Wednesday, July 27, 2011

J-O-B please!

Hubby is still working away. He's making it on about 4-5 hours of sleep. Poor guy, he's looking rough, but he's trying to remain strong. He works over at the second job about 15 minutes each day and has to work Saturday 7am-4pm. By the end of the week he will have worked 90+ hours. He continues to state that he will keep up this crazy schedule until I'm working and we have paid off our back taxes and a small loan ($3000), which would mean he would continue to work 2 months past me obtaining a job. I am worried about him.

I had an interview yesterday and one today. The one today blew...big time! I drove 45 minutes to only be interviewed for 5 minutes. During those short 5 minutes, I was told they want to hire an RN instead of a social worker because they are more thorough (whatever!). Why waste my time and money?!?!?

I have another interview tomorrow morning that's a second interview for a position that is strictly on call (yuck), but at least it is a job...hopefully. I also am supposed to have an interview tomorrow afternoon, but here's my problem: It is working in a cafe as a cashier/food prep that pays $8/hour. Is this something that I should even consider because it is a 45 minute drive there...so I am thinking that with gasoline I would only make about $150 every week. Is it even worth it? HELP!

On a semi-positive note, the freeloaders have moved out! Yeah! However, they trashed our home. I spent all day on Monday deep cleaning their bathroom. It was so disgusting that I bawled. They managed to put holes in our walls, break closet doors, knick our furniture, and ruin our carpet. Any advice on how to cheaply clean carpet would be greatly appreciated because I cannot afford a Rug Doctor right now.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

My hubby, my hero!!

My husband has taken on the two jobs. It's going to be so difficult for him. When he walked out the door this afternoon for his next 8 hour job, I bawled. He begins his day working 7am-4pm, comes home to shower, eat dinner, nap if he's lucky, leaves again for his second job from 5:30/6pm-2:45/3am. He is doing this all on 4 hours of sleep. I feel horrible that he has to do this because I cannot find a job. Grr.

I had another interview today and have 2 more set up this week. The interview that I had this morning already called me back for a second interview next Monday. Fortunately, two of the three jobs are in my field. I am also pursing a job with the gasoline station in which I was an assistant manager in college. Hopefully since I left on good terms, they'll hire me back!

We posted a bunch of stuff on Craigslist (2 cell phones, 2 bunk beds, a twin bed, new car audio, kitchen table, large painted pictures, and a lawn mower). So far both the cell phones have sold and one of the bunk beds is about to go if the guy can get a truck to haul it with. We are posting an ad in the paper for our yard sale Saturday--$9--for an ad. It seems really expensive especially considering we live in a very small town.

Ya'll should be proud of me! I called all the people we owe money to and set up payment plans, deferments, or extensions. Everyone was so willing to work with us. Our mortgage company said that we would qualify for 4 plans that help us out in our situation. Our banks that lend for our cars, has given us an extra month to find a job to pay. All the doctors' offices were totally understanding and just asked us to keep them updated. Looks like the only thing that we may not be able to keep is our Internet/Cable, which is fine with me! My hubby will be heartbroken with no TV. though.

I think God has His hands on us. We are very fortunate.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Scared

Here it is almost 1am and I am sitting in my master bathroom writing this so that I don't wake my husband. I have cried for nearly two hours from fear and remorse. I found out today that because I was terminated, I will not get the nearly six weeks of pay from vacation time that I had anticipated. Now we are do not know how we are going to make it until I start a job and get a steady paycheck. We have until the end of the month to make two car payments and our mortgage. We don't how we we will make all of them. Unless something changes between now and the last day of the month, we will loose something. We are going to pay my car payment and the mortgage. We are turning the car payment to my husband's SUV to God. We are praying to Him to make something happen so that we can keep everything we have through this difficult time.

