State Finacial Assistance For Single Moms And Families

State Financial Assistance For Single Moms And Families is available. Many people think you have to separate from your spouse, but that's simply not true, and in light of the economic events of the past 3 years, I've decided to make this post to help other seeking financial aid.

Now, the Cash Assistance Program itself isn't a bad one, if you understand how to play their little game, but believe me, it is a game and it's got to be played like a chess game. Very, very strategically. If you can do it at the very beginning of the year, before you've filed your tax returns for the previous year, it's going to be a lot easier. Or if you haven't filed yet.

First off, and this is something I wholeheartedly disagree with and hope to offer a solution for at some time in the future, you must have kids to qualify for any cash assistance.

Second, the amount of 'cash' they give you is pretty much a joke. As a family of 4, we qualified for $364 a month. (The real value in Cash Assistance is in the UpFront Diversion and the Support Services- which we'll talk about in a minute.)

Now, if you're working AT ALL, you don't qualify for Cash Assistance, so in all honesty, PREPARE. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that you can cover 3 months worth of 'bills' before you even apply for Cash Assistance. If you have just found yourself without a job and don't have 3 months 'savings,' find a job off the books, clean people's houses, write articles for websites (yes, website owners pay for this) whatever you can do to keep those bills paid that you won't have to report on a W-2.

If it looks like you might be out of a job, sock that money away now, because you are going to need it later. In our case, we knew my husband was going to have to quit his job for us to get cash assistance just for the daycare referral so we could both get jobs. So we made arrangements to stay with a friend until that all came to fruition. He gave his notice, we waited it out, we made our application for assistance. We got the daycare referral. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here, so let me just jump back a bit, to the year 2007.

In November of 2007, I found myself, pregnant, and with my 22 month old son, homeless. I had just learned how to make money online as a writer. It was actually stupidly easy once I figured out where the market was, but, I hadn't made enough to catch up on months of bills I was behind on, the boys' father deserted us, and here we were, no electricity, no money, no job, no daycare for a job and no money for daycare... yea, this was fun.

I applied for state assistance, and I was turned down because I owned 3 houses that were in foreclosure. I couldn't sell or even rent them in the conditions they were in. It was November, the economy had just fallen apart and people were scared. I was one of them. Especially without food stamps, or a job. And who would hire a pregnant woman anyway, even if I had daycare!

Now, if only I had known then... Cash Assistance offers 'Up Front Diversion." If you get a job, before cash opens, they will give you up to $1,000 for bills you can document, and since it was contingent on cash 'not' opening, you didn't even have to qualify. You merely had to prove you applied. Only at that point, I was ignorant because I didn't know I was supposed to go to Career Central yet. I had been waiting on DCF to approve me, and tell me what to do next, but you don't have to wait for approval to go to Career Central to 'work register' which is where they tell you about up front diversion.

Now, had I gone there, I could have gotten that money, plus my 2006 tax returns which would have been around $1,500. That would have given my $2,500 to work with. Plus, I would have gotten a 2 year referral for daycare. I could have rented a weekly motel and had enough money to last 2-3 weeks for a paycheck (I would have done telemarketing and wrote at night for extra money) and probably recovered fairly quickly. But it wasn't until I LOST those houses, and did get food stamps and Medicaid, that I was finally told to go to Career Central to 'work register' for the 'cash assistance' (in 2008) and I learned about 'up front diversion.' Luckily back then, they gave you a 2 year referral for daycare, but you couldn't apply for cash assistance again for 90 days.

Of course, at the $303 (then with a family of 3) a month, it wasn't worth going back on in 90 days anyway. If you work, you lose it completely, and with only $303 a month, you can't afford to not work. But...

First of all, as of Nov 2010, the new rules are that if you take up front diversion you get NO OTHER SUPPORT SERVICES for those 90 days. Not even daycare. Now this isn't an issue if you can find a work at home job, which you can and we'll talk about that too, later. But as I said earlier, the real benefit to Cash Assistance is the support services.

These services are gas cards, money for school, books and tuition, uniforms. They also have alotments to help you if you're short on rent money, a utility bill, car insurance, etc. You have to ask for it and do a little extra paperwork, but it's worth it, and, then, if you stay on it for a certain amount of time, you get a little exit bonus when you get off it too.

Now here's a really beautiful thing too... as a single mother, you'll qualify for grant money for school, and as long as you don't have a student loan in default, you can't be denied one. Doesn't matter what your credit score looks like either!

Even more beautiful though is this... books and tuition never amount to as much as you get in grants and loans, and the difference is paid back to you in a 'disbursement.' BUT... Cash Assistance will also give you money for tuition and books, so that's even more of your student loan money and grant money coming back to your pocket!

So you can get the upfront diversion, (and provided you have resources for the following 90 days it's a grand in cash in a week or two.) $1,000
You have a tax return $1,500
You have money from school $5,000 minimum probably

That's $7,500 right there.

On a personal side, in 2010, I remarried a wonderful man and we both had jobs, but I worked from home and he worked 2 hours away. We moved closer to his job only to discover that the house we rented was in foreclosure. We are still trying to fight that, but we wound up losing a lot of money on that house, and my work dried up over the summer.

In September we went to stay with a friend who was 2.5 hours from hubby's job, and the commute was too much. On both him and the car. We also knew that we both needed full time jobs to recover and that that would require daycare. So he gave his notice, we applied for state assistance again, for the daycare referral, and this time, we're getting everything we can out of it.

I'm sending hubby back to school too, so there's another $5,000 minimum in our pockets.
My tax returns will be higher because I have 2 kids, and I also still have on from 2008 that will be about $3,000, so all told, hubby and I are looking at around $15,000 to start our lives over

If you're smart, you'll invest about $200 of that money into setting up a corporation and making yourself an 'employee' of it. Now you have a job, and you can work for it for the minimum hours you need to keep Career Central happy (35 hours a week, and school hours count, but not as income, so you get to keep food stamps and Medicaid.

