The Debt Killer Diaries

Listen up!  I am THE epitome of a perfect reason why YOU should start an emergency savings account.  You’ve heard about them, where you save up at least 3-6 months of reserve cash to cover “emergencies” such as illness, injury or job loss.  In Ohio, come to find out, if you are injured at work, you must be off at LEAST two weeks before you will be compensated for the lost wages from both weeks.  If not, you’ll be lucky to get compensation for much of anything.  In Ohio, it clearly doesn’t pay to try to get better and get back to work on Day 12.

So, the last month has literally been hellish when it comes to budgetary concerns. Having an emergency fund, even a month’s worth, would have saved a tremendous load of strain and stress on my psyche.  Part of the reason I decided to start this blog was because I was utterly floored as to how to manage with what very, very little we have. If not for the good graces and love of my Mom, we’d be sunk yet again.

I know you may be sick of hearing the tales of woe about how the economy is affecting people, but here’s a reality that you don’t hear much on the news. For those of us who (maybe stupidly) live paycheck to paycheck, without benefit of savings or liquid assets, we depend solely on what’s coming in every week.  In this instance, one of us drives truck, the other works from home.  You hear it all over the place that truck driving is a safe bet when it comes to job security.  There’s never any lack of income there, right?  Think again.

Things really started to tank back in the fall, after all the banks and assorted financial firms started swirling around the drain.  Trucks bring things that people are buying.  When people stop buying, there is nothing for a truck to bring. Even the Christmas “rush” was dead and lasted all of a week, rather than the normal 3-4 week run. So, when things are at normal to great speed, the weekly income from trucking (in this instance only) was averaging around $700-800 per week.  The writing income fluctuated, so it mainly got used for groceries and gas. Now, take the trucking income and slice it in half.  More than half.  Lucky to see $300 some weeks.  Now, take THAT $300 which did go up to around $400-500 for about a month, and erase it.  That is what two weeks off for injury does to the family income.  Writing income, most of which gets paid monthly kind of became non-existent, so we have been relying on the weekly-paid writing income just to get food and gas and maybe pay one or two bills here and there.

THIS is where an emergency fund would have come in really handy.  I think, after this week’s pathetic check from trucking, we should be heading back into the clear.  Loads are increasing so trucking income should go back up, at least temporarily.

You do what you “gotta” do, when times are rough.  SO, I did what I had to do, and have been relying on Direct Deposit advances from our bank.  Small ones, just enough to get by on the bare minimum.  By next week, granting that all the writing gets approved and paid, it will cover what I had to borrow today, and the trucking income will cover the bills for the next week.

So, see, I always speak too soon.  I AM staying on track with the debt thing, because I am fortunate enough to have the love and support of my Mom, and hopefully by next week, or the week after, I will be able to put the entire plan in to motion, with the weekly setback of cash for the monthly bills, and to pay on the debt killing plan bills.  I HOPE!

I plan to write until my fingernails wear off, in order to stabilize our shaky financial foundation.  Need some writing done?  Give me a holler, my rates are reasonable!

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