Today alone I applied for over 50 jobs including fast food, housekeeping, front desk work, jobs in my field, and jobs outside of my field. I immediately got rejections on some jobs, but also got one immediate call back for an interview on Wednesday morning. My husband took a job and starts on Monday, but while he was in his orientation today, he got a call that he got another job. He is seriously considering doing both jobs full time and I am so scared for him. He would work job 1 from 6pm-3am Mon-Fri and the second one from 7am-4pm Mon-Fri. I do not see how that would be physically possible for him. I feel so bad that he is even considering this. I feel that all of this is my fault and that I am worthless because I don't have a job.

In an attempt to try to save our belongings, I am reposting our furniture on craigslist tomorrow morning and we are having a large yard sale next Saturday morning. I have started doing surveys from Opinion Outpost to get some money to help with gasoline and groceries.

I am hoping that God pulls out something amazing for us between now and July 31, 2011. He would be the only person that could save us from this disaster that we created for ourselves. Boy have we ever learned our lesson about fiances and being godly people. Please lift us up in prayers because we need them more than ever.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

It's our life

WARNING: LONG POST

I figure I might was well be completely raw on this blog...so here goes!

My hubby and I were married back in May 2008 and he moved to Southern Indiana to be with me because it was where my good job was at. He quit his good paying supervisor job to take a low paying entry level job in our town. We purchased a home and were living what we thought was the American Dream...the debt and all. Everything began to unravel on July 2, 2008. It was a Friday afternoon around 3pm right before the holiday weekend. I was at work and got a call on my cell phone from my mom. She said they were taking my dad to the hospital with severe breathing problems. I immediately left work and headed to their town about 40 minutes north of mine. I called my hubby and he met me there after work. It took the doctors a while to figure out what was wrong. They found that he had 2 liters of fluids on his lungs and wanted to check his heart. I took the following week off from work to be with my parents while my husband worked. On the Monday of that week the doctors found that 70% of my dad's heart was "dead" and unrepairable. We were devastated. They said my dad could not ever work again and would have to take it very easy, but they thought he had at least another 6 years to live. He would first have to be in the hospital another 2-3 weeks and then go to a nursing home to gain strength and learn how to best live. We found out that he would never be able to drive again and my mom has never driven a day in her life. oh no...

I quickly called my dad's sister and my mom's brother as they basically all the family we have. We investigated my parents' finances and found out how bad their situation was. We decided to move them out of their home, but here's the kicker...I co-signed for my parents $120k mortgaged home and $16k car. I was so scared. We put all their belongings into storage and moved them into my brand new 3 bedroom built home. My mom was so angry at me because she thought I could have done something more to help. My job continued to get crazy and with everything going on with my parents I resigned from my position and was thankful for savings.

My mom moved into my home first while they transitioned my dad to a nursing home. My mom was miserable in my home because I live in town and she lived in the country. We butted heads all the time over cooking, cleaning, and care of her animals and our animals. Right before my dad was discharged from the nursing home, my husband lost his job because he had missed too much work due to everything going on. UGH!! Luckily we had some savings and my dad's social security that he would be getting would help.

We decided that I would not get a job right away, but care for my dad as my mom could not emotionally handle it. My husband began working part-time and went back to college to finish his bachelors degree. Yes, unfortunately we took out extra student loans to live off of.

Everything was going pretty smoothly...I even interviewed for a job as a therapist because things seemed to be going well...that was until February 2009. There was a huge ice storm that hit our area and shut everything down. Well during that time, I forgot to pay our auto insurance and the first day back to school my husband slides through an intersection and collides with a snow plow. He lost his drivers license as our insurance had lapsed and then lost his job because he did not have a valid drivers license.

Suddenly my mom became ill over night (literally) and by 8am in the morning it looked as though she was throwing up coffee grounds. I called her doctor to see what to do and he said to bring her in. I walked into my mom and dad's bedroom to tell her to get dressed because I would take her to the doctor. I walked out to get myself dressed and called my husband to tell him where I would be for when he got out of class. I suddenly heard my dad yelling my name and help. I ran to their bedroom and my mom was passed out on the floor and blood and what looked like coffee grounds. I ran to get the phone and called 911. During the time of call and me panicking I didn't think to do CPR. I kept screaming my mom's name, but she was completely unresponsive. The police. fire, and ambulance arrived quickly to take her to the ER. I threw on clothes and got my dad in the car. We raced to the ER and called in all the family. The hospital said she was not responding, but allowed me to see her. She was ice cold. They air lifted her to a large hospital and a large city. My husband, dad, and myself raced there. Once we arrived at the other hospital. we were told they were putting her in ICU and running a bunch of tests. At this time all the family was there as well as our pastor.

