LIVING ON THE EDGE
24th August 2011 | Children, Drama, Family, Life, Money, Uncategorized | 0 comments
It has been a year since we lost our house and had all our belongs thrown all over the front lawn. In the past year, I have looked for a job and a permanent place to stay. We have been staying in a motel. The motel is very expensive even though we are paying a weekly rate. The place isn’t a bad place to stay, but the owner tends to “play games” with the rates. One week the rate is $385 plus taxes, the next week it is $455 plus taxes. Neighbors have the same problem. You definitely have to watch what you are charged. Even though we have been here for a year, the owner still tries to change the rates. I guess he hopes we won’t notice and he’ll make more money off of us. Not a good way to run a motel in my opinion.
I have found a temporary job, but I don’t know from day-to-day if it will be there tomorrow. Today, I went into work and was asked what I was doing there. I informed him I was here to work. He said there wasn’t any money to pay me for work today. He also said I should use today to get my license and van tags straightened out. I asked him how I was going to do that. He stated that he had paid me $1,050 for the past 2 weeks and to use that. I told him there wasn’t anything left. He then proceeded to ask me what I had done with it all. I explained again that rent in the motel is $450 (this week, at least), which leaves $50 for everything else. I have an 18-year-old daughter living with me, who needs to eat. I also need to eat. Then there’s the gas needed to keep the van running. As you can see, $50/week doesn’t go very far. He didn’t have an answer for that! Everything we eat is frozen and has to go into the microwave. If it can’t be microwaved, then we can’t eat it as there is no way to cook it! If it can’t be cooked in the container it comes in, we can’t cook it.
People tend to think everything is so easy because you can get all your food from the various pantries. Have you tried getting food from the food pantries? First of all, no one thinks about the fact that you probably don’t have a can opener; if you can’t cook it in the container it comes in, you probably don’t have bowls, pans, measuring cups or spoons, forks, knives, etc., to cook it in and all that stuff can be expensive when you can barely afford to pay the rent. Where do you store all this stuff in a motel room? It’s not like there’s a kitchen table and chairs in here.
I’m getting off subject. I have found that jobs are hard to find. Even though I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting, I haven’t been able to find anything. I am in desperate need of getting my teeth worked on. My dental insurance doesn’t go very far at all. It basically covers two root canals and two caps and it’s gone. On top of that, it still only covers 50 percent of the total. Well, when you can barely cover the rent, how are you supposed to pay for teeth work? It’s not that easy to find an accounting job when your teeth are noticeably bad and you don’t have any appropriate dress clothes. All the dress clothes I had were either lost or ruined.
One of my neighbors said they’d be glad to store some of our stuff in their garage. When we went over to pick up some of the stuff, he informed us he moved it all out into his back yard. Since his house backs up to the woods, the animals had gotten into all the bags, as well as the water from all the rain we had. Everything was basically ruined! I asked him why he didn’t call and let me know he was moving everything outside. He didn’t have an answer!
Finding a place to live hasn’t been easy either. My monthly retirement income is $1,200/month. I am reluctant to use the income from my temporary job because it is temporary. I am afraid I will find a place, get it, then not be able to make the payments because I lost the temporary job. So I look for places that are within my retirement income, which are impossible to find. I would like at least a two-bedroom place so my daughter can have her own room, but she’s willing to share a room with me if she has to. If we could just find a place, I would be able to put some money aside to get my teeth fixed and buy some dress work clothes. I would be able to put us back on our feet.
My daughter does nothing but sit in the motel room when I am in work as I am afraid something might happen to her and I wouldn’t know about it. We only have one cell phone and she keeps it so she can get hold of me. She is sick and I don’t want her to not be able to reach me. I have the phone I can use at work if needed. I don’t use the work phone for anything but business calls. Once in a while, I will ask if I can use it for personal business, but don’t like to. This is his business and he has the phone for his use. I noticed that he and his one employee use their cell phones for all family-related and nonbusiness calls, not the business phone.
Therefore, I can’t really look for a place to live or a job until I am home. Since I am gone from 7:30 a.m. till 6:30 p.m., talking to people about renting a place or getting hired for a job is virtually impossible. I am totally out of money. Everything I had saved is gone now. It either went to the lawyers to try to get my house back or toward our living expenses. Originally, I thought this would be a good way to start over–a clean, fresh start. Now, I’m not so sure. No one wants to help. I’ve been in contact with social services, homeless shelters, Churches, schools, and food pantries. You hear about all this help that’s out there, but I sure can’t find it. The only help we’ve been able to get is a medical card for both of us. It has helped us on prescriptions, but not much else. My daughter was able to get dental work done, but I am not eligible. You would think they would also cover the adult as the adult is usually the breadwinner.
Basically, I’m disappointed that we still aren’t in permanent housing. I am also disappointed that jobs are so hard to find. It makes me mad that I worked all my life to prepare for retirement and someone comes along and takes everything you saved and worked for.
