In a financial bind, need help finding assistance programs.

[Kalmado]

I have magic jack for my home phone and i'm satisfied with it. $40/yr service. Never drops calls. Sometimes it has some static, but that could be from the PoS phone and having 4 devices using the internet connection. I did notice while downloading a movie while on the phone it "seemed" choppy.

Eating out and also spending money on small things will destroy your monthly bankroll. A huge thing for a lot of people is their caffeine fix. I have a friend that drinks 2-3 rockstar drinks a day. More if he's driving a lot(he's in outside sales). Even if he get's them 2 for $3, and we'll say he drinks 3 a day, that's $4.50 a day. That's around $130/m depending on days in month. That's my internet, direct tv, cell phone, and another small misc. bill. My fix is coffee. If I got a coffee at a gas station every day twice a day, that's around $3/day or about $90/month. I try to think of how I can use that money in a more useful way while just making coffee at home.

[Kohan]

Your rent is too damn high. Move somewhere cheaper.

I considered agreeing with this at first, but then I took their commuting distance into consideration. Due to the cost of gasoline, car fatigue (breaks, tires, oil changes, et cetera), psychological effects (exhaustion [which may lead to impulse buys on the go], and so on), there is a lot of money to be saved by living so close to one's workplace.

If they can move into, say, a studio apartment that has similar traveling distances, they absolutely should do it. However, moving over fifteen to twenty miles away from their destinations could be costlier overall than their current rent fees are.

As for the Costco membership, it's doubtful you need that. Generic supermarket goods are normally cheaper than Costco's Kirkland offerings, which are usually meant to be less expensive premium products—not dirt cheap offerings for impoverished people. Its customers also buy more bulk than they need, and while it's good that you're disciplined enough to only buy non-perishables from them, you should do some local price comparisons to see if you're really saving any coin.

Lastly, if you do get SNAP/QWEST, put that money where it's supposed to go. Don't treat it like additional spending cash. You likely feel that you don't need to be told this, and I understand that, but if you don't set this standard immediately, you may find yourself in a situation no better than the one you're already in.

[guartz]

What?

What do you mean what?

[Draylo]

How does only making 10 dollars an hour correlate with intelligence? If you can so easily find a better job or way to make money I would think everyone would have it.

[Kohan]

How does only making 10 dollars an hour correlate with intelligence? If you can so easily find a better job or way to make money I would think everyone would have it.

I would imagine that's their reason for asking "why?", which gives the poster an opportunity to explain their situation.

As for me, I would assume that the answer is "Alaska."

[bungiefan]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Looking into SNAP for a bit of a temporary boost while everything kicks in. I went over my budget with my credit union, made a plan, and got details on her VA. They granted me money to pay off her tuition, and the VA stipend will be ~$1450/mo when she can start classes next month. PFD checks from both of us should repay the loan by November, plus a bit from our paychecks. We set aside some of each of our paychecks into another account at each deposit for a portion of the monthly bills, and the rest into savings. We're working on a plan for food to make sure we don't overspend on it, and don't buy too many perishables at once.

I'm making $12 an hour in training for management at Office Depot, after having bean a lead Tech worker. I've got IT certifications, (expired CCNA, but just looking for a reason to take the test again), but having trouble getting my foot in the door when all the IT jobs demand 2-4 years work experience or a college degree. I've graduated from the state trade school with the certifications, but it only counted for half the credits at UAA for a degree, and have been trying to pay off the loan before enrolling in more classes. I was making ~$16 an hour working a computer repair shop for a local business, before they laid me off suddenly. The boss came to me when I went back to Office Depot, and had committed to management training, to try to hire me back for ~$45 an hour as an on-site instead of in-shop technician, and I turned him down because it wasn't enough to want to work for him again with the way he does business, and the matter that he may lay me off with no notice again on a whim like he did the first time.

Also, I'm white, and many of the corporations in the state favor Native Americans over other ethnicities when hiring. Native-centric corporations are legal and given incentives here. Anyone but Natives are a minority in this state.

My rent seems high, but it's about normal for this city. Alaska has no income or sales tax, so property taxes are very high. I have found a couple of options in a more remote end of town that are cheaper, and the bad neighborhoods are cheaper. For the floor space I have, it's very reasonable. Moving to the cheaper places I found will double my mileage to work, and triple the GF's. Bus would be a nice transporation if it ran more than once an hour in this city, and later than 9-10PM. She's not in shape enough to bicycle yet, but I've done it even in the winter here, the first year I had my job and was saving up for a car.

Alaska only has AT&T, and 2-3 local phone companies, one of which AT&T ate when they came back to this state, CellularOne. ACS and GCI server Anchorage, and MTA serves the towns outside Anchorage. Both are more expensive when you have family outside of state, and most of them don't use SIM cards, but locked phones with the chip built-into them and non-removable. I'm on month-to-month with AT&T with an unlocked phone I bought straight from Nokia for $40, an X2. I do have an emergency TracFone I spent $10 on that came with 20 minutes of time, in case I crash on my bicycle or something. MagicJack is an option, but my DSL gives me a land line, just no long distance. Cable modem up here has monthly usage limits, and is similarly expensive to DSL, but the DSL is unlimited.