At about 1am we were told there was nothing more they could do because she was brain dead from the lack of oxygen. I was her POA so I had to decide whether to keep her on machines for ever or unplug them and let her die. I decided that I would have her machines unplugged because I knew she wouldn't want that. She was unplugged at 4am and died within five minutes. I was crushed and felt completely to blame. She was cremated and we had her showing on Valentines day 2009. We found out that she had a perforated ulcer that lead to multiple organ failure. My dad quickly deteriorated and died two days later (Feb 17, 2009). He was walking from the bathroom to his bedroom and collapsed. I quickly did CPR while my husband called 911. They were not able to revive him and pronounced him dead. The doctor said his heart just stopped. I still believe he just quit living. He was buried with my mom a few days later.

Three days after my dad was buried I started my new job and my husband went back to school. He continued with school until May and then has not returned. He started with a temp agency in June. Unfortunately our areas does not hire anyone unless they start out as a temp so he never had a permanent job until Sept 2010. We were not able to sell my parents home and could not keep up with their car payments and all of our car payments and bills. So we had to file for bankruptcy in Sept 2009. We gave them my parents car, their home, and both of our cars. Since my husband could not hold down a good job, we continued to suffer financially even after the bankruptcy.

We finally had enough in October 2010 and went to a Dave Ramsey class. We did well until Christmas and then we spent too much on stuff. I took a new job in March 2011 and it took me away from home more and I was spending too much on take out, clothes, and shoes. In April my husband took an almost 20 foot fall at work and was off work for two weeks. He has been in physical therapy since.

The week before the Independence Day 2011 holiday weekend, we went to the Smoky Mountains for vacation (stupid, I know). We spent too much money. On the drive back home we had a revelation! We decided we are throwing away too much money and have nothing to show for it. So we resolved to go back to Dave Ramsey budget and save. That was on Monday...on Tuesday my husband went to his early morning PT before work and then to work. As soon as he went to work, his boss called him to the office. They said they were going to have to let him go because he was causing them too much money with his accident!!! That afternoon I was called into HR and told I was being investigated for a co-worker complaint. Great! Well on Friday I was called back into HR and told I was being terminated for allowing my husband to come into work with me on two separate occasions (We were required to do on call assessments of psychiatric children/adolescents and those two times we were an hour from our house with family or shopping and I got called in and he went with me....just as all my coworkers did. Well when another co-worker left she turned us all in for it and they terminated all of us for it even though we didn't know we couldn't do it).

We have come to the conclusion that we were not where we need to be with the Lord so we are working on this and putting Him first again. We are taking control of our debt, spending, and other poor habits. Once we get our finances better under control, my husband is going back to school online to finish his youth ministry degree so that he can become a youth minister.

One more thing...

A little more than two months ago, my husband and I allowed a family from our church to move into our home as they were being evicted from their home. It was the mother, father, their two children (one teenage girl and one young adult) and their eldest daughter's baby. We thought this would be the good, Christian thing for us to do. At the time we allowed them to move in we thought they were good Christians, too, but they're not. They have broken two of our living room chairs, their dog has ruined our carpet, they do not help with chores or bills, and rude and curse too much. So, we got with our pastor to develop a way to get them out. We gave them until this Sunday after evening church services to vacate our home. This has been a difficult few weeks for us as we are trying to get them out of our house, get it cleaned up, get jobs, and control our finances.

Please join us on our journey. Help keep us going and ask any questions that you may have.

Quick Update

Praises to the Lord! My husband now has a job! He is in orientation today and tomorrow with his official start day on Monday! His new job is about 5 miles from the house and he will be making $1.10 more than he was at his last job and it was 60 miles round trip. So he will be making even more. We will have insurance that begins on Monday with the same insurance company he used to have, but it will be several hundred dollars cheaper than it was before. We are so thankful.

