The Double Whammy

This house gets hit twice by the recent economic saga that goes on and on. When my hours were cut six weeks ago I was fortunate enough to sell myself out to another area of my work place that needed help. This Friday will be the last week of doing that as upon getting the new job in QC I now will be working 40 hours (for now). Even though I was asked to continue working, there is currently no o.t. allowed.

Yesterday my husband mentioned that there was an important meeting at his workplace today. All were required to attend. My first though was that his Friday's off were going to kick us in the ass somehow. Bingo! He is taking a 10% pay cut as of next week. This pretty much amounts to one unpaid day every two weeks. Even though this is going to hurt I'm finding it hard not to be angry about it. He does work 9 plus hours a day and has Fridays off, but went through the past two summers without a reduction in pay for those days off. But he's also gone 3 years without a raise. Although 3% would have been more likable, I guess this can be classified as "a long time coming". It's highly unlikely that my raise for this year (rumor has it we're still getting them) will make up for this so we'll just have to tighten the belt a little more.

What does this mean?

• If the manufactures of Marlboro would stop sending me coupons I'd stop buying their product. (What a piss poor excuse for still smoking). This will be stopping very soon.
• I need to get my husband to stop making a million trips to the store on weekends. Better planning on his errand running is in order.
• Switch to a cheaper brand of soda- can't happen. I'll just drink less of it and more water.
• Cut more coupons and then find one store that carries all the brands of the coupons I clipped.
• If we go out to eat...hit the early bird specials.
• Whip out my AARP card more
• Notice I haven't mentioned switching to Bud yet
• Stop going for my nails (with no longer being an operator this could be a reality soon)
• Plant a garden and can everything for the winter (do I look like Laura Ingalls)
• Use up everything in the cupboards before going shopping (tell Barney that one)
• Get a part time job
• still not switching to Bud
• Get my pets on my health insurance plan (it works for some people)
• Take in boarders (slap me now! I've gone nuts)

We'll try a few and see what happens. We may have to resort to taking spam camping vs. sausage links. Now I know I'm nuts.