Wish Us Luck!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A series of events mostly beyond our control resulted in our kids not being able to go to day care. A whole bunch of crap happened, and we also got behind in the payments. Anyway, the director of the day care (whom I personally have never met, but I know a lot of other people that know her, and by all accounts, she’s a peach) pointed my husband in the direction of an agency that may be able to help us with the day care payments. It’s through the Red Cross. My husband called them today, and it looks like they’ll be able to do something for us.

Rosemary (the day care director) told my husband that she’d never known this place to turn anyone down. Today I found out why. My husband called them, and as it turns out, they get their funding from the government. The lady my husband spoke to said they love to help people, not just because good day care is expensive, but because if they don’t use the funding, they lose it.

The day care my kids go to is great. For one child, it’s not too terribly expensive. My daughter has been in since summer, and she LOVES it. But when my husband got a job as a guitar instructor, we had to enroll our son too. That’s when the cost started to mount, even with the multi-kid discount. My son loves it too, and both kids are missing not going.

We’ve got a payment arrangement with the day care for now, and tomorrow my husband is going to go to the Red Cross place & see if we can actually get some help. They fund low-to-moderate income families, and I think we fall under the moderate income category. If they can’t help us with the entire cost, they may be able to help us with some of it, which will still help tremendously.

I’ve never received help from an agency before. I’ve always managed to fall just a hair above the level that they work with, either because I’ve been single & not pregnant, not handicapped, or had a job that paid me just barely enough to live on, but too much to get any aid. I really hope these people can get us something, mostly because my kids were really, really thriving in this particular day care, and they miss it a lot.

Cross your fingers for me, okay? :slight_smile:

2

Will do! Good luck!:slight_smile:

3

Good luck Persephone. I hope it works out for you. It’s good that your kids have a day care that you trust and where they like to go.

My roommate and I are thinking of applying for heating assistance - there’s no way we can pay our gas bill. I mean - there’s no way. It’s scary, we probably won’t qualify, but we have to try so we don’t totally fuck up our credit or lose our heat. I got an $810 bill in the mail today, covering November - Jan 8.

Happy New Year!

4

Good luck, Persephone! Having been in that spot before, it sucks.

Robin

5

Fingers crossed, good vibes your way.

6

Best of luck with it all, Persophone. Sometimes it’s hard to grit your teeth and accept that you need help, like going to a food bank when you have $8 in your checking account, and payday’s not until next week. (yeah, I went down to the food bank today, and I have enough to make it through the weekend now, and next week I’m out of town for work, so it can all go on the company credit card.)
I saw something a while ago on the news about the “working poor”. The people who have jobs, but who are still unable to make ends meet, because of debt, medical bills, whatever. Luckily, it seems that there are more agencies able to take us into consideration.

7

I live in a very economically depressed city (Flint, MI), and there’s a lot of agencies here that help people out. Unfortunately, there’s a LOT of people here that are WAY worse off than me. I have a decent job, but I’m also the sole breadwinner in my family. My husband’s teaching job doesn’t pay him that much, and every dime he earns goes to his child support for his older son (he hasn’t gotten a check from his job since he made his arrangements with Friend of the Court four weeks ago).

Just about everyone I know is in this position. Living check to check, scraping by. We eat a lot of Ramen & macaroni & cheese here. :smiley:

Lsura: a question about the food bank, if I may: I’ve never been to one, but if things keep going the way they have been, that may be an option I might have to excercise. How do they work? Is it like a co-op?

8

Good vibes coming your way from south of you, hon. :slight_smile:

<blinks>

Wait a minute… even the crappiest teching job in a Catholic school pays more than enough to support a child. It sounds to me like he got roped into paying… well, way too much.

As to the money woes… yeah, I think a lot of us do live hand to mouth. Or credit card payment to credit card payment, which is what I do. But I like Ramen noodles (not to mention canned Chef Boyardee pasta!) so for the most part I deal. :slight_smile:

(I know… crazy college kids.)

LL

9

Lazarus: Mr. Persephone is not a school teacher. He’s a guitar instructor. He gives half-hour lessons. He’s only got about 10 students right now, and he works at a music store. So he doesn’t get all the money that the students pay for their lessons. The store gets a portion, too.

Considering what I know that some guys pay for child support, Mr. Persephone is getting off cheap. His ex-SO doesn’t complain about the dollar amount, though, because my husband is very active in his son’s life. Also, my stepson has two older sisters who’s father is absent, and my husband has been a daddy to them nearly all their lives, too.