I also got a phone call about 10 minutes ago asking me to come back in again for yet another meeting with managers to discuss a possible schedule for me! It is closer than my previous job was, but it is still 43 miles from my house. It is still better than the 66 miles I was driving. I'm still praying for a job closer to home, though.

In regards to our budget, we still have not eaten out or spent any money since Sunday until today. We had to go to the store to get sugar, a few seasonings, dish liquid, ziplock baggies, scrubbers, and plastic spatulas as our dishwasher has taken a liking to melting them lately. We only spent $9.27. Unfortunately when my hubby gets off work today, he has to pick up dog food as our fur-beasts are out. The dog food will be around $23 :((

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

To tithe or not to tithe?

Today was probably the best day I have had since I lost my job. I actually got dressed up in my professional clothes, heels, make-up, jewelery, and did my hair. I had my first professional job interview in front of a board of directors since I lost my job. I forgot how much I loved dressing up and having intelligent conversations. I have had two other interviews since I lost my job, but they were both over the phone, so I don't count those. Out of my fear, I have started to apply for jobs out of my field. I have moved on to jobs in human resources, banking, and retail. I'm not sure if I will even get a response, but I'm thinking with two bachelor degrees and a masters degree it has to account for something.

In more positive news, my hubby was offered a job for a local company and did his drug screen today. He will likely start on Monday, but he has another interview lined up for tomorrow morning and one for tomorrow afternoon in hopes of earning more money. To be safe though, he interviewed for another company that he once interviewed for, but didn't originally get the job because they hired someone with more experience. They offered him an interview because the other guy didn't work out.

Since he and I was both in interviews for so long today (his interview lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes and mine lasted 1 hour 10 minutes) and rewarded ourselves with a fountain drink each from Chuckles. I was hoping to not have a spend day today, but at the same time I am proud that we didn't do what we would have done a few weeks ago, which would have been go out to eat for total of like $60. I was happy with spending only $1.55!!

Today I made a list of all the organizations and businesses that I need to call to inform them about our job losses to see what we can do about our bills. I am praying for mercy from them in this matter.

Question: Since we are still getting checks from our former employers for our accrued vacation times....do we still tithe or do we hold on to that money for dear life??

Monday, July 18, 2011

Cha..Cha..Changes!

As I was opening the mail today I was about to throw away what I thought was junk mail, but my hubby yelled, "stop, it's a check!" Well he was correct, it was a check. A refund check from the State of Kentucky (he used to live in KY before we were married and then he moved to Indiana to be with me!) from 5 years ago for my husband. Here's the kicker though: it was for $2.45! It actually made me happy because we are now $2.45 closer to our 1k emergency fund.

A lot has changed because 2 weeks ago, I probably would have thrown the check away rather than deal with pitiful check. It's different now because the check is already in the bank!

Apparently there's a lot of things you'll be willing to do when you don't have a job. Today my hubby and went shopping...but it's not the type of shopping you're thinking. We went shopping in our deep freezer and fridge freezer. There is so much stuff in there that we completely forgot about. Now we don't need hardly anything from the store. There were 53 meals in those freezers not counting all the deer meat from my hubby. I know, I know it's pathetic that we have that much unaccounted for food. This realization leads me to our next money saving strategy: we will not be eating out or buying meals for the next 50 days. Blog pals you're going to have to hold me accountable because I can easily give in. The only thing we'll go to the store for are the sides and such because we don't have much in way of veggies and fruit.

Also we have decided to do No Spend Days. It is going to be very difficult because we love to go to a local gas station called Chuckles because they have super cheap fountain sodas and we are addicted! It is also going to be hard for us on Sundays because we love to go out to lunch with our church pals. We are going to put ourselves with a goal of no more than 2 spend days per week.

