Daydreamer64
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2003
- Messages
- 1,006
I don't know how to use spell check on the Dis boards so please excuse any errors in spelling. I'm typing this with a sick kid climbing all over me, who is whinning and feverish. Obviously it's "Job" not 'lob". 
We are a family of five. We know that starting in Sept. we will have additional costs of about $150 per month.
We already live on a dime, we are always looking for ways to save money. We eat very little meat, We use 1/2 cup of fresh meat for sauces, chili, or soups. We never have burgers because it takes more meat then sloppy joes, We never have whole pieces of meat like chops or chicken, it's always cut up into casserols, diced, or shredded into our food.
We eat loads of beans, which are a good source of protein and carbs. We have enough vegis, and unfortunately, loads of carbs- three of us are diabetic so this isn't really the best choice for food, but we have to eat and carb choices, like potatos, rice, and pastas are cheap.
We hardly never have "junk" and if we do, it's one or two treats shared among us all. I've looked at many meal planning sites to stretch our food money dollars.
A friend suggested AFM and I checked it out on line.
Based on food prices in our area, I pinch every penny, and the way we cook, I can't see much of a savings. I compared price for price with the available menus and see a savings of about $5 per box over what I usually pay for our food.
While I'll take the $5 I'm just wondering if I'm missing something? I thought it saved an average of $30 or so per box ordered according to their web site for the same food purchased in the local community.
Money advice or job advice
I'm hoping that someone might know of resources or ideas that I might not of thought of yet.
I've been looking for computer work at home as I stay at home with the kids, all three have extensive medical needs, one is considered terminal, but he is thriving, way past the average age of death due to his medical problem.
I've read and checked out all the links from recent WAH threads posted here.
I shuttle the boys to various medical appointments, out of need. There's not a week that goes by that I don't have one or another sick. DH can't leave to take care of them as he commutes an hour each way to work daily, so it falls to me.
All electric appliances/lights are turn off and unplugged when not in use. The heat wasn't turned on last winter until around Thanksgiving, believe me, we were cold, the wind is very cold as it blasts off of Lake Erie, we are about 10 houses off of the lake, cold is probably an understatement. We keep the heat at 50. The cool air is only on when it gets over 85, and then only to cool the house for a few hours until we aren't sweating too much. I have a heart condition and the heat makes me ill. We wash all loads of laundry with a full load with cold water. Most things are hung out to dry.
I've done ChaCha and Expo TV. In the past I ran a small home daycare, but since my hearing decline I haven't kept kids because couldn't hear them cry ect. Also, parents don't want a sitter who has to drive all over the place for medical sevices every week with their kids in tow. I would love to keep a new born but it's not looking like it's going to happen.
I've worked, ages ago, I worked as a paraprofessional in a Physo-Ed facility, as as an assistant bank sales manager, a substitute teacher, managed over eight retail departments on my way up through management training before I married DH and quit to move in with him in another state. I've been an assisted living coach for special needs adults, and cared for two terminal patients, I sat with them and helped keep them comfortable, reading to them and getting them anything that they wanted or needed. These jobs were ones I worked before my kids were born. I worked some of these jobs two jobs in the same time frame.
I am now hearing impared so all at home call center/customer service jobs are out, all three boys have extensive medical needs, daily therapies, and bills, we are paying for past emergencies, hospitalizations, medications, moving debt, and the list goes on and on.
I've held yard sales, made crafts, collected all of our bottle deposits, and just pinched every penny till it squeals but have reached a dead end.
My husband has a great job, we just can't get out from under the constant costs of living with our medical needs and so on.
We have to pay all of our bills on time. We try to pay more then minimum on CC bills, often only a few dollars but it all counts. Most of our expenses went on the cc when were were between jobs. There are maxed out, then last winter, after NEVER missing a payment, paying extra, paying off the cards repeatedly, when we couldn't pay off the cards in full but paid minimums on time, the interest on our cards almost doubled. On the one I used it went from $139 interest per month to over $240 interest per month, that's interest, not principle. That is our biggest problem in being able to get these cards paid down. After house bills, insurance, medical co-pays. food, and so on, all of our flexible, not really flexible, income goes to pay the cc minimums at this point.
We moved to Western NY from Georgia for a better job for DH. We can't sell our house in Atlanta as the market is bad. DMIL lives in the house so it shows better and she pays the morgage. We are thankful for her help.
We have two houses, one with $150,000 still owed and another with $98,000 owed. On paper last year's taxes showed that we made $105,000. The truth is that we used an $40,000 IRA years ago to pay old bills and when he quit his old job to start the new one, the loan repayment was dropped but shown as income so we had to pay early withdrawl fees. I believe that the moving van and a few bills were also counted as earned income as some of them were paid by his new employer.
DH's income is easily a quarter below that amount. He makes good money but I haven't been able to contribute much and that income for a family of five, with three special needs children, doesn't go far. We don't qualify for help, as we have insurance through DH's job. We look great on paper but reality is nothing like what we look like on paper. We are one paycheck/illness away from losing it all.
