Reply #71: part of lower class now [View All]

[kineneb]

Hubby used to make $44K while working at WorldCom. Then in 2002 they laid him off along with several thousand others. Who will hire an over-50 male with health problems for a tech job? No one. Never mind those jobs have all been "offshored" to India and other places.

So...we sold the house, took what profit we could from it and moved to the country where we could afford to purchase almost outright. In that, we were lucky.

Now I am the one who works full-time for $20K/yr with no benefits. To get the medical care Hubby needs we had to spend down all of our assets to get on Calif.'s rural indigent medical plan, which costs us $500/month! Get this, the state assumes that 2 adults can "live" on $934/mo before taxes! Anything over that is "share-of-cost." Stinks when one goes to the doc to be hit up beforehand for $500 before they will see you. Of course not all of his medicines are covered so they have to be paid out in cash/credit. Air conditioning is required due to his medical condition, so that eats up lots of money in the summer.

I would love to never darken the door of WalMart. Unfortunately, it and RiteAid are the only large stores with 25 miles. And being a rural area, the roads to get to any other town are all 2 lanes. I always think twice before I buy, since most things, like clothing have to be ordered from catalogs...no malls here in the boonies. Our budget and the distances involved force us to be cautious in our spending. This Christmas the relatives are getting my hand-spun, hand-knit stuff, and if they don't like it because it isn't glossy and high-tech- Tough! Being on the edge of insolvancy sucks!