kmickeyd

slowly but surely improving and feeling more in control. We have gone TWO weeks without eating out - we are going out tomorrow but it's in the budget (my birthday). Feeling MUCH better!! Thank you!

It's funny how much things calm down when you start feeling more in control. Still have a ways to go, but this week we have not eaten out once, and we're slowly looking at where we are - where we have landed. This is good.

Thanks momto6! Made me smile! We do have a budget - we do have our $1000 BEF back - we have not yet figured out exactly where we are. I started that last night - will do a little more tonight - but may not have the full picture until the weekend. And then we need to run it through the debt snowball calculator again. Thanks!! <3

We did, but thanks. It's already done. Just trying to get geared up for what's next.

We've been struggling. No two ways about it. It was a nice boost to have the truck paid off. We went crazy. It wasn't pretty. And then, the furnace died. Full replacement necessary. $5000. I am laying most of it out there. You can't beat on me more than I've beaten on myself, and I don't need to beat on myself any more. 2015 has been a very, very rough year on us. I'm ready to move on. New debt total is unknown. Around $42,o00 once the money clears from the furnace. Student loans are coming due since I left my program. It's time to get serious.

We have a supplemental insurance through work, a hospital indemnity one, and due to dh's 3+ week hospital stay, we received a lump sum of $4400. After much discussion and prayer, we decided to pay off the truck, which was at $3400 - not our lowest, but second lowest. However, in doing this, we now have an extra $300 in our budget every month. I am SO glad we did this! We will have the Discover card paid off by the end of July with this move. We have not had much breathing room in our budget for about two years. Now, we have space, and it feels wonderful. We can now not wonder where the money is going to come from for our car tags, for example, due at the end of July. And we have a SNOWBALL!! Our snowball has been so itty bitty teeny tiny for so long, this seems like a miracle! And - it has gotten dh excited about getting the debt paid off again, because it seems possible. So very, very thankful.

It's kind of weird - I went out the next day and it was working again. Not great - not at "normal" speed - but working. Maybe I'll play around with it a little more. And hopefully not kill it all. ha!

Dh has been doing very well since we got him home from the hospital - stronger and steadier every day. We have home health care coming in 3x a week, including physical and occupational therapy, and that helps a lot. His stomach has been upset trying to get used to food other than bland hospital food. It's not even that we're eating bad things - even just basic spices seem to be bothering him. Slowly getting used to things - we're eating pretty bland until then (turkey & gravy tonight, plain scrambled eggs, homemade soup and grilled cheese, etc). We did not do too horribly with the budget. I went over about $400, mostly due to meals at the hospital. honestly, not bad for 3 weeks away from home. Yesterday i was able to send a $360 and a $750 snowball. Woot! And then today, I went to move the car to be able to get the garbage out, and the fan is dead. The inside one, for heat, fresh air, and AC. I mean, really? Seriously? So Thursday we're going to take it to the place down the street and see if they are able to fix it. Keep fingers crossed it's only a few hundred dollars. Of course, it happens right AFTER I send that awesome snowball off! Again, thank God for the EF. I've been able to get a handful of things on sale online, cleaned the bedroom, and have done about 17,402 loads of laundry. It's nice to feel like I'm getting things under control.

Dh was released from the hospital today. He was in there since April 8th. I will be home from work another week, as he needs 24/7 care for at least a week. It's wonderful to have him home. I haven't surveyed the full damage to our budget yet. I ate breakfast and dinner at home, but would usually get lunch to eat with dh in his room. Parking was free. The hospital was about 35 miles away, and I was there every day, but it's the same commute as to work, so it was very likely within our gas budget. I was able to work online quite a bit, so I will not have to use up a ton of sick/vacation time. I was able to keep up on the blog, and invoiced them for March, so we have that income. We also had a plumbing emergency (leaking water under the bathroom sink and off the water heater - unrelated leaks but happened at the same time. I guess I should be grateful it was only one visit). Thank God for the EF. So that will have to be rebuilt $300. We also have additional insurance similar to AFLAC, and will get $200 for every day after the second day he was in the hospital. This will help us counteract some of the eating out budget overage, and right now the plan is for the rest to go to the snowball. We talked about it and set a goal to pay off the lowest card by June 30. Woot! Since I will be off work the next week, I will have time to make up some freezer meals (depleted for my dinners while he was in the hospital - so glad they were there!), and sell some things on FB and CL. The last six months have been pretty rough & tumble. I am very, very ready for it not to be our turn any more. Dh went into the hospital for a week in October - then a mixup with his meds send him back to the hospital for four days about two weeks later - then the holidays, which are always crazy - then I got pneumonia in January and was sick for TWO months (sick, relapse, relapse, retained cough due to asthma) - and then dh got sick again, over 3 weeks in the hospital. Seriously. It needs to move on.

Dh is in the hospital again. This is the third time in the last six months or so. Different issue this time, which I guess is good in the terms of - we've been working really hard to keep his other issues under control. I've packed some snacks and water, because hospital food stinks, usually makes my tummy hurt, and is expensive. They also don't have free parking at this hospital (he had to be transferred to Madison for specialist care). I'm so ready for life to get back to normal...whatever that means now.

In mid-January, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics. Then I felt better. Then I had a relapse. More antibiotics. Felt better. Another relapse. More antibiotics. And I'm finally feeling human again. I don't think I've ever been this sick in my life, and I include chemo in that statement. It was horrible. So we ended up eating carryout a lot, and/or pretty crummy stuff that dh could make easily. It didn't totally wreck our budget, because we just weren't going anywhere. I missed almost 4 weeks of work, used up most of my sick time. Just got caught up with everything, and found that we have succeeded in saving up the $3300 we owe in federal taxes - and two weeks early! This is a HUGE thing for us - no, it's not a debt, and we would have loved to send this off to one of our debts, but we'd rather not have the IRS knocking on our door for their money. And yes, some of it was from extra income, and this year we must put cash away to pay for federal taxes on that extra income. BUT - this proves that we can do it. We can get $3300 out of our budget in three months. Woot!

Awesome! Congrats!

Source: Thoughts while shredding old financial paperwork...

Awesome!! I like hearing about these little wins, too. It's motivating. I also found a fabric destashing group on FB - I'm really excited to have a place where I can get a decent price for the fabric and notions that I have available. Much easier than etsy, and it really seems like these women buy everything!