We don't live high on the hog, as a matter of fact we live very thightly. My kids get one pair of shoes yearly for school, except the little one as his feet are still growing quickly, they are wearing their clothes until they are faded and falling apart. They do not have the newest anything, except what their DGP's buy for them for holidays.
Both of our vehicles are paid off, DH needs one to get to work and I need one for the kids school, and medical appointments. We can't carpool together as I would have to drive a total of four hours daily just to get him to work and home- an hour to work, then home for me only to repeat the trip in the afternoon. The gas alone would be more then the cost of insurance on the second car. We combine all driving errands so save gas. My oldest DS is not driving as we can't afford the car insurance.
DH has been looking for another job, he's worked as many as three at one time but he is now overqualified for many. I have several health issues that make life difficult, I could work at night but would need to still be alert and awake to take the kids for their appointments during the day.
DH is a director of financial planning for a major business, this is his new job, he is great at it, our financial problems do not come from money mismanagement but past problems, we've always paid in full before any and all vacations, so no debt there. There's been no vacations for two years, we did manage to get a weekend at WDW May of '09' because DS#2 played in a music festival there.
DH's job would be in jeopardy if we contact credit help or can't pay our bills, trust me, the company would know.
The company wouldn't want someone in charge of their money if they thought that he couldn't handle his own. We are walking a very thin line.
Our youngest goes to 4-k this year so I'll have uninterrupted time most days for work. I can work most hours 24/7 at home but do need a flexible job due to the kid's unexpected needs. I never know from day to day when I will be in the hospital with one of them. I've looked for months trying to find a telecommuting job. Most seem to be scams. Many want money to start up home businesses, and those that don't, are asking for skills that I don't have.
I'm limited in my computer skills- I can email, post, print, and search, but don't know how to do business things like spread sheets, reports and so on. I'm a quick learner. I do Pinecone, among other survey sites when I get invites.
I've got an associates degree in Early Childhood Education. I don't have money or the time needed to go to school. There's always the problem of the kids medical management needs.
I'm feeling very overwhelmed at this time.
There are some choices that I might have made differently had I known the future at the time that I made them. For the most part, I am comfortable that we made the right money choices over the years.
The only thing that I can think to do is try to find a night job. My youngest is only in half day 4-k starting after Labor Day, so he's gone from home about three hours daily, not really enough time to work part time anywhere outside of the home during the day.
We are a family of five. We know that starting in Sept. we will have additional costs of about $150 per month.
We already live on a dime, we are always looking for ways to save money. We eat very little meat, We use 1/2 cup of fresh meat for sauces, chili, or soups. We never have burgers because it takes more meat then sloppy joes, We never have whole pieces of meat like chops or chicken, it's always cut up into casserols, diced, or shredded into our food.
We eat loads of beans, which are a good source of protein and carbs. We have enough vegis, and unfortunately, loads of carbs- three of us are diabetic so this isn't really the best choice for food, but we have to eat and carb choices, like potatos, rice, and pastas are cheap.
We hardly never have "junk" and if we do, it's one or two treats shared among us all. I've looked at many meal planning sites to stretch our food money dollars.
A friend suggested AFM and I checked it out on line.
Based on food prices in our area, I pinch every penny, and the way we cook, I can't see much of a savings. I compared price for price with the available menus and see a savings of about $5 per box over what I usually pay for our food.
While I'll take the $5 I'm just wondering if I'm missing something? I thought it saved an average of $30 or so per box ordered according to their web site for the same food purchased in the local community.
Money advice or job advice
I'm hoping that someone might know of resources or ideas that I might not of thought of yet.
I've been looking for computer work at home as I stay at home with the kids, all three have extensive medical needs, one is considered terminal, but he is thriving, way past the average age of death due to his medical problem.
I've read and checked out all the links from recent WAH threads posted here.
I shuttle the boys to various medical appointments, out of need. There's not a week that goes by that I don't have one or another sick. DH can't leave to take care of them as he commutes an hour each way to work daily, so it falls to me.
All electric appliances/lights are turn off and unplugged when not in use. The heat wasn't turned on last winter until around Thanksgiving, believe me, we were cold, the wind is very cold as it blasts off of Lake Erie, we are about 10 houses off of the lake, cold is probably an understatement. We keep the heat at 50. The cool air is only on when it gets over 85, and then only to cool the house for a few hours until we aren't sweating too much. I have a heart condition and the heat makes me ill. We wash all loads of laundry with a full load with cold water. Most things are hung out to dry.
I've done ChaCha and Expo TV. In the past I ran a small home daycare, but since my hearing decline I haven't kept kids because couldn't hear them cry ect. Also, parents don't want a sitter who has to drive all over the place for medical sevices every week with their kids in tow. I would love to keep a new born but it's not looking like it's going to happen.
