I found a dollar bill on the floor yesterday. It was there, fair and square, sitting on the ground in-between two parked cars: theirs and mine. No body was around. I looked. So, I picked up the dollar bill and thanked the spirits and put it in my almost empty wallet. I only had a few coins in my wallet this week. When hubby was getting ready to leave for work this morning, knowing that he only had a few coins in his wallet also, I placed my new-found buck in his bill-fold.
The property taxes are due on my house by the 28th of this month. I mailed out the $1600 check this morning leaving me only $4 left in my checking account. In two weeks my school taxes on my home are due. That’s another $2375 due in just sixteen more days. I only have $1800 saved for that so far. Meaning, I need to hustle up $575 quickly (in addition to my regular monthly bills). I’m not berating myself for not accomplishing my savings goals anymore. I have found it near impossible to save money lately. How can you? When all the bills keep rising and rising. Income isn’t. You try to balance and cajole and re-budget, but eventually, it all catches up to you. Enter the financial squeeze.
Hubby woke up this morning with the usual complaint: nothing to eat in the house. Of course there is plenty to eat BUT it’s just not what you want. Rather than pack a lunch, he’s been itching to eat at the new recently re-vamped company cafeteria. He snubbed his nose to his usuals: peanut butter & jelly, tuna fish, grilled cheese, leftovers. He had an excuse for every single food item as to why he couldn’t eat them: can’t eat eggs more than twice a week, can’t eat tuna fish more than twice a week, can’t eat peanut butter and jelly more than twice a week, can’t warm up leftovers at work because there is no microwave, can’t eat cold cuts more than once per week, won’t pack an orange because he hates oranges, can’t take the fresh biscotti I baked because the almonds I put in them makes him ill……….the list goes on and on. He just wanted to eat out in that company cafeteria and spend money that we just didn’t have.
Hubby’s been spending $25 a day just on gas. Our budget for the month used to be $100. Now, we’re looking at upwards of $400 a month! Where’s that extra money to pay those gas bills supposed to come from, I asked? Of course our food budget is taking a hit because in addition to the shortage of money we have to spend on food, we don’t have the money to buy a wider selection of food choices. Eating out in the company cafeteria, while nice, isn’t going to help our bottom line. It’s just going to make our tight budget even tighter.
Throw in the fact that our property taxes have risen. Insurance for our home has also risen. The other day when I received our insurance policy renewal, it now had a hurricane deductible clause. If our home is hit by a hurricane, and not even living in the mountains makes us immune anymore, we have to pay a 1% of home value deductible before the insurance company will pay. There also was a rider setting a limit on mold and bacteria claims. And what was our advantage point for getting less insurance with higher deductibles? The company rewarded us with higher premiums. PLUS, now the payments are due on a certain date. Failure to pay on the certain date guarantees cancellation of your policy retroactively. Yup, that’s right! Cancellation will go back 30 days and any claims paid in that time period will be considered now null and void.
This morning, as hubby and I were discussing (rather loudly) his lunch choices, or according to him, his non-lunch choices, I opened up my Excel sheet where I record our monthly/daily expenditures. Right now, we have spent $398 on gas and only $355 on food. For the first time ever in my 60+ years of life, we were spending more on gas than food! This did not take into account that I have 1.5 days of dog food and snack bones for my pet. She’s going to need food soon also! With only $4 left in checking, clients who are delinquent in paying, a husband complaining there’s nothing to eat……..and the financial squeeze looming on paying our home taxes (plus personal taxes will be due on April 15th), I had no choice but to transfer $100 out of our precious saving account (that is earmarked to pay the property taxes) and threw hubby out of the house.
I had enough! I can’t do this anymore! I can’t balance anything anymore! I don’t think I can make it work anymore. I can’t take it! You want to continue to eat fois gras and pretend our lives haven’t changed, then by all means, here’s the money! Go f**ck yourself! Go to the company cafeteria. Eat yourself into oblivion. I don’t care anymore!
Hubby left and again, he had to stop off at the gas station to fill up his car. He drives around 150 miles per day for his job. And yes! he drives a fuel efficient car that gets between 35 and 40mpg. But it’s not working out like we planned. With the cost of gas at over $4.15 a gallon (and still rising) and the tightness of available money, it’s becoming a nightmare, with no end in sight.
While at the gas pump, the woman in the next booth came over to my husband and asked him if he had any money to give her. “I need money to buy gas” she said “to get to work. I don’t have any money to buy gas to get to work nor even come back from work and get home. Do you have any money to give me, man?” DH then realized the reality of our own financial predicament. He told the woman that he had just been fighting with his own wife over the tightness of money and our own inability to buy food and gas and pay looming tax bills.