There are also legit work at home opportunities out there that require you to have a corporation, and I'll post more about those soon. For now, it's 4:45 am, and I've been up since 2am. I have to catch 2 more hours of shut eye before I begin my long day of working mommyhood.

Pasco County Florida Homeless Problem

Becky, I wanted to share with you a story about a so-called 'charity organization' in Holiday, Florida, called "Joining Hands." When my husband and I found ourselves in need of very temporary help, we called every single agency that we were referred to and all of them kept sending us to this joining hands place.
We were living in a motel due to the discovery that the unlivable house we rented with an option to buy was in foreclosure. We attempted to withhold rent so that a judge would have to hear our side, but the Bradenton City Police Department's Sergeant Knight decided that we were not entitled to the due process rights given to tenants under Florida Landlord Tenant Law Chapter 83 statutes.
Suffice it to say, we tried staying with a friend, but the 2 hour commute each way was too much and my husband was forced to give notice. Two days before his last day, we found ourselves in the motel.

Knowing that we would need help in one or two weeks, we went to "Joining Hands" for help, only to be told they were 'out of funds.' This seems to be the 'stanadard response' everyone gets.

We used his last paycheck and a little help from his family to get through the first two weeks, and in 2 weeks we had job offers, but we weren't going to get paid for two more weeks.

Other people living at the motel told us "Joining Hands" was helping them too. During those first couple of weeks, one couple we met went there every Wednesday and every Wednesday, "Joining Hands" paid their motel bill again. So we went. And we were promptly told they were out of funds. Yet, the continually had funds for this couple, and at least one other couple there as well. (*To add insult to injury, one of the couples had her mother staying at the motel with them, hiding out from a repo man, and 'mom' made something like $200 a night as a CNA/Phlebotomist for an agency.)


When "Robin" at "Joining Hands" asked us our story, even after giving us the 'standard: we're out of funds spiel" we told her and she proceeded to try to give us legal advice that we knew to be incorrect, and or that would take months to see results from.

First she said: "Well you need to go to the DA and tell him about this landlord. It's illegal for him to take money for rent and not pay the mortgage."

I explained, 'State Attorney, we don't have a DA here, we have a State Attorney, and no, it's not.'

Then she told me to go to Bay Area Legal. It takes them 6 weeks to call you back just to set up an appointment 6 weeks down the road from that.

I explained that we had plans to take care of suing the landlord and the Bradenton City Police Department, but that takes months and we just needed help for a week.

This is when she went back and again told me I needed to call the DA. I once again explained that we not only do not have a 'DA', but that it was not a criminal matter, it is civil law, and it takes months to get anything done in civil suits. She continued to try to insist that it was a crime for him to take our money and not pay the mortgage. I tried explaining to her that it is not illegal, that we are a judicial state and that it takes so long to foreclose that it's not illegal, but she kept interrupting me and talking over me, insisting she was right, and getting quite uppity with me about it.

I finally got a little uppity back (I was a professional real estate investor/landlord for 8 years in this state, I'm well aware of Florida Landlord Tenant Laws) and then questioned why there were other people at the motel getting help from this place that kept telling ME it was 'out of funds.'

I got up and left at that point, only to return to the motel and have the other couple come knocking on my door, telling me the lady at "Joining Hands" called her to yell at her for telling us they helped her, and claimed that I yelled at her and that they were going to help me until then.

I didn't 'yell' at her. I corrected her, gently, and then a little more sternly about her spouting off 'legal advice' that she is not qualified to give and about which she is not just totally wrong, but also, would give someone who didn't know better a sense of false hope that some "DA" which doesn't even exist, was going to come swooping in and save the day for them.

Eventually, another couple told me that it works like this: You go to your church, you give them money, then they give money to Joining Hands, and then Joining Hands gives you a motel voucher.

I don't know whether or not that's true. I don't even know if that's legal, and I sure as Hell don't know how it can keep claiming 'out of funds' while every week it has funds for others who have been getting those funds for a while.

Single Mom's Revenge!

Ok, it's been well over six months since I said I was going to overhaul this blog, but I did get a little sidetracked after meeting the man I am finally proud to have my kids call "Daddy." But a new day is dawning, and it's time to take the bull by the horns.

I've been in contact with Deadbeat Dad "Brothers" ex-wife. For those of you who follow this blog, my ex's brother is a "Deadbeat Dad Hall of Famer" and he was the COACH in getting my ex to avoid paying child support for two and a half years so far.

The few months that my ex did pay, however, were immediately met with brother's dissent. No one thinks it's a coincidence that Daddy only started to pay at the exact same time his brother came home from Iraq and started threatening me and stalking me on the Internet again.

The sociopaths knew exactly what they were doing. Pay, but don't sign the birth certificates, this way, demand I send my children to the grandmother to get the money, brother will threaten me and harass me, until I say "ENOUGH" and refuse to let the kids go up there anymore, and then he won't pay again.

They 'think' that no one 'knows' their little 'game plan.'

WRONG!

I've been very lucky to have found Sharon. The brother's ex wife. She lives in California and has an entire site dedicated to child support and resources, but as she and I both know and can tell you, as can many other mothers, getting child support is a JOKE. The agencies are set up to fail at their task. It creates 'job security' for government workers.

Well, we've had enough. We're going to do what no one has ever done before.

Since these losers don't want to help support their kids, we're going to use the story of what they have done to us, to make money.

We'll have coffee cups and t-shirts, tote bags, and books on 'dirty divorce tricks.'

We're going for the jugular. Since society and government has refused to hold men accountable for the children they make, we'll make the Internet world hold them accountable.

