The 4th is gone & I'm still looking...

Once more the uninformed, clueless & just plain aggravating have decided to make life difficult. But then I guess that is their function in life, if only they would somehow choose instead to learn & educate themselves about things they're unfamiliar with, but maybe it's too much to ask. Common sense has been uncommon in the world the last few years, why would I think that it would apply now.

I've a welfare worker that wants proof that my daughter is being home schooled. Fine, I've already sent in the papers that show she's enrolled for the school year - not once, but twice. Now she's wanting to know when my daughter will graduate - so they can take her off medicaid. This woman doesn't seem to realize that with a home school correspondence course, you finish when the course work is done. There is no one that will be able to tell her when my daughter will graduate. She's over 50% done with the course work, with a 95% average. But how am I supposed to provide proof that my daughter is enrolled when the new school year hasn't even started yet? This is only the latest bump in the road to get ahead...

Those that have followed, know me or know of me, understand that I'm not one to give up. Weary of the none ending battle, sure. But not the sort that will just toss in the towel, I may get knocked down, but I'm not the type  to stay there. Over the years I've been kicked to the curb, abused, manipulated & conned. Even though I may have sat there collecting myself, not getting back up to try again wasn't an option. Sure, I've been sick and tired of being, sick and tired. But things don't change if you do nothing, so I have to at least try. But getting sick last month didn't help things move forward very far though...

Unfortunately, my score of a big web site design gig fell flat once more. I had been working on a site for a transportation group and put in a lot of work since they stated they needed things running for the business. I figured that if they were making money, then I'd make the money for creating the site they wanted. Well, it sorta didn't happen that way. The site is stuck were it is, I'm not working on it any more. Why? Because for a $1,125.00 site with all the flash, graphics, forms, everything - I've only been paid $350.00. The second site that they asked to be set up, while I was working on the first one, surprised me, most clients wait for one site at a time to be completed. But there had also been a promise of even more sites to be made so I decided to stop work on the one site to quickly set it up as per their requirements the second site. Once again, another transportation site with graphics, flash, forms and more for $450.00. So far, I've only received $50 for this site's work.

Now I can understand how tight money is, after all, I'm living in the same situation as most others that are struggling to pay their bills, feed their families and just keep things going. But one would think that a business would have set aside funds to do these projects. Well, so far there's been no more payments and I'm not working on any paying projects. I'm doing some freelance work, but only to keep my skills up and continue to improve them. But I'm not getting any money, which unfortunately is in short supply, though the need for it is great.

Personally, I wish that I could get the things I need for my family without the transfer of currency. Paper isn't what's valued, it's what it can get for my family that makes it have value. I've been needing a twin size bunk bed for my son's room. We gave away the toddler bed and baby things to a young mother that needed them. He's sharing the bunk in his brother's room now, but he misses his own room.

We still don't have a working oven, this will be the third fall in a row that we don't have Thanksgiving Turkey or my pumpkin pies, if I don't find one soon. I miss being able to bake for the holidays, let alone the rest of the year.

Since my cousin had to come stay with us due to being out of work and having no where to go things are difficult. My grown son's here too due to not being able to afford a place when companies started laying people off. Plus my daughter's eighteen now and still trying to find work, plus she's due to lose her medical benefits soon too. Trouble is, with no transportation no one can really get anywhere.

My cousin has two cars that he's trying to fix, his own and a friend's car. But his car's engine is toast & he can't figure out what's making the fuses ground out on the other car. So he rides a bike to and from the part time job he's been able to get. My older kids still go out to collect scrap metal, cans & dead car batteries so we can get a little money from that. Sometimes we luck out and get a good haul, other times it's best to just horde it till we have a good amount.

I'm not giving up, but there has to be a better way to earn money than struggling and fighting for jobs like wild dogs over scraps. There has to be a way for myself to get some freelance work that pays. I need to get my portfolio set up on my homepage - since moving my site, I need to set up all the things that I had on the old one - but without the widgets that make it so easy to do. Maybe then I might get a nibble, but till then I'm still looking...

