Pay Cut

 

Isn't he the cutest thing ever?

 

Still in pain with the back, but I'm moving, this was probably the worse one yet. Wish insurance paid for an x ray so I know what is going on back there. But called for a quote last year and the cash out of pocket would have been more then we made in a week. Not happening. So I live with the pain, but this one nearly did me in. To add to it, I can't take pain killers because my kidney's do not like them and that is worse pain then labor. I've had three kids I can tell ya the pain is worse. So....

 

Any who, we finally saw our pay cut this week. Cracks me up, they remove hubby from the position but yet took many, many weeks to find someone to fill it. No one wanted it. Hubby wanted it. But he likes his new hours. Well if one likes getting up at 3am go for it. I do not enjoy the alarm going off at 3am.

 

Pay cut hurts, shocking right? Looked at the amount verses past couple weeks of budgets, we are not going to make it. Even through I have cut here and there, we not going to make it. But grateful we finally got through the re-fi on the mortgage, that really helps. Looks like we will be back to robbing Peter to pay Paul sort of thing. On the weeks where it's super tight the van won't get money, but should be able to pick it up at the end of the month if we can keep the energy bills low.

 

So 15 dollars an hour would be a dream. Although what many do not understand is once we finally get 15 an hour we will need 20. Just don't understand how one works in one place for well over 20 years and makes well under 15 an hour?

 

So I have two kids in braces coming. Tucker starts in June, Ethan will be a ways behind him, still waiting for the referral. But Tucker has appointments lined up. So as those bills roll in pay those asap, try hard to stay up on medical/dental bills. But after that we are still saving for a second car, and a newer van. I hope that once we get a second car the van will last another 2 years, giving us time to really save. Once those are saved for, it's a matter of saving for a new house and paying down this house.

 

The pay cut makes me want to work even harder to pay down the house. My biggest fear is a job loss. We are not in a position for a job loss, so need to work towards that. But really I want a new house. 5 people in this house, we are on top of each other, the Lego room explodes nearly daily. Cooking dinner some nights just suck, no counters, it's tight in there. And the land, I want land and space.

 

So I think with a mix of paying down the house and saving I would love to pay nearly cash for the next house and just be ok? But that is a ways a way. Saving for a second car is first. And staying up with the dental payments.

 

To save for the second car, we have been working next door. The neighbors want work done, it's odds and ends. This week we are putting on cabinet doors that we designed last week, we were just waiting for the stain to dry. And then we picked up wood for two twin size beds so start on those. We get paid by the hour. There is a list a mile long for next door, but only one thing a week, we do it, we get paid and she picks the next project. So I'm hoping to have the second car saved for sooner then later....

 

I so love stories like this those who finally get it, and do all they can to pay down debt and have that feeling of being free. Our feeling won't be for a long while. I know it's coming.

I know what it's like to have thousands of dollars of medical debt, tens of thousands of dollars, and where is the money going to come from? From working 80-100 hours a week and neglecting the kids because you have to take calls or do this or that. And there is no money for a sitter. From staying up until 2 or 3am to make food for lunches for kids and going to bed and getting up at 6am to do it all again. From getting a commission check to putting it in the bank and coming home and picking up one bill at a time and making that call, that call over and over until you run out of money. Panic attacks and sleepless nights.

We are so much better from there. New insurance which mostly covers the kids, good luck finding a doctor for us. Cut our every day expenses, cut school, cut driving, cut this, cut that. We don't need anything new, or we save for it until we can afford to pay cash for it. We don't have credit cards, we don't have cell phones, well ok we do, but they are the cheap over the counter phones, mostly so hubby and I can chat with each other, or if something happens when we are out. Costs us about 20 dollars every 3 months. We haven't eaten out in well over two years.

We will get there, but it will now be even slower going with the pay cut.

