Eh

I’m feeling… blah. We seem to have gotten approval for cash aid finally… about 1100 a month. Our food stamps will go down, to what, I don’t know. I did not go get my temporary license, I should have. I just didn’t want to wait for an hour while Jerry got impatient, etc… but to get insurance, I have to have been licensed for the past 3 years… and now I have a 2 day gap, and I hope like hell this isn’t going to be a problem, because I need insurance to get licensed.

So.

I’m not sure how I feel about the cash aid. I don’t know if Jerry intends to get a job for real, or what. He DID say he would. But w/ 1100, that will pay the bills. Not the house payment, but we’ll figure that one out. I’ve got to get a budget together, and it’s got to be realistic.

I’m feeling totally exhausted. I’ve had to get up at 6 two days in a row, to go to the DHA, yesterday we went, and got rescheduled. I guess the way things are going, they’re swamped with new applications. That figures. So we went again today, arrived early, and they sent us through orientation, then we waited for an hour, maybe longer, to meet with our case worker, who pretty much rubber stamped us, except for two things. I SUSPECT they have a 3 time rule, and the third time you apply, they pretty much clear the way for you getting cash aid… though I don’t know for sure. Anyway, Jerry sent them the rest of the documents they needed, and we should be getting a letter that we’ve been approved. It’s a means to an end… what end, I’m not sure of yet. So anyay, I went to bed at 10 last night, but woke up around 12:20 with the baby, put her in her cradle around 12:30, took a tylenol p.m. around 12:40, but at 1:20, was still awake. I finally did fall back to sleep, but I woke up pretty groggy. I figured the drugs would wear off better than that after 4 hours, but they didn’t, or something… I’m STILL tired.

I wandered away for two hours. My current budget is at 882 dollars, so I’m probably missing SOMETHING… but here’s the breakdown:

$200 SMUD (electric)
$60 PG&E (gas)
$50 Water/Trash
$150 Phone/Internet/Cable
$77 Diapers/Pull-ups/Wipes
$80 Eating out (small budget, may have to add in some from EBT)
$57 Car Insurance
$40 Lawn Care (It’s actually 30/mo but we owe back)
$48 Coffee (figured at $3 4x/week…but he says he won’t use this much)
$20 Scrapbooking materials (Becca had the AUDACITY to say I didn’t need this. I about went down her throat with how good I’ve been, and what I DO need. It’s not that much for a hobby I enjoy a great deal.)
$20 School "stuff" i.e field trips, school supplies, etc.
$30 Birthday/Christmas gifts The idea here is to buy monthly and put it away
$30 Shoes/Clothing This may not be enough…but it may have to do.
$20 Books We buy most of our books used, so this will give us plenty of reading material

I was right, I forgot some stuff. So the previous grand total was 882, however, I need to add in:

$120 gas (for the van)
$20 Registration (for the van… hopefully this will include the smog check for NEXT year, since it’s not due this year.)

Which brings us to a grand total of 1022. That’s NOT much to spare, and this is not a lot. However, we will have more money than in the past, and it WILL be liveable money. Some of these numbers are inflated, like the SMUD and PG&E to allow for months where the bill is much higher. And we do have some catch up to do.

Oh, and evidently we start getting some money tomorrow. Not the full amount, but we can start catching up. I think we’ll probably have to cut back on the gas, coffee, and I’ll use the Wal*mart cards for diapers this month, and get some from the food bank… oh, our food stamps are going down to 600 and some a month from now on, but we can deal with that just fine. I almost always had an overage anyway, and thanks to that, I was able to do quite a few food items as gifts for Christmas, which I won’t be needing to do from now on.

I wandered away from the computer again. Oops. Though I read something which concerns the HECK out of me… children’s clothing will no longer be allowed to be sold in thrift stores after Feb 10th, due to lead poisoning concerns!!! What THE…?

Oh, and Jerry is going to get 30 dollars a month for coffee or "whatever" and I’m going to get 30 dollars a month for scrapbooking supplies, ink, digi-scrap stuff… etc. It’s more fair anyway, but it was both our ideas…at the same time. He said he wouldn’t spend 48 dollars a month on coffee anyway. Though we ARE going to have to buy a new power adapter for the powerbook… only the 5th one I’ve had to buy… in 5 years of owning the laptop. Sigh. Though I have to think…I’ve had that computer for FIVE years (this one for 6, almost 7) and it’s serviced me VERY well. Though I also put a bid on a battery for 20 dollars, because that battery dies almost as soon as you take the power adpater out. The shipping is 5 dollars… and they’re in California, so I am HOPING we win that auction, because having a battery that keeps its charge would be a VERY GOOD THING. Actually, I have a car adapter that still works, but it does him no good because the battery simply doesn’t keep a charge at all. I figure I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of these computers. And as long as I don’t want to use any new programs… sigh… we can keep using them. They’re getting somewhat outdated at this point. And this one, due to how much I have on the hard drive(s), which is a LOT, is just getting slow as molasses in Springtime… got to, got to, got to back it up and trash those files. I am ADDICTED to digi-scrap items, and if I get ink… it’s only going to get worse! Man… ink, whoohoo! I can’t wait. I will definitely have to find the best price I can, because I have been waiting FOREVER to get ink for the printers.

And I might yet have to wait… the ink carts are 15 dollars, and I need two colors for the R1800. Hm…

All right, I’m posting…Jerry tells me the baby is wailing upstairs, and I’ve had some nice alone time… unfortunately, I *JUST* pumped all her milk. Guess she’ll get a bottle. Well… I’ll let her empty them a bit better than the pump does.