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Originally Posted by Winnipesaukee Divers
With that tale of woe, no wonder you can’t afford to buy oil… I cannot tell you how you could have spent you money any wiser. Your husband is most fortunate that he has a union to guard his health care, his vacation days (make that, weeks), his nine months of work for a full years pay and other perks. I can only dream what that must be like… on the job at 7 AM and off at 2:30 and a lunch break too.
I’m sorry to be so sarcastic, but welcome to the real world… I never had the opportunity to get a secondary education, I was married with kids at 20 and had to support them. I had to educate myself to get a head and provide a decent life for them. My wife was a stay at home mom and homemaker, together we have prospered and raised our kids well. Life is good and we enjoy our New Hampshire independence.
My advice to you would be the same I’d give to my daughters: Get a saw cut up next winter’s firewood that fell on your house. Get out the hammer and saw, get down to Home Depot get the supplies and fix the siding and roof yourself. It seems to me that you never even tried to help yourself and you felt the only way to fix it was pay someone else to do the dirty work. Don’t tell me these are high skilled jobs and you can’t do it… remember your not hiring people with a PHD. What the worst that can happen? You failed… Then do it again until you get it right. You don’t know how? Then get the book out and do what you do best… Read it! That’s what I did and reading isn’t one of my strong points.
Maybe this message will help you to help yourself, then again, maybe it won’t. Maybe you’ll continue read more into what I said and still be bitter that you haven’t got your “COLA” and that no one is coming to help you.
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I can't believe you've taken yet another swipe at us - what have I done to you? What have I asked you for other than advice? You've spewed some real pearls there... "welcome to reality" like I had no idea about this? Geez, rather vicious approach towards a stay-at-home-mom who's just trying to save money for her family... I'm in awe.
I'm going to briefly take you to task on your comments about how little teachers work:
Hubby leaves at 6:45AM and generally gets home around 5:30 on a good day. He's a department head, AP teacher, SAT course teacher, Math Team leader, and does many things on a volunteer basis (no pay) to help the students and school. He's been at the same school for 10 years and commutes 37 miles one way each day. He loves his job and is more certainly in it for the kids. He's a mathematician first - his degree isn't in education but he is certified. He's one of the top in his field and has worked hard to get there. He'd love to get a real lunch break - he's usually helping students and is a union rep. He works 12 months a year, as he also teaches Summer School.
So, yeah... he's got it real cushy. You go spend 40+ hours with 500 teenagers and see how you fare.
BTW - I'm hardly bitter about the lack of contract (you try so hard to read into what's NOT there...)- that's the gamble one takes when they choose that career path. I understand and sympathize with the voters who voted against the contract - they don't want to see taxes go up and the timing of the votes have been poor, at best.
I can hardly cut the trees that were removed by a crane and the siding and roof were done by professionals because it all had to be taken off or down and done correctly. It's hardly a case of that work being "beneath us" (I don't think that way - the guy who pumped my septic system last week is a *god*, in my book - I couldn't do that!) - I'm still working on cleaning up after them to save money - but we needed it done immediately before it could rain or snow.
That part was covered by insurance - the personal property (i.e. the carport that got smashed and the contents of it) is what's coming from our pockets.
The "intent" of your comments about learning how to become a DIY aren't lost on me but I'm also happy to admit where I fall short, as we both know those projects can turn out to be twice as expensive (both in time and money) when you go too far from your comfort zone. Like fixing a car, I can change the oil (and I do!) or install a new air filter but know that rebuilding a tranny would be a disaster for me to even try... get it? Somethings are better left to professionals...