I can not even put into words how stressful my week has been so far. Work-oh my. My work is never really easy but the big challenge this week has been with the staff. People complaining, calling out sick, leaving early…slacking off. It really screws up the operation. Do these people realize if they lost their jobs-what is out there? Here my husband is…the model employee who can’t find work and these people have it easy. I have come home most days this week and just passed out. I am drained. My daughter is feeling better but my husband has been sick most of the week. It has been such a challenge. I leave for work before anyone gets up and get home just in time for bed. I found out today. it will be like this probably till the end of the month. OH MY!
I keep saying that this is all for the money and we really need it especially between my husband being slow and now sick. I am wondering how long I will be able to pull this off. I did the calculations and since I am technically the only one working, even with my overtime I am not even making the median income for our family size. That is kind of sad. I am working day/night and still considered BROKE (well I am). Hopefully that will change soon.
On to my next saga…
WE ARE MOVING AGAIN!!!
Luckily half my stuff is still in boxes because we are moving again! We moved here in September and have had a few maintenance problems. Nothing major but since it hasn’t been fixed correctly, it has gotten worse and there appears now to be a mold problem. In 3 weeks we gotta be out of here. We are moving from a 2 bedroom to a 3. Luckily we are only moving a few buildings over but it is still a move.
The 3 bedroom is a little more per month but we plan on staying for about 3 years. Can we afford more a month? No, but we need to move. We need to really follow a budget so we can afford to pay a little more a month. We went from a big house to a small 2 bedroom apartment. We can stay in this tiny 2 bedroom but it will be hard. We are all cramped and have boxes overflowing everywhere. I think it is wearing on some of the family…including the dog. If they had to move us, I rather just move once more here and stay put for a while. It keeps my kids in the same school district and in the same surroundings. I don’t want them bouncing around all over the place. It is not healthy. I also figure if we stay, after BK we will be establishing a rental history and we can live here and save. Maybe for our next house and hopefully out of South Florida!
a budget means sacrifice. it doesn’t mean “lets get on a budget so we can afford more rent”. it means “we can’t afford more rent, not by a penny, so we aren’t moving”. but mold means illness. if you can’t fix it, i guess you have to move. that doesn’t mean you should pay more rent. you should try to pay less, crazy as that sounds. and living out of boxes means nobody’s leading at home. you can’t cuz you’re working all the time.
Even if sometimes I don’t like to read this stuff, I can’t disagree with anything you have said. Why??? Because you are 100% right. I do think about these things a lot and I can give a million reasons why I need to move or why I work so much. But, as I find myself writing this, it almost sounds as if I am making excuses.
I am going over our options and I have been shopping around for a cheaper place too. I have found some but they either:
A) Want you to have good credit OR put 1st, last & security down (that is almost 3k where I live…just to move in!)
B) It is a private owner looking to rent but has a huge For Sale sign up too. That looks like disaster waiting to happen.
There are more reasons like the school zone and my dog but then it just sounds like I am making excuses.
I am gonna figure it out this weekend. We have cut so much that housing…well I shouldn’t have skimped so much on. Sure 10 people can live in a 2 bedroom and survive but I am sure they would be miserable. I see families that live in my community doing it but they are only here short term. With the BK and re-establishing and saving and the girls schools, I just wanted to find a comfortable place and stay put for a while.
I am gonna talk to management here too. Maybe with all these problems in my place, I can negotiate a little and get the 3 bedroom at the same price or even less.
The budget, well I have already started working on that. I need to make sure I stick to one post BK so that I NEVER find myself in this position again.
I understand what you are going through; these are hard choices but I think your plan of finding something affordable and staying put for a while is a good idea to give yourself some breathing room and to get back on track with your finances. I remember when I was in my late 20′s having two children, being a single parent and having to work two jobs; I would work all day as a secretary and then I would waitress/bartendar at least three nights a week; I made more money on the night job than I did on the day job and then I incorporated some college classes into a few days as well. I worked like that for 7 years so I could get a better job to take care of my kids. It’s always been a struggle, but I think very soon I will see the rainbow at the end of the tunnel.