I’m a bit frustrated this morning. I’ve been sitting here trying to plan out our budget for the next month, trying to find the money to keep the bills paid and have a bit left over to give Ellie something for Christmas, but it’s very frustrating.

Yes, Ben found a job, but it’s not going so well.  Because of Thanksgiving he only worked one day last week, and that’s understandable.  What really sucks is he hasn’t worked at all this week either.  That would be because of this crappy weather we’re having, and since he’s doing concrete work outside they can’t work in the rain.  That’s also understandable, but what frustrates me is he has no way to find out whether or not it has rained too much down there to work without dragging himself out of bed at 5:15am and driving all the way to Greenville…an hour and 15 minute drive each way.  Like this morning it was dry here when he got up, but they got a lot more rain last night than we did preventing them from working.

He never got a chance to talk to the boss on the one day he worked to get his contact information, so he’ll have to continue to spend $20 a day on gas to drive down there until they do go back to work and he can get a phone number from the boss.  Then he’ll be able to call to find out if they’re going to work before he makes the trip, but right now it’s put a big dent in what little cash we do have to put in the gas tank.  His first check will be just enough to cover the gas to drive down there next week, but once full week checks start rolling in we’ll be okay.

For now I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.  My income will keep us fed until his checks start coming in, but there isn’t enough leftover to pay any bills or buy any presents right now.  I’d have a yard sale if it wasn’t so freakin’ cold!  I’ve got tons of stuff around here we don’t need.  Like why do I need a xbox network cable when I don’t even have an xbox anymore? Depending on how the weather goes next week I might load Ellie up on Wednesday and make a trip to the flea market to sell some stuff. One person’s junk is another’s treasure, right?

With Thanksgiving a day way I have so much to be thankful for this year.  I’m extremely thankful for our wonderful family and friends who have been dropping by with food to help us out while Ben’s been unemployed.  I’m thankful for the people who have found small projects here and there to help us earn a little cash to keep the bills paid, and now I’m so very very thankful we finally got a break!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you have probably already heard the good news.  Ben got the job he interviewed for yesterday!  The even better news is he canceled the interview he had this morning because not only did the other company hire him, they hired him for an immediate full time position instead of the 11 day temporary contracted job he applied for.

The best news of all is this job pays much more than the one he applied for, and it gets his foot in the door to commercial construction.  He’s wanted to go commercial for a few years, but it’s hard to move from residential to commercial in our area. The decent companies all want you to have a minimum of 2 years commercial work no matter how much residential experience you have.  Ben has about 10 years of residential experience, and about 6 months in commercial remodeling.  This new job will help him gain the extra experience he needs to move on to a better company, and for now it will keep the bills paid.

The only downside is it’s a little over an hour away in Greenville.  He’ll be working with a company doing concrete work at the Peace Center for a few months unless they need to send him somewhere else.  He’s used to working out of town, but this is the farthest he’s had to drive.  Even though it pays decent the pay is still much less than what he’s made in recent years, and the gas is going to be much more.  That means I’ve got to sit down and budget my butt off to figure out where the extra gas money is going to come from.  I’m still hoping I can find a part time job somewhere to supplement.  It would seriously help us right now, but at least we know our bills will be paid now.

I’m in a much better mood today than I have been in awhile.  I can actually say I’m feeling pretty good about everything right now.  After weeks of searching to no avail Ben finally landed a couple interviews for jobs with pretty decent pay.  He’s applied for everything and anything he can find from minimum wage to his normal pay, but after what feels like umpteen thousand turn downs he finally got these interviews.

He’s in one of the interviews right now.  It’s a temporary job, but after the guy went over Ben’s resume with him over the phone last night he said there is a good possibility his skills could qualify him for a permanent position.  We’ll be happy with the seasonal job, but a permanent one would be absolutely kick ass.  It’s nice to finally find someone who looks at his resume and wants to talk to him because he’s gone in to plenty of interviews where they’ve taken one look at his resume and said he was overqualified.  I seriously hate that phrase…overqualified… of course he’s overqualified for most of the jobs he’s applying for, but he’s applying for them because he doesn’t have any other option.  I’m sorry, but I think it’s just stupid to turn someone down for a job because they are actually very experienced in what you are asking for.

I do feel really good about the job he’s interviewing for right now.  I could hear the guy on the phone, and he seemed extremely excited.  Plus he’s also posted this job on Craigslist twice now, and he hasn’t had much of a response mainly because the current job will run during the holidays (mainly Dec 23-Jan 2).  Seeing as that’s when most people are taking their Christmas/New Year’s vacations no one wants to work.  In this house we don’t care what the dates are…we need income, and we need it now.  Then I overheard them discussing bikes.  Turns out the guys rides, too, so they spent a good 20 minutes on the phone just discussing their love of motorcycles.  That’s a good sign, right?  At least I hope it is!

Anywho, keep us in your thoughts and say a little prayer for us tonight that one of the two interviews works out.  He’s got the second one at 9am in the morning for a full time position, but the job would take him away from home 3-4 nights a week.  As much as it’s not ideal I can handle that.  It definitely beats his other choice of going to Alabama for a few months to stay with family and work there while Ellie and I are back here.