A Few Thoughts...

I’m at home recuperating from oral surgery #3.  The surgery was yesterday, but ended up being more extensive than what I was given to believe it would be and I have stitches in two areas of my mouth right now.  Needless to say I awoke this morning with my gums throbbing and the pain meds wearing off.  I pretty much knew I was going to have to have another day of hydrocodone to get me through, which meant no work today.

It’s okay, thankfully I have a really understanding employer.

That said, yes, I do live in Arizona and I do work in public education.  Given that I work in a District Office, I will still be working, but so many of my friends out at the schools will not be.  I wanted to post a few thoughts for them, not about the politics, but about the finances.

There wasn’t much notice about this, roughly a week and for many that’s going to leave a dent in some wallets.

First, for the kids impacted, there is food being handed out by St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix for the families whose kids will not be getting their free or reduced meals at school.

Update:  The City of Tempe has a page now on their web site with information for parents on places where their kids can go during the day given that the schools will be closed.  Click here to go to their web page.

For the staff, the best advice I can give you is to cut out all spending, limit your groceries and get what money you do have gathered and hoard it until this is over.  The only one bright spot I can think of out of this is if the time must be made up during the summer, at least that means a shorter summer and less unpaid time before the 2018-2019 school year begins.

This isn’t the exact same information, but this video from Dave Ramsey might prove helpful:

I’m hoping this walkout will end quickly.

The next piece of advice at this point in time is to take a look at the money you have and create a budget around it.  What bills do you need to pay for during this time that you will need to use your current bank balance on?

Another thought would be to look around for side hustles.  Many of you already have them, can you get more hours in with those to earn some extra money while the schools are closed?  These videos might provide you with some ideas:

Click here to go to their web page.Click here to go to their web page.