Has anyonne's application ever been rejected because of your income?

I ask this because my husband and I dont have a ton of extra income each month after bills and rent and such is paid. Im worried that this may prevent us from becoming foster parents. Im just worried that this may prevent us from fostering a child. Is there an amount they require you to make each month or something? Has this happened to anyone before?

Nobody expects foster parents to have a lot of money. Where I live, the only criteria is that you are able to support yourself without the foster subsidy. That is to ensure that the subsidy funds are available to meet the additional costs of having a child in your home. You say that you're able to meet your obligations with your income, so you're probably ok. I'd inquire with your county or agency to be sure of their specific guidelines though.

In my state they just require you to have enough money to pay you bills. As long as you can prove that your regular bills are paid on time prior to the child getting there you will be fine usually. They just want to make sure that you aren't fostering and using the board checks as "supplemental income". At least that is how they explained it to me.

My expendable income is very low around 300 a month but, I've made it work for years and they were impressed with how nicely D and I live on my modest income (around a thousand a month ). I was even told that its kind of a good thing because I know how to make a buck stretch so FC stipend will go farther. I Heard an FM complaining that the clothing allowance wasn't enough " for socks and underwear". I laughed and said "If you buy a season ahead (clearance) hit a few mom to mom sales you can outfit a kid completely IN BRAND NAME for around 150 " The trainer was impressed but FM didn't like getting schooled by a youngin. D has more stuff than most kids (even the rich ones) I am thinking about making a guide: how to look like you have the big bucks when you have almost no bucks. In any event, Low income is fine and in a way good if you thing about it. These kids usually come from low income no use in spoiling rotten so when they go home they have trouble accepting not having the finer things

I'm the same way with my kids, but keep in mind it isn't as easy to do with foster children because you don't know a season ahead that you'll have a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy for example. Maybe you'll have a 3 year old girl and a 5 year old boy instead... They show up with the clothes on their backs (hopefully) and immediately need socks, underwear, a few changes of clothes etc. And you won't get their stipend for a month. So you need to have some cash available up front for immediate needs.

I did just that and was told not to worry about it as long as our income exceeds our expenses. I think I was just panicking for nothing.

We just have to show that we can support our current household without needing the foster stipend. The clothing allowance is 125 every 6 months and some may feel its not enough but you can buy things on clearance ahead of time and all of our children as well as myself are more than happy to shop at resale shops where our money goes even further. We also are supposed to keep receipts and proof that a designated amount of the stipend goes directly towards activites or items exclusively for the child the stipend is for.

why do people complain that the clothing allowance isnt enough? is it $125 for everyone or do some people get less?

Reading your answer sets my mind at ease. All I need to do is look at other ways to make our expendable go further. How would we do this with groceries though?

yeah, here is 150/year. really? i can't clothe them for that in a season, much less a year.

Foreverb18- There is always clipping coupons. There is actually a group of women who clip coupons to feed women and children who are financially disadvantaged. They have gotten so good at this that they don't spend any money and when they do they get about $300 worth of groceries for less than $20. There are books about this sort of thing. I was watching an interview of one of the women a few months back. she mentioned some tips that were in her book and DW and I have been using them off and on but plan to be better about using them more often so we can save more.

I suck at the coupon thing but it does work if your good. Id go to the foster care & adoption forum and ask for coupon tips i remember a thread about it once. I personally buy groceries in bulk non-perishables and freezables anyway. They might have a sale on a particular meat Ill buy a ton and freeze it and wont get that next trip. Ten for ten is your best friend Stock up on the sales !!!!

I'm going to be honest, we have ZERO difference in our grocery bill now with two girls than we did with just the two of us. We just don't have left overs anymore! :) $125 for an ENTIRE year's clothing for a growing child isn't a lot of money. Even if you do second hand (which is almost a waste because you can buy new for less than that goodwill and thrift stores want). We get $300 per child in Virginia. That doesn't cover everything our girls would require. Between shoes, clothes, jackets etc. However, they really didn't even care about what we make! All they wanted to see is the kids were taken care of.

I am not really worried about clothes if I do foster care because I've always bought clothing in lots on ebay for far less than I'd pay at thrift stores, and most of the time the clothes look like they were never worn. Last year's shoes are cheap on ebay too. Food would be harder since my kids are on a special diet and I'd like to keep everyone on it so I don't cook separate meals, but I'm sure I'd find a way. Blogs like 5dollardinners.com can help. Grocerycoupons.com costs very little and will mail you coupons that they clip. The biggest issue there is that you can't get coupons for produce and my kids eat tons of it. We make our own earthboxes to grow tons of food, but they always eat far more than we can grow. I do make more than my expenses but part of our income may not count for foster care. For example, I get IHSS (in-home supportive services) money for caring for my autistic son, and he gets SSI. Would those be factored into our income for foster care purposes or would they think we're on public assistance and throw out our application right off? I think that my experience raising kids with autism, epilepsy, asthma, etc, etc, could be valuable in the foster care world but don't want to take on another job to raise my income to get approved and then have no time to truly care for the kids. I've also thought of fostering pregnant/parenting teens in the future since my experience getting my Master's while a single parent of disabled kids could maybe serve as a good example. That sounds like a pretty rose-colored glasses view but I do think I could at least try to help. My mom was a teenager and did a terrible job, to the point I've rarely seen her since I was 12, but I think if she'd had mentoring and guidance she could have done much better. I just don't know if we'd be approved while on these programs, but then I don't want to get off of them because they're hard to get back on and my son will really need them when he's older.

In my area you only get $200 for a child first time entering care...and that is at the county director's discretion. I was told it is not often approved. And if a child is moved from another foster home, no new allowance (even if they come with nothing, even if they were only in the other foster home for a week...). We were told they almost never approve the allowance for infants ("because who doesn't want to buy clothes for babies, your friends should help you out"). So yes, others do get quite a bit less. We had to appeal because our newborn FD didn't get approved the 1st time around because FDs CW didn't get it turned in within 60 days of placement (btw, permanent CW wasn't assigned until day 45 and didn't visit until day 53 and placement workers are not allowed to submit it, only permanent workers :rolleyes: ).