yes, the billing go round has finally begun. the billing go round happens when you get behind because of extremely large bills. you pay each company a little until someone screams, then you make a massive payment to that one company. last week it was the electric company. this week it's the insurance company. next week it's the gas company. and i'm sure the phone company is working up to it very soon.

several things have contributed to the most recent billing go round: i'm still waiting to hear from the school district (and still carless, so waiting is not a huge deal - although i did finally call and leave a message); we moved out here with pretty much nothing; my husband is still working less than 40 hours a week; and, most of all, we hooked up utilities and ended up with nearly $1000 in deposits - NOT counting the actual service usage that came with the first bill. now, more than one of these places said they could spread out their deposit, and didn't.

and georgia doesn't have a low income system i'm used to. the utility companies don't run their own low income programs, you have to go through dhs (department of human services, i think). when i called the gas company about this, they gave the phone number so fast that i'm going to have to call back again to get it. or, better yet, look it up somewhere. assuming i want to go through all the proof b.s. they'll probably put me through. and even so, it won't save me THIS month, so i'm not even sure i should bother trying.

hell, we probably don't even qualify. the income we have now would have given us free meals in cali at the schools for the kids. out here it's reduced meals. which is fine, it just points out how different things are. there's a lot for us to get used to in a lot of ways and half the time i'm feeling more lost than on top of anything.

in addition to all this, the bills out here aren't cheap. electricity is running me around $250 a month. ALL my utilities cost me $250 a month or less combined in cali. but i didn't have to pay trash ($55/quarter) or water/sewage ($150/month!?!) either. the phone/internet bill is higher too. the only thing that stayed the same was the cable bill for the tv, and i may have to let that go just so we can catch up! (i'm delaying because saxy has so few things he really enjoys doing, he'd be miserable without his tv, which would make the rest of us miserable. i swear that man has no idea how to socialize without a tv involved.)

as for the car insurance, no, we don't currently have a car, but it is being worked on, and, if i let it lapse, saxy's accident will count against us with any new policy. so i keep paying for something we don't quite need yet to keep future payments down and knowing that, hopefully, we'll be needing it really soon.

really, the billing go round isn't that new to us. just the amounts of the bills and how quickly the companies come after you out here are different. and once i start subbing, it'll all work out and not be such a reason to panic. ok, so my history with paying the bills might just make it a panic situation even if i have everything covered. knee-jerk reaction kind of thing.

i just have to keep telling myself that we're in a better place, we're in a batter place, we're in a better place.