I am ashamed to say that we are still in debt. We were in debt when The Man got kicked out of the military. He is receiving unemployment while he is looking for a job but I was not prepared for such a life change. We were able to afford all or debt while he was in the military. Now, I'm not so sure that any of that was ever a good idea. Those loans we took out and the credit cards we used are coming back to haunt us now. We have been barely skating by since March and now I am afraid we might end up drowning. We will figure it out in time. And, by the grace of God we will come out better and smarter on the other end.
Have a super fabulous wonderful day!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Thrift store shopping
We all need to buy clothes for ourselves and our children. When money is tight (or even when it isn't) buying clothes because a kid grows is stressful. We have 4 kids, all of which were had prior to our crappy situation. Unfortunately, they don't quit growing just because it is stressful.
I have figured out that the Value Village across the street from my house has some amazing deals to be had. Thursdays they put a certain color tag at 50% off and on Monday that tag is $.99. It is a hit or miss on whether you can find what you are looking for but the deals are there to be had.
I didn't have much of a wardrobe when I moved back to the states, so when Christmas time came around and my mom asked what I wanted I told her clothes. Since she and I have very different taste in clothes it worked out better that she chose to give me a gift card (with the stipulation that it could only be spent on me). I spent several Monday mornings standing in line waiting for Value Village to open. I managed to spend that gift card and fill my closet quite fully. My mom would never have shopped at the thrift store but when I was able to tell her I got such and such brand skirt, dress, or shirt for only a dollar, she was amazed.
I have also been able to keep my kids clothed by watching the racks at Value Village. I have been able to find my teen the Levis jeans he likes for $4.99 or less. I was also able to find him various brands of basketball style shorts for summer for less than $3. Most of my daughter's footed pajamas came from there costing only $.99 -$1.50 each.
I like to shop at thrift stores because it is a thrill to find something that would have normally cost $60 and only pay $1. Even when we get back to a better place in life I will still shop at the thrift store.
Have a super fabulous wonderful day!
I have figured out that the Value Village across the street from my house has some amazing deals to be had. Thursdays they put a certain color tag at 50% off and on Monday that tag is $.99. It is a hit or miss on whether you can find what you are looking for but the deals are there to be had.
I didn't have much of a wardrobe when I moved back to the states, so when Christmas time came around and my mom asked what I wanted I told her clothes. Since she and I have very different taste in clothes it worked out better that she chose to give me a gift card (with the stipulation that it could only be spent on me). I spent several Monday mornings standing in line waiting for Value Village to open. I managed to spend that gift card and fill my closet quite fully. My mom would never have shopped at the thrift store but when I was able to tell her I got such and such brand skirt, dress, or shirt for only a dollar, she was amazed.
I have also been able to keep my kids clothed by watching the racks at Value Village. I have been able to find my teen the Levis jeans he likes for $4.99 or less. I was also able to find him various brands of basketball style shorts for summer for less than $3. Most of my daughter's footed pajamas came from there costing only $.99 -$1.50 each.
I like to shop at thrift stores because it is a thrill to find something that would have normally cost $60 and only pay $1. Even when we get back to a better place in life I will still shop at the thrift store.
Have a super fabulous wonderful day!
Enter to win a free tumber
Head on over to Facebook to enter to win a free tumbler from International Delight.
Have a super fabulous wonderful day!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
So much has changed...
So much has changed in life. We ended up having to move out of my high school friend's house shortly after I wrote the last post because she chose to invite her husband back home. They didn't kick us out. I chose to move quickly since I wasn't going to be living in a house with someone who I was told used drugs. I have no first hand knowledge if he does or doesn't but I wasn't going to sit around and hope for the best. I chose to move out quickly and let her have her life with her husband that she took back. It has pretty much ruined all the years of friendship that we did have since I couldn't trust her not to lie to me any more. She had told me not even two days prior she wasn't talking to him at all and had no way to contact him. That was a lie when she could manage to show up on the porch with him so quickly after. Any way it is over and after a short stint borrowing the basement of a friend of a friend we finally have our own apartment.
It isn't exactly how I had pictured my life but we needed a roof over our head and a place that would allow our oversized dog. We have a little 3 bedroom apartment with a patio. The patio area even has a small place where the dogs can relieve themselves without doing so on the patio. It has been hard trying to fit our stuff in the apartment because we had a much bigger place in England and The Man seems to lean toward hoarder tendencies. We are happy to at least have a place to call our own after this time.
The Man is still unemployed and my trying to find a minimum wage job after this time hasn't proven to be successful either. When I interviewed at a local fast food restaurant the woman conducting the interview asked me why I would want a job there when I was so educated. I haven't worked since 2006 and when I did I was a hairstylist. I would like to get back into hairstyling if I can manage to find a place to take me with the gap in work. I do and have a license to do hair since 1999. It has taken me 3 months to get the reciprocity process done to get my license in Washington again. 3 months sure feels like a really long time when you are waiting on something so important. It finally arrived today.