We're starting of with a Cafe Press Store for now. We'll be expanding to the books soon. Leave your comments HERE! Tell us what you want!

How about a "Deadbeat Dad" T-shirt with your ex's mug right smack in the middle of a target that says "The only GOOD Deadbeat Dad is a DEAD Deadbeat Dad"

Or A Tote, with an x across his smirking face that purports- "I Upped My Standards- Up Yours"

Give us your ideas, your slogans.

Once the Cafe Press Store is up, we'll be moving on the ebay store. We'll be building a site with a blog soon too. You can tell your stories, especially your very own 'getting even' story, and we'll publish it.

Hell hath no fury like a Momma protecting her cubs!

Next post... The Cafe Press Store Is Open ( I need to get a few graphics together, but maybe tonight or tomorrow.)

She can't see the forest because there are too many trees in the way

In a previous post, I talked about the woman I took in who wound up causing me 10 days of grief and other issues I am still dealing with today. I took her in because she was the 'friend' of the roommate I already had, who was a major cause of the problems with the new one. You see, for over a year, roommate #1, lived with me and refused to work. We would get writing jobs online, and getting her to do them was like pulling teeth. She wound up doing a couple, here and there, but for the most part, she spent her time on wannabe detective forums, twitter and Facebook.

When we couldn't pay our electric bill last month, we rented a motel room and for $200 a week, had all the utilities and Internet access to do our job.

We talked about moving to another area and even looked at a few houses, but the fact is, my house is in foreclosure. Right now, I'm living rent free and we're both about to start a new job that will pay each of us almost $500 a week and can be done from home. If we move, we'll be adding another $1,000 a month onto our BILLS, and if we STAY, we'll save $1,000 a month. And in 3-4 months, have not only the money to move, but be established in the job long enough to know we're secure and that our paychecks are secure too.

Although, economically, this makes the most sense, she refuses to respond to LOGIC and simply DEMANDS that she will not move back into MY house.

Look, the fact is, the woman is 50 years old. Getting a 'job' at her age is going to be hard to do. Add to that that she has a piss poor demeanor that comes across in her body language and in the way she talks, and no one is going to hire her.

Every time things got tight with the bills, I would remind her that we needed to buckle down and get some work done. God forbid, however, that I interrupt her twittering and Facebook time to remind her we have deadlines. If I do that, I'm trying to 'control' her. She will say she doesn't want to do 'this kind of work' yet will do nothing else to earn an income either.

Now, after two years of being a struggling single mom, barely keeping the bills paid from freelance work on the Internet, the Deadbeat Dad is finally paying child support, and I am going to have a steady job, that I can work at home, with a steady PAYCHECK, and she wants to throw away the one last opportunity we have to bank some cash so that we will have a cushion and never have to be in this position again, over a couple more months of living in a house where we don't have to pay rent.

And as an added thought: She has had no problem sticking me with 100% of the BILLS of MY house with NO RENT, and now, I'm supposed to risk getting stuck with another $1,000 a month in rent that she may stick me with. I suppose she thinks that since we'll be 'renting' from a 'landlord' she shouldn't have to pay him or her rent either, because after all, it's THEIR house.

GRRR.... I tried to explain it 'logically' but all I get in response to 'logic' is "I'm not going back to that house. I'm NOT. I would rather go live on the streets than go back to YOUR house."

Is Your Break Up Making Your Kids Fat?

We all know that break ups can be devastating to us in many ways. It's no secret that for us women, weight can is a major break up pitfall. But something occured to me today about the financial devastation of a break up or divorce possibly being the cause of overweight kids. I'm not even talking about the 'emotional overeating that an adult woman engages in after a split,' I'm talking about the financial problems that can cause unhealthy weight gain in kids.
Right now, I'm visiting my kids fathers mother. I'm staying at a nearby motel and she's seeing them during the day. She has a pool in her community and last night, we took the kids swimming. Since my motel doesn't have a pool, I thought maybe that she and I taking the kids swimming would be good for them. Today however, it's raining and there doesn't seem to be a lot of chance of it letting up in time to take them for a dip.
I don't want to dissappoint my boy, so I said 'maybe I can make it up to him.' Now, having very little money, due to the financial devastation of being a single mom without the full time income of a Dad, there's not a lot I can do. Food is about the only 'affordable luxury' we have. And so, the first thought I had was 'banana splits and a movie.'
I started to think about how often I will use food to comfort my babies because it's about the only thing I can afford. Maybe 'weight gain due to break up has more victims than anyone ever thought before.' Hopefully, someone will read this and think, "maybe it is better for my kids if we get some counseling and try to work out our relationship and fall in love again."

And so...

Strange things are afoot. The boys fathers mother has kept his word to pay child support and now says he is going to pay me $150.00 a week and give the kids medical coverage. This is wonderful for me, if I knew what he was up to. Let's face it, we're talking about a family where the brother ripped me off for over $3,000, he left me homeless while carrying our second and caring for our first, stole my truck so I couldn't make a living and stole everything else I owned as well.

I brought the kids to her house for a visit, and lo and behold, the stereo that I reported in the police report I made about the 'burglary' to my house, is sitting right in his mother's living room. She claims she has no idea where it came from. "Michael brought it home," she lies.

As far as him communicating with me, he never has, and only today was I told, by his mother, that, he thinks it's better this way, with he and I communicating through her because we fight. Awww... too damn bad. When we fight, this is why:

Vanessa: Mike, when are you going to put your name on the kids birth certificates?
Mike: When I have a job
Vanessa: Why?
Mike: Because I don't want to get served with papers to pay child support when I don't have a job
Vanessa: Do you think your kids only need to eat when you have a job?
Mike: F**K YOU! YOU F**KING B**CH... (CLICK, Hangs up.)

