Debt-free By 33's Personal Finance Blog

I'd like to thank everyone for the support and recommendations on my last post. I do have access to some of those resources mentioned that I'd forgotten about (EAP, etc.). Since DH is in the Reserves, I did also find that the Family Center offers 12 free counseling sessions (joint, individual, etc.). I haven't had time to reach out to them yet.

I have been feeling better though, and I think it's because of my control issues. I always feel better when I feel like my life is in my hands. To that end, I've been focusing more on finances, fitness, and food. My goal is to try and lose 20 lbs. I did it last year and accomplishing it again would put me back at a reasonable weight. I've also been more focused on eating from our pantry and not giving in to the urge to eat fast food. Over the last week, I've used up grapes, triscuits, a cheese block, hamburgers patties, and a jar of turkey gravy. Today, I used up half of a bag of broccoli and half of a bag of shredded cheddar to make crockpot broccoli potato soup. I used up bananas, almonds, and chocolate chips in making breakfast muffins. I also used one of 4 bags of marshmallows in making rice crispy treats. It all turned out delicious and reminded me why I enjoy cooking so much.

Tomorrow, one paycheck goes in and then the other goes in Friday. Looking forward to some YNAB budgeting.

I got another 34 day trial a few weeks back, and so far, I really feel like it's helping. It's eye-opening just how much we feel like we need to 'treat' ourselves. That money would serve a much better purpose somewhere else. I have been trying to be easy on ourselves for the eating out these last few weeks given everything we've been dealing with, but it still hurts to see that we've spent almost $250 on eating out. For comparison, we've spent $273 on groceries which includes household items.

I did take our BEF down to $1500 and put an $1183 payment to the main credit card we use. I had been good about paying this in full until we encountered all the pet issues with our dog. It currently has a balance of about $4700 before the payment.

I also put just under $500 to our goal of living off last month's income. I wasn't entirely sure how to set it up, so I just created a Rainy Day Fund category to allocate money to until it reaches the full month of expenses and then I'd budget it to the following month.

I'm itching to budget out the paychecks coming in later this week, but since that's not the point, I'll be patient. I do have the projected budget in my Excel spreadsheet. Since I adjusted my witholdings, I'm hoping to have extra to buy the year subscription. Since I'm more on the go, it's easier to be able to access things online rather than relying on one computer with the software.

I need to get my amended federal return and state return sent in. Does anyone know how it works if I haven't actually mailed in my original state return, but then amended the federal? Do I mail both the original state return and the amended one from TurboTax? My amended return will be an extra $240 while the the state return was just under $800, but will be closer to $900 with the amended one. It was going to go to savings, but I need new tires and am just starting sinking funds, so I'll use it for tires and any remaining will go to debt. I'm very close to getting some things paid off - one cc by the end of April and another in July (sooner if I get the $240 before then and put it to that).

Emotionally, I'm really struggling. I'm going to look into mental health options available through my insurance. Our FSA account is still rather sizable and no longer needed for the baby, so I do have a bit of wiggle room for some much needed therapy.

DH and I are still devastated, but we're trying to get back to our daily lives. We did decide that given everything that's happened, we don't need the full 3200 in the EF. For now, we're going to take it down to 1500 and use the rest to pay down some debt. We have a Capital One CC that has been pretty close to maxed out for awhile. Since I was only paying the minimums which barely covered the interest, we weren't making any progress on it. I just transferred a little more than half of the remaining balance to our Navy Fed CC which has half the interest rate. We're using the extra $1700 to knock out the remaining $1400. The other $300 we are using to take a weekend trip to NY to get away and focus on us. We were supposed to go to NY to see a Broadway show over Christmas, but I was sick and not up to it. I'm planning to join several show lotteries over the next few weekends, and if we win one, we'll pack up and go. Otherwise, we'll just keep the money set aside.

I'm numb. On Monday, we found out my water had broken early. By Wednesday, I went in to labor and delivered my sweet angel boy. We have a long journey ahead of us to even attempt to come to terms with this.

In the meantime, I'll try to keep myself busy by continuing to get our finances in shape for when we are able to start a family. I restarted YNAB, so I got another 34 day free trial. I do have some unaccounted for funds that will go towards a payment on the lowest CC - NFL Points ($305). Since we don't have to be so aggressive with savings anymore, most found money will go towards paying some things off.

