reaching out..

Dang, girl, you have me weeping over here. You remind me of my own mom, when she was working 3 jobs just to keep food on the table. I'll call her tonight and say thank you. Nice post...




Milkmom, like MP$40 said, keep your head up, and all will be okay!


{{{{{{{{milkmom}}}}}}}}

 

Milkmom, definitely look into the substitute teaching thing. I'm in WI too and you just need a BA to get a 3 year temp. license to be a sub. Here they pay $90 a day, more in the higher population areas.

Hugs, thoughts, and prayers, from one milkmom of two to another

 

Also, are you on WIC? If not, check into it with your county health dept. Kids are eligible till age 5, and you as a nursing mother are eligible until your baby is 1. They give you checks for things like milk, juice, eggs, cereal, formula if you're not nursing, peanut butter, and some other stuff I can't think of right now. It would certainly help with the food situation and you definitely would qualify.

 

Yes, call your school's administrative or district office (or even the office of any of the schools themselves would be able to tell you). They can give you the address and phone number in Madison you will contact to get the licensing information. I'm in western WI about 30 minutes from the Twin Cities.
(edit) Oh, I found a link for you.

http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsis/tel/bssub.html

For sure call the county health dept. about WIC. They will really help you out a lot. This link will tell you everything you need to know about the program and where to call.

http://www.dhfs.state.wi.us/WIC/

 

Some more ideas...

Milkmom,

What about working for an answering service part-time in the evenings? Then hubby could have some time during the day to look for something better.

Perhaps your local telephone company could use another customer service person...a nice one!

Has your husband tried the local employment commision? When I lived in Texas, there was an office called the TEC (Texas Employment Commision) whose purpose was to find local jobs for people receiving unemployment. Does your state have an office like that? You might check into it to see if there's some kind of program that can produce real leads for your husband.

Also, he might try auto sales. Some of the companies in my area have started advertising BASE PAY + commission, because they have had such a difficult time in the past recruiting new sales staff based on commission only.

What about your church? If you belong to a church, perhaps you could see if they need some kind of help...say, working in the nursery on Sunday mornings.

What about offering child care to four or five children in your home? Since you are a night owl, you could advertise to hospital workers, such as nurses, letting them know you can care for their kids overnight if need be.

I know you need a short-term solution and all of my ideas here will take time to work through. I just don't know of anything for the short-term.

LIFE can be so cruel sometimes. I have been in your position once. I know it could happen again at any given moment. If it does, I am substitute teaching, lol!


Good luck Milkmom...

Calmest_LA

 

Milkmom-
When you contact the state about WIC ask them about commodity foods programs. Also in NH there is some church program where if you volunteer in any way (watch you friends kids for 2 hours, mow someones lawn, grocery shop for someone etc.) for $20 they give you a HUGE food basket, it includes either a turkey or ham, TONS of canned foods, breads, milk. It's about $100 worth of food. See if your church does it, for some reason the name escapes me.

Commodity foods is where you get cereals, cheese, juices, canned foods. It's just like WIC, but you don't pick up the foods at the grocery store, you go to their warehouse and pick it out. WIC and CF are USUALLY the same office.

Good luck MM.

 

You know Milkmom, me and hubby went through some very tought times ourselves a few years ago.

Out of necessity this is what I had to do:

1) Learned to be a supergrocery shopper. I was able to buy groceries for 90% off by using coupons....really I fed me and dh and dh's parents on $15 a week...in Southern California

2) Swithced all lights in home to compact fluorescent....cut my electrical bill down by 60%....I live in California and this can be a big bill

3) Did many test drives...online rewards programs in the spare time, took advantage of phone offers (swithed to MCI one year and got $300 in Amazon gift certificates, switched next month to ATT for $120 check, and racked up $1000's in gift certificates to various merchants (this took some time and patience....I do not do these any more but can point you in the right direction for these offers.)

4) NO LAUNDRY until after 7pm, cheaper.

5) Consolidated houses....the parents...a little older were and still are struggling financially and live with me and DH (one day, I will have real kids)...both of us were able to cut our housing expenses in half. If you have room in your place, maybe consider getting a roomate temporarily.


I would be more than happy to offer you advice and point you in the right direction to learn to grocery shop at 90%, lmk. But be warned, this can be tedious.

Finacially, me and DH have recovered and I hope I never see those days again, they were AWFUL. I still keep the compact fluorescent lights and am happy to free up some time for less aggressive grocery shopping.....currently I get about 75% off.

Best of luck to you.

 

Milkmom, I am sending you a little something in the mail. This will include a money order and a web site link for test drives.

Check out this forum, mycoupons.com and look for shopping boards. Under the forum of "tips of the trade" is excellent advice for those just beginning to cut down on their grocery shopping. Under "coupon/rebate" you should be able to find most of the coupons you need for the products you buy. The going rate is 5 cents for any coupon under $1 and 10 cents for any over $1....shop at a store that doubles. Under the forum of "Look what I found"
are general deals going on.....test drive offers, swithching telephone service offers.

I used to preview the Sunday coupons on the Wednesday before they came out and then match them up against products on sale at my grocery stores (the sale flyers usually come out once a week). There are several ladies that have these coupon inserts before they come out SUnday, (usually on Wedneday) so you can order from them the coupons you need.

When an item went on sale combined with a good coupon, I would load up on that item, usually getting that item for 80 - 100% off. Needless to say, my cupboards in the kitchen are full, I have two freezers, and use both of the linen closets to stock the non-perishable items.

Good Luck!

 

By the way milkmom, I will also send you a couple of compact fluorescent light bulbs. These are expensive, about $9 a bulb, but loaded up on these during a sale, lol...I paid about $2.50 for these.


Its cheaper to do laundry after 7 pm because these are non peak hours and you are billed less.

 

I'm so glad you were able to save the checking account. I had a feeling there might have still been time to do that.

Please keep us posted on your hubby's success with his "temporary new career."

DemPooches

 

I would certainly think that the low 20's is better then nothing!