Question of the Week #61

We have several financial and business questions this week from different members and some have asked to stay anonymous so I'm going to post the questions and a little information as to the background concerning these questions (but no identifying information).

Some of us get Medicare (USA) and are in that and other income based assistance programs. Without these programs we wouldn't be able to get prescriptions or even (some of us) have our insurance co-pay covered. There are both financial limits as to what you can make at both the federal and state level. If your part time income goes above a certain amount you not only lose the coverage from the assistance based program but have to pay back for all the coverage that was provided from the beginning of the year and/or have to pay for coverage out of pocket which is impossible on a fixed income even exceeding the part time income limit (the gap is huge).

So you can’t afford to let your income go above the limit for the state or federal plan.

Yet you know your stuff is good, and you would like to be able to sell it and you are kinda caught between the rock and the hard place.

Questions this week:

Has anyone faced the situation of wanting to sell what is created, but facing the restrictions imposed by income-based assistance programs?

Has anyone found a way to sell and stay under the limits or go above and succeed?

And if you are, please tell us,  how is it going?


And our second set of questions is about the business side of your business:

How does everyone run their business legally, with as little $ as possible?

Can you keep selling at shows, if you have more than 4 years straight losses?

How--with SS# and full name, or with Tax ID?  The IRS.gov lists questions to ask to see if u require tax ID, but says nothing about the 4 yr loss thing (2 accountants have said that), or selling at shows.


Looking forward to hearing your answers!


Please remember to submit your suggestions and questions to: spdychevy@gmail.com with Question in the subject line and we'll get your question up here soon!

Happy Monday to all :)

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Update of sorts

Been trying to get motivated and get off the couch but between the loperamide making me sleepy and the chronic fatigue coupled with my recent foot injury making me tired as well, I've not achieved much of anything except binge watching Hart of Dixie on Netflix to avoid binging on Orange is the New Black all at once. I waited so long for season two of ONB I'm trying to string it out and enjoy it as long as possible :)

The weather has been pretty nice lately and it hasn't rained but it hasn't warmed up either. All in all it's been a pretty chilly June.

I've gotten some little stuff done here and there but most of this week I've been napping or on the couch. It's hard not to get down when I'm physically unable to do the things I need or the do the activities I want. So far I've been keeping those bummed feelings about what I haven't gotten done at bay by remembering all the stuff I have gotten done.

I won't go into the list here but I accomplished some major monthly chores for the household and did some work on several projects I've been wanting to play with for ages :) Just the enjoyment of getting to work on little things here and there helps counteract the "blahs" when I'm feeling like a definite underachiever.

One of my biggest disappointments has been wanting to write more posts here on the blog and not having done it for so many different reasons: too tired, too uncomfortable, to yukky too...all just a bunch of excuses because I really haven't been ready to face how horrible I was feeling. Now that I am feeling a little better I can admit how horrible I actually was feeling. Does that make any sense?

I just find it hard to write about anything when I feel like I haven't done anything lately but loll on the couch. BUT as I said, that's not true, I've done some stuff, really, lol. And in theory I have many things to write about but this feeling of being unproductive by feeling shackled to the couch is overwhelming at times and presents a huge mental hurdle in addition to the obvious physical obstacles I'm trying to overcome. Sometimes it's the only thing I can think about....or expend energy avoiding thinking about.

This "choosing your attitude" is some pretty hard work but it does work :)

Of course, now all I'm thinking about is the nap I'm feeling coming up. So, off to do that with no guilt, I earned it :)

Getting better...

Rough morning waiting for it to get better. IT WILL! Just the waiting is quite the *pain*...hmmm...apparently brain fog has not affected my dismal punning abilities...

When I started this blog (again, lol) I wanted to chronicle my life, my life with my cocktail of chronic illnesses and the stresses, to keep a record. An honest one, not to honey coat or overly demonize it, just that there can and is a good life in between these layers of gunk. Sticky and spicy and sweet. A beautiful life.

I hate talking about pain, I hate talking about body functions I hate admitting I'm in pain. There is nothing anyone (including me) can do to change it, it is there and will be there for as long as it is and then it will be gone for as long as it will be. I don't like it, when I was growing up to admit pain was to be weak (still is). But I'm not weak. I know this. I would have taken a powder, stepped out, pulled the plug, turned out the lights a long time ago if I was. I'm not weak. But I'm not a super-hero either. I didn't want this blog to be a constant whine of how shitty I feel or am doing, or both. I wanted it to be an honest look of how one person copes with a myriad of illnesses disability and the ridiculously low pay that goes with it.

Hmmm...do you see the conundrum? I talk about my pain or nausea I feel like I'm whining. Can't help it. Refer to my statement about growing up and weakness. And weakness was nothing you wanted to show in my childhood home. Ah, and those of you who know me probably knew I didn't grow up with Ward & June Cleaver or Ozzie & Harriet. But what many of you didn't know is was how skewed it was. If anything it was something akin to Christopher Titus and his fractured family. The stuff they don't show on TV, even HBOhhhh...

According to the new (idiot) doc I should be happy the metformin kicks itself through my intestinal tract like an epileptic on poprocks & crack, it keeps the weight I *should* be gaining from the glipizide off. The diabetes meds are keeping my blood sugars "on target" never mind the pummeling my kidneys are taking and the violence to my back, stomach, intestinal tract and colon...speaking of...oh my...BRB.

Never mind being unable to walk from the back pain and spasm equals "crippling". Whadaya mean your back muscles are so exhausted you can't sit up? Whadaya mean crippling diarrhea? "There is NO SUCH THING. YOU READ TOO MUCH and believe too much of it, not everything you read on the internet is true." So, not only curt dismissal but added injury, insult and extra salt to pack the cuts with...

Listen, this is me, my body, I'm telling truth and my immediate family can vouch. Lots of pain and things that cause exhaustion. But oh the ignorance from supposed trained medical professionals. I would think if maybe they weren't "trained" in the area of chronic pain and autoimmune diseases they were at least trained to remedy their ignorance but oh how they cling to it! Ignorance! Fighting with that mindset is so exhausting!

Thinking on the matter more I guess I really should be happy about the glipizide placing me in holding pattern concerning the weight loss...because if it had kept going the way it was, at a low calculated average monthly rate, well, I'd be 20-30 lbs down (in less than six months) and actually 10-20 lbs under my "target" weight. It works almost like a tape worm anyway, I can eat whatever I want (whatever I can "stomach") and STILL lose weight. All you perpetual dieters out there, don't get envious though, remember HOW I drop this weight, perpetual crippling back spasm inducing violent projectile diarrhea is nothing I would wish on anyone. Not even my ex...well, maybe...er.. ok...moving on...