October budget and goals

Ok. Our savings goal for October is at least $675. We depleted our EF account and need to build that back up. I've already transferred $300 to our high-yield savings account so now we have $321 in there. I also scheduled to have $25 a week transferred no matter what. I plan on adding the rest by the end of the month.

Grocery budget for October is $70 a week. This includes household and baby products. Luckily we will be receiving WIC, at least for a little while. So that will help with food and formula. I also got 7 free cans of formula from someone through Freecycle. I would highly recommend signing up for freecycle in your area. You can list things you want to get rid of and other people do the same. So that is $280 for the month, but I will list as $300 because I have some coupons for things we use all the time that expire at the end of month, so I will be spending a little bit more right now.

Still on strike

Well it has now been 2 months since this strike began. 61 days!!!
Dh began receiving unemployment a few weeks ago. He also got the retro unemployment due to the law that the state passed on Aug 15. So, with that and the $300 striker bonus we are doing ok. With the retro we bought a double stroller and car seat, so we are now ready for this baby. Well, as ready as we can be. We are still going to stick to the $60 weekly budget for groceries and household items (this includes diapers) plus an extra $10 a week onto gift card to pay for diapers and formula after the baby is born.

I am really getting sick of all the negativity towards the strikers. Absolutely sick!!!! I really just don't even care if Dh goes back to work there or not. He plans on taking classes up again in January to get his associates as a chem tech. The company are outsourcing some of their work to France, so there is a chance that they will get approved to be displaced workers. Which will mean if they don't let them go back he can go back to school for 2 years and still get his unemployment. I don't have any problem with that. With the $350 or so from unemployment we would only need about $300 more a week and benefits. I would just go get a job. That really should be no problem. Of course there are tons of jobs recently that I would qualify for so hopefully it will still be like that then. Let Dh stay home most of the time (would need sitter only when he had classes and bowling league) and he can do a large percentage of the housework and cleaning. I'll go back to working full time. No prob. Role reversal!!!

So we will see how long this strike lasts. IF it lasts too long after this baby is born and does not look like they will get the extended benefits then he will just seek employment elsewhere.