the money monster
thursday, april 26, 2012


it's nothing serious yet, but the money monster is creeping back into our lives. this is part of the reason i can't afford to come up with the $1500 reserve they're claiming we need (and no one's called me about it, or anything else for that matter, since last week): i've got bills and things to take care of. there are things we want/need for the house (racks for saxy's tools, a BED, so on and so forth) and, of course, the bills are coming due. the bills aren't that bad: we look to be saving about 50% from the old bills. so between the rent and lower utilities, we're saving about $350-450 (depending on the month since midsummer and late winter are REALLY bad when it comes to gas/electricity). saxy's third job should help as well, as long as the second job doesn't throw fits at him needing to be there whenever he can for the first job and doesn't go under (and from what i'm hearing, the latter is a possibility; it's like they moved into the new space, and the owner lost his mind at the same time). so far, they seem to be working with him. and on june 1st, taz's social security will kick in, and that will help quite a bit as well since the timing of it will cover the majority of the rent/mortgage (whatever it ends up being).

we really did have an easy few weeks, and probably should have managed what money had better during that time, but it was nice to just relax and not worry about it for awhile. we've been stressing out about money for so long that not stressing about it even a little bit was almost a vacation. except, of course, we were stressing out about the down payment. then we moved, and we had a few weeks where nothing had to be paid anywhere while things sorted out (closing bills, closing bills combing with opening bills for the new address—which really was a surprise, and opening bills all had to be figured out and generated). we overspent a bit on food while moving, i've been enjoying my new nook waaaay too much, saxy's been having to eat out a bit more as we try to adjust groceries and so on to his new (crazy) schedule (and him eating out so much made me feel less guilty about my nook purchases since they cost less, but they weren't as necessary, so maybe i should feel a little guilty?), and so on and so forth. so we did kinda get a vacation, we just should have used the money a bit more wisely.

so here i am scrambling a bit to make some bills again. but this month, it's our fault. and it's nothing serious, not yet anyway. saxy's not happy about it, but he has some really decent checks next week that can cover most of it. and then i need to start settling into some kind of sane paying schedule. i know i can do it (hey, i've managed to figure one for house cleaning, which i've not done in YEARS), it's just going to take a little figuring out who can wait and who wants immediate attention and how to juggle the income. taz's ssi will pretty much go straight to rent, though i do need to find another $200 on top of that (so saxy has gas money too). it will help that it looks like most of the bills won't be more than $50 (most; exceptions include the car insurance and cell phones). it's easier to stick $30 in on a 1 check week even if we have other things to take care of.

and the list of things that need taking care of is long and getting longer....

saxy needs a check up. we're thinking of going to the walgreens clinic for one of their physicals. but we really need to find out the status of things like his cholesterol, if we can.

all three of us need glasses. taz is slated for getting his first, then saxy, and finally me. even though my current glasses are ready to disintegrate, my prescription is such that new glasses will cost $400 or more, hell, WITH insurance, the ones i'm wearing now were still over $150 out of pocket! granted, never going to lens crafters again. between the expense, the prescription (which i know was off), and the glasses breaking 2 months later, i'm not at all happy with my service from them. walmart has done well with the girls; they'll be fine for me too.

and, of course, i need to figure out how to get my medicines. i really should find a doctor to prescribe my bp meds again, but i can't afford an office visit yet.

and there's the second root canal i've needed for years. at this point, it's probably going to have to be an extraction, but i can't afford either one. lol

then there's the nonmedical things we need to take care of, mostly in terms of furniture (since we have almost none). but saxy needs work boots for around the house, a real lawn mower, and so on.

so, we're still dealing with the money monster, i just have hope this time that we can tame it a little. once we get the bills in some semblance of being managed, we can start saving for these other things. it may take me awhile to get to them (i figure taz's glasses will take at least 2 months of saving up), but i'm really hoping we can actually taking care of these things. and then there's all the stuff we have from while we were in the drain. those will take forever to get taken care of. but one monster at a time. right now, it's the managing the household finances monster. all the others can wait their turn.