Troubled Tuesdays

Troubled Tuesdays is basically my complaint day to complain about all the troubles I have, which could range from what is happening on TV shows to who knows what.

No Bueno!

With B’s permission, I am going to let you all know what is going on.  B works for BP refinery and they have been in negotiations at local and national level with their new contract.  Unfortunately, things are not going so well at the national level and they decided to strike about a week ago.  At that time they selected a few refineries to go on strike.  Thankfully, we made the cut and were not chosen.  This past Friday, however, we did not get so lucky and as we were walking into Ikea B got the call.  They were chosen to go out on strike at midnight on Saturday.  Does this qualify enough as part of my Troubled Tuesdays?

I would say definitely.  I mean I am a stay-at-home mom who likes to shop for great clearance, raise and play with her kids and blog when I find the time.  So now the question comes since we are a single income family how are we going to keep the money coming in?  Do we both get jobs and hope we can bring in half of what B did with his one job or does B try to get as much work as he can and I continue to stay home with the kids to keep them in their routine?

The answer is, as of right now we are keeping the kids routine the same.  B is looking to try to pick up some extra work and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will be back to work sooner than later.  It doesn’t help that I just had hand surgery and really can’t work at all.

As for ways we are going to cut back and save money I have a few ideas:

• No more clearance shopping.
• No driving to the other side of town to find a good deal and waste all that gas money.
• No going out to eat or going out at all. It is all about doing stuff for free.
• Returning anything we purchased that we have not used or open yet that we really don’t need. For example, I don’t need that cute new yellow purse I got last week on clearance, so that is going back to Target. Don’t get me wrong we still have to get necessities that the kids need. P needs diapers no matter what (I am not a cloth diaper mom.), and we will not slack on safety so S is getting a new bike helmet because his current one is too small.
• Instead of waiting until May to have a garage sale and sell all the baby clothes and items that we no longer need, I started listing them online.
• I cancelled all subscription boxes that I have, and B cancelled his Rhapsody account.
• No extra spending.
• Only the essentials at the grocery store. No more ice cream, candy, desserts, or extras.

This is only the beginning for us, and hopefully the ending will be soon.  I am going to do weekly updates of how we are handling the strike on Saturdays starting this week.

What is troubling you?