Mausoleum of life

My house has turned into a Mausoleum. It is so dark, yet so cool. Cool being the important word here. Not cool as in being "hip", but cool as in our electric bill. And I hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Because Mother Nature is friggin’ bipolar and not only had winter linger longer this year (we had one inch of snow on the ground on May 2), but she has decided to skip spring and go straight into 90º + weather.

So I had to make drastic changes to keep the house cool. I have enough issues with hot flashes, so a hot house doesn’t bode well for my little family. Luckily the basement is super cool. But since I don’t watch much tv, there is no reason for me to be spending all my time down there. So I put a floor fan at the base of the stairs and blow the cool air upstairs to help. Then I went around to all the windows that didn’t have room darkening curtains on them and tacked dark bath towels over them. The Child’s room has 2 windows (1 faces south, the other faces west). Her room is almost a sauna in the evenings with the setting sun. I don’t have the extra money to buy blackout/thermal curtains so I did the dark towels instead. So far, so good. Her room stays a lot cooler now. The living room has room darkening patio blinds so I just keep them closed. But I hate that it is so dark in my house now. I had to grow up like that with my Mother. I can’t stand not to have the sun shining in my house!! But if I want to maintain the $70 electric bill I’ve averaged for the past 7 months, then I have to suck it up & deal. It’s only for 4+ more months right? Our gas bill averaged $70 also for the winter months due to our heat being gas. That was only a $30 increase of the months when we didn’t run the heat. So between the 2, we averaged roughly $140 those months. Our A/C is electric so I’m hoping to transfer that $30 gas increase to our $70 electric bill and hope to maintain the average $140 for both that I did for the winter months. Hence the Mausoleum. Fingers crossed …

Our finances are so friggin’ tight. But only because Hubby wants to go on family vacation in July. Since he has already put close to $4K on our credit card with his tool purchases, tools that he needs for his job (why does a man need so many socket sets??? or wrenches???), I definitely don’t want to put a vacation on top of all that debt. So I’m taking x amount of his paycheck and putting it into savings to finance our trip. Which means I’m not able to put x amount into our savings for "emergencies" like I had been doing. That has been put on hold until further notice. Which means if Hubby gets laid off/fired, we are going to be screwed in a very short amount of time.

Then you add in the extra $70 a month we are paying for The Child’s karate ($250 total – money that could easily finance our vacation). Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier … by bumping her up to leadership in karate, not only do we have the added $70 a month, we had to come up with $400 to pay for her gear – safety gear, staff, uniform, etc. Which, we did not have because of having to pay $447 in April for car taxes (another disappointment of no longer being active duty military). Lucky for us, Master Scott is allowing us to make payments on the $400 so I am paying $50 a payday until it is paid off. Once we have that paid in full, he’ll order all her gear. He went ahead and gave her the uniform since she needed that for classes. Oh and lets not forget the recently added $40 a month for her trumpet rental for band. $340 a month that could be used for vacation, for emergency stash, for 1 more degree cooler in our house.

I’ve made so many cutbacks to keep us from going under. With the extremely tight budget I have us on, we are fine. If we weren’t going on vacation, we would be fine. Tight but not as tight as we are right now. I keep telling myself that once August rolls around, we will be just fine. But then I remember that we have his & her birthday in October, our anniversary in Nov., Christmas in Dec that money will need to be saved up for. After the new year, I’ll need to save up for car taxes in April again, and another family vacation, and it is just a never ending cycle. Oh, and I need to start buying uniforms for The Child since her new middle school is uniforms only.

I gave up soda’s to help save money. I miss my Dr. Pepper Ten lol. I ration my cigarettes. I know, I know … if I quit we’ll have that much more money. *sigh* I need something. I gave up so much already for that husband of mine by following him to this hole in the wall town. I have no family nearby (not that I am complaining about that!), no friends as of yet – not that I would have money to go socialize with them anyway. No Starbucks, no shopping, no nothing here. At least I still have my cigarettes, however few they may be now. But the plus side is I now spend half of what I used to each month for them.

I reduced our cable bill by $32 a month. Honestly, I’d rather give it all up but I was out voted by the 2 of them. He says he works hard & should be able to come home and veg out in front of the tv all evening. Ok, but you can’t do that with 6 channels instead of 200+ (that you complain there is never anything worth watching on them)? The Child watches Netflix or Cox Connect on the iPad more than the actual tv but if I cancel the cable, she’d only have Netflix and well, we just can’t be having that according to her lol. I spend most of my time either on my laptop or cleaning during the day & the evenings are spent cooking, running her to karate or Girl Scouts, dishes, and preparing for bed & the next day. I usually don’t sit down until about 9 – 9:30 and by then I am exhausted. I end up reading in peace till I fall asleep, then I get up & go to bed. I get up the next day and repeat.