So, in my ever-frustrating mushy-brainedness, I did forget that I set our fence payment to come from my account. Since I modified my direct deposit amounts, this shouldn't happen in the future because I don't have a lot of extra in my personal bank account now. I adjusted it to where I have enough to pay my personal bills each month and not much leftover.

I've decided to focus mostly on debt repayment. As far as the EF goes, I only have the $3400 right now. The goal is to get it to $5k by baby time. (Side note: I know this amount is not nearly enough, but it covers more than a month's worth of expenses, so I figure it's a start while we get some of the other things paid down.) I started looking at the numbers, but need to do more forecasting. I think we can free up an additional $300-400/mo by paying some things down, so the focus will primarily be there. We will split extra money with 75% going to debt repayment and 25% to savings.

It's amazing how much money you 'find' when you start buckling down...

With my recent PTO payout, I paid a little extra to various debts. However, I'm almost positive I miscalculated and have an extra $423! I'm going to wait until midweek next week to make sure that my mushy brain didn't accidentally not account for something. However, I checked several times and am almost positive that that money is available. (I'm also the person who wore slippers out of the house the other morning. Luckily, I only drove up my street before I realized I wasn't actually wearing shoes.)

With that, I will be paying off the $305 balance on my NFL Points card and putting the remainder into savings.

I also adjusted my direct deposits amounts to send $125 more to our main account each paycheck. I now contribute $2800/mo to our joint expenses. DH's contributions are variable, but at least $2k/mo. Percentage-wise, DH contributes significantly more of his paycheck since he didn't have any debt before we got married other than his car.

Even though we make decent money, I'd always felt like we were drowning. Looking at my forecasts though, this is the first time in a long time that I feel good about where we're headed. *Knock on all the wood...*

One question that has been on my mind, should I reduce all debt payments to the minimum to build our joint account back to living on last month's income before the baby comes? I feel like our budgeting would be smoother if we could get back there, but I'm not sure if the focus should be on that or paying off as much debt as possible to maximize our future disposable income.

I've been swamped...the reason? We're expecting!

Now, that it's actually happened, DH and I buckled down into panic mode to make sure we can properly afford this. I think it all seemed like a distant pipe dream, and I seriously regret not doing it sooner, but we can only look forward.

Here's where we're at so far:

1) Paid off Mariner Finance personal loan...So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!
2) Sent our tax return straight to savings - $3200 and counting
3) Used PTO payout to pay down some other debt. From my calculations, I should be pay able to pay several things down/off by June. (Baby is due shortly after that.) The payoffs add up to several hundred extra dollars a month.
4) Discussed maternity leave with work.
5) Began accumulating baby things - My dad and stepmom gifted us a crib with changing table, we bought a discount Ikea dressed for $120, and we have clothes covered for the first year due to a few resale lots and hand-me-downs from my friend's almost 1 yr old son. Friends have committed to loaning/giving us the following: infant seat/stroller, bassinet, swing, and probably more that I'm forgetting. These same wonderful people also provided my maternity wardrobe, so no costs there.
6) Furnished upstairs: we have a fireplace area that is currently unfurnished. Our fall to-do list includes getting the fireplace working, so we were debating furniture to be able to use the space. Luckily, DH's dad is a home contractor. One of his clients gave him a newer furniture set. They're keeping that one and asked if we'd like their current living room set. Voila! Living room furniture. It's old and outdated, but at this point, we'll take it!
7) We do need to some prep to get the nursery ready, but FIL will take care of that for us.

DH took on out of town work since it has more hours and per diem. He's also working any and all overtime. Any and all extra money is currently being split between savings and debt. Is this a good plan? Should it all be one place or another?

P.S. As I typed it all out, I realize how fortunate we are. Could we better off? Most definitely, but we have a good support system and were able to avoid most new-parent expenses.

P.P.S. We still miss our dog like crazy. Two days after we lost him, we saw our little boy for the first time.

DH and I are both movie rewards members at a local theater. We each get a free movie on our birthday. Since our birthdays are only a few weeks apart, we wait to go together. Well, time got away from us with everything that's been happening (more on that soon), and my reward expired.

I decided to reach out to them and ask for a few more days to use it, so that we could go this week. DH's expires in a few days, so we knew we'd definitely do it this week.

To my extreme surprise, they not only added the reward back in with an expiration of 2/28, but they also credited me a free popcorn. What incredible customer service!

So, tonight is date night. DH and I both still struggle with the loss of our dog along with some other changes on the horizon, so it'll be a nice little escape. Two movie tickets and a small popcorn is at least $25 in my area, so I will transfer that over to savings.