Now, Dianne has excused Mike's abandonment of our family by saying that the baby didn't need to see us fighting. She's never stopped to tell Mike that he needed to stop fighting, that he shouldn't have allowed his brother to do the things that were causing the fights, that he needed to get a job and take care of his family. Nope. She has never once acknowledged the 'cause' of the fighting or how it should be solved. She's very typical of any irresponsible adult, run away from the symptom and ignore the cause. To her, it's ok to abandon your responsibilities to escape the symptom, and you never have to face the cause.

That type of belief system is the reason my kids don't have a "Daddy." Of course I'm glad he's now paying support and giving them medical coverage. But even with them, I am still 100% responsible for the daily care of those children and 90% financially responsible for those children. Plus, I am owed almost 2 years in back child support, and I am owed more respect than these games he plays.

He abandoned his family. I'm still here.

Financial Help For Single Mom's- The Perils Of Helping Someone Else By Taking In A Roommate

Here's one for the books on single mom-dom. In my book, "The Single Mother's Survival Guide" I suggest taking in a roommate to help out with the bills, household chores and overall general home life that requires constant nurturing. Taking on a roommate can be a Godsend, but only if it's the right roommate. The wrong roommate can send you down in a fiery pit of flames faster than an Indy stock car on a wet track with bald tires. Here's the 'horror story' of my two roommates and what I plan to do to rectify the situation.
My first roommate, whom I'll call, Jean, moved in with me very shortly after I found myself a destitute single mom with nowhere to live. By the time I met Jean, I had managed to put my son and I in a very small 1 bedroom apartment, and I was pregnant with my second. I met Jean at the public library where she told me that she was living in her car. I told her she could come and stay with me, but that I was a struggling single Mom and couldn't afford to have another adult living with unless she got a job. I knew someone who was hiring and she did do the job, but this guy wound up screwing us both out of our pay, for which I promptly got the blame.
After that, we agreed to start a small online business together and for the better part of a year and a half, it's how we survived. Of course, we didn't make enough to pay all of our bills, and I was still begging and borrowing to make ends meet, but at least we weren't facing total homelessness as we were in the beginning. Of course, as with any partnership, there's always a feeling of one doing more than the other and bitterness can ensue, and it did.
But then, something happened. It turned out that one of her friends was homeless, living in a car, with a teenager, in another state 1,000 miles away. I said if she could get the gas money to drive down to us, she could come and stay with us. I probably should have given this a lot more thought before I opened my mouth, but the words were out and she was going to hold me to them. So, I did what I could to raise some extra cash and we sent the friend bus tickets for her and her son.
Now, I don't know about you, but if a single mother of two small children went out of her way to open her home to me, I would be stepping up saying, "listen, I don't have a job right now, but I'll do whatever you need me to do to help you keep your household running." I guess manners like that are lost on people who think the world owes them a living, because when I asked her to learn how to do a few simple things to help out with the work I do to keep the house running, this woman had the nerve to say to me, "Well, do you want to teach me to do this for myself, or do you want me to work for you? Because I can tell you right now that I'm not interested in working for you."
I'm sorry.... whaaaat? I don't think I quite heard that right. And so, while taking in a roommate might be a big financial help to a struggling single mom, if the roommate is in need of 'help' herself, be sure she already has a job that she's been at for a while and can contribute a weekly rental amount to the house. Be sure the 'help' she needs isn't the 'help' of 'enabling her to sit on her proverbial ass playing on the Internet all day while you work to keep the lights and water on. If the 'help' your prospective roommate needs consists of letting her sit around because 'the world owes her a living' RUN. I'm not kidding! Run like Hell!

Getting Ready To Say GoodBye

This is going to be a hard post for me to write. Once I finish the new site, this one is going to have a whole new look, and most of these 'deadbeat dad' type posts are going to be moved to the bottom probably many pages back in this blog. I have come to the realization that this blog is supposed to be about 'financial help for single moms' and it's become mostly about deadbeat dads, military deadbeat dads, and child support and the ridiculous farce that 'child support enforcement agencies' have become. But in spite of what this blog has 'become' as opposed to what it's 'supposed to be' I still hold strong to the belief that the BEST 'financial help for single mom's' is the two-parent home.

Tomorrow, I will post the link to the brand new 'financial help for single mom's blog.' It will have it's own 'child support' and 'deadbeat dad's sections, but the bulk of the body of the site is going to be devoted to helping single mom's find ways to make those 'financial ends' meet. I'm planning on including some awesome resources on the new site, including a forum for every one of the 50 US States, to help let single mom's know of every single resource and support service available to them no matter what state they live in.

Financial help for single mom's comes in many forms. From financial assistance, to work at home jobs, child support and other legal matters, to home based business opportunities and grants for school, single mom's need all the help they can get. I aim to make my new site serve as the top resource for single moms who need financial assistance to be able to raise healthy, happy, and whole families.

Financial Help For Single Mom's- Financial Assistance and it's Downfalls

When I started this blog, it was dedicated to providing financial help and assistance for single mom's. But I've noticed lately that many of my posts have become about child support, deadbeat dads, and the defunct family court systems that have created the need for single moms to find financial support, and I've made a few decisions.

First, in the coming weeks, I am going to redesign this blog based on the following objectives:

Having lived as a single mom for 18 months, I know the emotional and financial well being of the family is best served in preserving the family unit. Unfortunately, the courts, therapists, and attorney's of the United States view the destruction of the family as more profitable to themselves and therefore, there are no mechanisms in place to keep the family whole. The first objective is this blog is to provide the best financial help for single mom's there is, the preservation of the family unit.

