Anticipation...

I really have no news at this time, workman's comp hasn't gotten back to me, nor my lawyer, nor the vocational counselor.  The only reason I am posting this today is to add from another blog I have, just to keep things open:

What has happened to us?

                           

I had had enough with politics.  The last time I turned on the news I saw Iran’s President telling the UN how America had started WWI & WWII, Korea, Vietnam, 9/11 & the Holocaust were hoaxes, and I just turned the news off, I had had enough.  I haven’t been on Facebook; I haven’t read any articles, no Rachel Maddow, nothing.  I just got so frustrated that I needed a break, so I’ve been reading books and watching movies that had nothing to do with the sad state of affairs we are in.  Until this morning.

After I got my morning coffee I turned on CNN and for a minute I thought someone had taken my own blog and were reporting on it.  The man being interviewed was saying if you can get a job right now hurray for you but you should think about getting a second job and if you can’t do that there are other ways of making extra money, such as yard sales, mowing lawns, ect.  REALLY?? 

Not only had I written a blog just about 2 weeks ago saying exactly this, but I went on the White House page and asked those posting on the page MONTHS AGO if they themselves didn’t do whatever they could to earn extra money (called ‘revenue’ in Congress).  On that particular day I got back a lot of what I could only think would be considered denial.  “I wouldn’t ever get in the position to have to earn extra money because I would never own a credit card;” “I paid cash for my house so that would never happen to me.”  Um, yeah….like I said, denial. 

But the most telling thing about the interview this morning was the fact that just a year ago TV news stations were talking about “HOW YOU CAN SAVE YOUR HOME.”  Now they aren’t even going there (he did, for just a moment, bring up the value of refinancing but held himself back from laughing at what he had just said,  then told the viewers good luck with that), they are now talking about ways to stretch your unemployment dollar or just simply making extra money.    We have gotten to the point that even the main stream media is giving America financial advice that tells them to try selling their things on EBAY and Craigslist and yard sales. 

Perhaps it is just too soon for me to watch the news.  It scares me to think what the main stream media will be talking about in another 6 months; will they be giving the addresses of local soup kitchens and food pantries??  We have gone too far already but with the right wing already saying that Obama’s doesn’t know how to get us back to work I have zero hope for anything close to compromise for American’s. 

So I think I’m done watching the news for today.  I believe I will go out to what’s left of my own yard sale and see what I have that I can recycle for a couple of extra bucks.  

I may have screwed myself by doing the right thing

The last time I talked to a Vocational Counselor she was not a very nice person.  I do understand that there are those people who take advantage of the system but she came right out and told me that if I had run a cash register before then I can run a cash register again at a gas station and she wasn't concerned with the idea that I can't live on minimum wage, as long as she finds I can go back to work.  It was this attitude that I was expecting and even banking on when I sat with my new Vocational Counselor yesterday.  I was also going on the fact that when my ex-husband was on workman's comp he was told he could not move out of state and continue to receive workman's comp, or go to school outside of Washington.  I was so wrong!!

The first thing she told me yesterday was that I was too limited physically to be a cashier.  She also told me that the idea that the first counselor's plan that I can work in any pharmacy because I have a Pharmacy Assistant license  is outdated, which I already knew both but it was nice to hear someone else say it.  But I never expected to even come close to being considered for retraining, I have fully expected to do this without help of any kind.  My lawyer and the counselor also said that because the labor market here in this little town is  so bad that it is possible for me to be able to move out of state and be retrained elsewhere.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven, those were the best words I could hear!!  Until after the meeting, when the counselor and I were walking out of the office and she took a phone call from her supervisor.

That's when I was told that I should move before we make a plan, if I am found to be re-trainable.  And the reality of that single statement struck me on my way home from the meeting.  All this time I have put some money to the side but not nearly enough to move 1000 miles, that will take thousands of dollars.  What I have been doing is trying to pay as much as possible on the student loans, medical bills and taxes that I owe.  Plus I did a lot to my car (tires, brakes, battery, whatever it needed to keep running well, NOT a new stereo, I can only listen to the classic station here in town, we have no reception).  So I don't have any regrets as to what I have done with my money, I just didn't realize that I could have already moved.  I would have done things very differently.  My thinking was that I should pay as much off as possible so I wouldn't owe so much when I do move, and I was hoping I could pay less after the move.

This job climate may just help me in the long run and if I'm able I may be able to have an income AND my education paid for because of the job climate.  I never saw that coming.  I fully expected my case to be closed by the end of next week and to be renting a truck soon after, and that is still possible.  But I have to be flexible and thankfully I am.  Here's the thing, I have to stop paying those debts for about a month, to 2 months, to be able to have the money to move.  Or pay much much less.  So my job today is to sit down with my budget and look at what else I can cut off to save even more money, and figure the very least of what I can pay out to those fun debts I have.  Maybe if I pay them $10.00 a month for the next 2 or 3 months they will keep from suing me.  The IRS may not be happy with that, so I may have to talk to them, as it is they want $600.00 a month for the next 2 months but I'm sure if I pay something it will work out that I end up paying more in the long run in interest but they will (hopefully) stay out of my bank account.