2017 saw some of my highest highs and lowest lows. I didn't achieve any of my financial goals, but I did manage to finish the year by paying off one of my personal loans. I don't have time to track everything here given that we currently have lots going on, but I will say that I have two more things on track to be paid off by April. I've decided to go for some of the smaller wins. The first quarter of the year will be dedicated to my NFL Points CC (less than $500 left). I should then be able to knock out Wells Fargo (a school loan that is around 600 in April.

Now that we've been in the house for a year and don't have DD1's medical bills, I'm hoping we can really make some progress this year.

This is a difficult post to write. DD1 (dog, not daughter) has always been super needy. Sometimes we'd mess with him by saying 'Bye Bouncer' and he'd get all spazzy and cuddly. Unfortunately, this past Friday, we said it for real. Starting early last week, he started throwing up everything that he ate. I took him in to the vet on Monday hoping he just needed a medicine refill. Nope, the tumor had come back again - 2 actually - and was in a spot that was difficult to operate and causing him a lot of discomfort. He said it was about time to have the 'conversation'. Since DH was out of town and would be back Wed., I asked the vet to get us through the week and we'd put him down on Friday. He had an amazing week filled with delicious food, a dog party, and lots of love, cuddles, and fetch.

It was by far the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. I'll miss that dog so freaking much. The house feels empty and DD2 seems lonely, but we'll get through it.

In finance-related news, the CC we normally use is way high, but with DH's recent work, we're still managing to pay it off in full. This month is $2300 (I normally only charge about $300 each month) which I have $1500 already set aside. DH gets an extra paycheck this month and my brother is planning a few big payments to catch up what he owes, so hopefully things will level out soon.

I think we've just accepted at this point that more debt is okay given the circumstances. We got another fence quote. Given that we were approved for financing, and DD1 doesn't have much longer, we decided to go for it and get the yard fenced in, so he can enjoy being out.

His favorite thing in the world is just to lay in the sunshine with his ball, and God willing, we're going to let him do that as long as the weather holds and he feels up to it.

His oncology appointment is this afternoon. We already know that we don't want to put him through chemo, but we do want to discuss any homeopathic options or supplements that could keep his quality of life up. Over the weekend, his energy dropped substantially, he stopped drinking water, and he threw up everything he ate.

I made him eggs which he managed to keep down, so over the last few days, I've been making him meals of eggs, pumpkin, and applesauce. His energy went way back up Sunday afternoon, so I've kept him on the home-cooked stuff and only added in a bit of dry food to round out his meals.

Since we've unfortunately taken on this additional debt, I'm really trying to buckle down and scale back. I cracked open the OAMC cookbook and used a bunch of chicken recipes to process the Zaycon Fresh chicken. We now have about a month's worth of dinners already made and in the freezer. Between that and the holidays, I'm hoping to make it to the new year with a very minimal grocery budget. We're also going to be scaling back Christmas gifts.

We weigh out for our 6-month Transformer in 2 days, so we've agreed that we each get to keep all of that money as our own spending money and will use it as the basis of our gift-giving money.

We do also have a few windfalls expected next year (taxes, PTO payout, and reenlistment bonus), so I'm hoping to right the ship as those come in.

So, it came back as soft-tissue osteosarcoma. Next week, we'll take DD1 (dog, not kid) in for an oncologist consult. We're 90% sure that we don't want to put him through chemo, given that he's currently acting like a puppy again. I am open to homeopathic options though and hope to get some advice regarding supplements/diets we can implement to hopefully give him more time.

Our adventure day is planned for 11/12. We already are planning for a happy meal, doggy ice cream, and some toys. I purchased the toys yesterday. Anyone else have any fun, frugal bucket list ideas for a dog?

The wedding weekend was a lot of fun and pretty low-spend. Our return, however, coincided with some sad/bad news. Another lump appeared on DD1. They removed another vertebrae, and we're waiting on the pathology. While he's running around like a pup now, it's likely the cancer's spread and will crop again. The prognosis for osteosarcoma in dogs (particularly when part of the axial skeleton) is very poor. We're taking it really hard, as I raised this dog from a puppy, and he's finally accepted DH and they're best buds.

