A glimmer of hope

I received a response to one of my job applications today. An email inviting me to fill out a longer application. I hope it goes somewhere, but I did bomb three interviews recently. I wonder if I could even get a job that requires less experience than I have. I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that I’ll have to take a job making less money.

I filed my taxes, so now it’s just a waiting game for the money to hit my account. Then we can get caught up on bills and hope a job (or two) is around the corner. We’ve paid a quarter of this month’s rent and are mostly current on utilities. There are storage units and cell phones to pay for, but those will have to wait as long as possible.

I have some things in storage that I could sell to expand the timeline by probably another month. It would just suck to sell them because they’re things that I’d want to replace when I get back on my feet. I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near what I paid for them and I wouldn’t be able to buy something as nice when it was time to replace them.

We’re determined to not become homeless. It’s just not an option because of our dogs. No eviction notice yet, so we’re doing everything we can to better our situation. We’re average Americans trying to better our existence. We’re in a pretty deep hole, but we’re strong enough to claw ourselves out of it.

Fifty-first day of unemployment

I’ve been unemployed for almost two months. It’s hard to survive when you don’t receive unemployment after losing your job. My savings has run out and I have to start coming up with innovative ideas for making money, or go to family for help. Family isn’t the best option because they’ve all been hit hard by the economy too.

Food is a priority, so we have to choose which bills to pay. Thankfully there aren’t any children in the picture. It would be terrible to grow up wondering if there would be a roof over your head the next day. I’m glad the pups are oblivious to the impending scenarios.

I have a college degree, I started working at 15, I always get rave reviews from my coworkers and bosses...job hunting shouldn't be so hard for me. I’m not the best interviewee. I get too self-conscious and I can’t think. I have trouble selling me.

Hope is on the horizon. My W-2s arrived and I did my taxes. We’ll be able to pay for about a month of bills with the refunds I’ll be getting. As long as the landlord cooperates while we wait for me to receive the refunds.

Being homeless has never been such a possibility for me in the past. I’m no stranger to unemployment, but I had sources of money to get me through those times before. There was unemployment insurance the first time, and credit cards the second. There’s no income this time because neither of those are options.