“The only money I have that I can give you is this dollar bill,” he said and handed the woman the paper dollar bill I found in the parking lot yesterday. “Don’t worry about it, man” she replied and went back to her own car. DH finished putting $25 of gas in his car and then instead of driving to work, he turned around and drove back home. He told me of his conversation with the woman. I told DH “You don’t believe me. I’m telling you that PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches are the best we can do right now. You can’t be picky about food choices anymore. This isn’t a game. It’s reality. Things are bad and they’re getting worse. Everyone is feeling it now. I’m doing my best to make all of this work and keep everything together. We have plenty of food. Just not the choices you would prefer.”
And with that, DH pulled a frozen Trader Joe’s turkey burger out of the freezer and made himself a sandwich to take with him to work. He also took an orange and a PB&J sandwich for a late night snack. Within 20 minutes, he was back in his car and on his way to work. He won’t be home again till after midnight.
And so the beat goes on.
Great story. You make living during these times so real. Good luck finding the money. I worry about how you will make it and am glad when you succeed. At least your husband is not panhandling for cash to put gas in his vehicle and you have food for lunches. Good thing another month is coming and your SS check will be there for you.
Gas is nearly $4 in N. Illinois. Taxes are not due until late spring.
Sue
Hi Sue,
Thanks. MY SS came just in time. Who would have thunk?
I think my hubby came to a real conclusion that we are more fortunate than others BUT without a careful eye on spending, we could go quickly down the tubes. He immediately came back home, made his own lunch, packed a snack and hugged me goodbye. His way of saying ‘thank you’.
Well make it. I have no doubt. It just helps a wee bit better when the whole family is on the same page.
Talk about great timing with that lady asking for money. Sometimes it’s hard to get a point across when you are the only one repeatedly saying something “we can’t afford that” it’s almost like the other person stops listening and needs someone else to say it or show them. digging-my-way-out
Kasey,
I think it was the same spirit from that dollar I found that ‘spoke’ to my husband. Why can we only learn from other sless fortunate than ourselves? That’s the question. Sometimes, it may be to late to heed the word.
Thanks for you comment.
Our annual health, auto and home insurance premiums have also increased. I need to check to see if we are liable for more than the deductibles should we have a claim:(. In GA, the cheapest gas price I’ve seem is $3.76 at a grocery store. Sounds cheap compared to your price. So glad that lady gave your dh a reality check and he came back home to make things right with you and make his lunch:). My kids do the same thing sometimes. Unless it’s prepared and jumps out at them from the pantry/refrig they say there’s nothing to eat.
It takes work to save money. No easy way out.
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Hi, I’m Jael. This has been the story of our (hubby’s and mine) lives for the past twenty years for many reasons. I just recently had a fabulous job (fabulous in context) where I could afford to eat out once in a while. Who am I kidding, I couldn’t afford it. I just did it. Because I have been so poor for so long, and I can’t stand feeling deprived, either.
My husband has never had health insurance. At all. Because he was a volunteer for over 20 years (explanation on my blog) and by the time he woke up from that dream world, he was too old to be hired by any company that would pay enough of the premium to make it affordable (ie less than the cost of an ER visit every month.)
I feel your pain. We live on less than half of your income, with five children. We’ve tried switching to different jobs, I even went to college to get a degree. In the end, the more you make the more they take. The only way we’ve been able to survive is by living in a state with no federal income tax and a very low cost of living. I’m currently out of a job, so I have no health Insurance and a hernia which needs to be fixed. We’ve been paying for medical and food bills with credit cards for years now. Savings? What are those?
And yet, for all of that, I keep reminding myself of where I came from (I was born into a religious cult) and that these are first world problems. Also, now that I am home all the time, my expenses are about 2k less per month. We live day to day, but somehow we are surviving. I might not go back to work if I can’t find a job that doesn’t pay enough to cover my gasoline. I have put a pencil to every thing we do, and I know every break even point.
I’d like to write about this. Would it be all right for me to use your post?
Of course you can use my post.
The more you make, the more they take=makes one reconsider earning more $$ at all.
Let’s hope you can get that hernia fixed under the new Affordable Health Care Act. It starts 1/14 but I don’t know if you should wait that long. My DH got one of those, on the job, which paid for the operation BUT the day he came back from the hospital they called him to tell him he was laid off. Forever. He went 2 years before he found another job.
Take one day at a time. Don’t think ahead. Just think of getting through the day. As long as you have a roof over your head, a bed to sleep on, 3 meals a day and access to a hot shower, IMHO, you are better off than 85% of the planet!
Keep the faith. Say little prayers and ask spirit to guide you through. That’s the only thing that worked for us.
Good luck.