Anonymous Mess

I just spent $640 on a new monitor. Not this one precisely, but you get the idea Cue PF Frugality alarms: Alert! Alert! Unplanned purchase! Funds diverted from debts still outstanding! Activate guilt shields! Criticism incoming! Yeah, I'm cowering. I know, I know. Why spend $640 that you (broadly speaking) don't have when you do have a functional, if aging, monitor and you're trying to get out of debt? Because unfortunately, "functional" isn't quite good enough. I work from home roughly once a week, and Spouse uses my monitor when on call at the new job. At work, we both have dual, (reasonably) high-res monitors, because our employers understand our workflow has us moving between applications throughout the day.  To illustrate, in my usual work at the current client, I am checking/have open at a minimum: Specification documentation, usually Excel or Word An integrated development environment app, mostly for the display aspects of my work ...

Yes, you, you peach-skinned cherub   So, the last five years have been... fraught, perhaps? Intermittently dreadful, oh yes. With periodic showers of crap. Generally, double-plus ungood.  Not that the long chain of years before these last five were a sunny smiling "before" picture.  I am the very model of a middle-class neurotic: chronically, clinically depressed and anxious. (I don't want to overstate this. None of it has been extreme enough to require hospitalization, for example. But it has been absolutely bad enough to make me feel like every cell in my body is bruised and knocked askew, like I'm dragging myself through a swamp with my legs encased in concrete. Just bad enough to make me feel hopeless and joyless and sleep 15 hours a day. So yes, many, many people are far worse off than I, but this is more than bad enough for me.) But recently I had a sense -- a hope  -- well, maybe it was a fantasy -- that I was reaching a new equili...

Sigh. Yay, we don't need to replace the roof? Still: Miscellaneous repairs and refurbishments - $2,355 Exterminator - $70 Commission for finding new tenants - $2,038 Mold inspection - $350 Mold remediation + installation of mold-repelling superpowers -    $2,553 Tree removal - $550 Grand total -    $7,916 Amount available on-hand - ~ $4,500 Result: another $3,275 from the line of credit . Sigh. [Edited to add tree removal. Did I mention Sigh? ]

Our rental property continues to physically embody the reasons why people don't make money off of rental properties. Checklist for the last two months: Tenants not renewing  Downed branches (and possibly damaged tree) from windstorms need removal Possible leak in attic Probable mold in attic The management fee for finding/renting to a new tenant is much heftier, of course -- roughly equivalent to a month's rent. And of course that's in addition to costs from the usual refurbishing when putting a rental back on market: painting, deep cleaning, replacing anything that has aged out since the lease began (in our case, that includes at least a mailbox). Let's call that $1,500, though I honestly have no idea. No word yet on what the branch/possible tree removal will cost. Crossing my fingers that the tree is okay. The state requires a certified inspector to determine the presence of mold. (This costs us money but I approve of it. Mold can have a huge health impac...

Scary, scary numbers Okay, since I'm typing into a void here, I'm less concerned about posting numbers. Speaking them unto the universe, as it were. They're not good. As in six figures of not-good.  Yup. And now, without further waffling, the trauma and the tragedy: $104,966.38 . Yeah. Here's the breakdown: Creditor Interest Rate Owed Amazon Store 26.49% -31.99 Chase Visa 21.49% -123.38 Chase Amazon Prime 18.99% -127.30 Chase Slate 13.74% -420.18 Chase Freedom 12.74% -103.56 CU Signature Visa 2 10.49% 0.00 Bank A Signature Visa 10.40% -262.17 CU Signature Visa 1 8.40% -13,210.51 HELOC 7.50% -85,344.58 CreditFirst (Firestone) 0.00% -785.80 Citi Diamond Preferred 0.00% -2,055.43 BankAmericard Platinum 0.00% -2,501.48 Total CC Debt -19,621.80 ...

Spouse got a job, a gen-u-wine, paycheck-generatin', benefits-havin', full-bloody-damn-time job! With a salary nearly equal to the previous, City-based position! Win win win for the Spouse! It starts in a few weeks. And then joy will spread across the countryside like melted butter, dripping into every crevice, as we start to beat our debts over their filthy heads with the valorous shovels of income and frugality! Yes, I'm giddy.