I was looking into what I had to sell, such as a spare bicycle, old gaming equipment, computer parts, furniture, etc. Just even explaining this out like this helped me better visualize it and look into options I had. I'd been stressing for the past week waiting for a day off to solve it.

All these considerations being brought up by me while at the credit union helped sell the deal that I was not a risky loan, and my plan will have it paid off before much interest can accrue. The benefits will give a major boost to savings, and we shouldn't have more than her student loan over us in a year from now. You guys are great when you have a fellow in need. I feel great about the help, the GF is much less stressed than ever.

[guartz]

How does only making 10 dollars an hour correlate with intelligence? If you can so easily find a better job or way to make money I would think everyone would have it.

I guess I'm showing my background here. Where I come from, if you can speak coherent English making 10 dollars an hour is embarrassing. I mean, with the exception of being a student of course, or having a disability.

[Seanr]

I guess I'm showing my background here. Where I come from, if you can speak coherent English making 10 dollars an hour is embarrassing. I mean, with the exception of being a student of course, or having a disability.

You do realize the whole damn country is like this right? There are people with a college degree or two making $10-15/hour or less because that's what the job market is like, and that is all that's out there.

[hey]

I guess I'm showing my background here. Where I come from, if you can speak coherent English making 10 dollars an hour is embarrassing. I mean, with the exception of being a student of course, or having a disability.

Where the rest of us are from, the economy is shit, and young people with no real job experience are lucky to be making $12/hr.

[Kalmado]

I guess I'm showing my background here. Where I come from, if you can speak coherent English making 10 dollars an hour is embarrassing. I mean, with the exception of being a student of course, or having a disability.

This must be in a magical land because in my city even with a bach. degree and 5 yr experience your 1)lucky to even get an interview 2)$10/hr would be lucky

[Seanr]

I was being a little optimistic in my post, but yea. Job Market is shit dude, only reason I'm making the amount i am now is because it's a state job. I have a wide variety of trade and technological skills, but have no certification to show for it, otherwise I'd be in the IT section of this building making triple (or more) my current salary. I got fucked over with college loans and cant finish school for quite some time, but that's neither here nor there.

[Acevalefor]

Good luck bungiefan. You will have to eat rice and beans and spend your spare time panhandling to make things work for you, but in a year you will be very glad you did it. I have been where you are but not with student loans. I was stupid enough to believe that having a good paying job meant I wouldn't lose that job. When I found myself back in the job search right at the beginning of the housing market failure, I found out just how hard it was to get a job for more than $10/hr.

guartz, I am curious where you are from that it's embarrassing to have a job that pays $10/hr. Oregon's minimum wage is $8.80/hr. We just hired a guy at that rate. He has a masters degree. The job market here is flooded with overqualified applicants like that.

[guartz]

Boca Raton, Fl

[Acevalefor]

It all makes sense now. Fuckin Florida >.>

[tyven]

plus ALASKA. i imagine there is not a ton of job opportunities out there aside from deadliest catch, WHICH YOU SHOULD FUCKING DO.

[Melena]

I guess I'm showing my background here. Where I come from, if you can speak coherent English making 10 dollars an hour is embarrassing. I mean, with the exception of being a student of course, or having a disability.

As other people have stated, the economy is in the shits. My wife works for a Marriott business hotel making 11.15 an hour. Her supervisor has a bachelors in environmental science and is making 13 an hour. Hell till I lucked into my county job, I was only making 14 an hour repairing computers, and that's in the bay area of california, one of the top ten most expensive places to live in the US.

[Weltall]

This must be in a magical land because in my city even with a bach. degree and 5 yr experience your 1)lucky to even get an interview 2)$10/hr would be lucky

More like, what shit hole do you live in where a degree + experience only yields $10/hour and is considered lucky? My God...and don't say NYC or any large city because on $10 an hour you would be homeless basically; unless, said individual lived with his or her parents.

What is minimum wage now? I was making $10+ from age 16.

[hey]

More like, what shit hole do you live in where a degree + experience only yields $10/hour and is considered lucky?

That shit hole would be america.

[Weltall]

Which part? What is your background? (To whoever falls into that specific category)

[Squirrels]

Columbus Ohio's job market is absolute shit. I have plenty of experience in Graphic Design as well as some in IT. I've been without a real job for the past 4 months(making ends meet with my Mom's small business right now) and the main reason is because I really don't want to work for less than 10/hr. Sure I could go work fast food for 7.70/hr but at that rate I'd have to work 70+ hours per week to reach the average cost of living in my city. Even most warehouse jobs around here start at $8 or $9/hr and it'll take a year+ working there to even get up to $10. Seriously the job market is currently crap in most cities in this country.

If you know of something I can do to get an actual decent paying job, I'd like to know it.