So after being on Snap ( food stamps) for 18 months we are off of them once again and I am hoping we are making the right decision. This is making August extremely tight for us because of course right after we made the decision not to renew the Snap, all sorts of bad news of changes came in. As I told hubby though, we made it for 15 years without state assistance, we can do it again........as long as my health holds out as I am feeling better than I have in YEARS. But that is about to change as I have an alien tumor baby throwing us into a big surprise, baffling all....... the only way to get to it is through a liver resection operation to cut it out of my liver to biopsy it. A needle biopsy proved to be suicidal so he wouldn't do it so they will open me up instead. This will put me down for about 6 weeks and I seem to be the only one good at purchasing and preparing food on an extremely tight budget! I need to come up with a plan, before surgery to carry us through the 6 weeks. I am actually excited to be off Snap again even if it means a raised level of stress again as I have to be so much more creative and conscious of spending on food.
So far, the last 2 weeks we have had $20 for the week for food, and this is okay for now, as I have some pantry items pulling us through and I am getting creative in the kitchen to stretch every thing. Last night we had sauteed onions and garlic with curry powder in it, corn on the cob ( which I cut my corn off to mix the onions in with it deleting the need for butter or salt.....delicious!) and I made a strawberry/blueberry protein smoothie with coconut milk. My son had a handful of walnuts to go with it and my daughter only likes the smoothie out of that so she got her last can of clam chowder. Tonight I made Chorizo sausage goulash with pasta, Chorizo, sauteed onions, mixed veggies ( carrots, green beans, broccoli and mushrooms) and added a little Ketchup in with it...... the guys said it was awesome ( I will eat some later as I am not hungry at the moment.)
We have a truck repair in desperate need, and more gas money for further travel as anything to do with my liver is a 60 mile drive to a hospital farther away. We may decide to not do the truck repair and actually replace it with something else as it is rigged at the moment where I can not drive it ( for like a year now?) I just don't have the strength to do it, how it is rigged. But we will see as we really can not afford payments right now.
Hubby's hours and shifts are all over the place but midnight's is winding to an end as summer comes to a close as it seems they plan on only being open 24 hours for summer only. 24 hours is a new thing altogether for them so I think they are still trying to figure it out as a continuing thing or not. This is fine as hubby has been having a hard time with midnight's, he just can't get the sleep he needs so is always exhausted. We were hoping it would be a good thing....it wasn't! Poor guy! He will be going to closing shifts which he says will still keep more of the 40 hour weeks he got on midnight's. Opening shift seems to get hours cut a lot so I was a little worried and hope he is telling the truth!
The amount for food will increase as will the state wide minimum wage raise that is coming up in September so things should improve immensely next month! We just got to slide through August which we will, we always do! I have some things on simmer for income generating but waiting to consult with liver surgeon specialist Wednesday before trying to firmly set goals as of yet. Out of everything that has me the most nervous and I will be writing all about it over on my Whole-istic Living Blog!
Change seems to be a constant theme this year! Character building baby, just more character building!
How has your summer been going?
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