To achieve this objective, the first thing I am doing is asking for a group of folk who support the traditional family values to post here so that we can begin to create a support system network that will fight for and/or assist in Family Crisis Interventions and help to restore the family unit before welfare and court systems get involved. The courts and state's only profit from the destruction of the family, and so they encourage it with all their might. If we can begin to form a network of folks who actually will prevail as voices of reason and calmness in a family crisis, we will begin to provide the best financial assistance for single parents we can, keeping the family whole.

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6 Simple Steps To Filing For Child Support, Without A Lawyer And Regardless of Your Circumstances

My name is Vanessa Blais, and I have the most convoluted child support story I think anyone is ever going to hear. I was married to a good man for nine years. We had a very nice life and we were good friends. But no matter how hard we tried, we just were not in love. And so, we split up. It was very amicable and we were in no rush to get divorced.
Along came the love of my life. He wanted a baby. He insisted. When our son was 18 months, Dear Old Deadbeat Dad joined the military, against my wished. When our son was 22 months old, Dear Old Deadbeat Dad, walked out, leaving us destitute. I was also 2 and half months pregnant with our second child.
Because I was still legally married, the state of Florida considered my husband the children's father. But child support enforcement did not file for a paternity test. Instead, they advised me to get divorced. I did. I brought the divorce papers back to the agency and was told to wait. Four months later, I go back, and I am told that the wording in the divorce papers is not good enough. It only excludes my ex husband as the 'biological' father, and not the 'legal father'.
So, six months later, when my ex husbands lawyer FINALLY gets the papers done RIGHT...

The boys father is ACTIVE DUTY in the US Army National Guard.

HE is protected from a paternity suit under the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1949. Now there are exceptions to this, but Child Support Enforcement is just going to use it as another reason to stall taking any action.

If I want any real action, I need to find the loopholes and file the suit. I had a couple of 'free consultations' with attorneys, but they don't actually tell you what the plan is to get over the hurdles, they sell you on providing a retainer fee to them. So I had to start digging. One attorney even told me that we could 'fast track' the case by asking to go before the General Magistrate. Turns out, he was either wrong or lying. Thank God I DIDN'T have the $4,000 this guy wanted for the retainer fee.

I even went so far as to post on the lawyers.com message board. What a disgusting joke that board is. The first lawyer who responded to my question replied with santctimonious disdain for me because I didn't get divorced before I had my son. The second lawyer to reply replied with 'you have a lot to overcome, I suggest you get the retainer fee together.' And finally, a third lawyer told me that I had to 'reopen the lawsuit.' He was referring to my divorce and finally said it had to be 'modified.' I guess he meant, change the wording. That would have ended the 'legal father issue' but I still didn't know what to do about the 'Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act" that the children's dad was using to shield his responsibilites to us.

Finally, yesterday, April 24, 2009, I called the General Magistrate and asked them what to do. It took the "20 Questions Game" but I did finally get the answers. So, here is 18 months of research struggle compressed into EXACTLY what you need to do get that child support.

1.) Make a list of the problems
2.) Call every single family law attorney in town, and set an appointment with every single one of them. Take your list of questions, and ask every question of every attorney. Write every answer down.
3.) Visit your local law library. Ask the law librarian for help researching cases with problems like yours.
4.) Call The General Magistrate
5.) File the papers yourself. Don't depend on Child Support Agencies or DCF. They do not have your best interests at heart. They have their own job security at heart. The longer your file sits on someone's desk, the more demand there is for their jobs.
6.) Use the power of the pen. Write to your local newspaper about any legal barriers that are getting in your way of collecting child support. Write to your legislators and your state representatives.

Mom's need to get proactive about child support. Lawyers wrote laws to make it so that enforcing something so basic as 'parental responsibility' will costs thousands of dollars in reatainer fees, something a single mom rarely has.

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Financial Help For Single Mom's,- Moms Make Money With Blogs

If you need financial help for single moms, consider starting a Moms Make Money Blog. Simply put, a Mom's Make Money With Blogs blog is a blog that can offer financial assistance for other single Mom's by giving all kinds of tips and tricks for moms to make money online. There are hundreds of ways for mom's to make money on the Internet and showing them how can be a great way for you to make some money while helping others do the same.

Some of the ways to make money online are free, and some are very inexpensive to start up, so for a single mom who needs to earn a little extra cash, these resources can help to give a little breathing room in the budget. Blogging is only one way to make money online, and here we'll discuss the different ways you can produce an income from your blog.

The first way to make money from your blog is through Adsense. Adsense is a Google program that places small ads on your blog from advertisers. If your blog visitors click on the ads, you make a little money. Google has a few other money programs too, and you can find out all about working with Google and partnering with Google from a free CD they supply to help you learn all about their program, and all you pay is $2.29 for the shipping and handling for it.



The next way to make money from a blog is by building a list that you can market products and services too. You simply give your visitors a free report or ebook about something you think would interest them in exchange for your name and email address, and then, you email them with offers for things they might be interested in. This results in commissions for you for selling the product for the product owner/creator.

Ebay is a great way to make money online and if you start a blog about certain ebay listings, you can make great commissions as an ebay affiliate as well as by selling dropshipped products that you yourself list (and showing others how to do it too). Dropshipping is just finding a good dropshipper who has inventory and you making the ebay listing to sell it. Once the product is sold at the auction, the dropshipper ships it directly to the customer. Some dropshipping companies have bad reputations though, so you need to be careful about who you do business with. The number one recommneded dropshipping company is Doba. They offer a complete online database of products they have in stock, as well as support staff to help you know what to list and when to make the most money.

If you want to have a work at home job, you can also use Home Sourcing. Home Sourcing provides a comprehensive list of legitimate work at home jobs. So even if you have a job, no doubt the loss of your partners income has put a financial strain on your purse strings, and these opportunities can offer you a chance to earn some extra cash while not sacrificing some 'at home time' with your precious little ones.

