December 2014: Random Updates

Random Update #1: I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that my friends paid up! I was so relieved (but tried not to show it). So grateful! They also paid in cash, so we’ve used it to cover extra expenses (like parking since we’ve been driving into Little City to take L to her Nutcracker practices/performances and have to park in a parking garage). I still learned that I will not immediately jump to the aid of someone who doesn’t actually need it unless I’m prepared to not be repaid (and I can imagine that there will be times like that ahead), but I am so happy to be paid back!

Random Update #2: On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have been hit with the news that L needs dental work. Like, $1100 worth of it. And that’s after the insurance has been applied! Why is this happening? It’s horribly embarrassing and it was kind of traumatic for us – she is 5 years old with three cavities. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of guilt and awfulness going about but I’m dealing with it. In my defense, I was infinitely more upset about how bad a parent I am and how awful it would be for her to go through the filling process than I was about the money (at least, at first). She’s undergone one filling (and got to watch Frozen, in the process, apparently) and came through fine (and apparently un-traumatized), so now I’m focusing on the future. The future, of course, involves much more parent-involved teeth-brushing and flossing … but it also involves re-evaluating our financial plans for the first two months of 2015.

Random Update #3: We will be doing our long car-drive on Sunday, and I’m hoping I at least can slap together some PBJs for the trip as well as some snacks. We’re taking the van, which is not fuel-efficient, but does have more room for a cooler, bag of snacks, and presents. (We have to take the van because my parents are officially selling it to us and it needs to be inspected in their state first.) We’ll be back on January 2nd, I hope. I have included an extra $100 for gas in our budget this month for this trip, as well as a trip up to see some college friends (they live about 2 hours north of my parents). We are going to be fortunate, though, if we end up under (or even right-at budget) for the month.

Random Update #4: I sent off to renew my passport – it was about $115 by the time I paid the passport fee and included the cost of the new passport photos (though I did order them through Walmart.com and used Ebates, so I did get a tiny kickback from that, at least). This is for our upcoming trip in July (to France) for H’s conference!

Random Update #5: I got paid $100 for a side hustle that I did in November – and instead of putting it towards our Travel Fund, we’re putting it towards the credit card bill (where H charged the dental bill – a total of about $400 so far…. the other two fillings will be done in January & February, I think).

The current financial plan (because we’re flexible like that) is that all “extra” money will go towards the dental bills instead of the Travel Fund. I’m so disappointed (and angry with myself for this completely avoidable mistake) that we are in this self-made position… and I’m worried how it will affect our newly-created 2015 Debt Eradication Goals. I think I’ve decided not to alter the goals, though, because they should require a bit of a stretch, right? We will pay off the credit card bill with our emergency funds so that we don’t incur any fees, but we will be having to replenish it as soon as possible; then we will use the money we would have set aside for travel for the dental bills as the next appointments happen. This will set our goals back by about one or two months, depending on whether we get any money for Christmas from any relatives.

We should also be getting back a sizable tax return, but I already had plans for that (though they may have to change out of necessity).

In the end, we’re in a better situation to handle this kind of financial problem than we were 12 months ago….

I’m so looking forward to going home for Christmas!

I don’t know whether I’ll get another post in before the year’s end, so I’ll go ahead and wish you safe travels and happy holidays!