Where do I even start this journal entry? How about with a nice solid number: four hundred. Four hundred dollars to be exact. This is how much we are short each month now that my husband's hours have been cut to 40 each week. We budget for $1,200 per paycheck, easy to get when he works the usual 10 hour days he has been for the last year. But now he's working 8 hour days, and only 5 days a week. While we are enjoying more time together and he is getting a nice break I'm beginning to fret.
Four hundred dollars!! You may read this and think, "geesh, that's easy money." But it isn't for us. Where do you find it? What can we cut? What should we do? I have about a hundred ideas, and we're trying all sorts of things. But what is the answer? Here is a trail of thoughts...questions and answers thus far, and questions and questions thus far.
1. Maybe things will pick up at work? Maybe not- they were told today that they are trying to find ways to make the process shorter and work harder not to have overtime. Even if his hours increase working those long hours/days is still not a good long term solution. He is getting ready to celebrate his official 1 year anniversary at the end of the month and there is hope of a raise with that. But unlikely the raise will add $400/month!
2. Maybe I can get a job? But how, when his schedule is still not set in stone? And how, with the toddler? Maybe from home? Maybe one day a week outside the home (but what happens if they go back to 6 days?)? Maybe I could do childcare in our home? Maybe I could find a craft or something I could sell? Could I go back to work full time? Sure. But who would raise our child? Not us...
3. Could we get the hubby a different job? Well, I'm looking! But his base pay is at $15/hr now, and though he's certainly worth more than that it's really hard finding jobs that pay more than that. He would need to make between $17 & $18 an hour for us to stay at our current skin-of-our-teeth level.
4. Could we cut expenses? Sigh. Yes. We are actively trying to sell our second vehicle. Large challenge with this is that we are upside-down in the loan and the truck needs repair. And we are honest! If we can sell the vehicle that would save us around $190/month. We could cut our cable, another $30/month. But that is only half of what we need to cut out, and there isn't much more we can let go of. Could we move to a cheaper rental? Yes, we could. Could we save another $200/month by moving? Probably. If worse comes to worse we'll have to look into it. But if you saw where we are living now you'd know why this is one of the last things we want to do.
5. Could we live somewhere else? Somewhere with family and a cheaper cost of living? Yes, we could do that too. But the bills won't stop because we decide to move, so hubby would have to get a job there first. And how one gets a job across the country when there is no money for plane tickets for interviews I don't know. We'd could send him via the credit card, but that seems rather backwards in my thinking when we can hardly afford to pay the minimum payment as is.
6. Could we buy a house and have the payment be less than rent? Maybe, but in this area such a home would need a lot of work. Then all those unexpected expenses pop up, and what then? But we're looking. And we're not even sure if we would qualify for a loan.
7. Could we not pay a bill or two? Well, yes, we could probably get the first vehicle's payment deferred for a month or two. But that is still just a bit over $200. We could also stop paying on our credit cards. But that is not a good long term solution. It's not even a very good short term solution.
What am I missing? What other option is out there? Plasma donation? Sell a kidney?
Several Bible verses have been coming to mind lately:
From Ecclesiastes 11: Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days. Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies. He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap. Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.
From Matthew 6: For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
From James 4: Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
All of that to say we will wait and seek and pray and wait and hope and tremble. And pray. And remind myself every five minutes or so (yes, literally) that God has been faithful this whole way and there is no reason to doubt Him now.
No comments:
Post a Comment