Is The Economy Still Affecting You (and Your Family)?

[The Chicken Lady]

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That about sums it up for me, too.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

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We're 44, I leave the house at 6:15 am, drive 45 min to work, drive back at 8pm (who am I kidding? I usually drive at 9! LOL!) and kiss my gradeschoolers in their sleep around 10pm. It wouldn't hurt so bad if I was in my 30's. I can pray for your comfort. It hurts, it really does. Support hose are worth the time and effort, BEWARE long drives as we get older, blood clots DO HAPPEN when you spend a lot of time sitting!!!!! Turning DH into mom doesn't work, but learning to cope with a lower set of standards is the best I can do, and having to accept a good deal of parenting/homemaking failure is part of this reality.

 

[TexasVet]

6chickens in St. Charles :

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We're 44, I leave the house at 6:15 am, drive 45 min to work, drive back at 8pm (who am I kidding? I usually drive at 9! LOL!) and kiss my gradeschoolers in their sleep around 10pm. It wouldn't hurt so bad if I was in my 30's. I can pray for your comfort. It hurts, it really does. Support hose are worth the time and effort, BEWARE long drives as we get older, blood clots DO HAPPEN when you spend a lot of time sitting!!!!! Turning DH into mom doesn't work, but learning to cope with a lower set of standards is the best I can do, and having to accept a good deal of parenting/homemaking failure is part of this reality.

That made me chuckle.. by the time you reach 54, your standards have slipped anyway, so lowering them a little farther won't be hard.

DH has created a menu he can manage: hotdogs on Monday, hamburgers on Tuesday, pizza on Wednesday, something frozen Thurs and Friday. The laundry problem was solved by telling him to wash everything in cold. His biggest chore is going to be keeping up with the yard. We have 5 acres of grass, so it takes 6-8 hours a week to keep it under control. Plus regular poisoning of fire ant mounds.. they'll take over if you're not vigilant. It'll do him good to see how much work there really is around here! And I'm looking forward to coming home, eating dinner, and plopping down in front of the TV all evening! (I wonder how long I can get away with that before he starts complaining?)​

 

[DawnSuiter]

I lost 90% of my income in November of last year... in December I found out why.. my largest "client" was running a Ponzi scheme and well.. went on the run when he couldn't produce any more money for HIS clients.

I'm the one who turned him in... the FBI/IRS & his clients kept me solidly busy through March, tracking down documents, getting their account information, endless interviews etc. Christmas sucked, I missed my anniversary due to all the crap and my birthday too. It wasn't until mid summer that I started to feel 'better' and started trying to work on other project seriously. I'm not really bringing in much more money, I couldn't even cover a car payment if I needed to much less our mortgage.

DH has learned, not that we didn't know, but HIS daily job may also be shut down in the next couple of months.. perhaps the first of the year. I'm trying NOT to panic, but it's not easy. I live WAAAAY out here in the country... unemployment is over 10%, the schools don't seem to acknowledge the dip in income and expect us to continue putting out lots of money. The closest jobs are an hour away, which is how far hubby drives to work everyday. When gas was $4 per gallon, he had to stay home and daughter missed many school activities.. we just couldn't fill the tank.

We will be receiving a food donation from the ROTC around Thanksgiving... they offered it to us last year, and I politely told them we were OK and they should refer to another family I knew who was in BAD shape. I didn't know then that my income was cut.. I just thought my guy was late on my November payment.

I may have to sell ALL my chickens except 6 if he loses his job... I won't let go of my project birds, I've been at this too long to just quit. We would have to turn in one vehicle and take the damage to our credit report. We are pretty hungry most of the time, giving DD most of the food. This years crops sucked for the most part, too much rain, and our new Livestock Guardian dog had to be tied up and he ruined much of my melons, onions & peppers....so I haven't put up ANYTHING really except a pound of black beans and a little bit of green beans and now a recent sweet potato harvest. The chickens haven't been doing their job, mostly because I think I dropped the ball and let them get mites & lice a couple months ago.. and now the molt... so we don't even have the eggs available I was hoping for.

We don't have insurance, I was planning last year that THIS year would be THE year...but well.. stuff happens. DD is 15 and I just hope we can maintain THIS level until she can get a job somewhere to help offset her own costs for activities. We already lived a simple life... we may have to let the home phone go but other than that... we can't cut back on much more... other than the chickens. I haven't had a haircut in 3 years, we don't go out at all anymore other than to work, school or the grocery where I stock up on not much at all.

So yes... still being affected.. but trying like heck to HOLD OUT for better days, and using this experience to teach the kid how life CAN be sometimes...

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, it is affecting us. Retired military will get no cost of living increase in 2010 due to "negative inflation". Yeah, right. We live on DH's retirement pay. He is a disabled vet. The truck will have to be parked if it dies and the porch roof may just fall in on one side from leaking. Can't sell the 3 acres we own because there is already so much land for sale, but it would fix all our issues if we could. The economy will be affecting us for a very long time, probably for the rest of our lives.

 

[NancyDz]

I just got laid off two weeks ago... so it's definitely still affecting me and will be for a while.
Just had lunch with my friend who's been out of a job since April luckily they are extending her unemployment. She lives 3 hours from me but came her because there was a couple of jobs
and she hasnt had anything to apply to. My other friend is an RN and cant find a job... and my best friend is also an RN and cant get a job anywhere. One of them has experience and the other is a new graduate. Don't believe all that nurshing shortage crap.. it's just not true.
One school here even shut down their nursing program as the area is too saturated and it's stupid to keep churning out more at this point .

Time will tell for me how I do....

 

[TexasVet]

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There is a huge nursing shortage in Texas, if she's willing to relocate, with many companies offering sign-on bonuses as well. Have her go to www.Indeed.com and search for key word "nurse" and location "TX." I just did it and over 19,000 jobs came up. There are even more jobs available for therapists of almost any stripe.

Best of luck!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.ChickenTrackin.com

PS: We're not ALL Republicans!

 

[vfem]

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They announced social security will not have an inflation increase for 2010 either!

I really truly wish I had more to give right now. Honestly, I know my husband, daughter and I are in the BEST position for us. Its just trying to help our family members who are in the opposite position as us. I guess it frustrates me that taxes for us have gone up and there will be no bonuses or overtime for us. All we would have done with the money at this point is give it away to those who need it.

Even my husband has donated his time to our neighbors who are laid off. He's helped them fix their roof, finish a bathroom this past year... he'll be helping them seal their windows and doors for winter here shortly.

I hope everyone is inspired enough this year to find some time to help someone less fortunate make it through this year. Even if its just giving time, because I know we all don't have the money.

This year is it IMPORTANT we know our neighbors... though I know that's not the norm these days...

 

[al6517]

I own my own Business and this economy is killing my construction business, people are just hanging onto the liquid cash.

AL

 

[CHIC]

We are a young family of five and we have been hit so hard, we are currently living with my Mother! I work for a nursing agency that sends me to different nursing homes and I haven't gotten one shift this whole month! On top of that, they owe me money that they are avoiding me about. DH hasn't gotten a full paycheck in months either. We are currently trying to live off of less than 1500 dollars a month! It has been horrible, I had to go get food from a christian outreach program the other day. We aren't meeting our bills, much less food. I wish I knew when this whole economy thing would get better. I have had it, I don't know how much longer I can do this.