That Home slice is getting WAY TOO BIG. We ended up making another credit purchase at Lowe’s. This time to heat the basement. We got an entertainment center/fireplace. It’s really pretty and it heats the family room well. None of the baseboard heat works in the basement except for the kids’ room, so a heat source was needed, but we’re causing ourselves problems.
The spending increased between the time periods, but the net worth increased too. We both got paid last week though, which is probably the reason. I got a ‘regular’ paycheck, but the next check will be lower.
I’ve used my time waiting for projects to really step up looking for a part-time job. I applied for one yesterday that I applied and even interviewed for last year at this time. It was the worst interview ever, so if I do get another interview, I will step up my game. Try to leave the verbal vomit in the car.
I have also been opening up gigs in Fiverr to bring in extra income. Nothing yet, but it’s something. It makes me feel productive.
Hubs decided that he’s going to give up his part-time job in March after they receive some sort of a bonus check. He didn’t receive one this year because he hadn’t worked there long enough.
We’ve also decided to look into whether a home equity line of credit or second mortgage would help us out of our situation. Right now, I don’t even know what all we have in unsecured debt, but it’s weighing heavy.
I had a project I could’ve worked on today, instead, I decided to start MINIMIZING! YAY! The kitchen was especially annoying, so I thought it deserved my wrath the most.
Wrath. Laughable. More like polite rearrangement.
I started in the tea cupboard. This is a lonely little cupboard that is stuffed with, yes, tea, plus bread and various spreadables and baking stuff and other consumables without dedicated homes. I decided to take a picture of what I felt sure was to be a productive day.
As I pulled everything out, I started having… feelings. The whole reason I started drinking tea in the first place was to have something in common with my mother-in-law. A tea drinker and avid teapot collector, I wanted to have an assortment on hand for when she’d visit since I knew so little about it. I fell kind of in love with the varieties and various methods of preparation and before I knew it, I had a lot of tea. Too much. Now that Betty is gone, I’ve noticed that all of the loose leaf teas that she preferred and gifted, have expired. I ended up throwing most of it away. My daughter and I went through the bamboo tea bag case on the second shelf. We tossed the flavors we tried and didn’t like, but kept all of our favorites plus the common teas that others do like: Earl Grey and Chamomile. It was surprisingly emotional.
This is what the cabinet looks like now:
Not really a whole lot different from before (where did those Kisses cookies come from?), but more manageable.
From there I went through a storage bowl drawer, a utensil drawer, pots and pans cabinet, bakeware cabinet, and our glasses, plates and bowls. I got rid of rubbermaids without their lids and things that I’ve allowed to mismatch for years. I got rid of extra coffee cups, water bottles, and glasses. BUT SO MUCH MORE CAN GO. I didn’t even make it through the entire kitchen. What can I really use?
I can really just use the stuff in our kitchen camping pack. If I could only get away with it…
When I first started thinking of going through stuff, I wanted to take more time. Now I’m going through it too fast. Am I afraid of letting stuff go? Why?
I really did not want to have two Financial Friday posts in a row. This blog is not intended to highlight our disastrous financial situation. I mean, not ONLY highlight our disastrous financial situation. I’m going to do some work on that this coming week. Starting tomorrow (the mantra of every procrastinator).
The spending donut looks very similar this week to what it looked like last week. The only real difference I see is that some of our food bill from travel has dropped off. Please note that Mint keeps some color consistency from largest slice to smallest, the labels will then change accordingly.
Our net worth took a downhill turn, but that might just be a natural thing since the screenshot was taken when our total cash was pretty low (day before payday). It’s going to look pretty interesting next week too, since I just paid as much quarterly tax as I could today, still about $1300 less than recommended. I missed the June payment, too.
Aye caramba.
Well here it is kiddos. The pictures for today. This doesn’t show the current checkbook balance, which is about -$8.51. I say about because I get a monthly donation from a friend that covers some business expenses, but I don’t want to rely on it (although I obviously do.)
Breaking it down: We usually spend about $1,100 on home, but this month we added a renovation to the downstairs bathroom. What was a leaky pipe turned into a new bathroom vanity and a fresh coat of paint. All on credit. SMH. The other big expense was Health (I’m not even going to add & Fitness, because, really). The kids needed their eyes checked before school started and while Sas is fine, Bud’s eyes got worse (a surprise to exactly no one). The eye exams were $220 since we don’t have any vision insurance to speak of and Bud’s two pair of glasses were, gulp, $640. That’s transitions, polycarbonate, and some other expensive thing that I can’t think of because my ears are ringing… Crizal? Is that a thing? All on credit again. Auto is higher than normal, but we’re getting done with all of our cross-state travel so that should go down. Food & Dining is high also due to cross-state travel. We spent A LOT this summer, which has really made our Net Worth go in the wrong direction.
Net Worth. That number, -$52,662, includes everything but our outstanding medical bills and tax bill for 2016. House, cars, student loans, credit cards, retirement. A winning lottery ticket or a generous relative would be the best chance for our own retirement, but we also learned this month that we’re down to the lottery ticket only. Net Worthless.
The silver lining, if there is one, is that the credit score is still over 700. The credit use percentage is way over the 30% they recommend, but we have to, y’know, make sure our son can see to brush his teeth in a new sink.
less is... more or less 