Re-entering the Workforce
Thu Aug 31 2006

I had hoped to delay the inevitable for a while longer, but the cold hard facts have reared their ugly heads and spit in my eye. I need to go back to work, SOON.

First it was the unexpected additional school cost for me, followed by the phone calls to 900 numbers by the twins, added to the damage done to the bathroom door and finally the inadvertent breaking of my cell phone which have racked up almost a grand in unexpected dollars. The icing on the cake? The kids had their school orientations yesterday, and with all the trivial little costs for school like ASB cards, PE uniforms, lab fees and a half a dozen other little things have resulted in almost $500 worth of additional school costs for the kids I hadn’t anticipated and now have to figure out which bills next month don’t really need to be paid…

The biggest saving grace has been some unexpected money sent to us by my folks. We were beyond grateful for this windfall!

As a result of the last couple months of unexpected financial obstacles, I’ve been online the past couple days sending out my resume and applying for jobs online. My job search varies widely from part time retail positions (which hopefully will let me be home before and after school with the kids, but will hopefully be just enough of a drop in the bucket to let us recoup recent costs and cover monthly costs a little more easily) to higher paying full time jobs with a couple local companies which I will consider if the money, location and position is right.

I’m leaning towards the latter jobs, as getting into one of these hopefully will put me in a position to move up in that company after finishing my degree. While I would rather work part time at this point, my bank account is begging me to find something full time so it can stop screaming the week or so preceding every payday.

Weighing on top of all of this is the knowledge that my GI Bill runs out in November of 2007. While I don't think this will be a problem, if the courses I need aren't offered over the next 6 terms of school, I won't be graduating before then. While my GI Bill doesn't cover all of my costs at my current school, it does cover most of them. I've only been paying about $200 out of pocket for each class. Not bad for a college education eh? Still, I'm really hoping that I can finish school before the end of next year. I'm to the point where I'm sick of going to school.

As for the broken cell phone, the cost of that will be going onto the debt that #2 owes me from the aforementioned phone calls and bathroom door.

5 Comments
  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Sep 01 2006
    Feel like you've been blindsided?

    I don't remember all those expenses when my kids were in school. And Megan hasn't mentioned any such expenses for Rowena. So, is that only in high school those expenses pop up?

    I hope you find a job that meets all your criteria.

    Shalom
  • From:
    ImNotLisa (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Sep 01 2006
    Ouch! Boy can I relate!! I hope wherever you end up it's a better experience than the one I'm enjoying right now.
  • From:
    MizzM (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Sep 01 2006
    You know what sucks WORST about today's economy? The fact that so many women work full-time. If they manage to stay married to other full-time workers, it drives prices UP, making it impossible for families with only one wage-earner to survive. Yeah, I work full-time--because I HAD to! Even so, I personally think it is BEST for 1 spouse to work and 1 spouse to stay at home when there are children in the equation.

    The really SAD thing? Those 2-earner households are MORE stressed and MORE in debt and MORE likely to wind up in Divorce Court than the 1-earner, 1 stay-at-home parent household.

    Fortunately, the 24/7 nature of our economy has created a fair amount of jobs that will accommodate non-traditional work schedules--I hope you can find yourself one of them! But, don't give up your commitment to education. Yes, it's a struggle, but you are SO CLOSE to achieving what you have set out for--I hate to see you compromise that...

    ARRRGGHHH! Such a battle! It shouldn't be this difficult...
  • From:
    InStitches (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Sep 01 2006
    Good luck with the job search. I did some checking recently and it is going to be hard for me to get back into the job market without some sort of training. I used to be a Technical Illustrator, but now everything is done with CAD instead of pencils. *sigh*

    The other thing I noted was how many jobs require you to be bi-lingual. Since the sum total of my Spanish is "no hable espanol" I think I'm in trouble. **double sigh** :)


  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Sep 01 2006
    Whoosh!!! Am I ever glad I don't have kids in school now. However, I expect Megan may ask me to help cover some of Rowena's fees.

    Do we ever quit helping our kids???

    Shalom