It's no secret that my family has struggled. At times we were barely keeping our heads above water while drowning in debt. Medical, credit card, car loans, and even the utilities were constantly threatening to shut off our power and our gas. Through it all we held our heads high, paid our bills, and sacrificed. I donated plasma for extra funds and my wife did what she could to keep our expenses low. We stayed home on the weekends. Even a drive to the resivoir was a luxury. We have in the past accepted WIC help twice for a total of 6 months. I have 4 children and that's probably considered a record for my income level. No food stamps no medicaid and no other programs that you can probably name because you've heard of them and I haven't. I also want to point out both times we went on WIC was when I felt the IRS was not fair to me and my tax situation. Here I was not using any government programs that would of cost tens of thousands of dollars but not being rewarded rather punished. For those reasons I felt I could take advantage of one of many programs my income qualified for so I did until I felt I no longer needed them.
So here I am feeling awesome not working and feeling like I'm starting to be rewarded for all of our hard times. Yet again times are starting to get rough. We owe taxes this year income is going down. I really don't own a whole lot. I have 2 vehicles that are probably worth around 3000 dollars. I have an atv thats worth 1500 and a snowmobile worth 1000. Even though I feel we are wealthy we still have our fair share of financial instability. Last week I didn't pay our tithing because we didn't make money. Our operating expenses were more than income. It's still slow and I am getting ready to go find a job. Because of all this I have decided.....,
to go ahead and apply for free or reduced lunch at my local school.
I have qualified for this program for years. In fact I have qualified for alot of programs for years. Again and again I have wrote that I have not used subsidised programs because I felt I could cut my expenses and pay for it myself through my savings. Yet time and time again I am at Costco or walmart behind a young family buying more groceries than I can afford and they pay for it with their food stamps card. Time and time again I have seen young couples take their first child home from the hospital (I stopped at a hospital once a week for work) put them in a new car and drive away. There's more than a 50 % chance they won't have to pay more than a few hundred dollars for that hospital charge. I have paid nearly 60 thousand dollars in medical expenses and still have not had my honeymoon. I have friends who have had many subsidised programs including church help who seem to be rewarded with nicer vehicles and luxury vacations. I owe taxes this year and my income is showing I'm in poverty. My cars show I'm in poverty my neighbor who is on WIC drives a nicer newer van than we do. They've recently had a nice trip to Alaska and I believe to Hawaii. I'm assuming they have the free lunch program.
If someone is taking advantage of a government program so they can afford their car payment then why shouldn't I take advantage of that same program even though I don't have a car payment.
43% of the elementary school my kids go to are on free or reduced lunch. Nearly 1 out of 2!
It's not going to save alot but what it will save I can amplify. Around 80 bucks a month would be saved. Right now I'm averaging 3% on spending and at least 10% on savings if not more. What's worth 80 dollars to someone else is worth more like a hundred dollars to me.
There are vacations we should take.
Toys we want and honeymoons I feel my wife and I deserve. And even dentist and dr visits that have been put off. If a subsidy from a government program is going to help me achieve those faster it's time to take advantage of them but not rely on them.
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