We're trying to remain positive, but at this point in time, our focus has shifted to making sure he's happy and comfortable and making memories with him. We have two originally unplanned expenses that we will accommodate for this: the first is a photo session. We want to do some pictures with just him and us while he's currently healthy and happy. I'm trying to set that up for early November before it gets too cold. The second is one of those photo keepsakes that's a picture on one side and a cast of the paw print on the other side. I'd been wanting to do that for awhile now, so we will finally get around to it. I did enter an online contest to win one that draws on the 25th, so if I haven't heard anything by the 31st, I'll just buy it myself. I got really upset reading all the comments as those were about dogs who were 12, 13, 14 years old. My dog is 8...life's so unfair sometimes.

The total cost will probably be under $100. I'm hoping it'll help us cope with the thought of losing him.

This weekend was pretty busy and spendy since we were getting ready to leave. We spent $160 in groceries/gifts/shoes and $60 in dress alterations. $60 of that $160 was spent on DH's goddaughter's 1st birthday gifts, and $10 was for a pair of flats for the upcoming wedding. I also placed a Zaycon Fresh order for chicken breasts. With a credit I had, it came out to $1.30/lb for 40 lbs. We are missing his goddaughter's birthday party, so we went down to see her yesterday. She's grown so much and is such a happy baby.

When we got back, I got hit with a wave of productivity. I made a giant pot of crockpot taco chicken, banana nut muffins, 2 sandwiches for DH and my brother's lunches today, and washed a load of dishes.

Today, after DH and I's workout, I need to get Tide Pods and bagels from Costco, pick up cat litter from PetSmart, and get my dress from the tailor's.

At home, I need to make pizza bake, chicken/broccoli alfredo bake, shape hamburger patties, and hard boil eggs. That should leave the house pretty well stocked while I'm gone. I also need to pack my and DH's clothes, and we need to switch cars.

I'm going to make a sandwich for the road tomorrow, and I bought an energy drink and orange slices when we went grocery shopping for my road snacks. I'm hoping to be able to make the drive to Boston with only paying for gas.

DH and I have won every round of our dietbet so far. The one we're in doesn't seem to have as much participation. We've more than doubled our money in almost every round, and we're not even to the big money.

Lately, I've been cutting it very close, so this month I'm trying to get ahead of things. DH has a Planet Fitness membership. When he had all of that out of town work, we upgraded him to the Black card. He's now able to use any Planet Fitness, has access to the hydromassage equipment, and can bring unlimited guests. I've gone with him a couple of times, so we've devised a new workout schedule. He will still go every weekday except Thursday. I will go with him on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Mondays, we'll do our own workouts, but on Wed. and Fri., we'll do a half hour run and the 30 minute circuit. I normally hate the gym because I don't feel comfortable when I feel like people are judging me, but it's not too bad with DH cheering me on.

The consistent workouts should help me to get a few pounds under my 10% goal which would be great since my friend's wedding is the weekend before weigh-in. I'm currently about a half-pound above my 10% with 2 weeks left.

We had a case of trigger fingers this week that was a mistake. DH mentioned that our mini-vacation wasn't sitting well with him because he had a test the following week and didn't want to miss his class. One of the other options we'd discussed was him flying in Friday morning, so I looked up flights. One way to Boston was under $150 with taxes and fees, so I told him that was an option. He said he'd feel better being able to go to class, and since there were only 3 seats left, I went ahead and bought his ticket.

I was really bummed the next several hours because I'd been looking forward to some time with him, and now it was gone.

Fast forward to yesterday, DH texts me that he messed up bad and feels really ashamed. After some prompting, he explained that he hadn't really looked at the syllabus, and his test wasn't until the end of October. Essentially, he could have skipped class and come up with me after all. I told him what's done is done and let it go.

Looking at the plane fare, they'd take a $100 fee and refund the remainder in the form of credit. Since we rarely fly, it's better for him to stick with flying up.

He can only miss 5 classes in the entire school year, and he'll for sure miss at least 2 with drill weekends, so this is one less class he'll miss. And now, he won't have to use all his leave during one week. I'm bummed, but I also took some responsibility as I should have made him double check his schedule before committing to the ticket.

I suspect it'll end up about the same budget-wise, as I now won't be out and about during my extra days up there. I volunteered my assistance with any last-minute wedding prep, and if my friend can play hooky, we'll still go hiking. Otherwise, the new plan is to spend those days focusing on my certification studies.

The other wedding-related expenses that popped up this week are alterations and shoes. I need to find a pair of champagne flats and take in my dress since I lost weight. Technically, it fits now, but it's very obvious that I lost weight since it hangs off me. I need to get the straps taken in and have it taken it a bit at the waist. For the shoes, I'm going to ask my friend that I'm staying with what she has available for me to borrow. If that doesn't work, I'll just get a cheap pair from Amazon or DSW.

