With all of the financial issues people are having these days I decided to share our story.
For almost 16 years my husband dedicated himself to building a career in a big box store. He gave, and gave, and gave and never got anything back from them. They put us through more hardships than you can shake a stick at including not giving him time off when his dad died, forced relocations without compensation, always having to work the overnight remodels, a forced commute when we couldn't sell the house, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and they turned him down for a promotion because of their own stupid rules even though. He really deserved it, was requested, he would have done well at it too and they were ready to give it to him before they realized his store hadn't made profit sharing 11 months before that. You didn't dare say anything to them because of a fear of losing your job, they fired people for really stupid reasons. (And then they wonder why they can't find employees willing to do into management with them?) Talk about stress!
His job paid well and he doesn't like to start over all the time. He liked the job for the most part until the latest boss arrived and made his life a living hell. After several years of the same treatment and no changes occurring even when he told their untrained personnel manager (who didn't report this to corporate), he couldn't take it anymore and he quit without having another job in place. It was such a hostile work environment I really couldn't blame him, though it would have been nice to have a plan in place before it happened.
Since it was ruled that he quit (even though we tried for hostile work environment) there was no unemployment either. Because his job paid well I didn't need to have a job prior to this happening. (Except for when they made our tenant move from the home he was renting from us, or the time they made us pay hundreds more in commuting when he was "promoted" with no pay raise, or the time they didn't make profit sharing so we had no way to pay off the credit cards we had been relying on to pay for his commuting expenses.) That made it really hard to struggle through several months of having no income at all. Thankfully, we had finally gotten enough of a handle on our budget because of our past trials that we had been able to save some money which got us through the jobless period. I applied for food stamps and badge care right away even though they had treated me extremely rudely the last time I had been in the office. Our mortgage company set us up on a forebearance plan that allowed us to pay $25 each for both our first and our second mortgages so our main expenses were paying for gas (to see his mom who was failing in health as well as driving for interviews and such) and my car payment.
Now, we need to adjust to living on less than half of what he made last year. This is where the real struggle begins. With a couple of months of work at his new employer in place we are really hitting the budget juggle hard. We have a brand new car that I bought a little over a year ago, a house payment, 2 kids, 2 cats, and we live in the country about 12 miles from town.
So far his new employers have agreed to pay for his gas, we have applied for a loan modification, and are getting the food stamps and medical assistance that we were getting over the summer though we get much less in food this month and now have to pay a monthly payment for our insurance. We have many more changes to try to do too in order to come up with a balanced budget as well. Hopefully we will be able to refinance the car to bring that payment down, I am praying that our mortgage company works with us so we can keep our home with a much more affordable payment, we found a less expensive phone plan, and I will be looking around for cheaper insurance. I also applied for energy assistance though I have yet to hear back about that.
We have already cut WAY back on energy usage, we rarely ever eat out, we don't exchange gifts with adults so we only have the 2 kids to buy for, we don't attend away sporting events unless we can hitch a ride with someone else who is going, we never go anywhere except to buy groceries or the occassional splurge allowed because we sold something, we never buy anything unless it is either used, practically free (those mail in rebates can come in handy sometimes!), or off the 90% off clearance rack (Man, I have had to wear some very ugly clothes because of that one!).
I will fill you in on some other changes we do as time progresses. Right now I guess we are still on the forebearance program at the bank until they tell me what my loan modification payment is going to be. I have been through this process before. You have to pay EXACTLY what they tell you to (not a penny more or a penny less) by the due date or they will kick you right off the program. It can be extremely stressful for sure!
Wish us luck and prayers for us would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy
For almost 16 years my husband dedicated himself to building a career in a big box store. He gave, and gave, and gave and never got anything back from them. They put us through more hardships than you can shake a stick at including not giving him time off when his dad died, forced relocations without compensation, always having to work the overnight remodels, a forced commute when we couldn't sell the house, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and they turned him down for a promotion because of their own stupid rules even though. He really deserved it, was requested, he would have done well at it too and they were ready to give it to him before they realized his store hadn't made profit sharing 11 months before that. You didn't dare say anything to them because of a fear of losing your job, they fired people for really stupid reasons. (And then they wonder why they can't find employees willing to do into management with them?) Talk about stress!
His job paid well and he doesn't like to start over all the time. He liked the job for the most part until the latest boss arrived and made his life a living hell. After several years of the same treatment and no changes occurring even when he told their untrained personnel manager (who didn't report this to corporate), he couldn't take it anymore and he quit without having another job in place. It was such a hostile work environment I really couldn't blame him, though it would have been nice to have a plan in place before it happened.
Since it was ruled that he quit (even though we tried for hostile work environment) there was no unemployment either. Because his job paid well I didn't need to have a job prior to this happening. (Except for when they made our tenant move from the home he was renting from us, or the time they made us pay hundreds more in commuting when he was "promoted" with no pay raise, or the time they didn't make profit sharing so we had no way to pay off the credit cards we had been relying on to pay for his commuting expenses.) That made it really hard to struggle through several months of having no income at all. Thankfully, we had finally gotten enough of a handle on our budget because of our past trials that we had been able to save some money which got us through the jobless period. I applied for food stamps and badge care right away even though they had treated me extremely rudely the last time I had been in the office. Our mortgage company set us up on a forebearance plan that allowed us to pay $25 each for both our first and our second mortgages so our main expenses were paying for gas (to see his mom who was failing in health as well as driving for interviews and such) and my car payment.
Now, we need to adjust to living on less than half of what he made last year. This is where the real struggle begins. With a couple of months of work at his new employer in place we are really hitting the budget juggle hard. We have a brand new car that I bought a little over a year ago, a house payment, 2 kids, 2 cats, and we live in the country about 12 miles from town.
So far his new employers have agreed to pay for his gas, we have applied for a loan modification, and are getting the food stamps and medical assistance that we were getting over the summer though we get much less in food this month and now have to pay a monthly payment for our insurance. We have many more changes to try to do too in order to come up with a balanced budget as well. Hopefully we will be able to refinance the car to bring that payment down, I am praying that our mortgage company works with us so we can keep our home with a much more affordable payment, we found a less expensive phone plan, and I will be looking around for cheaper insurance. I also applied for energy assistance though I have yet to hear back about that.
We have already cut WAY back on energy usage, we rarely ever eat out, we don't exchange gifts with adults so we only have the 2 kids to buy for, we don't attend away sporting events unless we can hitch a ride with someone else who is going, we never go anywhere except to buy groceries or the occassional splurge allowed because we sold something, we never buy anything unless it is either used, practically free (those mail in rebates can come in handy sometimes!), or off the 90% off clearance rack (Man, I have had to wear some very ugly clothes because of that one!).
I will fill you in on some other changes we do as time progresses. Right now I guess we are still on the forebearance program at the bank until they tell me what my loan modification payment is going to be. I have been through this process before. You have to pay EXACTLY what they tell you to (not a penny more or a penny less) by the due date or they will kick you right off the program. It can be extremely stressful for sure!
Wish us luck and prayers for us would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy
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