Any news? Maybe no news is good news…?
I was actually going to dig this thread back up today.
Hubby had an interview today with a company that does IT training and testing. Well, they said it was an interview, but it was a sales pitch. Bastards.
Also, he was scheduled to to start teaching Tae Kwon Do at the newly opened YMCA this week. Well, it’s kind of hard to teach if no one signs up for the class!
He gets his last severance payment next Friday, 4/21. I’m due to have our baby the following week. But I had an OB appointment today, and I’m 1.5-2 cm dilated as of now, so I could go any time.
sigh At least his parents have said that they won’t let us lose the house - which is because we’d have to move in with them. He’s already filed for unemployment and gotten approved. He’ll be getting $390 a week for a maximum of six months. (When I leave work, I won’t be eligible for unemployment. I’d have to get fired for that.) With that much income, we’ll be able to cover the mortgage and the utilities and house/car insurance and some of our debts, but my credit card minimum payments add up to almost $300/month, and he’s been on a payment plan with a non-profit debt management agency for long enough that he’s only got like 6 months to go, but thats’s $219/month. He could cancel that and just start paying the credit cards directly, and he might have to. It sucks, because he’s soooooooooo close to being done with it, but we’ve got to cut where we can.
We will be covered by his former employer’s insurance through the end of May, but after that we can NOT afford COBRA - it’s over $1000 a month - and that’s without adding the baby to the policy. So we’re going to look into subsidized health care - at least for the baby - and some sort of short-term catastrophic insurance for us, just so we don’t have any lapses in coverage.
This just sucks.
Speaking to the insurance, the “Hoosier Healthwise” program for kids Medicaid is really good, and you should qualify via income. You might end up having to pay some premium, but you should have that available to you.
If you want to discuss other insurance options (and remember, I’m not a salesperson, I’m just familiar with LOTS of plans and how they pay), email me at indyellen AT gmail DOT com.
I’m sorry it’s still so sucky. I wish I could help more, but I’m not sure of anything I could help with beyond the insurance. You might have hubby check the Comcast job postings site (comcast.com) - they’re usually hiring & the office is on the north side.
Keeping my fingers crossed!
Jesus fucking Christ. 
This grabbed my heart strings and tore them right out and then stomped on them. My heart goes out to you, Avarie.
I know it might be tough to do so but if you can, move back in with them. For the baby’s sake. Being born premature often causes all kinds of complications and is extremely costly. Check out www.marchofdimes.com.
I second the assistance programs as soon as you are eligible. And I wish you all the best of luck. Cry if you have to, not only are you pregnant but all this stress, too.
Love to you.
Ugh, I never even read down to the bottom of the thread. Apologies. Well, while it seems you might be able to get through by tightening your belts a lot, everything i said still stands. Best of luck, dearest Avarie.
My thoughts are with you, Avarie.
Avarie I feel for you. My best wishes to you and your family.
My day job is with a health insurance company. I know my company and many others offer individual health insurance which is much less expensive than Cobra. I have a friend who has been unemployed since 2/2 and is looking into this as an alternative to Cobra. I understand that you don’t necessarily have to be self-employed or even employed to get individual insurance. Any insurance is better than a lapse in coverage.
This isn’t meant to be an advertisement or a sales pitch or anything just some advice on staying insured. Being uninsured for a time can create all sorts of problems down the road relating to pre-exsisting conditions.
I’m happy to hear that you’ve got some familial support. You’re going to come through this and you’ll be stronger and smarter for it. Hang in there.
Good luck to your hubby on the job search. Good luck having that baby.
I’m so sorry, Avarie537. You should be able to concentrate on having your baby, not having to worry about your husband’s job. I’ve been in a similar situation. I got a job a week before my second child was born. Actually I made it so I started the job a week after he was born, so I could spend some time at home. But just knowing that a paycheck was forthcoming made all the difference in the world. I hope something comes through for your hubby very soon.
On a side note, I wish they’d outsource some of the jobs around here to other parts of the country (NOT overseas). We have too many people, too many cars crowding the roads, too many McMansions/Townhouse developments going up, and they’re still hiring and piling people in here.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLELUJIA!!!
Hubby called me about an hour ago with some fabulous news! He is scheduled to go in this afternoon and get a pee test and sign the paperwork necessary to start a contract job next week! Right now, I don’t CARE that it’s a 3-month contract, because it pays $1 per hour less than what he was making at his old job as opposed to the $390 he would have been getting from unemployment. Plus, there’s the potential for it to turn into a 6-month contract and then a permanent position. And, it’s with Wellpoint (which, I believe, is a division of Anthem), so if he does get hired on, the benefits should be great.