I set the last payment today to pay the Marriott card in full. I'm so grateful we were able to weather this spat of bad luck and hope that things go smoothly for a bit.

We have two big upcoming expenses to work into the budget. The first is car taxes due in early October. Since we moved to a slightly cheaper county, the cost for both cars comes out to somewhere around $800. My husband's car is still new which is why it's so expensive. Mine was only $130.

The other big expense depends on how well we execute it. One of my closest friends is getting married the first weekend of October in Boston, and I'm in the bridal party. We had originally planned to drive up on Friday, have two nights of hotel expenses, and drive home Sunday...

But then, the maid of honor planned the bachelorette party for the Tuesday before. I already missed her bridal shower due to a flat tire, and this friend stood by me during my wedding and made it to all of my pre-wedding events, so I'd like to be there for her. After discussing some various options with my husband (including some elaborate plans around one of us driving up and one flying so we could arrive at separate times), we decided to just both take that week off and make it a mini-vacation. DH just got back from almost two months of 60-hr. workweeks, and I finally finished my work cycle on two major projects, so it seems like a good time for a break.

Some things we're doing to frugalize our now almost week-long vacation include:

1) Staying with a friend Tuesday-Thursday: My maid of honor also lives in Boston and turned 30 this week. DH and I will be staying with her Tuesday-Thursday night so as not to impose on my friend getting married while she's prepping last minute things for the wedding.

2) Using points/certificate for the hotel: On Friday, we'll drive to the actual city where the wedding is. I've booked a hotel for two nights using a combination of points/our annual free night from the Marriott card.

3) Cheap Entertainment: Since we'll have Wednesday/Thursday/Fri. morning to ourselves, we plan to do some sightseeing. I've always wanted to show DH around my college campus and Faneuil (sp.?) Hall. We also plan to get in some hiking since we'll be there when the Fall colors are coming in.

4) Cheap Food: Since we'll be staying with my friend most of the time, we'll get some sandwich stuff for picnics during our daytime excursions. I'm also going to offer to cook one of the nights we're there or help chip in for groceries if she cooks the whole time.

I haven't worked out the full budget for the trip, but I think we'll have around $400 for everything including gas, tolls, food, entertainment, etc. I'm hoping to come in well under that number, but we'll see. That number also doesn't include the wedding gift.

Seeing PatientSaver's post about the cost of drugs and Snafu's comments on my last post about my allergy meds has made me consider the cost of my own meds. I have terrible allergies. If you name it, I'm probably allergic to it (with the exception of food allergies). To combat them, I take 4 maintenance medications, and I have a rescue inhaler for emergency situations or winter activities (I also have seasonal bronchitis). The cost of these meds have gone up and down over the years, but I think I'm currently in a pretty good spot. I buy the generic Zyrtec in a yearly supply from Costco ($10). I also will start getting my generic nasal spray from them as I found that a 5-month supply was $17. Previously, I was buying a generic one from Wal-Mart at $10 for a 1-month supply. The steroid inhaler and Montelukast tablets are on my plan's home delivery program. It's wonderful because I no longer have to make a monthly trip to the pharmacist, plus I get a 90-day supply each time. The Montelukast is covered, while the inhaler has a $20 refill cost for the 3-month supply. My rescue inhaler is by far the most expensive of these at $50/refill. The good news is that I only fill that one once/maybe twice a year since I don't use it that often.

All told, I spend about $180/year or $15/month on maintenance meds. I'd always wanted to try allergy shots. Maybe I should look into plan coverage on that and price out what would be cheaper. My only concern is that I know people way less allergy-prone than myself who've gotten the shots, but had no noticeable improvement.

We made an $1835 payment to the card, so the remaining amount we need to pay by the 20th to pay it in full is 1068.94. DH gets his last reimbursement this Friday, so that will go towards it, and we'll pay the rest of our account.

Our dietbet month 4 weigh-out was this weekend. DH is at his 10% goal and has been for awhile, so he weighed out on Saturday. Since I was sick last week, I wasn't able to work out, so I pushed myself hard Saturday and Sunday morning to end up .1 lb. under goal, but I made it! Now, that DH is home, that should eliminate some stress, and I'll be able to focus more on measured loss.

I can also get back into meals now that DH is home. I prepped four salads over the weekend for these next few days, and we still have some sandwich stuff on hand. I'm defrosting some ground beef to make some sort of taco rice casserole concoction.