Hubby wants a smart phone. We can’t afford that because his parents are on our plan. With tax & fees, we pay $17+ per phone for them each month. His Mom is confused and thinks we are only charged $9.99 per phone and she pays $10 a month (she sends us 2 $60 checks a year) for her line. Hubby had made a deal with his Dad to pay his (way back when, when it was only like $12+ a month) as his b-day/Christmas/Father’s Day gifts or until we could no longer afford it. I’ve been telling Hubby for over a year that we needed them to start paying, in full. He finally broke down 2 weeks ago to ask them to please start paying the $34+ a month since money is tight for us. (He’d use that $34+ a month to get a smart phone – we’d still be paying the same amount each month as we do now, but his parents would be paying the extra price for the data plan so we won’t be paying extra out of pocket each month. I offered to trade with Hubby so he could have my iPhone & I would use his regular cell phone – what would a house wife with no job, no social life, need a smart phone for anyway??? – but he says he wants his own.) So far we have not heard back from his parents. Of course I am sure it is because within seconds of Hubby sending the private message on FB, his Mom was sending him a message to let him know his sister was in the hospital & they were headed to her town to see her so she probably hasn’t realized he sent the message to her to begin with. I want to ask but I don’t want to. I’m scared I will come across as amoney hungry bitch to her and I’m not. Yes, money is tight for us. But fighting over money is never worth causing dissent in families. And it’s not like they would have to get their own plan. They can stay on ours since it will be much cheaper for them than getting their own plan. I have yet to see any carrier offer 2 regular cell phone plans for only $34+ a month. Even if Hubby doesn’t get a smartphone, we could still benefit from the extra $34 a month. Maybe then I could afford to treat us to a pizza night since I had to cut those out back in March … apparently Sam’s choice pizza is not the same?

Did I mention that The Child is going to do 1 week of Karate Camp towards then end of June for $100. At least she will be able to advance up one belt level during that week …

Well, Sassy, why don’t you just get out and get a job to help out your family?

Well DUH!

I have been filling out applications, short of going to Walmart or fast food. I’m assuming the fact that I haven’t worked outside of the home in over 12 years is being used against me in the hiring process. I haven’t even received a call for an interview. There are 2 jobs that seem hopeful but only time will tell. One is ideal for our situation. It is Mon-Fri noon to 5 pm. The other job would be 1 – 8 pm varying days. Since there are no daycare facilities in this town, I can’t drop my 11 year old off at daycare each morning. Leaving an 11 year old alone in a house for 8+ hours is not the smartest thing either. A few hours yes, but not for 8+ hours. With her in school right now, we live too close for her to ride a bus, too far to walk by herself so I have to drop her off & pick her up. The school does not offer before/after school care. I need to be available to pick her up in the afternoon. Most jobs find that not feasible. The only night shift I would qualify for, that is even open 24 hours, is Walmart. I’m almost to that point, but first I will need to be heavily medicated to work there. I can do fast food but that really wouldn’t make much of a difference in our finances at minimum wage and part time hours. With school fixing to be out (May 23 is her last day), my options become more plentiful since Hubby gets off work at 5 pm. We’d just have to panic on the days he has to go out of town on a service call. So until a miracle happens, I am doing my best to cut back on frivolous things to help keep us afloat.

Now if I could just get Hubby to stop eating our food like there is no tomorrow. He’s mad because I quit buying junk/snack foods for us to snack on. The Child likes Chefboyardee for her school lunches. He likes to eat those at 3 am when he is up and bored. Thus making me have to go out and buy more for her to be able to eat. He drinks up to a 6 pack of soda a day. Which is why I stopped because A) we can’t afford his & my habit B) He’d drink all of his & then drink mine, leaving me without. He comes home for lunch everyday yet wants me to make full meals instead of sandwiches or leftovers. I can understand to a degree but we can’t afford elaborate meals 2 x a day, not that I want to cook that much lol. Besides, I’ve lived off Ramen noodles, sandwiches, chefboyardee for my lunches for over 12 years so he can too. 

Well, enough bitching for one day. I’m gonna switch out my winter clothes for summer clothes in the closet. Till next time …