Obama's Stimulus Package- What Does It Mean For Single Moms

There have always been grants and other types of financial assistance for single moms. With President Barack Obama's new stimulus package, more and more people are starting to look at grants as an alternative means for raising capital for going to school, starting up a business, or even paying basic living expenses.

Today, President Obama released a statement about what the stimulus package is going to do for small businesses. The Stimulus package calls for the Treasury Department to buy up $15 Billion dollars in securities in an effort to free up money for the SBA to make more small business loans.

The plan also includes a temporary elimination of upfront fees for certain types of SBA loans, and also includes more tax relief for small business. President Obama's Stimulus package is based on small businesses being the backbone of the American economy.

Historically, SBA loans, like government grants, have never been applied for by 90% of U.S. businesses. The process is complicated and many small business owners lack the resources for creating a proper business plan or apply for a grant, but new software programs have made it easier to create business plans and apply for grants.

Word From a Mom Who Once Needed Financial Help For Single Moms

Dear Sister Single Mom,

Welcome to Financial Help For Single Mom's, my blog dedicated to helping you rebuild your life. Since most relationships end over financial problems, it stands to reason that if you're recently suffered a separation, you probably have some money problems and financial help for single mom's is exactly what you need to get back on track.
Financial help for single mom's comes in many forms. Welfare assistance, scholarships for school, subsidized daycare, grants for starting a business and going to school, and so much more. There are so many options available, like legitimate work at home jobs, that just putting together a system for utilizing them all can be a job. So I've created this blog to try to help you organize and prioritize what you need to do.
I found myself a single mother during a financial crisis in my family. I was also pregnant at the time, and suffering from a severe case of postpartum depression following the birth of my first child. I was emotionally and financially distraught to say the least, and trying to find a job while pregnant was nigh on impossible, compounded by the fact that working would have taken a toll on my already weakened and fragile mental state. My first was only 22 months old and though I got subsidized daycare for him, the hours didn't mesh with any job, so I needed to find a way to earn an income. I found it by starting my own small online business. I now have approximately 20 websites that, altogether, earn a decent passive monthly income, and I provide several online services, such as writing and Virtual assistant work that give us extra money when needed or wanted.
If you have found yourself a single mom, struggling for financial help for single mom's and support and guidance, I am here to be your friend, mentor and guide. I will keep comments on this blog enabled so that you can always ask me anything you wish and I will reply. There are 5 steps you need to take toward achieving financial stability are located in the sidebar of this blog and they are:

1.) Sign Up For My "Financial Help For Single Mom's Newsletter." It's 100% FREE and I send you new information as I find it straight to your email.

2.) Get a FREE pre-paid credit card. Just fill out one page with your name and address, (no social security number or bank account information will be asked for.

3.)Get A Free CD on Government Grants, it's $2.29 for the shipping and handling, but the CD is free and it's also free to apply for grants.

4.) Get the Google Money CD, $1.97 for the shipping and handling. This CD will give you the solid foundation you need to learn how to make money with Google.

5.) Read my book "The Single Mom's Survival Guide." This book will give you a lot more than just 'financial help for single mom's.' It offers you emotional support, ideas on coping with the stress of being a single parent, pointers on where to get all kinds of free stuff for you and your family, and most importantly, ways to re-establish yourself and pick up the pieces after a break up. It even has a section on helping your kids cope with the split. You can download this book free HERE.

Financial Help For Single Moms- Credit Repair

A credit repair agency advertises that it can help you repair bad credit so that you will qualify for that loan you need to buy a new car or take a vacation. However, you do have to be careful when engaging the services of one of these agencies because many of them will not provide you with any information. In fact, that is all you can hope for with a credit repair agency because you are the only one that can repair your bad credit.

If you contact a credit counseling agency, you will get valuable advice. However, you should not have to pay for this service. There is a wealth of information available on the Internet to help you with your credit problems and even workbooks that you can download for free. Instead of spending your hard earned money paying for advice from a credit repair agency, there are many tips and techniques that you can get free.

The main advice you about helping you to repair your credit is that you do need to request a free copy of your credit report. There are three major credit agencies that have a file on you and your borrowing habits. By law you are entitled to one free report a year and everyone should review his/her credit report at least once a year to make sure there are no mistakes. When you contact a credit repair agency, you may get a free report, but you might also have to sign up and pay for credit counselling services.

If you are having a difficult time keeping your credit in check and find yourself in over your head, then you might benefit from the services of a credit counselling agency. If you are contemplating bankruptcy, the people at these agencies can come up with ways to help you prevent this. The counselling agencies have people trained in dealing with creditors and will negotiate with them to take a lower amount of payment. They can also help you negotiate a debt consolidation loan, which will pay off your outstanding accounts. Just keep in mind that this type of credit repair agency cannot wipe any items from your credit report.

You can take charge of doing your own credit repair without having to resort to using a credit repair agency. If you are really determined to bring up your credit scores, you can start by making a conscientious effort to make all your payments on time. Maybe a consolidation loan is the route you should take. If you are just being remiss with sending in your payments and are not having any financial difficulty, you will just be wasting your money with a credit repair agency. Once you start taking charge of your finances, your credit rating will soon start to rise.

Do you really need a commercial credit repair agency? Probably not.

Financial Help For Single Moms- Home Business Ideas

Here are some excellent businesses that you can start, operate and grow from your home. All these work at home businesses have the following desirable features:

**Low Startup Costs
**Ease of Entry
**High Income Potential
**Home Based and Operated
**Worldwide Sales Potential
**Residual, Recurring and/or Passive Income Potential

1. Consulting

A consultant is someone expert in a field who, for a fee, advises businesses or individuals on various matters of concern.

