STRESS!

I'm so stressed about money! This has been such a difficult year for us, and I think we're both going to need to pick up extra hours at odd jobs to make ends meet for the rest of the year.

Any suggestions? Should I sell my eggs? Sell pies? C'mon, creative readers - any ideas for me?

On the road again...

Dan has his first truck-day today. Mondays and Tuesdays are classroom time, and Wednesdays-Fridays are half-days for practice. I imagine he's somewhere, tootling around in a parking lot right now. His permit test is on Monday, and Gargamel (that's what we're having Vi call Dan's dad, Greg...he didn't want a real "grandpa" name, so we picked one for him. She says Gro-Gro) has offered to help him study. Very exciting!

I think I'll try to make an iPod playlist for him. What songs are good driving songs? Not just trucking songs - a la "On the Road Again," "Pickup Man," or, as my brother-in-law suggested, the theme from "BJ and The Bear" - but real, good music for road trips. There's a chance that Dan's first job will be an over-the-road, long-haul sort of job, so he'll need podcasts and songs and books-on-tape. Post a comment below with your suggestions!

A Licensed Arborist

Dan and I have an ongoing inside joke, which I will share with you, internet.

Dan and I are both total know-it-alls. Whenever Dan is instructing me on how to do something, or revealing a Thoroughly Interesting Factoid (ie how to wash a dish, the origin of the cedar waxwing, the toxic or non-toxic qualities of a substance), he refers to the fact that he KNOWS this because he is a licensed arborist. They taught it to him during his arborist studies. While he was in arborist school. Studying arborism.

Of course, he is NOT a licensed arborist, but I think the joke originated when he was telling me something about killing or not killing a tree...I don't remember, really, but it is now a way for me to diffuse the situation when he is getting on his soapbox. We end up laughing and he usually butts out. It's a good thing, indeed.

Today started with a phone call from a real licensed arborist - a friend of a friend - asking if Dan could come help him out today. Casual Labor? Will work for money!

So, Dan is getting real-life tree-working experience today.

I'm totally screwed.

:-)

Grin and Wheel-bearing It

A friend warned me two weeks ago.

She said, and I quote, "Of course, remember that now that you’re in the situation that you’re in, everything you own will break or stop working. "

I'm hopeful that she's not entirely right, but we DID just drop Dan's car off at the dealer to get a new wheel bearing. Before y'all post comments about saving money by not getting one's car serviced at the dealer, I'll let you know that we have some Subie Bucks that are only good at a dealer.

Some people get air miles on their credit cards. Some get cash rewards. Some get gift cards or money put into their savings plan. We get Subie Bucks. Though it feels as though we have to spend $10,000 to earn $100 in Subie Bucks, they actually rack up pretty quickly, and have come in handy more than once. I will lie to myself about how much the Subie Bucks cost me in interest expense and say that today, we are spending $100 less than we would have otherwise.

Oh, the credit card debt burden of our generation...how are we going to solve this? I really believe this is what sets this recession so far apart from any other. I often wonder if our generation has the creativity, resourcefulness and selflessness to get through this time the way our grandparents got through the Recession.

Dan was trying to talk to Popps about not mixing money and friends, and was searching for the right cliche to convey the thought. He asked Popps, "What did you used to say when you were growing up?" Popps replied, "I grew up in the Great Depression! We didn't have any money!"

What are your thoughts on "weathering" the current economic situation? Political, social, fiscal... I'm interested in everyone's thoughts.

Posting!

I'm going to try to post more often, as this site is a source of revenue for my family. If you don't know what I mean, I'm not really allowed to tell you what to do. I just know that I'm not allowed to click on my own ads, ever. CHECK THIS OUT:

http://ask.metafilter.com/24986/What-to-do-when-Google-suspends-you

A friend of mine said, "Sounds like you're having a fantastic week!" And that was only Tuesday. As most of you know, my husband lost his job on January 31st. I'm not going to waste too much space here, but I will tell you that Dan WAS the bread-winner, and his employment provided us with health, dental, vision and FSA benefits. All of those went away immediately on January 31st. We need to bring in money as soon as possible, and reduce spending NOW.

Here's what we've been doing:

1) Looking at EVERY way we spend money and figuring out how to reduce it.
2) Eating everything we already have, including the emergency tuna.
3) Taking fewer and shorter showers. I had never thought about my water consumption from an economic perspective before, just an environmental one. We are blessed to live in an area with no water shortage, and with good, clean water. I just never thought about how much we get charged to flush the toilet or wash our dishes before.
4) Unplugging energy-suckers! We have a clock-radio in Vi's room for no reason at all. Unplugged. We keep our coffee maker plugged in all day. No more. All of those little plugs with (what are they called? transformers? that can't be right) box-thingies on them suck energy all day. Who knew? (Probably lots of you did. Hmph.)
5) Driving less.
6) We withdrew Vi from daycare, since Dan is home all the time. That was a no-brainer. It is one of the saddest parts, for me, since I had such a long, drawn-out struggle with child care. We had finally found the *perfect* place, and now she's losing her spot in the program.
7) Dan applied for unemployment. This will be a rather long process, as the system is flooded with applications right now. In Maine, the unemployment rate is around 7% right now. I have a friend who applied over three weeks ago and still hasn't received a check.
8) Dan applied for a few jobs, posted his resume, and is calling on all contacts for ideas. He has a list of his former customers with whom he had a good, long-term relationship, and will be contacting them for suggestions, thoughts, prayers, and brainstorming. He is in touch with a long-ago customer, from his coffee shop days, who works as a truck-driving instructor. He may have his Class B trucking license in a few weeks - I'll keep you posted.
9) We are working on the health insurance issue. My biggest fear is, of course, for Vi, who is just getting over pneumonia. Her course of anti-biotics will be done tomorrow, and I worry that the infection will come back. Dan points out that keeping her out of day care will avoid "kennel cough." :-)

Most of all, we have been laughing. Don't get me wrong - we are terrified and I am still having bawling fits. But, Vi is at this age - 18 months, now - where she is a total ham. Everything she does is cute, silly, funny, goofy or intriguing. She has really kept us from crawling into bed and hiding. With an active toddler, that's not an option at all.

We've been doing a lot of brainstorming and long-term planning. Dan is still interested in going to college, but says "I can't wait two or four years for a paycheck." Being an apprentice for an electrician piqued his interest. 2nd shift jobs are a realistic, short-term possibility.

So, my question to all of you is, what should Dan do? Please let us know if you have any ideas for him, for us. Anything at all - no idea is stupid.

Thanks for all your support as we navigate this time in our lives!!