Financial Stress

I understand money. I've chosen to ignore it for most of a year. Well, not really so much as only let myself be stressed by it twice per month when I sit down to pay the bills. I do periodically sit down and try to make a budget. I do check my bank balance most days to be sure I'm not overdrawn...

All that being said, I've come to the point where I'm tired of living in denile. I HATE DEBT! It is exactly what everyone says, the evil thing that drags you down. I am up to my eyeballs in it. All those things that just couldn't wait, and now I'll be paying on for the next who know how many years.

My major problem is that I am not currently bringing in enough income to cover everything. That is, the normal day to day, expected expenses - no problem. But as is evidenced by the past few months, I don't have any room for unexpected expenses. Not to say I don't expect them, it's just I keep hoping they won't show up. Like car repair. I plan my gasoline and oil changes, but anything beyond that goes on the credit card because i don't have the money for it. Then there are the weeks I forget to pull my $20 allowance, or the husbands, and one of us wants to get something, and it happens a couple times, and without the cash only restriction, it goes above the planned amount, and I find myself $10 short, and another autotransfer of $300 "richer" from my bounce protect loan. So to keep myself from stressing, I leave it there, and end up with another month of debt accrual.

So here is the plan today, I will call my insurance company and try to reduce my homeowners insurance. This will in turn reduce my mortgage! I will also talk to the tax office to see if they'll agree to use the appraisal value for my taxes instead of the tax value. This should reduce taxes, and reduce my mortgage. I've already switched to slower internet, and smaller trash can. I'm trying to remember to turn off electrical sources - but I need to try harder. I did request the electric budget plan - where it's the same amount each month - hopefully that helps a little.

We currently have listed our vehicles online for sale. I am hoping to find somewhere or someone to buy my stuff - whatever that is, so I can increase income a little. I'm pondering a 2nd job, but don't know how we'd fit it into our current schedule, unless I never sleep, or we get childcare - which would most likely cancel out the income.

My refinance didn't come through the way I hoped. Instead it said my home value was WAY lower than expected. Also learned that the lovely government programs don't apply to me either. So I continue on dragging my head and praying for miracles.

The reason for this slump down instead of the last posts positive tone: It's only the 3rd, and I'm already out of money until next weekend, so all my gasoline, and anything else we need has to come off the credit cards. No way around it because I didn't get to evaluating the autopay bills in time to stop any of them from clearing my account, and ended up over budget.

Ain't life grand.