Many times we tend to feel that our knowledge, skills or abilities are nothing unique. However, many lack those same assets and would gladly pay us for our knowledge and services.

Although it is possible to make a living from consulting with individuals, the big money is in performing services for businesses.

Do you have knowledge of bookkeeping, accounting, tax or similar business matters? Some have made excellent money specializing in small business consulting.

Are you a computer hobbyist with business or internet experience? You could make money in web design, internet marketing, search engine optimization, or some other specialty.

Some lawyers have combined their legal experience with their love of the Internet and specialized in intellectual property and computer law.

2. Finding

A finder is someone who, for a fee, finds something needed by a business or individual. A finder`s fee is the amount paid to the finder for locating what was required.

Finder`s fees are paid for finding money (loans, equipment leasing, et cetera), equipment (mining, construction, et cetera), personnel, companies for sale, locations (fast food franchises, vending machines, et cetera) and just about anything else that people are willing to pay for.

Simply match sellers with buyers and you can earn finder`s fees.

3. Auctions

An auction is an event where items are sold to the highest bidders. An internet auction, online auction or e-auction is an auction where you can buy and sell items on the Internet.

Many thousands now make their living or fortune from selling products and services on eBay and similar auction sites. So can you!

4. Drop Shipping

Drop shipping is a method of selling products without stocking inventory yourself. When you make a sale you contact the manufacturer or authorized distributor who ships it to the customer with your invoice and shipping label. Advantages include no warehousing, shipping, or inventory costs.

5. Affiliate Programs

An affiliate or associate program is a method of selling products on the internet through commission sales. When someone you refer to a website buys, the company you are an associate of (or affiliated with) pays you a commission.

In many cases, it is also possible to make money from the efforts of people that you introduce to the affiliate program. You can also expand your product line by joining and promoting more than one affiliate program.

6. Webmastering

A webmaster is a an internet specialist reponsible for all aspects of web sites.

Areas where businesses need assistance include web site design, logo, banner or graphic design, web hosting, e-commerce, internet marketing, web programming, scripts, security, web site maintenance, copy writing, mailing list management, and many other areas.

7. Self-publishing

A self-publisher creates, produces, and sells information products. Information products may be in the form of books, booklets, videos, audio cassettes, compact disks (CDs), electronic books, files, databases, private websites, and other media.

The information products that you create are unique. You have exclusive control and ownership of your own products.

8. Instant Publishing

An instant publisher sells information products produced by someone else who grants them reprint (or resale) rights. Often self-publishers will sell such products to complement their own information products.

9. International Trade

International trade involves importing and exporting. Importing involves buying goods and services from suppliers in another country. Exporting involves selling goods and services to customers in another country.

10. Mail Order

Mail order is a method of conducting business through the mail. Goods and services can be sold through direct mail (and also via catalogues, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, web sites, and other media). Customers can order by mail or by other means (fax, telephone, internet, et cetera). Delivery of orders can be made by mail or alternative means (such as by courier for physical goods or by fax, e-mail, telephone, or electronic files for information).

Finding Additional Support for your Home Business

You might wonder although you really want to start a business, where could you find support for your home business when you have limited start up costs to begin a whole new business? There are many ways to work around this. Here are a few options you can consider.

Consider a loan from a family member. While all family loans are not created equal, you never know who will be your biggest supporter in your new business venture and would gladly loan you a small amount of money for your business start-up.

Investigate small business loans that cater to women and home businesses. Some grants are also available (and you don't have to pay them back!) You must be prepared to undergo credit and reference checks, attend business classes, and disclose financial aspects of your personal and business life.

Try and save in other areas of your life. Not a coupon person? Start using coupons and put the total amount you save with each grocery trip into a special "new business fund". Do you order takeout a couple times a week? Cut back to once a week or once every other week, and put that money into your "new business fund" too.

In addition to financing of your home business you need a bit of advice and tips to get you going. Operating your business without a computer will put you at an immediate disadvantage. They are simply too valuable as a time-saving tool. There are plenty of resources on the internet offering support for your home business. These provide handy information with tips and advice, ideas and many more….

You cannot be an expert on everything. Get assistance early from as many sources as possible. Talk to people who have similar experiences on doing a home business. Talk to your friends, family and who have succeeded in doing home business. Start networking now! The friendships and alliances you build now could become extremely useful in the future when you launch your business.

Seminars dealing with "special topics" have actually been around for decades, and are an older form of marketing and information exchanges. Seminars are simply a group of people coming together for the discussion and learning of specific techniques and topics. There are a wealth of knowledge usually, presented by many speakers at one time in one place. A lot of "learning" at one clip, with most material compressed into two or three days' worth of time.

So don’t put off starting your own home business - by investigating some of these alternatives, you may discover that you really can afford to start your own business!

Financial Help For Single Mom's- How To Finance Your Small Business Start Up

It all starts with a great idea, an idea that has probably been in your mind for a long time. You have the product sorted out, how you are going to deliver your service, where you are going to set up your office and how you are going to market your new business. But the stumbling block always seems to be the finance to get you going.

Finding the finance to get a small business off the ground is a major issue for any potential small business. Some new businesses lend themselves to very little start up capital because the main selling point is the owner’s skills and knowledge, for example consultants, web designers, PR specialists. Businesses which require stock holding, plant and equipment and other investment, face the real challenge of getting their start up finance together.

So what sources can you tap into to ensure your business gets off to a solid start?

Your Savings

The first port of call! If you have been in employment for some time then before going it alone you should hopefully have some spare cash behind you. Whether this be in the form of cash in a savings account or shares and unit trusts, this is a good start to your fund raising exercise.

