A Twist of Fate? Or Bad Luck.

Amber: it's funny how things happen in life. Is it luck or fate or the Universe laughing at us? For the last 3 years, my husband has been working as an apprentice to an appraiser, getting enough hours and experience and taking classes so he can get his license. For the last 2 years I've been working with him as the Office Manager. We have never had a lull in business, if there was a panic it was because there was too much to do and we were coming up on deadlines. Apparently the joke has been on us, though. Four weeks ago our boss went on vacation for 2 weeks to Hawaii, we made sure that all of the projects were completed by then so that she could relax and not worry about work. We have NEVER had an empty project list. We were excited for the break as well. Then our boss came home from vacation... still no projects. Here we are two weeks later and have only worked 5 days in the past 30. We are feeling a little anxious. Based on just these earnings, our income is going to be less that 50% of what it is now. We're not worried about paying $1000 on our debt now, we're worried about surviving. Tony has been looking for another job, something flexible that will allow him to go back to appraising when needed. I have been putting more efforts in my direct selling business, Discovery Toys. We haven't really felt the panic yet because we're riding the paycheck from last month. But in a week or so, we'll feel it. The funny thing is, when we were talking with our boss, she said this is usually how the appraisal business is, busy in the summer and slow in the winter, we've just never experienced this and so she's never brought it up. If only we'd known, maybe we would've saved more for the winter... or maybe not. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Perspective

Amber: It's interesting how $1000 in credit card debt can seem so much more monumental when it's on my bill than when its on my boss's bill. At my job as bookkeeper and office manager, part of my duties are paying the bills. My boss has 4 or 5 credit cards as well, and her bills usually have $1000 - $2000 each month also. The big difference is I write a check for $1000 or $2000 almost every month, for each credit card. When I'm writing those checks, $1000 seems like nothing, like a normal $50 payment for me. I was thinking about it recently, if I was my boss, I could pay off all of this debt in about 4 or 5 months if I wanted to. That makes me feel a little helpless. I have to keep reminding myself that we're in way different stages of life. Someday I'll be on the other end of this debt and my perspective will be different, about spending, money and probably more.

Recap September

So this month was our first on our budget/Debt Diet. It was exciting and interesting. I updated the budget every 2 or 3 days or so and we were able to stay within our means and pay extra on our cards this month. It was not the amount I was hoping for, but it was a lot better than the last 3 years have been.

It's amazing how old habits are hard to kill. Even though we were trying to stay within the perimeters we had set for ourselves, we overstepped what I thought was reasonable. For example, we spent $87 in "dining out" and even though we were eating extremely healthy (baja fresh), that is more than I used to "budget" for and more than we need to spend in a month on outside food.

Another thing I forgot to configure in my budget was "unexpected items" - which is hard to plan for, but I didn't even think about. Our brake pads needed to be replaced, and luckily my husband is awesome and replaced them himself (even though he'd never done it before), saving us half the cost. However, adding that to our other "unexpected costs" and "necessary/unnecessary expenses" and we were off of my projected dream payoff amount for the month.

Overall, it was a great and successful month. On to October!!