Praying for a Client

I seem to be fucked, er in a bind this month and I'm praying for a client to get me out of it. Now to find that client. I have no idea how to find a job that will pay me in the time frame that I need but I'm hoping that it's possible to do. I actually need to go back to private clients full time, at least until I can return to the workforce outside the home. There are a million things that have to fall in place to do that.

I'm up to my ears in stress and have no idea what to do. I think that saving money is a priority right now but I have to have work to save that money and today the well ran dry. I have no idea what to do. The other half goes back to work tomorrow! I'm so happy I could scream!!

OK I"m going to search for work.

Will Today be Peaceful?

Saturday's are a bit hectic since we never have weekend therapy and there is a ton I need to do. I need to find some work to do but it's been slim lately. I'm it doesn't stay this slim, I can't go back to work outside the house yet it's not possible to hold down a job, take Theresa to and from school and keep her therapy schedule at the intensity that it is now. I don't know just how much it's going to cost in gas each month to get her to school but I have a feeling if gas prices keep up at the rate they are I'll be dropping a day or two of therapy to make up the difference.

I've decided that since Mturk takes so little time that I can do a hit or two there first thing in the morning and each evening before I go to bed. I plan to use that as a back up for gas money until I get everything else figured out. I want to move and actually I need to move, the cost of living where we are now is too high. I really need it to be lower and the city/town rather that I was born in has a lower cost of living. I actually like it better too.

The other day I ran into someone that I used to see weekly when our kids had therapy at the same time. She lives in the town I want to move to and said the cost of living is ridiculously cheap there. The land taxes are apparently very cheap too. I know the sales tax is less and she said they have speech therapy services there. I know what I have to come up with to move I just don't know the cost associated with moving that far away since we'd definitely need larger vehicles and the ability to pay the bills for a few months without having to spend anything else but groceries and gas to run errands.

Costs to Move
Well, we'll have to pay off the light bill here. The town I want to move to is in another county and I know for a fact it's a different power company so I need to come up with a new deposit if we move there. They do budget billing as well. I know because I have a friend that lives there and does it. I have no idea how much Internet services are there or cable. I can live without cable a bit longer if it means I don't have to live in this city anymore. I can't stand it here never have been able to.

I need somewhere that takes pets. I have no idea what my aunt did with my grandmother's place. I'd love to live there but I want a house and the last time I was out there a trailer had replaced the house. I have no idea why I want to go back there so badly but I do. I actually regret leaving it at all, could be that I was so busy dreaming about things I didn't have I never realized just how happy I was there. Or could I just be dreaming about something that I remember wrong?

I hope today is peaceful but Gene is home so I'm sure it won't be.

Playing with My Schedule

The upcoming school year has caused me a bit of concern over my ability to go back to working as a freelance writer full time. The Head Start program (provided she stays in it) is Monday through Friday from as early as 7:45 and as late as 8 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon. I'm hoping that I can rearrange her therapy schedule not to have to pull her out early but it's probably not going to work that way. So far we have therapy five days a week all before the 2:30 pick up time. Which means if I have to get her out early but first I need permission from someone that I can't figure out who is yet.

I was originally intending on spending the time she was in school working until time to pick her up. If she goes back to PHP that's only four half days and I'd save money on gas because they provide a school bus to transport her. At least they did in the past. That would give me four days of guaranteed working time unless Theresa gets sick. I'd be able to leave her Friday speech spot alone. I'm a bit confused because they told me once before the after school spots were for kids that could not get out of school at all and I know for a fact that a child Theresa's age has a 3p.m. speech spot.

I'm thinking of asking about reducing her speech appointments to once or twice a week so that I'm not pulling her out of school any but there would still be a problem with ABA therapy scheduling. I'm hoping that the new facility has a wifi connection that I can use to work but I won't know that until next week.  I'm also thinking about going back to the "traditional" workforce so that I can write on the side to earn additional funds. The problem is that I have no idea how to write out an application after being at home for so long working for myself.

Well, so far I figure I have to get up at 5a.m. to be awake and claim assignments before taking Theresa to school. I know I can work while she's at school but I'm not sure about during therapy. I can work a couple hours after she goes to bed. I still need to find time to figure out where we can afford to move.

Setting New Goals

I've decided to set new goals for myself for all aspects of my life. Working, saving money and even the bills that I pay each month. I know I can lower them or at least I can tailor them to suit our needs a little bit better. Therapy and getting the kid to school have to fit into these goals since I work around them but that's not that hard to do come to find out. I just have to get all my ducks in a row to see what's going on.

Cash Back- While taking cash with me when I go shopping helps me save money it's more convenient with a small child to use an option that lets you pay at the gas pump. Recently my bank offered cash back on gas purchases that I paid for using my debit card since that's an expense I have regardless I decided that I would continue to my card for it and get money back. So far while it's not a lot of money at only 5% back with a maximum of $10 per account but it's still enough to buy some more gas in an emergency. So I'm continuing to look for cash back offers from the bank for places that I shop at anyway.