 



It's been awhile

Well it's April the annual throw your back out week was here. I tossed it out good this time around. I did nothing, it just goes out every single freaking April. Wish I knew why? But insurance won't pay for anything, and we don't have the money for x-rays and such. So I live with it. I slow down, I don't stop because it's better to walk then sit, but can't lift. I also think my back knows it's dirt moving season and it doesn't want to move dirt.....So I'm still in recovery.

 

These two are so freaking cute. Buddy likes to sit on Sitka, it's really cute. 

This one has learned how to mow the yard. It's practice because he is now mowing for the neighbor. Any money made is split between savings and spending. 

This one is doing drawing on Thursdays instead of math. With all school on me now, it helps my Thursday, I have one off doing this and one off doing that and I'm fighting math with the big one. Cole is also so far ahead in math so he can have a day off a week. 

A gardeners nightmare, A tomato plant and an empty tag. Sigh. 

I made a quick quilt. I wanted to do more detail, but with the back out, this is as far as I got. I was on a time limit, well ok not really, because the project has been sitting here for like ever. But I wanted to get the project off my table. 

 

We were gifted a computer. Oh how I'm ever Thankful. Not easy to do school on one computer. Now our old computer the battery is dead. We were hoping it was just the cord, but it's the battery itself. So if you bump it, you are dead. Need to fix that. Ethan's been on the new computer a few times, and I found Cole on it once (a Lego site). OK then, probably go full force on it next school year. I'm also swagging when I can, just bought Ethan's birthday gift, A relief to get that two months early, And a great price.

And then the canning fairy stopped by. About 17 boxes of jars and a lot of odds and ends. I should have enough jars for about another year (JOKING) I probably shouldn't need another jar. But who says no to adopting another jar? At least I adopt jars and not cats?

 



So where do I start on the catching up. Things are just crazy daily. We finally made it through a re-fi. We changed up the Mortgage Lender, thinking after two fails, that may be the problem. Sure enough it was nearly stress free. She was on top of things and it was all smooth. After years of trying, it was nice to finally get through one. The main problem was our credit report was full of medical bills. They say medical doesn't count on a report, but it does. There is nothing on that report but medical.

 

 What I would do is every 3-6 months pull the credit report. I had a semi form letter all set, I would take each debt, tailor a letter to it and send it off to the credit agency, basically asking them to remove the medical debt. What in turn the agency is suppose to do is ask the person I owe the debt to, to prove I owe the debt, if no answer they have x amount of days to remove the mark off the report.

 

So everything I pulled the report it was interesting to see what was removed and what wasn't. Then the letters went out again. At the height we had a 10 page credit report. When we went through this re-fi we had 3 medical debts left. Our credit score went from 400 to over 700. But the whole process took over three years. We can now afford our mortgage and hopefully all medical bills. I have two with braces coming. Tucker should get his notice soon, and Ethan should be running roughly 6 months behind him.

 

In the mean time we are saving hard for a second car. We can not afford a loan. Plus I don't want a loan.

 

We've been semi working next door, small projects, but that money go towards the second car. If hubby isn't working next door then it may be time for a second job. After the second car, we have a van to save for. Hoping my van will hold out about two more years. But take it one day at a time. Hubby's pay cut isn't helping much either.

 

We've been working on a back yard project. scraping the play area ground, we are hoping to bring in about two yards of dirt, make it all smooth and put down grass seed and just make it all pretty back there, it's a wood chip mess out there, nothing is smooth it's horrible. So that is our current project. We are hoping to paint the house this year? I need to bring in some dirt. We are kinda waiting for my back to heal up some more.

 

I planted my last seed today. Yeah. Now to try and get everything out to the green house, I have ten trays left in the house. The tomatoes I have in the green house are doing well. So hoping to have the racks down by mid April. I got some of the onions planted, will do another round of planting in a few days.

 

Just a lot going on it's all me for homeschooling so I have that. I'm making lunch, I'm tending to the seedlings. You name it I'm doing it.

 

So hopefully do some garden updates soon?