This is going to be rather tricky but it's not like I can work overtime for extra money and I don't have very much more to recycle (what i do have would only be enough to put gas in my car), I don't have enough to move to another state, HA HA!!    So I'll rework my budget and lower my expenses even more (I'll find a way!!) and wait to see what happens.  It could turn out, they don't find me re-trainable and close my case, but I have to be ready for whatever now and I have a little bit of time to think of a new game plan.

Budget busting Donni Style

If you've been wondering what I've been up to this past week, well, I've been keeping myself busy.  I have these little tricks I use to make money and it only takes a little bit of effort.

Even if things are going great I save plastic bottles and aluminum cans; I actually have 2 trash cans in my kitchen, one for actual trash and one for bottles and cans.  I probably won't keep bottles when I move to Nevada because our recycling center only pays a penny a pound and I just don't have the storage space for that many bottles but where I'm living now I can go across the bridge to Oregon and get a nickel a bottle.  The price of aluminum changes but right now it's .40 a pound.  When I take my dog for a walk I take a bag with me to pick up cans, so I'm helping clean my community and making a bit of money at the same time.

Usually, this is my garage sale money but I'm not going to any garage sales lately, I'm having my own garage sales.  I have been trying to get rid of what I don't need, and keeping what ever is the most important, for the move.  But I have at least one garage sale a year, depending on if I need money I might have more, and I do pretty good.  The trick is, I don't throw anything away.  I'm not a hoarder, I have no problem throwing something away if it doesn't work anymore.  I am a pack rat but I'm an organised pack rat.  I keep a box (or two) put aside for anything I don't use anymore just for a garage sale.  There have been times when I might give stuff away if I meet someone who can use something I have and don't use, but I keep things to the side, just for a sale.  So far I've made over $1000 this year alone in garage sales, but I've also been selling furniture this time.

Another thing I put to the side is scrap metal and electronics that I don't use or breaks down.  My daughter cashed in my scrap about a month ago for gas money but I cashed in my old electronics yesterday, and made about $24 for less than 30 minutes of actual work (putting them into my car, driving to the recycle center, unloading from the car), all I had to do is put the stuff to the side instead of throwing in the garbage can.  When I do things like this I call it my money in the bank.  It's there if I need gas money or milk money or whatever.  I really didn't need the money at this time but I'm not moving this stuff  a thousand miles, that makes no sense.  Make sure you check with the recycling center in your state/town.  Every place is different so don't take my word for it, I may not be able to get cash for my old electronics in Nevada, but that's one of the first things I'm going to check on when I get there.

I also have a trick with food.  The first thing I should suggest, if you ever get extra money (say, when you get a tax return) invest in a freezer and a vacuum bag machine.  I also have an Army supply pot that I use all the time.  When I go to the grocery store I know how much I can spend.  As I run out of stuff I write in on a list but no matter what, I spend all that I allow myself.  I never plan meals before I go shopping, because I only buy what's on sale, so I basically plan my meals as I shop.  And I always buy extra, even things I don't always eat, like canned meat, chicken, tuna, rice, beans, etc.  Anything that keeps for a long time.  My ex-husband used to say we really don't need anything but what he never understood is, we may not need it now but we might need it in the future, and here it is, my future.

I haven't had to buy food in months other than fresh milk, vegetables for salads, and food for my pets (but I buy big on that too).  I went through my cupboards the other day and have planned meals for the next 2 weeks, even with barely anything there.  I have 2 freezers, one is empty but there's still food in the other one.  When I cook, I cook big (can't help that, after cooking for 4 kids and all their friends I'm just used to it) and I freeze leftovers.  So all I have to do is throw something in the microwave and dinner is done.  I have my own bean  and rice recipe and I make a big pot, then freeze the leftovers (and my big pot could feed me alone for a month), and with beans and rice, you can also throw that on tortillas with some veges & cheese and you got burritos.  There's so much you can do with leftovers and I experiment all the time.



So right now, instead of buying groceries I have been putting that money towards savings and paying off medical bills, and I have some extra bills I have almost paid off.  It's great, actually.  And speaking of bills, I make sure that as soon as I can I do the budget billing so that I only pay the same amount every month.  Sometimes you have to be in a place for a year before they can start that.

Just a quick note before I go, I have an appointment with a Vocational counselor next week.  I think this is my last appointment I have to go to in this God forsaken town.  I'm hoping I will be able to move at the end of this month.