As I posted earlier, we were informed that our only good working vehicle (and only one we actually make payments on) was going to be repossessed.
This was right on the heels of finding out our stuff in the storage unit we'd been renting and were 3 months behind on rent for ... was sold.
Other recent happenings were:
I found out a storage tub that was supposed to go to the storage unit, but it never made it was stuck under the back porch and somehow was opened and everything in it ruined... and it was my tub of collectibles and things I kept from childhood and old love letters, lots of pictures... all ruined.
Gerald died. He was our beloved guinea pig. The house is weirdly quiet now.
The brakes went out on the Explorer in the span of 3 days over a weekend, and it ended up costing $400+ to fix it and we had to borrow it from my husband's brother in law which is embarrassing.
That was just DAYS after the battery had died and we had to replace it for $100.
We weren't able to get the down payment for Rhiannon's chorus trip in the spring which is a cruise, and the one her senior year is to NYC which she's already been to twice... but I'm hoping she'll want to go since she'll be with her chorus friends and will be older. I just hope we'll be able to afford it then...
We ripped up the carpet in the living room so we could put down the new vinyl tiles and we were supposed to have it done by now... we've not added to the tiles since that day.
We had our 20th wedding anniversary - and we'd promised ourselves we'd save up and go somewhere awesome... we could barely afford to see a discount movie and eat at a Chinese buffet restaurant and browse a bookstore. We did enjoy being together though.
SO.... back to today. Things had to start getting better right? right? Well, they kind of did. It took a while though. First Christopher called the storage unit guy to confirm it was sold since he was never in his office last week, and he did say it was sold, there was nothing we could do about it and then laughed at my husband. I could tell that really tore him up, but I'd already cried it out. Nothing we can do about it afterall. Can't go back in time, must move on and make new memories. And I can't feel guilty for losing the heirloom ornaments... I mean seriously WHO still has in tact ornaments from their great grand parents first Christmas together?? My husband's grandmother never ever throws anything away. ever. And everything in her house has some little hand written note in it or taped to the bottom of it telling how old it is and who used to own it and all that. Ok, I can appreciate sentimentality, believe me I'm missing my old stocking and the kids' ornaments... but the original owners of those heirloom ornaments have been dead for years. Christopher certainly never knew them. At what point do you stop keeping old stuff from dead people? It's a legitimate question. Well, anyway I'm going to take the first budgeted money for Christmas and get a tree at a thrift store as well as thrift store decorations. I figure I can get stuff fairly cheap since they're not going to want to pack all that stuff back up. And then I'll let each of the girls pick out one really nice ornament, maybe a Hallmark one, to start up the tradition again of a new ornament for the girls each year... My husband's grandparents used to send each child a new ornament each year with their name on them. Those are the ones I'll miss. Plus the ones they made. So, we'll just have to start over and have them make me some new ones too, then get some pretty sets of ornaments at Kmart or something. I hope to get them new fancy stockings like at Pier One as well. We'll see. Have to look ahead!
ANYWAY. He also called the place about the Explorer since it hadn't been repoed yet, we had hope. But he wasn't there. Chris had to go to work, and by then I was awake and called the place myself an hour later and he was there. I asked if we could stop the repo from happening and could we get back on track if I came in and made a payment today and another this weekend... it would mean serious reworking the budget and using overdraft, but it could work... and he agreed! A little after, the school called about Zoe being sick, so I had to go pick her up. So I did my cash advance then took the cash and paid on the Explorer. It was supposed to go back into the bank, but we can deal with overdrafts if we have to as long as the house pmt gets made and the bare minimum stuff gets paid.
Actually as I did the budget reworking, I found that I'd missed a math error in the template program (it was one I found online), and there was more money available than I had thought! So while the rest of this month will be tight, it should be the end of the overdrafts. December will have money for decent groceries as well as money for Christmas. January is the month we pay off the cash advances in full! ALL FOUR OF THEM WOOHOO! Thanks goodness there's an extra paycheck in January :D
February brings Faelyn's birthday with a nice amount for her gift, and also a nice Valentines Day with my husband. Then there'll be the Tax Refund and we're already discussing what we'll do with it. Number one priority with the refund is a plumber. There's something fishy going on under the trailer and I don't think it's going to be at all pleasant to fix. Then we can get the new sofa and love seat since we're not going to be able to afford any furniture til then anyway. Might as well invest in the stuff we really want.
So, some things are looking up, and my outlook is trying to follow.
Hope you're all doing well. I love you guys and really appreciate you coming here and reading me pour my heart out and cry on your virtual shoulders. Thanks!
