 |
phone calls & finances
wednesday, january 10, 2007 |
i'm waiting for a phone call from kitten telling me that trin is off to iraq. i'm waiting because i know, if he leaves today, the call will come and she will need all the support a mama can muster. they've been married less than a year and are expecting their first baby next month, and he won't be there. while this comes as part of the whole military thing, she's not been taking even the specter of him leaving very well; the actual day of his departure promises to make her a total wreck. i can't imagine that she'll even be able to put on a brave face for him as he leaves and hold off falling apart until she can call me. hormones, if nothing else, will get in the way.
to make matters worse, it looks like no one is going to be able to manage to pay to get me out there about the time the baby is due. we've both been very upset about that, but we're still hoping it will work out. i'm just not holding my breath.
financially, she set. they made sure all the paperwork was in so she has access to what she needs when she needs it, housing costs come out of his check automatically. she still needs to get a driver's license, but apparently knows enough people to get rides to and from the store. she's also looking into online, distance learning options for college, so she's trying to find ways to occupy herself other than playing on the ps2. there was some debate on whether or not she'd get to keep the laptop, and i haven't heard what the final answer to it was. but everything of importance is taken care of, so she doesn't have to worry about housing, money, and all that. from what she's told me, the budget is tight, but doable. it's the tight part that makes me going out there at the end of next month look unlikely.
however tight things are, however, they are doing better than we are. no surprise there, i suppose. and i have every confidence that kitten will do well in handling what money she has left after bills every month. she's always been a very good money manager, unlike her parents (which probably has contributed to her being a good money manager since she's smart enough to not want to be in the same positions as we are). she seems to have some concern over her ability to handle larger amounts of money and paying things like utilities, but i know she'll work it all out. she may go crazy once in awhile, but she's always had a lot more discipline than she gives herself credit for (probably as a result of the discipline required in dance). i'm very proud of her in that regard and am very relieved that my own struggles with money and discipline didn't rub off on her.
no, my concern is her being alone with a brand new baby with few friends out there to help out when she needs it. unfortunately, there isn't much more i can do other than to be available for her when i can. (best time to call, kitten dear, is after 1 pm your time!)
and speaking of finances, we're getting a clear picture of what a wreck we've made of ours over the past month or two. at this point, the rent pay off is going to be more delayed than what we thought (and i'm not really expecting that we can save the phone at this point, but we'll see). linnorm has to split the payment a bit differently this month because he has a short check and a loan payment coming out, so he has to pay us $100 less than what was planned. i'm not upset with him over it, i know he can't help it and he has always managed to toss in a little extra when we've asked. unfortunately, however, his payment won't cover how far we're overdrafted at this point. i had hoped that we would be able to pick up a few small things at the store today, but that's not going to happen now. we'll live, i just wish i could put something other than a sandwich, soda, and piece of fruit in the kids' lunches.
as for why, there's the short check i received in december (and an equally short check coming for january), the idiot spending of the holidays, and the usual not watching where we're at in the checkbook before we spend. in fact, when i realized how overdrawn we were, i printed the first page out to double check and make sure we had put everything into the checkbook and have discovered quite a few charges that haven't been entered. i let this train wreck start to happen when i was working long term -- i was just too tired to deal with the money and balancing the checkbook. and, yes, i know this is bad, it's one of the things i have to deal with on my end. on saxy's end, he needs to stop buying lunch. there were at least a half dozen lunch charges that never made it to the checkbook.
sometime this week, i've got to make a point of balancing the sucker, no matter how painful it might be. i honestly don't expect us to be out of this mess for at least a couple of months. i won't have a full paycheck until next month, and anything left after catching up the rent mess (if there is anything at all) will need to bail us out on utilities. saxy's checks will help cover the in between -- but his checks are supposed to go to utilities and food. then there's the fact that he's planning to go see his folks for a few days in february, so we'll both be out of work at the time (i can't drive the truck and i have to be here to get my son off on his bus, which comes too late for me to make it in to work anyway). he's planning to look for a new job, but not until he comes back since it might make it harder to find that 2nd job if he has to note down he'll be gone on x days in february. we'll also be looking at things we can cut or reduce -- like magazine subs. as much as i love "the writer," i actually haven't had time to read it much, so i won't be renewing. i'm going to have to convince saxy to leave the ew alone for a bit too -- while he does read it, it's pricey. and i'll probably drop our cable back to basic for awhile, if i can. it's time to buckle down, and that's all there is to it. we said we'd do better this year, and this is a part of that.
in the end, it might be a good thing that i can't make it out to hawaii in february. it eases their financial concerns and keep me from losing 2 weeks on my february/march check. phone calls just may have to do for now.
speaking of which, i better take my shower before she wakes up and calls (it's almost 1 pm here, so they should be up and running by now-- i'm not sure when he'll be off the ground, but i'm sure she'll call as soon as she's home once he is), then i need to tackle that checkbook before i do anything else today. yech.
|
word of the moment: feria
(in Spanish speaking regions) a local festival or fair, usually in honor of some patron saint; a weekday on which no festival or holiday is celebrated, particularly in the roman catholic church; a surname |
|
|
|
« .:. »
archive .:. index
whysper
words count
journeys
~.~
domytriesthis
~.~
domynoes.com
letters
site of the moment:
digitalheart.org
this day in . . .
2000 .
2001 .
2002
2003 .
2004 .
2005
2006
one year at a time
2000 /
2001 /
2002 /
2003 /
2004 /
2005 /
2006 /
2007 /
2008 /
2009 /
2010 /
2011 /
2012 /
2013 /
2014 /
2015 /
2016 /
2017 /
2018 /
2019 /
2020
give me them
all
Amon locket, Orbo, &
Amon in Shadow
©Alana Rivera
exclussively for domynoe
"Witch Hunter Robin"
©Sunrise, Inc
Sunrise, Inc. does not endorse and is not affiliated with whyspered moments in any official or unofficial capacity.
|