I've decided to go over my expenses and figure out just how much they are now. Then I have to figure out which ones I can reduce. I still have to figure out how to take care of moving expenses but that shouldn't be too much of a problem when I have a little bit of time alone at night to figure it out once everyone is asleep. My first goal is to be able to take more time off so I can spend it with my baby girl.

Trying to Move

I'm not only trying to work enough to help cover the bills and save a little bit of money for emergencies but I'm trying to move as well. My roof is about gone which became apparent when my husband went to re-secure the antenna and realized he was trying to put approximately five inch screws into the overhang. The wood was so rotten that they were splitting it and he couldn't get deep enough to find wood that wasn't rotten. That's what happens when you put shingles on a trailer instead of a metal roof it seems. With all the other repairs that need to be done it is past time to call it a loss, problem is that when I moved out here I was sure I'd never have to move again. Oh well shit I mean life happens.

So far I have a $1 in my savings account and $5.40 in my change jar. That's not much but it's a good sign that the money in the change jar hasn't been touched so the total is going up instead of going down. That's a good thing the bad thing is that the total isn't going up fast enough to make a difference. I was kind of hoping to use some of it to help pay the overage on the light bill I have coming due. We're $200 over budget and that has to be taken care of along with the actual bill in order to be able to do anything about moving. We're going to have to either pay a fee to transfer the lights or put them in my husbands name and make payments on the other bill. The problem with that is it's a $35 transfer fee (at least I think that's what it  is) versus a $100 light deposit. Now I have a $150 deposit with the city of Dothan that I could leave with them which at the moment would leave us a $50 overage. Then the actual bill plus that is what I have to pay. I'm hoping to send some extra to help cover the overage next month but we have a $300 loan to repay first. This is about to get interesting.

The regular monthly expenses plus the loan repayment, light bill overage and catching up the child support that fell behind during the summer while my other half was off for two months is going to put a strain on us. I have a plan sort of. I can still cut some expenses and I can work a little bit more to tuck money away to help cover these expenses. We're going to need new furniture but that can always be new to us, used furniture. We don't need that much just a few places to sit and somewhere to sleep. My futon mattress, Theresa's recliner and the space savers for the closets are moving with us. The dishes, her toys, my laptop and a few other luxuries that will all fit in the back of my rodeo and trunk of the car to save on leasing a moving van.

I have google voice that I can make outgoing calls with but they do not have a local number in my area at the moment to allow calls to come into me. When they do I"m going to re-evaluate my cell phone plan and attempt to find one of the actual phone set ups that works with it to reduce that bill so that it's only used for emergencies. Well, my computer is trying to tell me it's time I went to work so I"m off to find music to listen to as I try and think of a topic to use as today's theme for my submissions.

Worried About Expenses

It's not my immediate expenses that I'm worried about but the ones that I have coming up in just a couple of months because I have no idea how to cover them. August starts in another week and the tag on my truck is due, the front of the car is shaking something awful. I have to get that fixed and the front of the truck well that I'm told is my imagination so I really need to start driving it again.

When I drive the truck I can make a tank of gas last a month just going to therapy and back. That's pretty good considering it only gets fifteen miles to the gallon. The big problem is that my light bill is consistently over the amount set for budget billing. Right now I'm looking at having a $200 overage. That means I'll have approximately a $300 to $400 bill at least the month the overage plus the actual bill is due. I'm going to do.

At the moment I have $6 to make it until the end of the month and I wouldn't have that if I hadn't put some things on hold. Well, I'll be going I can't earn any money to help me out of this bind if I don't get to work. Today I have to take our house guest to meet her mother so she can go home and Theresa has two therapy sessions that are an hour apart so I may just take my computer so that I can work while we're there.

Broke as broke can be

Well, today is payday which would normally make me happy but not today. It's already gone before I even get it and I can't seem to make enough to make up for anything that I might have to spend. I've still got bills to pay this month and while I have the money to cover them I don't have money for anything else. I'll be starting next month in debt.

I owe $25 for babysitting which was for four hours while I ran errands thinking it would make it faster. Then I'll have to repay the money I'm going to have to borrow in order to make it until the end of the month. Next month we go back to school which means it's time to find more school clothes or at least a new pair of shoes for the little one. She'll be happy to ride to school with her friends once again. One day a week I have to go pick her up from school to get her to therapy on time but that's only one day and it won't be too hard on the budget.

I'm thinking of transferring money from my savings account to checking and leaving just enough to keep it open in the account so I can make it until I get my loan. I can always put it back later. At least that's what I like to tell myself.