A Simple Analysis Of Today (And Other Things)

Well, today was Todd's first day back at school.  Jolene has been gone all day as well, not surprising considering it was her first day of school as well PLUS she still has "financial aid" money, so I'm sure she's out blowing her $$.  Side note - once again, at a time where we desperately need help, Jolene goes and blows money on shit instead of helping out constructively - be it financial or work around the house. It's been at least 2-3 weeks since I asked her initially to start helping with stuff around the house, repeating my request about one week later.  Nothing - not one thing done.  And Shelly refuses to ask her to help out financially, so she's a drain on us financially and refuses to do anything else.

However, I digress.  My original thoughts when thinking about this post was to post this:  Today was much like any one of the days since I've was laid off 8.5 years ago.  Yes, I actually did some things...I took down that annoying desk extension in my room, I went to the store, cooked, did laundry, etc...but one thing I did not do is start work on the ebook or a myriad of other things.  Once again, I thought of how much I would love to be doing something, anything to help the family financially...and wondering how in the f*ck we are going to get out of this.

When I think of how bleak things have been financially, I think of times in the past and how we got through them (since 2009, especially)...well, there's been a number of things:

• 2009 - 2011 - loans from Terry, usually based on expected $$ coming in soon, such as a 401k loan, tax rebate on the house, income tax refund, etc.  Also 2010-2011 used to get advances on next month's rent payment when he lived here (not to mention just regular rent payments of 700.00/mo, which helped a great deal)
• 2009-2011 - The aforementioned 401(k) loans, usually twice per year.  Most of the time I think we were able to get anywhere from 1k-2K.
• 2009-2011 - Income Tax Refunds.  Won't be having those for 2-3 more years...
• 2010 and 2012 - Skipping the house payment.  Both times we ended up getting a loan modification and were able to go without making payment for at least 3 months (full and/or partial).  This year it was 6 months.
• 2012 - Loan against life insurance policy
• 2011 - Sunkist contest (ticketmaster gift codes, sold for about 185 apiece)

That's it for now.