The Man has an interview tomorrow. It is for a company that one of the other apartment people told him about. He had a phone interview with the company on Monday and tomorrow a face to face interview. I am really hoping he gets this job and that it will have hours that I am still able to do hair around. Being out of the comfort of the military paycheck is very stressful because we have bills to pay. Unemployment had kept us afloat until this point but a job would help even more. I think that we are both going to have to work for a while if we can swing it to continue to pay the debt we have.
Now, that I have rambled on for a while I will let you be for today.
Talk to you soon
Have a super fabulous wonderful day !!
It isn't exactly how I had pictured my life but we needed a roof over our head and a place that would allow our oversized dog. We have a little 3 bedroom apartment with a patio. The patio area even has a small place where the dogs can relieve themselves without doing so on the patio. It has been hard trying to fit our stuff in the apartment because we had a much bigger place in England and The Man seems to lean toward hoarder tendencies. We are happy to at least have a place to call our own after this time.
The Man is still unemployed and my trying to find a minimum wage job after this time hasn't proven to be successful either. When I interviewed at a local fast food restaurant the woman conducting the interview asked me why I would want a job there when I was so educated. I haven't worked since 2006 and when I did I was a hairstylist. I would like to get back into hairstyling if I can manage to find a place to take me with the gap in work. I do and have a license to do hair since 1999. It has taken me 3 months to get the reciprocity process done to get my license in Washington again. 3 months sure feels like a really long time when you are waiting on something so important. It finally arrived today.
The Man has an interview tomorrow. It is for a company that one of the other apartment people told him about. He had a phone interview with the company on Monday and tomorrow a face to face interview. I am really hoping he gets this job and that it will have hours that I am still able to do hair around. Being out of the comfort of the military paycheck is very stressful because we have bills to pay. Unemployment had kept us afloat until this point but a job would help even more. I think that we are both going to have to work for a while if we can swing it to continue to pay the debt we have.
Now, that I have rambled on for a while I will let you be for today.
Talk to you soon
Have a super fabulous wonderful day !!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Life in Limbo... Still
Life is still in limbo. The Man is home from over there. It is nice to have him home because we are all together as a family. I love my little (or big) family. We are still staying with my friend from high school. This is still not an ideal situation but we have a roof over our heads and we are all together right now and safe. Life threw us some curve balls and we are trying our best to work with those.
The Man made it home almost two weeks ago. He is now out of the military. They were not nice and gave him less than a week notice to get the house stuff and vehicle shipped because some computer stuff was getting shut down or some other line of b.s. It also ended up costing us our final paycheck because he wasn't able to get the house cleaned properly to turn over to the housing people so it gave us less money to live on while he is unemployed. Yippee! Things don't ever seem to work out how I plan but they always seem to work out somehow in the end.
He has applied for a bunch of jobs and we are waiting to hear back from unemployment and the food stamps office. I am hoping that unemployment and food stamps can help get us through for the month or so til we can get back on our feet hopefully. I am also going to send out my papers to get my cosmetology license up here so that I can get work up here too if need be. I just didn't want to get a hair job and then quit because I loved doing hair so much before and I wont want to give up my independence again to stay at home again and The Man has the ability to make so much more money with better benefits. Once he does get a job though I will possibly see if there is some way that I can work part time around his schedule though because I would like to get back out there and do something for myself and feel like I am contributing more than just housework to the house.
The job loss hasn't affected the kids yet as they really haven't noticed anything other than their dad is home, which is exactly what I had hoped for when I moved them back. S's grades are improving and he is doing better in school. T is still doing amazing in school. The two little ones are working at potty training. It would be a miracle if I could stop buying diapers and pull ups (the lady I live with will not let me wash cloth ones in her washer).
The Man made it home almost two weeks ago. He is now out of the military. They were not nice and gave him less than a week notice to get the house stuff and vehicle shipped because some computer stuff was getting shut down or some other line of b.s. It also ended up costing us our final paycheck because he wasn't able to get the house cleaned properly to turn over to the housing people so it gave us less money to live on while he is unemployed. Yippee! Things don't ever seem to work out how I plan but they always seem to work out somehow in the end.
He has applied for a bunch of jobs and we are waiting to hear back from unemployment and the food stamps office. I am hoping that unemployment and food stamps can help get us through for the month or so til we can get back on our feet hopefully. I am also going to send out my papers to get my cosmetology license up here so that I can get work up here too if need be. I just didn't want to get a hair job and then quit because I loved doing hair so much before and I wont want to give up my independence again to stay at home again and The Man has the ability to make so much more money with better benefits. Once he does get a job though I will possibly see if there is some way that I can work part time around his schedule though because I would like to get back out there and do something for myself and feel like I am contributing more than just housework to the house.
The job loss hasn't affected the kids yet as they really haven't noticed anything other than their dad is home, which is exactly what I had hoped for when I moved them back. S's grades are improving and he is doing better in school. T is still doing amazing in school. The two little ones are working at potty training. It would be a miracle if I could stop buying diapers and pull ups (the lady I live with will not let me wash cloth ones in her washer).
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