Putting it in His hands!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Five things

Five things I'm proud of:
  1. Graduating with my bachelor and master degrees in just 4 years while studying abroad in Jamaica for a semester.
  2. My home...even though we are currently upside down in it. I love it, it's cute.
  3. My salvation.
  4. My relationship with my husband.
  5. This is so vain, but my Coach purse from my hubby that was 85% off!
Five things I'm ashamed of:
  1. My job loss.
  2. My debt.
  3. My laziness.
  4. My love of reality TV...hello Big Brother, Wipeout, & Teen Mom
  5. My weight.
Five things I'm actively trying not to care about right now:
  1. The fact that I don't have a job...I'm trying not to care or think about it and put all my faith in God.
  2. I haven't worked out since I lost my job 10 days ago.
  3. My poorly landscaped yard that has been begging for help.
  4. Calories, carbs, sodium, fat...
  5. All the bug bites that are itching like crazy on my legs.

Tell me five things about you!

We baby stepping

I am becoming quick friends with Craigslist. We are former foster parents and as a result we have an excess of bunkbeds and twin beds currently. We aren't planning on using the beds in the near future, so I posted them for sale on that website for extra cash. So far we have an offer on one of the bunkbeds and on a twin bed. Once their checks clear and the moo-la is in our pockets, they will be out of our shed.

Typically when I have yard sale money or even extra cash, the money goes towards fun stuff like new unneeded clothes or shoes. However, this time that money is becoming our emergency fund. It will not fully fund the emergency fund because we will likely only make $600 from the Craigslist sale. At least it's start.

We are also compiling belongings that we do not need or want anymore to put together a yard sale. We have a lot of stuff we don't need and I am praying that we can make at least $400 from it as it will include electronics, furniture, and name brand clothes.

If anyone has any idea how to earn extra money through the Internet, please share the love.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Grocery Quest

We did something today that we haven't regularly done: a menu and grocery list! We wrote out everything we will need for 30 meals, which is 2 full weeks of groceries. I budgeted $160 and we only spent $132!!! Very excited about it considering we typically spend about $400 a month! We even switched grocery stores in an attempt to save money and it worked quite well.

My husband and I did some more much needed budgeting today and have come to a new conclusion. If I do not find a job within two weeks, I will begin looking outside of my field and into anything that pays. We have figured out that if we both make $9.00 an hour we will have enough income to cover our monthly bills...just not cover the debt! If we can both get jobs making that amount we can hang on until we get better jobs in our fields. It is difficult for me to understand why it is so difficult for me to get a job considering I have two bachelor degrees and a masters degree. Trusting in God...

Friday, July 15, 2011

Our Debt

Total debt including mortgage: $188,641
Total debt excluding mortgage: $96,446
Total debt excluding mortgage & school debt: $28,648

Here's everyone we owe:
  1. Car loan 1 (hubby's car): $16,773
  2. Car loan 2 (my car): $4745
  3. Mortgage: $92,195
  4. Credit card: $245
  5. Loan: $400
  6. Federal back taxes: $3169
  7. State back taxes: $1704
  8. Medical: $800
  9. HVAC: $812
  10. School loan 1 (hubby): $622
  11. School loan 2 (hubby): $10,675
  12. School loan 3 (Me): $17,401
  13. School loan 4 (Me): $39,100

Here goes nothing!

We have been concerned about our finances and debt for almost a year now, but did not give it the energy that was required. We even went to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Unfortunately we took it right around Christmas, which coupled with the holiday season and work, became too much and we gave up. We continued to slack off until it became too late.

My husband and I both lost our jobs right after Independence Day 2011. We don't have any savings and we are scared, so what time is better than now to finally get it together?!

We have not found jobs yet, but we are hopeful. We have enough funds from vacation time to cover us for 6 weeks. We are praying and leaning on our Heavenly Father to get us through this.

Why do a blog and put everything out there? Well we want to hold ourselves accountable. My husband and I only have each other to hold us accountable, and neither of us are the strongest right now with finances. So we are putting it all out here and hoping this blog will keep us straight.

I'm afraid that due to our job loss, we will become behind on our bills and eventually loose everything we have. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am working on compiling our list of debts (God help us!) and there will be a lot of it!!! I will post all of it here.

WELCOME TO OUR MISERY!!!