I also want to make a pasta salad tonight or tomorrow for lunches/light dinners. I do have to stop at the grocery store tonight for allergy meds and fruit.

I sent a payment in to the Amazon Rewards CC. It's now paid in full and paid off. We'd been paying it off for several months, only to order more and have new charges hit. Since I paid the last $82 off, I will not be ordering anything else on the Amazon card that wasn't in the budget.

So far, the Slate and Amazon cards are paid off. The other cards are not being used, and I'm working on paying their balances down. Most are at 0 % interest except for one card with a balance of about $600 and one with a balance of $3600. I've been watching for transfer offers on my current cards, but no luck so far (I want to avoid opening another CC).

The Marriott card is the only one that we use regularly, and we've been paying it in full for awhile now. I'm hoping to continue that this month despite the much larger $4000 balance (normally it's about $325). We have to pay 2800 more to pay it in full. The next payment to that will be on Friday for around 1800. I'll know the exact amount this evening when DH's pending deposit shows up in our account.

We definitely spent a lot more than anticipated this weekend. We started off good eating things from his room on Friday night, bagels I'd brought with me on Saturday morning, and packing picnic lunches for our Saturday waterfalls hike, but it went downhill from there. Saturday night, we had dinner out as planned at the restaurant run by his hotel. They gave us a free dessert because no one helped us and we sat there for about 10 minutes before someone even took our drink order. We didn't really mind waiting as we weren't in any sort of rush, but it's a small place and the owner felt terrible that we'd gotten missed.

Sunday was rainy, so in looking for something to do, we found a red deer farm. Unfortunately, it was closed on Sunday, but still sounded cool, so we decided to go on Monday morning before I drove home. The cost for that was $9 pp, plus $1 for a bucket of feed.

On Sunday, we drove to the nearest town and did DH's laundry. While waiting, we popped into an Antiques shop and ended up with 3 purchases totaling $13 - a New Orleans souvenir glass for the dining room display and two Navajo sand paintings for DH's mom.

On Sunday night, DH wanted his weekly pizza. Papa John's still had their spend $15, get enough rewards points for a free pizza, so we did that. We now have enough points for 3 pizza orders, so no eating out budget needed for September.

Monday was the spendy day. In addition to the $20 deer farm admission, we ended up with jerky, dog treats, an antler, and a hat totaling over $100. We also ate at Cracker Barrel ($25) after the tour because DH wasn't ready to say goodbye yet.

The total spending all came from DH's personal account, so no impact to our budget and really just ate up the extra he'd been accumulating from being so careful with his spending. Of his $150/wk allowance, the most DH spent in any given week was $80 and most weeks, he was well under that.

DH comes home this Friday for good, and it's back to the grind.

This week, all of my lunches have been paid for as I'm participating in a company certification appraisal. I rarely eat out anymore, so it's been a treat to not have to pack lunch. Today's the last day, so we're eating out rather than ordering in.

I had bought a ton of food last weekend, but my lunches were so big that I often only ate half and ate the other half for dinner. Yesterday, I ate the whole thing for lunch, but ended up feeling full the rest of the evening except for a small snack plate of chips and homemade guac.

We're definitely good on groceries as we haven't even touched the fruit/sandwich things and still have plenty of leftovers. I decided to go back up to PA this weekend to visit DH again. He comes home next Saturday, but I miss him and it's a less than 5 hour drive. Tonight, I will turn the leftover rice and corn into stuffed bell peppers for my brothers to have enough food to get them through the weekend.

...or you know, the credit card. The first of several large payments is set up to take out on Friday - $1200 which will bring the card down to 2900. The next two Fridays will have $1000 payments (DH's per diem reimbursements) bringing it down to $900. Next Friday, DH will also get overtime in his regular paycheck of about $800 which means we should be able to pay off the credit card in full! While it sucks that my husband worked so hard for a month and won't have much to show for it at the end, I am so grateful that this string of bad luck didn't derail us further.

Savings is up to 310.08.

DH got some potentially awesome news, but I don't want to talk about it and jinx it. Please keep your fingers crossed for us because it'd be a big blessing if it comes through!

