Stupid Money

So, this past Monday, I was offered another location to work at on top of my current setup, which would get me another ~$140 every week. Thinking and planning since then, my wife and I have realized that because the extra money would cause us to lose the kids' Medicaid. We would lose another chunk, if not all of the rest, of our food stamps. We would have to buy them insurance, spend more real money on food and I'd be putting more wear and tear on the truck to maintain. Anneliese's psychiatrist's office would force us to a monthly fee instead of having it fully covered by Medicaid, no idea where we would stand on any new insurance completely covering her medication like medicaid does. We'd probably have to pay for some decently-sized part of that. We were doing math all week and between lost assistance benefits and other spending we would have to do because of the extra money, we cannot afford to make more money, even as little as the ~$140/week. And that is an absolutely stupid thing to have to realize.

Wythe County's household income limit for Medicaid is $2611/month, gross. Any more than that, the kids lose their Medicaid. It's bad enough that we can barely afford to live, even with food stamps and the Medicaid for the kids, but their requirements are ridiculous. They go by gross, instead of what you actually bring home and have to work with. They consider nothing BUT income. What if we make $2625/month every month but have $2600 in bills, food costs, having to buy other stuff needed to live, gas, vehicle maintenance, etc.? The kids wouldn't have Medicaid, and that last $25, according to their guidelines, means that we obviously can afford to buy them insurance, cover any co pays, and handle any emergency cost that arises as well as everything else we already spend all our money on. Yep, I'm sure we could handle all that with that last $25/month we'd have left. I realize that the living conditions in other places are much worse than what we're in, but as hard as we work and with as much stress and bullshit we have to deal with just to maintain what little we have, we should be living a little less stressful. Should be able to take a weekend to get away from it all once in a while. Can't even do that because as it is, we can barely afford gas to make a trip or two to visit family every month.

We've looked into assistance programs for buying a house, but even something as prospective-looking as HOPE Ministries has average monthly payments that are well beyond our current capabilities. So you'd think that making more money would help us out, get us a little closer to being able to afford a decent place and get out of the cramped tin can we're stuck in, but no. Instead, it would ultimately put us worse off than we already are.

We can't afford to make more money. What a crock.