I've attempted to post figures several times over the last six weeks, but the hits just keep coming. In addition to the Great Mold Adventure of May, we've incurred the following --
- We had two, possibly three, computers pass away in the last two months; I'm using my laptop in place of my desktop PC, and Spouse will be giving our media server intensive care before calling for last rites, but my elderly aunt needed a durable tablet, tout de suite, to replace her defunct device. (Elderly Aunt is on the most fixed of fixed incomes, dealing with a journal's worth of medical issues for herself and dementia-diagnosis Uncle, and has no one else with resources: our assistance to her is non-negotiable.) This expense is on an interest-free* credit card, but is nonetheless an additional expense.
- Spouse's phone died (in surgery -- alas, it was beyond even Spouse's extraordinary skills), and the Spouse is not to be Buying of the Cheap Devices, n'est-ce pas? There would be a wailing and a gnashing of teeth and a rending of garments. Again, another interest-free* offer, but an additional expense.
- We have regular car maintenance coming up, which is budgeted for, but that peculiar grinding sound the vehicle is making? That's brakes and/or bearings and/or the axle, and we actually already spent most of the year's car-repair budget. (The engine is as solid as a very, very solid engine-ish thing and we expect to get another 100k miles out of it, and the mechanical repairs are still cheaper than a car payment, so The Car Gets Fixed.) Yay for more interest-free* financing, though.
- In the midst of a dreadful heat wave, our aging window a/c units died in tandem. Since I will develop psychotic heatstroke at temperatures above 85, we stayed in a hotel till we could get the new units. Hey, it was cheaper than bail and court costs. And did I mention that the credit card* we used to replace the window units was interest-free?
- Then there's Spouse's sneakers, which are starting to look like canvas sieves with ergonomic soles, and my boots, which no longer have sufficient structural integrity even to kick a bucket; we are both difficult to fit, so our shoes Cost The Bucks.
- In addition to all of the above, we have a number of family-and-friends expenses this summer, some of which have already occurred and been added to our balance --
- 7 birthdays, including a quinceañera for a beloved teenager
- 2 anniversaries
- 2 graduations
- Travel to see Regionals in That Competitive Thing that Niece 2 qualified for after much work
Still. We've gone backwards. Not crazy far backwards, but. GIANT WEARY SIGH.
My plan is to clamber back on the horse as soon as I can catch it, and post numbers next month. Maybe.
*And for those concerned about the interest-free offers, we use them often and have never been caught short and actually incurred interest charges. We could technically pay these cards off now, but why would we pay off interest-free debt when we can be paying down interest-bearing debt? The payments are all already scheduled to pay off 2 months before the offers expire, and if the dreadful worse came to the bitter apocalyptic worst, we could withdraw a few thousand in Roth money to clear them all.
I'm NOT a Mustachian at all and used interest free cards to work my family out of their debts too but I did have to ask - I hope you have another backup plan that goes into effect BEFORE withdrawing from your Roth? It gives me the heebies when people have to tap their retirement funds, is all.
ReplyDeleteThat's a rough sequence of events all told, and I do hope you're due to be freed from the spiral soon! I remember when it felt like we just could NOT get on top of the debts and incoming expenses, it's hard to see light at the end of the tunnel some days.
Revanche - thanks for reading/commenting!
DeleteRe Roth -- yes, withdrawing from Roth is a last, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it option. We should have no issue with the payments. If something big and ugly happened and we couldn't make them, we have enough in savings to cover them outright. And if it were big and ugly enough to devour our savings as well, and we couldn't get another interest-free transfer, our Roth balances are, hypothetically, our Mega-Emergency fund. Some of these kind offers are the sort that charge interest on the **original** balance if you don't pay in time, which I find unethical. It's a crappy business model, even if I do profit from it, and I would skip lunches, sell my hair, and yes, withdraw from my Roth, to not reward that behavior.
Thanks for the kind words. I know from your blog how much harder your family's situation was than ours is, and the extraordinary and sustained work you put in to fix it.
Love the title pic. It speaks to me if I think about the X-axis as time. As I get older, any debt feels like the biggest burden ever.
ReplyDeleteCondolences for all the digital and mechanical losses you've suffered recently. The good news is that you can get replacements for them that aren't at all creepy, unlike replacing a person with a look-a-like.
Bonus: Today I learned that window A/C units prevent psychotic rampages and death by heatstroke. I need to look into getting one of those.
Hang in there, Anonymess. :-)