I make $3198 before taxes at my full time job. My wife and I have 4 children and one of our twins has severe brain damage and is permanently disabled. We were receiving ~$600 a month in food assistance this year until this month. I was out of work a lot at the beginning of the year because of an extended stay in a children's hospital with my son. He has been doing good health wise so in the past 6 months I've been making my full salary every month. I also picked up a part time job teaching online in the summer. Which is great because we were making about $1500 a month before taxes from that job. We came up for re-examination and we lost all $600 in food benefits; which would've been fine however fall enrollment is down and now my part time pay went from ~$1400 a month after taxes to $300 a month after taxes all in the same month of being denied food assistance. After all taxes are taken my monthly income (considering I get all my hours in) It's about $2800 a month. We are now struggling to buy groceries after we pay all of our bills.
My son also gets $730 a month for SSI which is a huge help. With how often we travel to the nearest children's hospitals for specialists and his pediatrician (1.5 hours away), gas, food for the kids, etc) most of that goes towards him and his needs. We use very little of it for anything else. I don't even really consider it income when paying our bills unless we absolutely have to.
-Monthly Bills-
Mortgage: $800
Power: $300-375
Utilities: $100-125 (gas, water, trash, sewage)
Car: $319 (8 passenger van for my children and my sons medical equipment)(10300 balance, refinanced recently)
Car insurance: $107
Discover: ~$250 (3700 balance out of 9000)
Home depot: ~$50 (800 balance out of 5000)
Visa Card: ~$125 (1500 out of 2000 balance)
Furniture Debt: $200 (5500 balance left) (The home we purchased came came with the option to be furnished, owner financed. Which we took at the time.)
Gas: ~$60 a month for me. (I only live ~5 minutes from work, I also deliver and pickup one of my kids to/from school daily)
Cell Phones (Wife and I): $100
Cable & Internet: $145 (Cable could be nixed but internet has to stay, part time job)
I no longer contribute to a 401(K) which I blew all $9000 dollars of last year staying in the hospital with my son all summer because we were being told he may not make it. Thank god he did.
Feeding 3 boys isn't cheap. Our disabled son's insurance pays for his food liquid food every month. When our twins were born they both drew SSI for 1 month. Then the twin without brain damage did not receive anymore because we didn't lie (he was progressing fine). He was doing really good compared to his brother. They were born 31 weeks and 5 days. 2lbs 10oz and 1lb 13oz. Our healthy twin is growing and learning at a great rate. However, recently we were asked by a woman at the SS office why our other twin isn't on SSI. She says he should qualify because of how early he was born and since he's had it before. We aren't the type of people to lie or try to cheat the system. However she is encouraging us to apply. We are afraid that if we apply him for SSI that we may need to go through re-examination and will lose what benefits we already get for our disabled son. We don't know what to do.
I want to get another job working weekends or nights at the local walmart or something but my wife is totally against it. We don't spend enough time together as it is and she can't handle me not being home at all. She is a stay at home mother. She's our sons caregiver and no one could take care of him like she does, she is amazing. She also keeps two other children at home with her while they grow to school age. The cost of childcare and a nurse for our son would defeat the purpose in her searching for unemployment. She has a GED and no college degree. I have an associates degree and my full-time job is developer/technical support for a local software company. There are no good paying jobs anywhere around here so I'm fortunate to work where I do.
I have been roasting coffee at home and thought about selling it for extra income. There isn't anyone around here that does that but for the cooker, rotisserie drum and equipment, bags, labels, and actual coffee in bulk, the initial investment would be ~$800 to get started. I'm scared to finance that kind of money to start a business selling coffee part time at farmers markets around here. It would allow me to work from home and spend time with my family while creating wealth and I have a lot of people on my side locally, who are encouraging me to do it. I just don't know what to do anymore.
I need advice to afford groceries without using my credit cards.
Submitted October 23, 2017 at 12:23PM by 1needh3lp0 http://ift.tt/2xZjn6h