We’ll still be missing my income after Baby arrives, but $680/week gross is a lot better than $390/week. The only “bad” thing will be that we probably won’t qualify for the subsidized insurance, so we’ll have to look into something else.
WARNING: Gratuitous smily usage below
That’s great news. Now that the stress is behind you, could you take some friendly advice?
I noted that your minimum payments on your credit card are $300/mo, and you also have a consolidation loan and no savings. I’m sure you know that this isn’t a great way to go. So use this experience to give you the intestinal fortitude needed to cut your spending, get rid of your credit card debt, and save some money. You’re throwing thousands of dollars a year away in high interest payments, and you’re living under more stress than you have to when even a minor setback like a few weeks between jobs reduces you to tears.
Life is much better when you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck. And it’s more relaxing when you have six months’ worth of living expenses saved in the bank. Make that your goal, and vow to never again carry a credit card balance from one month to the next. If you decide to go back to work later, then rather than increasing your standard of living, take your paycheck and put half of it in an auto-deduction savings account until you’ve built up a nice nest egg.
I’m glad everything’s working out for you guys. We went through a bad spell like that when we were younger, and it was no fun at all.
Wow, great news, Avarie537! Now relax, take some deep breaths, and take care of yourself for that upcoming birth.
And listen to Sam Stone. Been there, done that, and I ain’t buying the tshirt; I’m putting the money away for a rainy day.
I’m late to the thread, but I’d echo Sam Stone and go further: rates on credit cards are often outrageous and can be easily bettered by moving the debt elsewhere. After you’ve moved the debt, don’t use the credit card unless absolutely necessary and always clear it down every month.
I just wanted to let you know that I was in a very similar position about 2 years ago. I lost my business & was completely without income for 6 months. I distinctly remember calling my brother to ask if my family could move into his basement if we lost our house so my daughters would not be homeless. (That was really hard). With the refinance of our house at a predatory lender, w did manage to keep the house, but our credit was completely trashed. I finally got a contract job at a lower rate than I had been making after significantly lowering my expectations and becoming a whole lot more humble.
Since then, we have refinanced the house again to free ourselves from the predatory lender. I have also changed jobs twice (each for more money and greater stability) and am now making almost as much as when I worked for myself (without the hassles of working for myself). I have a job that I absolutely LOVE with great benefits. I am very well respected by my employer & my clients.
Two and a half years seems like an eternity when you are living through it. I did it all for my kids. That was all that kept me going. I made it, though. You will, too.
Wow, Avarie, that’s great news!!! Good luck with everything!
GT
Yeah, we know we were really on the verge of being screwed due to lack of smart financial planning. Thankfully, hubby’s debt isn’t being taken care of by a loan - he went to a REAL debt management company (it’s a non-profit) and they negotiated lower interest rates and the removal of late, over-the-limit, and annual fees. So, that’s better than a consolidation loan, but it was still tough to do. Since he only has a few months left, the plan was always to switch that $220 immediately over to paying down my credit cards. I know we need savings as well, but with the CC rates around 10%, I feel like we’d be making more progress towards “financial freedom” by paying those off first. (That sounds like a GQ thread to me!)
I can certainly assure you all that things are going to change when it comes to how we handle our money. I don’t ever want to be so scared again!
Congrats, Avarie! I’m glad it’s working itself out. The offer of needing any help stands, though.
Good news, good news. Here’s hoping it turns into something big.
Congratulations, sometimes good things do happen to good people.
Quasi
Outstanding! Every one of those smileys is well-earned. That’s good news indeed - I hope the worst is behind you. Now hang on for the wild ride known as parenthood…!
I did the same thing a few years ago. Brainiac4 nearly got laid off (he got reorganized in the eleventh hour). Our kids were a year and two years. I spent a month between notice and the reorg sweating bullets. We weren’t even in deep - just a car loan and a mortgage - we even had some savings - and I make darn good money in my job. That was four or five years ago, and this month I’m paying off my mortgage. I was just so scared, and I figured if we could live off just my income if he lost his job, we could live off it long enough to pay off the debt.
The kid thing really changes your perspective. I remember walking out of a job without anything else lined up when I was single.