotional rates are ending April 1st for one and mid-May for the other. I need to find another credit card to transfer everything onto. I've been doing the transfer thing for about 3 years now and it's getting harder to find new cards with good intro rates. Time is running out and I'm getting stressed.

For good news though, I just got a babysitting job! My best friend is picking up an extra shift at her work and will need a babysitter every other Thursday or so. She is going to give me $40/day! I figure it should be at least $80/month and sometimes more when she has to work every week. Our daughters get along well so maybe they can occupy each other while I get some housework done. Also I sold 2 things on Craigslist. I have the baby swing still to sell but after that I'm not sure what else I can get rid of. When yard sale season starts up I'm going to start looking for more stuff to sell on Craigslist. Slowly but surely, this debt will get paid off!!

[Belleweather]

DH is really depressed and having a hard time. He desparately wants to move back to Oregon and is looking for a job out there rather than looking for one here... which would be fine, except that even at the best wage he could expect he still would be making 3/5 of what I'm making and I'm not sure we can move AND take a income cut of almost half.

I'd love for him to go see someone about potentially adding an antidepressant to his meds (he takes meds for ADHD) until we're through winter and the worst adjustment period with the new baby but yeah... considering the hell on earth we went through to just get the ADHD meds since we have basically no access to mental health services, I'm not real willing to rock the boat.

[mamamoo]

So tell me a good place to move for a single mama of five. I need good social service benifits, a community college with a nursing program, it would be nice if my housing voucher would transfer and I was told it would if the city I move to had a welfare to work program. I figure I will be done with school in about 3-4 years, so I need to be somewhere affordable while I go to school. I am scared, but so ready to get my kids away from this drama, and daily disappointment. Their dad is amazingly scarce compared to what they were used to, and only answers his phone/calls them when he is not with his homewrecker. You would think that would turn her off. She does have a kid herself after all. The funny thing is he is super nice to me when she is not around, but when she is he is a major jerk. The whole situation is screwed up, and I need to get these kids somewhere where there is not drama everyday of the week. At least is he doesn't call them I can say it's long distance or something. He even sounded relieved, or at least uncaring when I told him.

[ediesmom]

good morning mamas!

checking in this morning.....school is keeping me so freakin busy. i need some me time..

just struggling today time, money, health....the weather....its all crap

Originally Posted by mamamoo

So tell me a good place to move for a single mama of five. I need good social service benifits, a community college with a nursing program, it would be nice if my housing voucher would transfer and I was told it would if the city I move to had a welfare to work program. I figure I will be done with school in about 3-4 years, so I need to be somewhere affordable while I go to school. I am scared, but so ready to get my kids away from this drama, and daily disappointment. Their dad is amazingly scarce compared to what they were used to, and only answers his phone/calls them when he is not with his homewrecker. You would think that would turn her off. She does have a kid herself after all. The funny thing is he is super nice to me when she is not around, but when she is he is a major jerk. The whole situation is screwed up, and I need to get these kids somewhere where there is not drama everyday of the week. At least is he doesn't call them I can say it's long distance or something. He even sounded relieved, or at least uncaring when I told him.

portland maine, mama

nursing school, pretty comprehensive social services...a housing authority that probably has reciprocity with yours for your voucher

mdc mamas

[zonapellucida]

Goodmorning mama! subbing

II wanted to say hello, I am Heidi and living with several children on a tight budget.

My thankful for this very momnet is that the computer still works even though I get these scary pauses.

[mamamoo]

Originally Posted by ediesmom

good morning mamas!

checking in this morning.....school is keeping me so freakin busy. i need some me time..

just struggling today time, money, health....the weather....its all crap





portland maine, mama

nursing school, pretty comprehensive social services...a housing authority that probably has reciprocity with yours for your voucher

mdc mamas

I am so sorry you are in so much pain and struggling.

I hear it is pretty there, lots of snow?