A little history........

Thought I would share a little history of our family........

We grew up in Texas. All of us, including Ninja.  Mr. Man and I were both kids of military families, so we moved a bit, but landed in Texas for the majority of our lives.   Ninja went to school in Texas from Kinder through a 2 year Associates program.

Ninja is a great son. He can be lazy, but he's great. He is caring, and worries about the feelings of others. If only there were no video games, then he'd be perfect ;)

Mr. Man is from Puerto Rico. He was born on the island, and lived there until he was a small child. English was a second language to Mr. Man, but you wouldn't know that today.  He is quite passionate about his home, and about his heritage. 

I am an adopted child. I thank the Lord daily for this. I was adopted as an infant, but grew up knowing that I was adopted. I know my birth mother, and appreciate her making a very tough decision to do what was right.

Mr. Man and I met at work. We were stuck in a small room with about 10 others working on a project for almost an entire year! We started out as friends, both of us seeing other people when we met, and that friendship grew and grew.  Even now when Mr. Man is on my nerves, I have to stop myself and think 'I knew he was like this', as we had been friends for quite a while before we ever went on a date. 

Currently, Mr. Man is working as a temp, it was a job that popped up and he took it right away to have some sort of income. It's minimum wage, for one week, but when faced with the economy we have now, it's a positive!

We are still pushing forward. When I read the news I try to think of things on both sides, as the news tends to make me very sad. I try to remember I have a great family, we have a roof over our heads for now, and we have food to eat. Those are all positives. We will find a way to make it through, I have no doubt!

Thanks for all who read. God bless!

Ways to generate income

Hello all!

Anyone have creative ways to generate some income? It doesn't necessarily have to be millions, however that would be nice ;). I'm talking any sort of small amounts, that would help out with basics of life.

I've listed every item we have that is really of no use, on websites, for sale. We have a french horn, some quads, camera equipment, video camera etc etc etc......  So far we've gotten one nibble on the horn, but it turned out to be the wrong model number. **sigh**  

We are serious about changing our lives around, and changing our habits.  We've gone from the ultimate consumer to being extremely frugal. And to be honest, it's nice. If it were not for the lack of income I would have to say I feel a great inner peace! There's nothing like not getting a rush from the sale ads. They serve an entirely different purpose now, more of a how much of a bargain can I get. I never clipped coupons before, and now I do.  I get a funny sense of 'woohoo' when I can use the coupon, on a sale price, and go to a store where the coupon is doubled. There's nothing like seeing the 'total savings' at the bottom!!!

So dear readers, anyone have any ideas? Love to hear 'em!

Stress of the Day

Hello all!

I didn't sleep well last night. I was up and down and really couldn't turn off my brain. I'm extremely stressed. I worked so hard to have good credit, and have 'things', and now I am realizing that 'things' don't make you happy, and that good credit is just one step away from bad credit.

We went through the bills last night. We can't pay our credit cards, and we can't continue to live off of them either. Our payments are really not that high compared to other's I've talked with. But anything above $0.00, is high when everyone in your house is out of work!  Ninja applied for unemployment, and we've applied for food stamps. I'm not really sure how any of these systems work, but we are at the desperation point. 

Yesterday I went from one storefront to another, giving out my resume, filling out applications, talking to people. I don't care what the work is right now, I just want work. 

Money on the mind

We've got money on the mind here.

As I have said before, we listed everything under the sun for sale on a certain website. No luck or calls yet.  Hoping that someone will buy something!!

We are dead set on working and taking care of ourselves.....somehow someway......Ninja went to a 'day labor' type establishment this morning. When he got there at 5 there were already upwards of 50 people in line. That has to speak volumes about the economy. It's not just us.

We went to a Plasma donation place over the weekend. Thought that if it would bring in some money, it's worth it.  $25.00 per person the first time, and then $30.00 the next. From the the literature, donations are ok to do twice a week. It's about 2 hours of time, and a bit painful at first, however to walk out with some cash seems worth it. We were able to buy some bread and milk and a few other staples that will get us through for a little while!

Am I the only one?

Am I the only one that reads the news and things that if they can publish an article about campaigns for government office that have a surplus of money, that perhaps that money could go towards the citizens of this country?

I'm not saying they didn't work for it, merely stating that if we took that number and shared it with our fellow Americans we might have a small step in the right direction. 

Love thy neighbor!

Welcome

Welcome! Today is the first day of my blog.

Currently, the Cruz family has been hit by the economic state of our country quite hard. Just like many other Americans, we are facing the stress of 'where will the money come from' in order to pay our bills, keep a roof over our head, and provide food. We went from 3 incomes, to no income in the matter of 6 weeks. It's amazing how fast you start to sink!

We were admittedly stupid. We didn't save. We bought useless items. We ate out way too much. And we've learned our lessons the hard way. Currently we are trying to sell many of the things we have, however we are keenly aware that with so many in the same boat we are in, that selling items might not work! We rent our home, so any of the economic bailout for families in mortgage trouble wont ever trickle down to us, so I'm going to use this blog as a way to gather ideas and share what we have been through!

There are three of us in our family. Me, Pinky, my son-hereafter referred to as Ninja, and hubby who will be referred to as Mr. Man. 

Ninja is currently searching for work, and having quite a hard time of it. It's amazing to me how in order to get a job you need experience, and in order to get experience you need a job. He's in that catch 22 spot where he can't get anywhere and fighting to tread water. Student loans are knocking at the door...thankfully he didn't accumulate any credit card debt in college!!

Mr. Man is searching as well.........seems that experience is working against him at the moment due to his years and level of previous employment. 

As for me, Pinky, I was just told by someone that I am Grossly Overqualified for a position I had applied for. I'm not sure what the mavens of manners would think, but I told the interviewer 'with our current economic situation in America, a job that feeds you is a job that is worth doing'. The interviewer agreed, and appreciated my thoughts, but felt I would be 'bored' at this job. **sigh**

We have cut back significantly in our lives. Gone are the dinners out, the dry cleaning, the new clothing, the trips to the mall. In are the adventures of trying to make a dollar out of fifty cents!!! We read the grocery circular, cut coupons, and try to squeeze as much out of every drop we can.

So.....yesterday I decided to attempt to use the tub to wash some clothing. Thought it sounded like a great idea, right? Well, I throw a couple of shirts into the tub, and turn on the jets (remember we rent this home, it came with the tub!)......... I don't know what I was thinking when I started on this plan!! Bubbles started to grow and grow...soon I couldn't see the shirts and it was a total disaster. Needless to say, lesson learned. One can not do laundry that way in the jet tub!