Honestly, I have lost count. I think it has been four months since our weekly hours have been cut at work. We were the last department effected by it, but we have finally caught up with everyone else.
It hasn’t been so bad. Missouri has offered the Work Share program. It is designed to encourage companies to cut hours instead of laying off employees. Our company has qualified. If the normal weekly hours have been cut by twenty to forty percent, employees qualify for that same percentage of a weekly unemployment claim. I qualify for the maximum claim, which isn’t so much but is $320 weekly. So, each short week, I receive a subsidy between twenty and forty percent of that. The federal government has added a weekly twenty five dollar stimulus to all unemployment claims.
That almost makes up the difference of the lost day. Almost. Also, the Work Share payment shows up a week to two after I receive my paycheck for the same hours… That makes things a bit tighter.
Still, I do pretty well at getting by. I am proud of myself for the effort I have put into reducing the cost of my life. And in the last few months, I have been adjusting the way that I shop and keep groceries, reducing the amount I keep on hand in the pantry and the amount of waste over-all: I buy less fresh produce at one time, ensuring it is all eaten while still good; I shop almost exclusively at no-frills discount groceries; Costco trips are incredibly limited; I have watched more tightly my power usage, turning everything off more often, not using as many lights in the first place…
My credit debt hasn’t helped much. I fully realize how much more comfortable I would be if I didn’t have that monster strapped to my neck, even at my modest pay rate.
And now some things have stepped up the struggle.
<snark>Yay! for economic recovery </snark>
I received two lovely notices in the mail yesterday.
The first was from Citibank, the holder of what I previously considered my good credit card. The fucking bastards.
I have only used credit in the last two years a handful of times, mostly because I forget to make sure my debit card made it back into my wallet for whatever reason it was removed… I will take a few days to think it through more thoroughly, but I suspect I will opt out and remove this potential eternal nightmare from my mind.
The only reason I hesitate is the fact that the cost of my life will be noticeably increasing. As it is, the insurance for the Cadillac is 130 bucks more per six month period than the coverage was for the Camry. I am covered through the start of the Spring busy season, but I will have to plan further ahead for that now…
Also, I have arrived to the mention of the second piece of mail mentioned above. I will be losing my assistance for my HIV meds starting January. I have been wanting to not need the assistance, but wanting and doing are two different things. Luckily, with my health insurance, the total is only eighty-five bucks a month, but still that hurts. The notice from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services stated that assistance is available from most pharmaceutical companies for HIV medications. I will look into this, even though this pisses me off…
If they can afford to offer assistance, they can afford to sell the fucking things cheaper in the first place…
I’ll admit, I rather enjoy the idea of moving further off the grid in my life. It seems to me that the big fucking machines of commerce are either still hurting or are still feeding their greed. Either way, I will be happy to be more completely severed from them. Bloody bastards.
gryphon's hole 