The Long Long Story

I need help. I am ready to give up, and I am just not a quitter.

September 08, 2007 – one of the happiest days of my life. I married the love of my life, Tracy. We both had baggage, financial and otherwise, from previous marriages. I had a lot of medical bills and ongoing medical issues. However, at the time, we both had good jobs, at the same company, with nice salaries and benefits, and thought we could handle the load together. He tried on numerous occasions to work with our first and second mortgage companies to get them to help us with our mortgage payments, as he had an adjustable rate, and it had gone up dramatically. We live in a doublewide, and our mortgage payments are $900!! No one would help us, so we struggled onward, doing the best we could.

September 06, 2008, my husband was laid off unexpectedly, and I took a 5% pay cut to keep my job. He had worked there 16 years. There was no way we could make it on his unemployment, and my reduced salary. We live in a very impoverished county, and jobs are basically non-existent here. He made numerous phone calls again to try to obtain help, but now no one could help because he was unemployed. We could see no other option than to use his 401K to pay off some debt. We lost a significant amount of it to taxes and penalties, but paid off our credit cards and a personal loan. We have since been advised that was a really bad move. Too little too late.

After a year of unemployment, he finally took a job. We continued to struggle along, and kept payments current, but in December 2009, I lost my job. I am getting unemployment benefits, but cannot afford to have taxes withheld on them, so will probably end up owing the government at tax time. I have been trying to start my own photography business, and doing that and sewing as a means of small income.

Shortly after my husband started his job, it became increasingly hard for him to keep up with the unreasonable demands placed on him. He is salaried, and is basically expected to be on call 24/7, with no additional pay. He is called in the middle of the night, early am, weekends, to come fix machinery (he is not a mechanic), to handle paperwork (he has office staff), to take care of broken down delivery trucks, any time they run out of materials, a belt breaks, the product is not correct, you get the picture. This has become so excessive that it is affecting our marriage. He had to quit playing in the band he was in, because of his hours, and that cut out the extra income from that. He can't enjoy any hobbies, has not been fishing, hunting, doesn’t even have time to mow our grass or do anything at home. He works from 6am to sometimes 11pm, then goes in on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes twice a day. The minute he leaves, his work phone is ringing, and it rings constantly the whole time he is not there. He is so stressed, and so am I, but adding to the stress is the fact that he knows he is “trapped” there. There are no jobs here.

We had to file bankruptcy in February, and I lost my car. Again, we’ve called for help with the mortgages, but no help is available. We can’t move because he still has a daughter at home. We can’t buy anything, because of the bankruptcy, and my unemployment. I am registered for fall classes at the local community college, but not sure if financial aid is available, due to it being based on last year's income. His daughter is graduating Friday, and we can’t afford a gift for her. We haven’t even been able to buy her a car, so that she can get a job, or go to college. My daughter lives in AZ, and is getting married June 5. We would not have been able to go, but she and her fiance bought our tickets, and my mom paid for our hotel. I have a beautiful granddaughter that we hardly ever see, because we can't afford the gas to travel to visit. We are at maximum stress levels, and are feeling hopeless. We can barely pay the bills, aren't able to even go to the doctor, and now have no savings whatsoever. We are good people, responsible people, hardworking people who just need a break.