Terrified, actually.
This is a personal diary, not about the current political environment (though it sucks). It's more about my family's struggle with the current economy.
We have a small eBay business, selling used and refurbished vacuum parts. Rebuilt motors, attachments (ever lost a crevice tool? Yeah.), hoses, stuff like that. Overall, it has done well for us. (Per Crashing Vor's suggestion, I'm adding a link to our store: new2youvacuums}.
But.
Now we're facing the fact that we've been falling behind for the last few months. Up until June, we've paid the rent - sometimes on a wisp of a prayer and taking advantage of our overdraft protection - but in June, we bounced a rent check for the first time ever. I'm so embarrassed and humiliated over that, I just want to cry writing the words.
Now the rent is due again, and I have to send TWO checks to the landlord, plus the $12 fee they were charged because our check bounced. We're month to month, and thank goodness we have nice landlords (real people), but they can't go on with a tenant who bounces checks.
The car's in the shop, but my parents seem to be wanting to pay for that repair, so phew. It's only air conditioning, which seems like a luxury, until you try driving without it in the summer in Tucson. Then it's a recipe for heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. We reached 108 yesterday.
We're paying all of our bills just prior to cutoff, except maybe for the water bill. I think I'm a month away from cutoff on that one.
Both of us are actively looking for jobs, and we're both active with our temp agencies. They don't have anything, either. Rich was walking off some stress in Pep Boys this morning, and overheard the service department employees talking about how slow it was.
I fear for our future. Yes, we could live with family, if we had to do it. It'd be tough. Nobody has a big house, and my sister and her husband are already living with her in laws. The economy has taken a toll on all of us. When will it improve?