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Originally posted by All Creatures Great And Small
If this happens every November and December, you should be putting away money from January until October then. If you are getting THAT much of a tax refund, you are paying too much in taxes and should re-calculate your withholding so that you have that money to save all year. Why let the government hold it for you interest-free until spring? Lower your withholding, and then take that money and put it in the bank to use when things slow down. As far as you working, you could work nights when Dan gets home so he could watch Dylan - not work as a vet tech, since that's a day job, but work ANYWHERE - McDonalds, KMart, a gas station, whatever. (I've worked in retail for years, and I am not ashamed and don't feel it's "beneath me" at all.) It would be pure income since you won't be paying out anything for childcare. When my daughter was a baby, that's what we did - he worked days and I worked nights. It would probably do you good to get out of the house anyway, to lower your stress level. I can sympathize TOTALLY with being trapped in a house with no car and a baby all day. You shouldn't be so defensive, because you obviously DON'T know what you're doing at this point, since these financial problems are an annual problem. That may be why your family does not want to offer you any help anymore, since you are not open to suggestions on better ways to manage your money. We had the same problem with my sister, and if we suggested that maybe she could manage her money a little better, she'd bite our heads off. Eventually we had to do the "tough love" approach, and let her work things out on her own to learn a valuable lesson. We are all here to offer sympathy, of course, but we are also here to offer HELP, in this case in the form of good financial and/or lifestyle advice, and we are all here to promote the proper care of pets, too. A lot of us were sickened by the thought of that poor cat suffering with that broken leg and nothing being done.
We have been saving money all year, we always put away $50 dollars every month. But for some reason a lot ofbad things have been happening lately. We had $700 dollars saved, which we were going to use for a months rent or utility bills. But after my step mother died, my father had no money. For some reason the government will not give him his SS. So in order to keep my dad in his trailor I sent him our savings. This way he can at least buy food for two weeks, keep his electricity on etc. That money could have been for Mystic, but I didn't know that when I sent him the money we would be needing it. Again, my father has cancer (amongst other things) and cannot work. He wears a morphine patch everyday. He needed my help and since he brought me into the world I owe him. Same as Mystic, which is why I did not just leave him suffer, but I will explain more on that later. 