What other choice have I, than to keep trying to make things better for my family?

Carpe Diem!

Holiday Blues are Getting me Down

Feeling the Holiday Blues starting to creep up on me. What with the financial issues, bills and not having enough to do much of anything - I'm still worried about those out there that are doing worse.
Getting some things together to give out some children books, toys and clothes to a few people I met online. I can't do much for my own, but maybe I can offer something for someone else.

But low energy hasn't been helping me get the boxes and bags packed up very fast. After budgeting in the bills from the income, I'm still short every month - there just isn't enough funds coming in. That's why we'd been scrapping. But with the cooler weather it's getting to be a challenge finding cans in our area. Drinkers are looking for someplace warm to drink, not stand around outside any more.

I've been working on the cooking site, but I'm stuck at the moment due to not having the money to pay for hosting. I'm going to have to figure out a way to set it up for free. Then see if I can get visitors to subscribe to it or to donate funds for the hosting. I'm having a hard time with setting up the database for the recipes since I only have free hosting.

Maybe a few days and I'll feel better. Just feel rather numb, distant and disconnected.
Hope all find some assistance in these hard times...

When in Need, We'll find a Way

Can't believe we did it!
We went out in force this weekend and scrapped for metal everywhere!
Got $30 in tin and cans and got $70+ in steel, iron, dead car batteries and other metal.

We made the water payment! Now we're going to keep going so we can get up a bit more to have a bit extra for the bills next month. (Or any unplanned costs that come up this month)

Thankfully, people are litter bugs and messy! You wouldn't believe all the stuff that's  just dumped all over the place - just wish we could find a bunch of copper. Now that would really bring in some extra cash!

Well, I'm beat, so I'm going to go lay down for a while. But remember that no matter the problems, if you work together and stick with it, somehow an answer will show up. Wish you luck in this hard economy.

Carpe Diem!

Bailing out a Sinking Financial Boat

I've been struggling since last Dec. with things changing drastically for the worst financially. But we're still trying to stay positive and do all we can to keep moving forward.

We've been scrapping metal, gathering cans, metal junk from around the neighborhood to make a bit extra to help with paying the bills. Unfortunately, my disability money covers very little now. With no increase this year and the costs all going up, it's to be expected.

The mortgage went up almost a hundred due to some escrow imbalance. So far the modification I've been trying to get to reduce the 10.84% APR hasn't gone anywhere. I've been told that this is way too high and that I needed to fight to get it adjusted. I admit, it would be easier to pay the utilities, if the mortgage wasn't so high.

I've been searching Craigslist for gigs, free items and putting ads in to get rid of things. My oven died last Nov. and I've not been able to replace it yet. The stove top still works, but I miss baking for the Holidays. Even though we don't have too much, I've been getting things together to give away to other families in need. Especially with the Holidays coming I've been getting together with some people online to make sure that they have a little something for the kids under the tree.

I've been able to keep going with help from family, friends and being very financially thrifty with what money I get. I make a little over 1K a month in cash IF the child support comes in. Last year I got a dollar for Dec. - which made the month even harder to get through. I've used MyPoints for the last year to get Walmart gift cards with the points I earn to help with cash items that we needed. But it does take a while to get up enough points to redeem those gift cards.

I've been a web/print designer for over a decade. I've done wedding packages, funeral packages, business cards and created websites too. But the economy isn't recovered enough to help me out in that area much now. So I have to find other ways to try and earn some extra money online. It isn't easy. There's a lot of things online that are too good to be true, but are very tempting. So you have to keep on your toes and trust that little voice not to fall for all the hype.

I don't know how things are going to continue on from here. But no matter what happens, my family will keep working at moving forward and staying afloat no matter what. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my posts. 

Carpe Diem!