Honestly why can't the average American catch a break...

[diabeticman]

I know a lot of people are probably far worse than my wife and I and I only bring my problems to light because I can only talk about my situation.


My wife and I recently moved to a new apartment. We ended up deep in the whole after the move because the gas line didn't get put in on time so our electric bill was like $200 and we ended up spending money on hotel rooms because around Western PA the end of Dec/First Part of Jan was like the coldest it has been in a couple of years.



Our rent is about $150 more than we have had to pay the last 10 years (and that was the lowest rent we could find.) I do make $10.53 an hour and do work 40 hours a week. Now granted I probably should move closer to my work place but where my wife and I are living was good for us on rent and my wife has family obligations that require her to stay close to this town.
So I personally am making a pay check of around $800 BUT by the time taxes and my insurance (and my insurance ONLY covers me.) and with the insurance going up I'm now netting $400 a pay!

My wife is now working with physically challenged individuals and thought she had gotten a full time job has been pulled away from her. The woman didn't like the fact that my wife was doing what she told the company she wanted done in her home (cleaning it and organizing it.) My wife respects people she works for to go into details but she did indicate that the woman's home was in GREAT need of organizing. So my wife is working and finds a shaw the woman wanted two days earlier. She brings the shaw to the woman who suddenly flips out saying she doesn't want my wife going through her stuff and kicks her out than tells my wife's supervisor that she was trying to steal the shaw.

My wife is livid because her reputation is all she has in this type of field. She is back to On call meaning she is lucky if she gets any hours a week.

NOW here is where the break should come.

Because we are married WE can't get help. Say my wife is lucky to get 20 hours a week for example. She right now is at $8.85 and even though they started people at that company at $9 and rumor is that clients are now picking pay rates and can go as high as $11 she is currently stuck at $8.85.

We make TOO much for any assistance. YET if my wife and I just lived together and had NO marriage certificate we could probably get assistance --At least she could.

My wife would love to have children and she wants to think about adopting but we are too freaking poor to even be considered.

I don't know HOW a family of 4 with both parents working make ends meet in this day and age.
I'm not saying the world should be handed to us or anyone BUT Why is it so hard for so many Americans now at days JUST to survive?

The Min wage debate has now begun AND THE fight to get it raised $1.75 is going to be the hardest fight IF it gets done. Think about this That $1.75 in most places in America today can't even buy a Fuckin loaf of bread!

My wife all her life has lived in the struggling gray sector of Americans who make too much for help and don't make enough to keep there head above fiscal water.

Her mother was a single mother she raised 2 kids on 18,000 (This was in the 80s) and the only help she got from her Ex-husband was the child support of $150 a month. $75 per daughter.

I know people have it worse than my wife and I. My wife and I often time will help those we know who are worse off than what we have it BUT you know I'm banging my head against the wall because both my wife and I just got paid today and we paid rent and insurance and water today and we only have $100 left for 2 weeks and that needs to go to gas so my wife and I can get to work. and yes I feel like a heel bitchin about our problem when I know there are people who probably won't be able to eat tonight.

NO ONE IN AMERICA SHOULD NOT HAVE TO GO WITHOUT FOOD AND NO ONE IN AMERICA SHOULD HAVE TO LIVE THIS COUNTRY AND NOT BE ABLE TO LIVE A COMFORTABLE LIFE.

[badhair77]

1. This should be a safe place to say it.

I totally understand. Plus we're cheaper here than therapy. Talk away and I will listen (or read). I hope your wife can get hooked up with a better client. The shawl woman did not deserve to have her.

Can you get help from a local food bank? Our local gives assistance, on a limited basis, for heating and food. It might be worth checking. We're in South Central PA and the need is great here also. At least we're almost to the end of Feb and the heating bills will get lower as Mar and April pass by.

I wish you the best. But please feel free to share here - it's healthy to get it out. I will listen.

[diabeticman]

2. That's the Gray area. Wife and I make too much for help something by $200. Even when she was

off work because she almost died (due to hospital -don't get me started.) we couldn't get help. tried LIHEAP everything we just made too much. THanks for he ear to bend.

[badhair77]

5. I'm sorry to hear that.

I'd keep an eye out for local churches. Some of them have their own food banks here and they give 1-time assistance. That's what churches should be doing. I think they'd have more participants if they focused on helping their neighbors and building the community.

My brother, who lives at a distance from me, gets info at his local free meal. Sometimes the people who run the meal can help him.

Our local food bank is run thru a Christian ministries group. They take financial and family info and I think you would qualify there, at least for some food donations, and with your wife's reduced hours. On a Fri they have lots of produce and fruit from Walmart and if they don't have many clients they give extras to whoever is there because it will not last the weekend. Keep a ear out for stuff like that. As you know, every penny helps.

I wish you well.

[diabeticman]

6. yes, thanks for the info. I will keep a look out.

[diabeticman]

4. I hope good luck and good health shine on you for all your days. I'm glad you have a safety net

to catch you.

I do worry medicare and Social Security are there when my wife and I are retiring.

[SheilaT]

11. I understand the temptation, but

thirty years from now when it's time for social security (and it WILL be around, I'm certain) and you two aren't married, she will be unable to share in your higher SS. If you die before her, she's really screwed.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. k&r

[gollygee]

8. Nobody working 40 hours a week

should have to go into debt to survive, but it seems like that's the plan. I feel like the American public is being played like Bain played corporations - force people into as much debt as possible and bankrupt them, and take the profits from the debt and run.

[femmocrat]

9. I'm sorry you are going through such tough times, diabeticman.

I hope your situation improves ASAP.

[diabeticman]

13. thanks. It does feel good just to vent sometimes.

[JVS]

10. Our safety net was designed for those who don't work. It was assumed that those who do work could..

afford what they need. This is no longer true. Wages are stagnant and things like insurance (now mandatory) have been increasing in price without bound. Theoretically you and your wife should be making due albeit modestly with around $2,200/ month. But the insurance is strangling you. Minimum wage going up isn't going to make a shit worth of difference if insurance companies, utilities, and other bills just take it from you.

About kids though, look into it. The tax credit for children is pretty big and your qualification for things like foodstamps becomes more likely.

[diabeticman]

12. You are right. $2200 should be more than enough for my wife and I alone

to pay:

Rent and utilities + have cable --pay for my medication my wife and I to add to our clothes closets one or 2 items a month and maybe put a couple bucks aside for savings.

We might be able to get a couple "date nights" a month in as well.


Is that really too much to ask?

My wife and I share one car and yes a second car would be more fuctional BUT what I listed above... Shouldn't that be the right of everyone with out FAUX "NEWS" and Neo-cons calls us foul names.