Things are moving along here. This week, I've just been focused on making it through, but the past two days, I've started being productive again. I sent a large payment in to the Marriott card before the statement closed. For some background, the Marriott card is the only credit card we routinely use anymore. For more than 6 months now, we've been paying it in full. We don't put all of our expenses on it - just health insurance, DH's soccer tickets, and Sling TV (all of which are in the budget). Since we're still working on getting a handle on the credit cards, I'm leery of putting everything on it and not being able to pay it all in full by the due date. Typically, the card closes with about $300 on it, and we pay it in full. With the animals, car repairs, and 2 impulse purchases, we've run that card way up. Last statement balance was $1670, and this one is $4100. We were able to pay the last one in full and with a lot of diligence and a bit of luck, I think we'll be able to swing this one.

It's a bummer that all of DH's extra money has to go to those things instead of furthering our other goals, but I'm at least grateful that we're in a much better financial position to be able to weather these things without adding to our debt.

The emergency fund is up to $285. I'm going to add $20 to it on Friday to get it over $300.

DH is out of town for work. He decided he didn't need the weekly trip into town to the nice hotel moving forward, but since it was nonrefundable for this weekend, he stayed there. I was really missing him, so I decided to drive the 4ish hours up and visit him this weekend. We had a blast, and it was pretty low-spend. Besides gas, I spent less than $10 on the way up for a few travel snacks and a case of water for DH. DH paid for our dinner (Papa John's) out of his weekly allowance since he hadn't spent much. On Sunday morning, we were both awake pretty early, so we had the free breakfast at the hotel and decided to make a quick trip up to his normal hotel. There's a waterfall not far from it that was beautiful. We also went into the state park. DH found a trail that leads to a bunch more waterfalls (including a 40' one!), but we couldn't take it since I hadn't bought hiking boots. We also found a lake on top of a mountain and a beautiful beach.

Around 2 pm, I went to leave. I had just gotten on the highway when my tire pressure sensor came on. Apparently, our terrible luck with tires hasn't run out yet. Fortunately, there was a Wal-Mart at the next exit that was able to repair the tire for only $10. Since I wasn't far, DH came and got me since it was at least an hour and a half wait. Even though it sucked leaving much later than I wanted, I'm glad we got another couple of hours together. My sensor light is still on, but the car's driving fine. I made it the 4 hours, so it's holding the air, but I need to take my car in to our normal guy to have him double-check the tire and see if he can reset the light.

I did manage to send a $300 payment in Friday to the credit card we'd been using, so that was the last payment to cover the entire bill in full. The next bill hits the 23rd, so we'll need to come up with about $5k to avoid interest. I had apparently been getting DH's return date wrong, so he'll have another week of per diem and overtime. That should give us everything we need to pay off the card in full by the due date.

It's just one thing after another. I'm actually embarrassed to type it all out, but the short version is...we've spent about $6k this month. Most of it necessary, some of it frivolous. The only positive is that by my calculations from DH's overtime/per diem, we should only be short a couple hundred by the time the credit card bill is due. I think I can make up that deficit by keeping grocery/miscellaneous funds low. DH decided he didn't need the hotel in the city one night a week, so in the future weeks, we'll save that $200 from his per diem/reimbursement money.

DD2 ended up sick this past weekend which amounted to another $700 vet visit. She's feeling much better. She's still on meds and since she hates pills, it's a bit of a pain treating her.

Upcoming expenses include our $800 car tax bill and my friend's wedding which will necessitate a couple of day's hotel expenses, plus spending money. I do still have our Marriott Rewards card free night, so we'll probably use that to take out one of the nights.

I forgot to add that we got the pathology results for DD1's tail lump. It was indeed cancer - grade 2 spindle cell sarcoma. That type has a low rate of metastasizing. The other good news is that the sample had defined boundaries, so they're pretty confident that they got it all. We'll definitely have to monitor him, but it looks like he may be in the clear.

His energy is back more than ever. I didn't even realize how much he'd mellowed until these past few days. I knew he was calmer, but I'd attributed it to age. It's good to see his exuberance back, but it's also exhausting because I thought we were past the constant energy phase. I will just enjoy my 8.5 year old puppy while I can.

I may be totally wrong, but I feel like someone said this the other day...here's my version of that.

DH is slated for some more out of town work starting the week after next. He gets a lump sum (just under a grand) each week for food and lodging. Whatever he doesn't use is still his to keep. He'll be in Nowheresville and there's not a lot of options. His crew chief had suggested a place that runs $50/night. I called a handful of places yesterday with questions regarding everything from wifi to hot plate/fridge policies to longterm availability (although DH pointed out this morning that I forgot to ask about laundry facilities...). One of my questions was about discounts regarding long-term reservations. I was hoping for a 10 or 20% discount, but this particularly place offered me almost 50%!! It's normally actually $65 and she offered it to me at $35/night plus taxes/fees for 7 nights. So DH is officially booked there for one week . It'll be great to be able to bank that money, but I also told him if it's absolutely miserable to let me know and we'd move him elsewhere. There's some more decent options a half hour away, but I'm trying to avoid having him commute after working a 10-12 hr. day.