I've worked, ages ago, I worked as a paraprofessional in a Physo-Ed facility, as as an assistant bank sales manager, a substitute teacher, managed over eight retail departments on my way up through management training before I married DH and quit to move in with him in another state. I've been an assisted living coach for special needs adults, and cared for two terminal patients, I sat with them and helped keep them comfortable, reading to them and getting them anything that they wanted or needed. These jobs were ones I worked before my kids were born. I worked some of these jobs two jobs in the same time frame.
I am now hearing impared so all at home call center/customer service jobs are out, all three boys have extensive medical needs, daily therapies, and bills, we are paying for past emergencies, hospitalizations, medications, moving debt, and the list goes on and on.
I've held yard sales, made crafts, collected all of our bottle deposits, and just pinched every penny till it squeals but have reached a dead end.
My husband has a great job, we just can't get out from under the constant costs of living with our medical needs and so on.
We have to pay all of our bills on time. We try to pay more then minimum on CC bills, often only a few dollars but it all counts. Most of our expenses went on the cc when were were between jobs. There are maxed out, then last winter, after NEVER missing a payment, paying extra, paying off the cards repeatedly, when we couldn't pay off the cards in full but paid minimums on time, the interest on our cards almost doubled. On the one I used it went from $139 interest per month to over $240 interest per month, that's interest, not principle. That is our biggest problem in being able to get these cards paid down. After house bills, insurance, medical co-pays. food, and so on, all of our flexible, not really flexible, income goes to pay the cc minimums at this point.
We moved to Western NY from Georgia for a better job for DH. We can't sell our house in Atlanta as the market is bad. DMIL lives in the house so it shows better and she pays the morgage. We are thankful for her help.
We have two houses, one with $150,000 still owed and another with $98,000 owed. On paper last year's taxes showed that we made $105,000. The truth is that we used an $40,000 IRA years ago to pay old bills and when he quit his old job to start the new one, the loan repayment was dropped but shown as income so we had to pay early withdrawl fees. I believe that the moving van and a few bills were also counted as earned income as some of them were paid by his new employer.
DH's income is easily a quarter below that amount. He makes good money but I haven't been able to contribute much and that income for a family of five, with three special needs children, doesn't go far. We don't qualify for help, as we have insurance through DH's job. We look great on paper but reality is nothing like what we look like on paper. We are one paycheck/illness away from losing it all.
We don't live high on the hog, as a matter of fact we live very thightly. My kids get one pair of shoes yearly for school, except the little one as his feet are still growing quickly, they are wearing their clothes until they are faded and falling apart. They do not have the newest anything, except what their DGP's buy for them for holidays.
Both of our vehicles are paid off, DH needs one to get to work and I need one for the kids school, and medical appointments. We can't carpool together as I would have to drive a total of four hours daily just to get him to work and home- an hour to work, then home for me only to repeat the trip in the afternoon. The gas alone would be more then the cost of insurance on the second car. We combine all driving errands so save gas. My oldest DS is not driving as we can't afford the car insurance.
DH has been looking for another job, he's worked as many as three at one time but he is now overqualified for many. I have several health issues that make life difficult, I could work at night but would need to still be alert and awake to take the kids for their appointments during the day.
DH is a director of financial planning for a major business, this is his new job, he is great at it, our financial problems do not come from money mismanagement but past problems, we've always paid in full before any and all vacations, so no debt there. There's been no vacations for two years, we did manage to get a weekend at WDW May of '09' because DS#2 played in a music festival there.
DH's job would be in jeopardy if we contact credit help or can't pay our bills, trust me, the company would know.
The company wouldn't want someone in charge of their money if they thought that he couldn't handle his own. We are walking a very thin line.
Our youngest goes to 4-k this year so I'll have uninterrupted time most days for work. I can work most hours 24/7 at home but do need a flexible job due to the kid's unexpected needs. I never know from day to day when I will be in the hospital with one of them. I've looked for months trying to find a telecommuting job. Most seem to be scams. Many want money to start up home businesses, and those that don't, are asking for skills that I don't have.
I'm limited in my computer skills- I can email, post, print, and search, but don't know how to do business things like spread sheets, reports and so on. I'm a quick learner. I do Pinecone, among other survey sites when I get invites.
I've got an associates degree in Early Childhood Education. I don't have money or the time needed to go to school. There's always the problem of the kids medical management needs.
I'm feeling very overwhelmed at this time.
There are some choices that I might have made differently had I known the future at the time that I made them. For the most part, I am comfortable that we made the right money choices over the years.
The only thing that I can think to do is try to find a night job. My youngest is only in half day 4-k starting after Labor Day, so he's gone from home about three hours daily, not really enough time to work part time anywhere outside of the home during the day.
If you are familiar with the area, I'm near Evangola Park.
Add those to the snowblower, winter coats, boots, clothes and so on..
They are cheap, versatile and an excellent form of protein.