Oh, and I’m with you on the Chef Boyardee. I actually like that stuff. Always have. :smiley:

10

((((Cristi))))

I’m wishing you luck, saying a little prayer, and sending you lots of positive vibes.

Scotti

11

Best of luck to all of y’all who need a little help. {{{{all y’all}}}} I’ve been there myself, and it isn’t fun.

12

Lycka till = Good luck.:slight_smile:
I hope it goes well for you
and that they will help you.
I used to work at a day care,
when my back was good
and I loved my job working with kids.

13

The one I go to is simply a place where you can go if you are struggling to make ends meet, and you get X amount of food. The amount you get is based on the number of people in your family, along with your other needs. The first time was actually easy. I pretty much had to go in and explain my situation, and offer “proof” that I needed help. In my case, I showed up with my bank statement(actually an ATM receipt showing the balance), a paycheck stub, and a rent receipt so that they could verify my lack of funds and my next payday. They never even looked at the rent receipt.

There are different requirements in different cities. To find out what you need to bring, if it becomes necessary, give them a call. They are more than happy to help people when necessary.

14

Thanks, Lsura, and everyone else that’s sent good vibes my way.

I’m home from work today again, because my daughter has head lice again, which means that I still haven’t cleaned stuff properly. I know it’s my fault, becaue she hasn’t been in day care for close to a month. Dammit. Hopefully I’ll be able to get paid for this, though. I think I can get a note from the school stating why she couldn’t go today.

Grrrrrr.

15

OH MY GOD MAGDALENE! :eek: Is that a normal heating bill for that time frame?

Persephone I know exactly how you feel right now and it can be so frustrating. You work your butt off and you still can’t get ahead or break even for that matter. I think sometimes that I just completely give up and right when I’m at my snapping point somehow everything gets better. Good luck and I hope the Red Cross comes through for you.

As for the head lice, we had to go through that for a few months. No matter what I did my daughter kept getting it. I finally found out that the source was one of her friends she played with a lot so now it’s under control. I felt so sorry for my daughter having to go through all that and I absolutely hated dealing with it. That’s good you didn’t have to tell her what it is since she is still so little.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you. :slight_smile:

16

Heya babe :slight_smile: Thought I’d give ya MY two cents also…

When I first got out of the Army after Desert Storm, we ended up having to get help from a food bank. I can NOT say enough about these people. Without them, my children wouldn’t have had the basics they needed to grow into the strong minded individuals that they are today.

Good luck with the Agency :slight_smile:

Bill and Beth

17

Thanks, Bill. Thanks for everything, while I’m at it. You know I love ya! :smiley:

18

My son didn’t get to go to pre-school this year because we make too much. Yep, a family of seven and we make too much. We both have decent jobs, but with all when you take out child support and insurance and by the time you pay rent, there isn’t much left.
The older kids go to school with a fee waver and lunch program. The whole school gets it. I don’t get it were don’t have enough money for the regular school fees, but we make too much for pre-school.

I have used our food pantry once, and it was a pretty good thing. They give stuff like the staples. Milk, ceral, bread and such.

And a side note about the lice. If you have a health food store close ask them if they have this stuff called 1,2,3 all clear. It is mild on the hair and you can use it as much as needed unlike some of the others out there. Your house will smell like black licorice for a while. Does your daughter have light blonde hair? For some reason they love that. My step daughters sister has a hard time with it because her hair is so light.
Also don’t forget to do your car. That is one thing we kept forgetting.

Magdalene, did they do the same thing there as they did here where they couldn’t get to you in December so they just guessed and then doubled it? Around here we have a place that they come through and winterize your house and help with the bill. The winterizing is a one time thing, but they help over the winter with the bills.

Good luck to all! {{{{{everybody}}}}}

19

Kricket: The car. Her car seat. Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh! I knew it! That’s the one thing I haven’t done! I’m having a flashback of someone else mentioning it to me, and I’m sure I didn’t do it. And no, she doesn’t have light blonde hair–she’s got light brown/dark blond hair. They’re very hard to see on that shade.

That’s really sad about your son not getting to go to preschool. Seven kids, and you still make too much? Somebody in administration has a math problem, I think. Especially if the rest of your kids get vouchers. That’s kind of a no-brainer, if you ask me.

20

All of your positive vibes worked! We got approved for day care assistance. They’ll be paying the full amount for both of our kids, which is about $120 a week. Woohoo! Oh boy, is that ever a relief. :smiley:

Now maybe I can actually go on a real grocery shopping trip!