So, now that I'm stable and back in the groove of things after a crazy few months, it's story time! I've almost left the Stinger club more than once, and was a Colorado Stinger for like a month and a half before moving back to Utah. Lol.
I work as local IT for an Oilfield company out here in a small town called Roosevelt in the middle of nowhere, and they decided to sell to a larger multinational company back in November of last year. Whatever, that stuff happens, right? Merger was made official in January, and in March, they did a round of layoffs... 80% of IT got let go, and anyone that was left over got put on a transitional 3 month term. Basically, if you still had a job, you were going to be gone at the end of May. Well, shit. So I went looking for jobs, because 3 months isn't very long, and there was nothing guaranteed at the end of it.
Found a new job, based out of an even smaller town called Rangely, in Colorado. Like 1.5 hrs from me, so not too terrible, but I would have to move. I accepted, and started in early April. Unfortunately, even after moving, I was looking at a minimum 1hr commute each way. 58 miles. Ugh. Problem: My Stinger is leased with a 12k mile/yr limit. My commute alone was going to be 26k miles a year... So I decided to try to sell the Stinger, for the first time.
Right after I accepted the new position, the company I left called and asked if I would be interested in coming back if they had a spot. I said yes, and they said they would keep in touch. They didn't. So I moved my family to the new house, assuming that old company wasn't going to try to get me back. This is where I temporarily became a Colorado Stinger. I even have a Colorado License right now. Lol.
Anyway, I worked at that job for about a month and a half, and got a surprise call from old company! "Hey, this is the position. This is what it pays. Here are the benefits. Are you interested?". I was super confused, they hadn't talked to me since they said they'd keep in touch. Where's the interview? Over the phone, in person? Where was the "Keeping in touch?". I initially turned them down, because I had LITERALLY just unpacked my last box that day, and didn't want to/couldn't afford to move again. They asked if I would think about it over the weekend, and they'd call me back on Monday.
Well, shit. I had initially hand waved it off, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was the right decision. The pay was less (~15k/yr less) but everything else was better. It was closer to my wife's family. It was back at a place I liked, and liked the people. It was in a bigger city with more amenities (Not that Roosevelt is big, but there's not even a single fast food place or grocery store in Rangely). Living was cheaper with more options. My commute would be much shorter (20 mins), so I could keep the Stinger under my lease mileage (But don't tell my wife that was a part of the decision. Lol). And finally, it offered full benefits. Paid time off, very good health insurance, the whole package. After a few nights of deep searching and tears, I decided I would accept the job.
Only problem, Moving is extremely expensive. Between Rent+Deposit, moving expenses, and the paycheck delay from starting a new job on a slower pay schedule, I had maxed out my credit cards (Ok, they were almost maxed out before this. Haha), had to borrow money from my parents, and I had signed a 2 year lease at the new place...
So they called me back on Monday... "I'd love to take the job, but I can't afford to move back." They asked me to get numbers, and they'd see what they could do. Ended up looking at ~5k between moving expenses and the cost to break my lease. The next day, they offered 4k, and I took it. Paid the landlord 2 months of rent to break the lease, packed everything BACK into boxes, and U-Hauled ourselves back to Utah.
We didn't have anywhere to live yet, so we took over a few rooms at the in-laws house, and put everything else in a storage unit. My wife decided she wants to buy a house instead of rent, so we're sticking here for a bit... But our debt to income is just a tiiiiiny bit too high to qualify for the houses she wants, and I don't have any proof of my overtime or on-call pay, which is a good chunk of change. "You know, if you sold your car, we could afford a lot more house!", she says to me... I kind of agree, and see if I can sell the car easily. A bit of time passes, and we decide on an alternate method - We stay with her parents until October, pay off ~8k in credit card debt, and by that time my pay statements will show my on-call hours as regular and repeat income, our DTI comes waaaay down, and I can keep the Stinger!
Woo!
So there's the story of how I moved across state lines and back, had 3 jobs, and decided to sell and then not sell my car twice, all within the span of two months.
That will certainly up your post count effectively, and no mod can complain (sometimes they have taken several of mine and lumped them together; now, why would they do that?
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it sucks because I spend so long working on replies and they will never go through. Don't even know if this one will work or not!
. So, stay on 92 and you'll be good. NAV is our friend.
