My blog about life and getting out of debt.

I’m breathing a HUGE sigh of relief!  Let me tell you not getting paid for over a month is a challenge.  

My husband’s check didn’t show up until 1:30 pm, so I was sweating it out a little, imagining all sorts of things going wrong.  I immediately ran into town to deposit it at my bank.  We live in a tiny town so I know all the women at the bank.  My checker, who was very impressed with the check amount, asked me if I knew the people that wrote the check and I told her I did.  She said asked me if the check was good and I assured her it was good so THANKFULLY she didn’t put a hold on the check and I have access to the funds.  Sometimes living in a small town isn’t all its cracked up to be and other times it rocks!  My refrigerator is stalked again and my husband is on his way home after being gone for WAY TOO long.  It’s a great day and it’s looking like it’ll be an even better weekend.

Have a nice weekend!

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This is an update to my previous post. I’ve been checking the mail every day hoping to find my husband’s long awaited check. Remember, we haven’t received any money coming in since November 1st! I’m lucky right now if my checking account has $10 in it. To make matters even more scary, my house payment is going to be automatically deducted from my checking account on Monday (15th), the 1st half of our property taxes were due on the 5th and are late, I have credit card bills all scheduled to be paid after the 15th, I haven’t paid our $1,200 a month COBRA health insurance or car insurance (due yesterday), and I haven’t been grocery shopping for two weeks. I’ve just been buying milk, bread, and bananas! Depressing huh?

Wednesday afternoon my husband told me he’d spoke to the guy that’s going to pay us and that guy told my husband he’d put a check in the mail on Thursday via SNAIL MAIL! I told my husband he needed to call this guy back and beg him to send this check overnight mail. My husband told me if I wanted the check sent overnight, I’d have to call this guy myself, so that’s just what I did.

This man was so kind and generous, not only is he going to send us check #1 overnight, he’s also going to send up my husbands check #2, which is a biggie! This man hasn’t even been paid himself yet for check #2 but sensing the bind I’m in and the fact that Christmas is coming up (we have 4 kids) he’s sending BOTH checks. We’re going to go from basically having only the cash in our pockets to having a bunch of money! I’m so excited about having money again, it’s been far too long. He’s going to send the check tomorrow morning so hopefully we’ll get it Friday. This whole situation just reinforces the fact that we need to have a very hefty emergency fund.

What are we going to do with all that money?

I’m going to pay bills and do some Christmas shopping but nothing too expensive, not even for the kids. My husband is planning on buying a used truck for commuting. He works out of state and is beating his PAID for fancy truck up. Last month, he spent over $1,200 on flat tires and truck repairs. He works 30+ miles down horrible dirt (think washboard) roads in the desert and the roads are doing a number on his truck.

He’s looking for a dependable used 4×4 truck and plans on spending around $15,000 cash. I hope he doesn’t try and persuade me into buying a new truck because there’s no way in this world I’m going to let that happen! I’d hate to have a big fight about this on his days off, especially since he hasn’t been home in over three weeks. The rest of the money is going to be for use to live on the next month.

I know what you’re thinking…

Pay down your credit cards with the $15,000 or build up your emergency fund! Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing.

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My husband is making fabulous money right now, our current problem is he hasn’t been paid in approximately one month. We’re running out of cash. Supposedly “the check is in the mail”. I’ve pulled the old “checks in the mail” line myself in the past but now that we’re on the waiting end I’m really feeling the pinch.

Originally I thought the money we had in our checking account would last us 2 months but we’ve had some truck problems - two flats that needed to be replaced and some mechanical problems that had to be repaired and like a total idiot, I didn’t factor in the fact that my husband would be having to eat every meal (3 meals a day) out while he’s on the job. This can get extremely expensive. He is reimbursed for meals and lodging but we have to pay these expenses upfront. So far we have financed 3+ weeks of meals and lodging. I can’t believe I was dumb enough to believe we’d be paid by now, if I had known it was going to take this long for payment, I would have had my husband charge all these work related expenses on the credit card that doesn’t have a balance. At least then I’d have money to buy groceries and pay bills.

The company we billed has been paid and now we’re just waiting for that company to cut my husband a check. I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get our check. I’m thinking if I don’t get the money by Wednesday or at the latest Friday we’ll be tapped dry. As you can imagine if we don’t have any money to pay bills all our locked in interest rates on our credit cards are going to go through the roof. I don’t want to think about missing our other payments.

Ironically, when the the two invoices I billed do get paid we’ll be doing better financially than we’ve been in years. I have so many mixed emotions. I’m scared I won’t be able to pay our bills if the check doesn’t show up soon but all I can do is hope things work out for the best and the check gets here ASAP.

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I’m dreading Christmas, I guess I’m a bit of a Scrooge?  I don’t like how commercial the holiday has become, I swear Christmas isn’t anything like it was when I was a kid.  Don’t get me wrong, I like buying presents for my kids and kids in general but I really dislike the stress of picking out gifts for adults.  To tell the truth, being as far into debt as we are, I really think we shouldn’t give any gifts to anyone outside our immediate family.

Every Christmas season I start out feeling like Scrooge.  I talk tough and then end up caving into all the Christmas pressure.  I end up adding to our credit card balances and struggle the whole next year just to pay off gifts that are long forgotten or stuffed in the back of closets.

This Christmas is going to be different though!  I vow not to go into debt, my credit cards will not leave my wallet.  I will pay cash of everything and if we can’t afford something then we won’t buy it.  I don’t care if people think I’m cheap!

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