You can be more focused in saving cash if you have had the goal of setting up your own business for awhile. Knowing you need to save to get your business off the ground will make sure you don’t spend your future nest egg on unnecessary items. Whilst a new Plasma TV or the latest DVD Recorder may seem to be an essential purchase, knowing that you have a business to set up in the future will be sufficient a deterrent to keep the cheque book firmly locked away!

Keep Your Job

Some business owners are lucky enough that during the early days of the business they can keep the day job while working on the business during the evenings and weekends. This has two benefits. Firstly, they are still earning thereby allowing more time to build up a cash reserve. Secondly, it’s an opportunity to test out the business to make sure there is a market. There are legitimate work at home jobs that can offer you some amount of freedom to pursue your business venture while still offering the security of a steady paycheck too.

Make sure that you can realistically keep both balls in the air at the same time otherwise you will end up doing justice to neither your job or your new business. The support of your family is also essential if you are to follow this strategy. They have to accept that what used to be ‘family time’ may have to take a back seat until you decide to concentrate on the business full time.

Family and Friends

These can be a useful source of finance for any start up. If you have harboured ambitions to run your business for some time, then many of your family and friends are already likely to know about your idea. You should therefore have an indication who is for it and who is against it.

If you haven’t shared your secret desire then it’s time to be slightly devious! If you are in the early planning stages start drip feeding your ideas to key people whom you think are likely to support you. Tell them your ideas, share your ambitions and goals and on a regular basis update them with your progress. The plan is to get them sold on you and your future business at an early stage.

Once you get to the point where you are ready to start asking for contributions hold an Investor Evening. Prepare a presentation outlining your plans, the business, the market etc. Show the potential investors what their return will be in recognition for supporting you.

Invite as many people as you can and promise an interesting and fun evening, Be bold at the very start; tell them exactly why they are there, so there are no misunderstandings. After you have done your presentation gather all the names of the people who may want more information or even a one-to-one with you.

Whilst this group are people who know you and so are more likely to trust you, don’t forget that you are developing a very different relationship which can quickly turn sour. Be prepared for rocky times!

Bank Line of Credit or Loan

Now you’re getting into the serious stuff! Getting support from a Bank for a new business is tough, as many entrepreneurs will testify. One sneaky way is to apply for an unsecured loan while you are still in employment. If you have planned things right you will know when you are starting up, so a few months before you pack your job in, apply for a loan based on your salary. However, make sure that you can comfortably meet the repayments. There is no grace period; you will be expected to pay back immediately, so your business will have to start earning very quickly.

The alternative is a business line of credit facility. There is no fixed repayment date, although they will be for periods from 6 to 12 months, and all you have to do is ensure that you keep within the overdraft limit. You will have to write a business plan to present to the Bank which outlines your idea and the business.

Mortgage or Equity Release

With the way house prices have been increasing over the last few years, the vast majority of people now have substantial equity in their homes. The cheaper alternative to a Bank overdraft or loan is a mortgage. The interest rate is lower and, as the repayments are spread over a longer period, the monthly repayment is less (although you will end up paying more interest in the long run).

The disadvantage of raising cash this way is that your home is potentially at risk. If meeting the monthly repayments is dependent on what the business can generate then a slow start could cause cash problems. So be very sure you can meet the repayments even during a lean period. Incedentally, if your break up has caused you to fall into financial disorder regarding your mortgage, make sure that you start the Loan Modification Process immediately, losing your home is the last thing you want to do right. Likewise, you can also sell your home for cash, if you were planning to move anyway.
Credit Cards

If you haven’t got any savings, can’t get support from family or friends, or a Bank loan or mortgage, then there are your credit cards! However, whilst it’s easy to draw down on your card, be wary! Credit cards are the most expensive form of debt.

They are ideal because all you may have to do is pay the minimum amount but card debt, as most people have found out, can be a long term burden. But, if you need a cash lump sum to kick start the business and you know you can pay it off within a few months, then it’s an alternative source of finance worth considering, if somewhat unorthodox!

Business Grants

Business grants are available for specific industries, sectors and reasons. Grant providers will usually only give a portion of your requirement, so they cannot be used to totally finance a start up. However, they can be useful in filling a funding gap.

Business Angels

A popular way to fund a business are Business Angels. These are people, usually retired or successful business people in their own right, who are looking for opportunities to invest in new businesses.

In exchange for an investment they will typically look for a shareholding in the business and some hands-on involvement. They will have a vast business experience and so are useful people to have on board. However, you will have to accept an element of loss of control but that needs to be balanced against your desire for funding.


Getting finance for your new business can be a challenge but there are a number of avenues to explore and so with dedication and focus you could soon be on your way to launching your own small business.

Financial Help For Single Mom's- A Small Business Can Help A Lot

Small business is a term that is used day-to-day. That is because in the past decade the rise of small business has been larger than in any other decade prior. This is largely due to the increasing number of services that are available to small business owners, to enable them to keep their business running.

There really isn't any guidelines for when the term small business is used, however it is simply defined as a business which has a small number of employees. How few employees is debatable, and the definition of when a business changes from a small business to a larger corporation varies both by country and industry. This number is generally less then 100 employees.

As mentioned before small businesses due to their nature, are in most times sole proprietorships, partnerships, or privately owned. Common in may countries, small businesses, are most oftenly related to: accountants, restaurants, guest houses, photographers, small shops, hairdressers, tradesmen, solicitors, lawyers, small-scale manufacturing etc.

Small businesses in often cases are located in private homes, for two main reasons. The first is because it is economical and in most cases convenient. The second reason is that there are several benifits with tax,etc for having your business in your home.

Running a small business is an exciting venture, and a great way to introduce yourself into the business world, and to gain business sense. If you are interested in starting your own small business, I would recommend having a talk with a local lawyer or accountant, who will be able to answer questions that are specific to your local area. Good luck with your new venture!