Fundraising Progress

As I mentioned in my previous post my attention of late has largely been focused on the financing of our great IVF adventure.  You may remember this post where I said that we had $3,000 in savings and worked out the balance we would require? Yeah.  As I alluded to in that post, things changed... That $3,000 has dwindled down over the last two months.  You see Mr. R was working in a "fill my time" job just to bring in a little cash until he could get back into his chosen career.  What we didn't realize is just HOW little that job would bring in.  Rent was due, I was maxed out on all our other bills, we had to hit the savings.  ERG!

We're putting it all back again this month though.  I am working any and all overtime available and as I have mentioned, I also have a sideline online business that I have been ramping up lately.  Our current Savings total is $2,325.94 which includes $520 in family donations to our donation web page.

I mentioned in passing to my mother last week that I might as well contact the company which holds my old South African retirement policy and see if they will let me cash it in early or if there are any options.  I only paid into it for like 3 years and froze it when I left the country.  The exchange rate from Rands to Dollars is 10 to 1, so I expected R3,000 or $300.  Still... $300 is $300!  Not to be sneezed at when you're pulling out all the stops.  I'd give them a call and figure something out.

Well on Tuesday last week I did just that and guess what?!?!?  My policy that has been left alone these past 7 years is worth a little more than I thought.  In the region of R50,000!!  ($5,000)  That's a third of the money we need!  Apparently since I have officially emigrated they are able to provide me with access to the money now.  I don't fully understand how or why, but I was so excited that I woke Mr. R up to share the good news! (To call during business hours in South Africa I needed to stay up till 2am).  I am scared to count that money into our saving total until it is IN my hand and not just a theory.  There are numerous hilarious "third world-y" hoops through which I need to jump in order to receive this money and knowing how things usually work in my country I expect several people to claim a slice of the pie before it reaches my bank account.  (THIS is the pessimist in me again. haha)

So here's a summary.

What is working for us:

-  Cashing in old forgotten about policies in foreign lands!!

- Online side jobs which can be completed while at my full-time job, thus creating two pay checks for the same hour.  :)  (Don't worry, no one's life is at stake when I do my second job at my first job).

What is not working for us:

-  Donation page.  We're finding that family and friends are not nearly as generous as we had hoped.  (Does this sound ungrateful? I guess I am being honest here.)  People who we know to be very wealthy and who seemed very sympathetic about our situation haven't made any donations at all.  I'm talking close, family members and friends.  People we consider our "besties".  And then on the opposite side of things we are shocked by the donations no matter how small made by people we know are going through terribly rough time right now financially, and whom we don't really know AS well....  Funny isn't it how situations like this can bring clarity to different areas in our lives.  Our parents have been putting in as much as they can but they're also not in any great financial position to help right now.  Well, not all our parents are helping... "TV Dad" seems to think that we don't need IVF, and should rather rely on prayer... though what the baby Jesus is going to do about a 15 year old vasectomy I don't quite now.  (This may be another reason why I was irritated at his presence in our home yesterday.) 

- Overtime. Really, as much as I want to believe that all these extra hours I am spending tied to a desk at work for 12 hours are paying off I don't think that they are. If I do one full extra night shift I only make a little under $200.  I am going to need to do a WHOLE lot of them in order to bring us closer to the kind of money we need.  And all this time I spend at work means less time I see Mr. R.  He works days, and I work nights so we literally see each other for 5 minutes as he leaves work and I am about to go into work.  We meet for a kiss and a hug in a parking lot.  Given the amount of stress all this is causing, I don't know how well we're going to be able to keep this up as a couple.

What we're trying next...

We've decided to try and up the ante on the donation page a little. I figure people are less likely to give a handout for nothing than they are to take a gamble on a potential prize.  We looked at our friend group and decided that the prize should be something alcoholic (we're in Law Enforcement remember?) and so we're in the process of assembling this cool little mini bar box, and filling it with loads of alcoholic minis.  It's super cute and I feel like it will be an affordable way to make something unique and "raffle" worthy.  Hopefully it will bring us the donations... *cough* excuse me, interest in ticket purchases, that we need to start really making progress.

I'll report back soon with progress on this.  I feel like keeping this blog updated with the finances will help us keep our focus, and help us be more accountable.

As of 6/17/2013 - $2,325.94 / $15,083.75
(and I am going to add this to the sidebar and see if I can find a little visual representation of our progress to add as well.)