Patty
This was right on the heels of finding out our stuff in the storage unit we'd been renting and were 3 months behind on rent for ... was sold.
Other recent happenings were:
I found out a storage tub that was supposed to go to the storage unit, but it never made it was stuck under the back porch and somehow was opened and everything in it ruined... and it was my tub of collectibles and things I kept from childhood and old love letters, lots of pictures... all ruined.
Gerald died. He was our beloved guinea pig. The house is weirdly quiet now.
The brakes went out on the Explorer in the span of 3 days over a weekend, and it ended up costing $400+ to fix it and we had to borrow it from my husband's brother in law which is embarrassing.
That was just DAYS after the battery had died and we had to replace it for $100.
We weren't able to get the down payment for Rhiannon's chorus trip in the spring which is a cruise, and the one her senior year is to NYC which she's already been to twice... but I'm hoping she'll want to go since she'll be with her chorus friends and will be older. I just hope we'll be able to afford it then...
We ripped up the carpet in the living room so we could put down the new vinyl tiles and we were supposed to have it done by now... we've not added to the tiles since that day.
We had our 20th wedding anniversary - and we'd promised ourselves we'd save up and go somewhere awesome... we could barely afford to see a discount movie and eat at a Chinese buffet restaurant and browse a bookstore. We did enjoy being together though.
SO.... back to today. Things had to start getting better right? right? Well, they kind of did. It took a while though. First Christopher called the storage unit guy to confirm it was sold since he was never in his office last week, and he did say it was sold, there was nothing we could do about it and then laughed at my husband. I could tell that really tore him up, but I'd already cried it out. Nothing we can do about it afterall. Can't go back in time, must move on and make new memories. And I can't feel guilty for losing the heirloom ornaments... I mean seriously WHO still has in tact ornaments from their great grand parents first Christmas together?? My husband's grandmother never ever throws anything away. ever. And everything in her house has some little hand written note in it or taped to the bottom of it telling how old it is and who used to own it and all that. Ok, I can appreciate sentimentality, believe me I'm missing my old stocking and the kids' ornaments... but the original owners of those heirloom ornaments have been dead for years. Christopher certainly never knew them. At what point do you stop keeping old stuff from dead people? It's a legitimate question. Well, anyway I'm going to take the first budgeted money for Christmas and get a tree at a thrift store as well as thrift store decorations. I figure I can get stuff fairly cheap since they're not going to want to pack all that stuff back up. And then I'll let each of the girls pick out one really nice ornament, maybe a Hallmark one, to start up the tradition again of a new ornament for the girls each year... My husband's grandparents used to send each child a new ornament each year with their name on them. Those are the ones I'll miss. Plus the ones they made. So, we'll just have to start over and have them make me some new ones too, then get some pretty sets of ornaments at Kmart or something. I hope to get them new fancy stockings like at Pier One as well. We'll see. Have to look ahead!
ANYWAY. He also called the place about the Explorer since it hadn't been repoed yet, we had hope. But he wasn't there. Chris had to go to work, and by then I was awake and called the place myself an hour later and he was there. I asked if we could stop the repo from happening and could we get back on track if I came in and made a payment today and another this weekend... it would mean serious reworking the budget and using overdraft, but it could work... and he agreed! A little after, the school called about Zoe being sick, so I had to go pick her up. So I did my cash advance then took the cash and paid on the Explorer. It was supposed to go back into the bank, but we can deal with overdrafts if we have to as long as the house pmt gets made and the bare minimum stuff gets paid.
Actually as I did the budget reworking, I found that I'd missed a math error in the template program (it was one I found online), and there was more money available than I had thought! So while the rest of this month will be tight, it should be the end of the overdrafts. December will have money for decent groceries as well as money for Christmas. January is the month we pay off the cash advances in full! ALL FOUR OF THEM WOOHOO! Thanks goodness there's an extra paycheck in January :D
February brings Faelyn's birthday with a nice amount for her gift, and also a nice Valentines Day with my husband. Then there'll be the Tax Refund and we're already discussing what we'll do with it. Number one priority with the refund is a plumber. There's something fishy going on under the trailer and I don't think it's going to be at all pleasant to fix. Then we can get the new sofa and love seat since we're not going to be able to afford any furniture til then anyway. Might as well invest in the stuff we really want.
So, some things are looking up, and my outlook is trying to follow.
Hope you're all doing well. I love you guys and really appreciate you coming here and reading me pour my heart out and cry on your virtual shoulders. Thanks!
Patty