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Thumper 
I am a 48-year-old grandmother of a 4-year-old grandson and a 23-month-old granddaughter. My husband (second) and I have joint custody of the granddaughter with my daughter and son-in-law. My husband has two children, a daughter who will be 18 in February and a 15-year-old son. He has been paying child support for them for about 6 years now. My daughter and son-in-law split up for about 10 months last year and she and the baby came to live with us. This was when we obtained joint custody. They have since gotten back together, but they are having a very hard time. While they lived with us, we totally supported both of them and it took an enormous toll on us financially. We had to give up the home we had lived in for 5 years because we simply could not afford to live there anymore. We went from a 4-bedroom house to a studio apartment. It is quite tight. The baby is with us off and on, but we have a feeling she will once again be back full time in the near future. I think my daughter and her husband are going to have to let us have her for a while so they can get themselves together. We love her dearly, but I don't know how we are going to be able to manage it financially.
When they moved in with us last year, all our credit cards were paid off. They are now not only topped out, but many are over their limits. We took out insurance on the baby, but we have had to give that up because we can't afford it anymore. We don't have any insurance at all now. I have been tentatively diagnosed with systemic lupus, but I can't have all the testing necessary because of the lack of the insurance. I work from home right now and my husband works for a Ford dealership in parts. There is not enough left out of his paychecks every two weeks after child support in order for him to be able to carry the insurance on us. I try my best to cover all of our costs with my pay, but it just isn't enough. With Christmas here, we took advantage of our overdraft protection on our checking account and now our account is frozen and we can't get any money out. It's a mess. But we don't have hardly any food in the house, my husband's truck is literally running on fumes, and our rent is due in 5 days. We don't know what we are going to do.
I guess I need a shoulder to cry on, I don't know. My husband and I both cry over our situation. How did we get so far down?? It's gotten to a point where we wonder if we will be able to go on. We need help.
When they moved in with us last year, all our credit cards were paid off. They are now not only topped out, but many are over their limits. We took out insurance on the baby, but we have had to give that up because we can't afford it anymore. We don't have any insurance at all now. I have been tentatively diagnosed with systemic lupus, but I can't have all the testing necessary because of the lack of the insurance. I work from home right now and my husband works for a Ford dealership in parts. There is not enough left out of his paychecks every two weeks after child support in order for him to be able to carry the insurance on us. I try my best to cover all of our costs with my pay, but it just isn't enough. With Christmas here, we took advantage of our overdraft protection on our checking account and now our account is frozen and we can't get any money out. It's a mess. But we don't have hardly any food in the house, my husband's truck is literally running on fumes, and our rent is due in 5 days. We don't know what we are going to do.
I guess I need a shoulder to cry on, I don't know. My husband and I both cry over our situation. How did we get so far down?? It's gotten to a point where we wonder if we will be able to go on. We need help.