Since there's no fridge/microwave/hot plate there, we'll have to figure out food. I think we're going to stock up on those tuna packets for lunch, but dinner's a little more difficult. We have some MREs. The hotel is also a restaurant though, and I told DH that even if he ended up eating there every evening, it was okay. While their fancier entrees run $20 and up, they do have a $5 burger and most subs/salads were under $10. If anyone has any suggestions for meals that don't require any refrigeration/cooking and have a stable shelf life, I'd be grateful for suggestions. Other than peanut butter/banana sandwiches, I couldn't really think of anything.

DD1 had his tail amputation last Thursday. He is recovering nicely and goes back this afternoon for his follow-up to check the incision. It was a bit of a shock to see him and those first two days were really rough to watch the poor guy struggle to go to the bathroom and get comfortable.

Total surgery cost ended up being just over $1500. With that, his xrays, his annual shots/wellness visit, and my car repairs, we've managed to put $3k on a credit card that I had previously had paid off. (For those keeping track, the other tire was also patched and is so far holding up, so no expenses there...) The good news is that I think we can avoid interest on it. DH has had some very decent paychecks lately with the out-of-town work since he gets both overtime and per diem. He owed his boss $1500 that his boss had fronted him to cover expenses since they don't get reimbursed until after. We were really diligent and had that set aside from his first few reimbursements. When he handed his boss the check, he asked my husband if he needed some more time to pay it back. DH said it felt really good to say, 'Nope!' Small victories, I guess.

We have $800 overtime extra from this past paycheck, one more expense reimbursement of about $500, and overtime of about 20 hours on his next paycheck to apply to the $1500 balance that is due on the CC this month. The other $1500 (the surgery itself) will be due mid-September.

DH is slated to go out of town again starting next week for anywhere from 1-3 weeks. Other guys who have done that work said it's guaranteed 60-hr. workweeks and pretty easy work. DH is loving the new skills he's getting and hopes to be promoted by the end of the year.

The savings account still has $200 set aside. Adding $50 this month, plus $5-$10 every time I resist temptation to eat out. We're going to leave this alone and do our best to cash flow the recent expenses.

My certification studying is still going, and I'm still trying to make some progress on debt payoff while treading water. I did send an extra $75 payment to my personal loan that I was hoping would be gone by now. I also used the rent money from my brother to eliminate the interest-bearing balance on my Capital One CC. The remainder is interest free for a bit. It's painful to see 3-4 balances under the grand mark that we just can't eliminate due to life happening, but we're trying!

Just a quick check in, this week sucked. Like Klarose's friend, I have a family that is constantly asking for money, and I continually help even to my own detriment. My mom actually called earlier this week for $470 to catch up her personal property taxes. She offered to set up an $80/month direct deposit to me and to keep it open after the $470 is paid to start paying me back for everything else. I told her I'd talk to my husband, but then I knew it'd cause an argument, so I decided not to tell him. I called her back and while explaining that I hated her for putting me in the uncomfortable situation where I was keeping things from my husband, I burst into tears. I basically told her that if she had the nerve to ask for money again before every single cent was paid back, I'd change my phone number and essentially cut her out of my life because I can't tell her no and she can't stop asking me for money. She told me not to keep things from my husband and that she'd figure something out.

Of course, I immediately called my husband (still in tears) and told him everything. The next day, I took DD1 to the vet for his shots/wellness exam. Total cost: $500+. They checked his tail because it's been limp for a few months now and asked me to come in the next day for xrays.

Lo and behold, my poor baby boy (not so much a baby since he's 8, but still...) has bone cancer in the base of his tail. They'll have to remove it next week, but the chest and abdomen xrays don't show signs of it spreading, so here's hoping that the tail amputation will take care of it. Cost for that: $1400.

I still have to take DH's car in next week to see about the tire. Patching it would be ideal, but if it needs replacing, the cost would be $400+.

As if that wasn't enough, I found out last night from my brother that lives with me that my mom decided to cut me out of her life first and is now using his bank account's overdraft protection to cover the money she needed.