Pay Attention!

Hi everyone! I apologize for the delay in posting. Summertime is always an adjustment in our household. First I will give you the good news. Since my last post, I have finally graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Science. I have also been actively looking for and applying to jobs. At first, I was only looking at careers relevant to my degree, but given our latest turn of events, I have resorted to looking at retail jobs as well. Desperate times require action! In other great news, my in-laws came to visit to meet their great-grandchild. It was wonderful to see them and as an added bonus, my father-in-law, who can fix anything, fixed my stove burners and our broken fence gate! Yee haw! That’s two less things to worry about. Now, I will move into the bad news.  We are in a major financial crisis.

I know, I know that you are thinking, “Wait – I thought a major financial crisis is what started this blog in the first place!” and you are right. We thought we hit rock bottom right after Christmas when I started this blog and we cut up the credit cards. Well, after our grandchild was born, everything was thrown into chaos and we did not stick to our budget. Her health and safety were a priority and we used up all of our savings in addition to spending beyond what we were really capable of spending. We also maxed out a credit card to attend a family wedding over 1,000 miles away. Family is important – very important. However, in hindsight, I am thinking that there must have been a better financial way to go about things. I could have gone to garage sales and thrift stores to find baby items. We could have driven to the wedding and saved a few hundred dollars. However, what’s done is done and now we are really facing the consequences of our actions.

We have been struggling financially like teenagers who have run away from home – it is really ridiculous! Only we have kids to take care of! We have no savings, and we are down to nothing in our checking. This is SO scary without credit cards to fall back on. We have a tiny bit of cash to make it until payday, which is in five days.I guess this is what happens when you don’t pay attention! Getting out of debt takes constant vigilance. I’ve been paying credit card bills without looking at what my family needs to survive. At this point, I am not even paying our student loan payment (we put it on forbearance again! ARGH) and we are paying the minimums or less than the minimums on the credit cards. Given our current situation, I should have stopped all credit card payments if I was paying attention enough to see this looming financial disaster.

Here are some really poor financial decisions that have happened lately. First of all, both our our cars have had serious issues in the last month. We opened a credit account with the auto repair company to get the work done. Ugh! I am so ashamed! I’m not sure how we could have done that better at this point. I suppose we could have only fixed one car and let the other one sit until we had the money to fix it. Secondly, our oldest son still living at home needed his wisdom teeth out ASAP. He just had his braces come off a few months ago, and his wisdom teeth were threatening to make his teeth crooked again. We had to apply for dental credit to get this done as well. Luckily, insurance covered about half of it, but credit is credit. Thirdly, it is summer. I confess. I signed the kids up for activities. Soccer camp for one – $112. Guitar lessons for another – $65. Horseback riding for another – $80. The kids are getting older, yet they are not old enough to get a summer job. In my opinion, they need SOMETHING to keep them occupied. In my opinion, this is much less than most kids do over the summer. However, it is money that we didn’t have to spend. We have also been spending a lot more on groceries – over $1,000 a month for the last few months. See what happens when you don’t pay attention?! Yes, we have two very tall teenagers and a growing elementary school child at home, but that is outrageous and I am totally to blame.

Okay, confession time is over. Now back to good news.My husband has decided to take over the budget – hooray! Obviously, I am not very good at it. We discussed expenses together and worked out a plan. Starting with the next paycheck, a significant amount is automatically going into savings. For the time being, I will not be getting my hair colored at the salon (I’ve only been going four times a year, but it’s crazy expensive!). I will not be buying new clothes for anyone – thrift stores only for now if something is needed. We cut out the land line and cable. It’s a bare bones budget, but it is worth it. My husband also put in a budget category for fun family activities! Yay! That is really important – our kids are growing up so fast and we need to enjoy the time we have with them.

Happy summer, everyone! Keep on working those budgets and ALWAYS pay attention to where your money is going!!!