And then the NEXT disaster hit: the awesome-paying job that my husband had found? Closed its doors after he'd been with them for 14 months. Sold the business, fired the employees, and he's back on the unemployment database, which is a MAJOR paycut.
During this time, I have to say that I was also searching for jobs, but was having no luck. I'm sure much of that was due to some of my restrictions (i.e. I suck at commuting, so didn't want anything more than half an hour away).
So, this brings us to last summer...which was a doozy. I was juggling bills, we were trying to keep our worries from my stepdaughter (who's a natural worrywart) and attempting to be very, very frugal with what we had. I can tell you the prices of some of our most commonly purchased items at all three grocery stores in our town. I know when it's worth it to go discount and when it's not. Oh, and we also got hit by lightning, which fried most of our computer and internet equipment (which was on a surge protector, but obviously didn't do much), along with our land line telephone equipment. It was no small undertaking to get that stuff replaced either.
My husband was aggressively job hunting, but nothing was turning up. My mom, not knowing the whole, true picture, jumped in and offered to pay our car payments. This was a huge load off my mind and I don't know if she's aware just how much she helped. The feeling of putting her check in our account each month still sucked hardcore, though.
Now, I was really starting to feel like it was time to sell something... I was on repayment plans with two credits cards and the gas/electric company. "Extras" were slashed from our lives. Things were tight. We had my stepdaughter on state insurance and were going around uninsured ourselves. For someone who was used to quarterly dental appointments, this was a huge adjustment.
A little bit of sweet relief came in late fall, when my husband was offered a job. It was less pay, still no insurance, but it was a job. With all our credit cads maxed out, we were able to have a measly but memorable Christmas. Whenever creditors called (which was often) for their payments, I tried to be hopeful and tell them that I thought we'd be dug out of our hole by March.
Once again, spoke too soon.
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