Tax Man

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Awww tax season. I used to love it – the refund, the thrill of having a “windfall” of money.  Those were the days.

Now, I’m a poor adult who realized that I didn’t sign up for the right deduction {Married 1 instead of Married 2} and now owe a good chunk of change by tax day.

Oh goody.

We had a separate account of savings to cover my state taxes for last year {I work from home and the closest office is another state…therefore my work doesn’t take out state tax} and luckily I had saved double what I needed for this year. So we do have the money {thank goodness} but I really hate paying the government.

Like really hate it. Especially since they can’t figure out how to create a budget BUT that’s another debate for another day.

My New Year

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I feel like I’m now at a cross-road and need to come up with a game plan so I can get out of this pity-party phase of my life. Yes—I’ve hit a road block with having kids{so far $2,666 in the IVF account} but it doesn’t necessarily mean that my life is over {even though some days it feels like it is}. So since today is my birthday, I feel like it’s a new year so here are my resolutions:

 

 

1. Start and fund ½ of our emergency fund. With IVF, we may not be able to fund the whole thing, so I’m aiming for at least half.

2. Paint and fix our master bedroom. We’ve lived in this house for almost 4 years together and this room has never been decorated because we were working on getting out of debt.

3. Smile more. I’ve stopped smiling {and laughing for that matter} and I need to do more of that and less of living like Chicken Little.

Oscar

We lost a very sweet member of the family this past month - our sweet cat Oscar. He had emergency bladder surgery and while he survived the procedure, his kidneys failed him four days later.

To some who are reading this, he was simply a family pet but to us, his loss has been a large shock to our little family.  What caused the issues was the food that we chose to feed him which was Purina cat food that you would buy in the grocery store.  The guilt that I have had over feeding them what I thought was the “best” food has not subsided yet and I’ve become a helicopter parent to our other cat Felix.

We were blessed in the fact that we did have money to cremate Oscar (there is not a pet cemetery on our side of the state) and pay for his vet bills that totaled over $1,400.  If this had happened while we were trying to get out of debt, I think we would have had to make even harder choices about Oscar’s care. 

I will say if you do have any furry children and you don’t have a burial/funeral plan for them, please make one. We had no idea that when you cremate a pet, you have to pay MORE to have your own pet returned back to you versus having the ashes of your pet along with others. Also, we did not have a pet savings fund and took a payment out of our IVF fund to cover the costs.  Since we could not afford pet insurance years ago, we now plan to have a Felix fund to help with any future costs.

Well, today we received a bomb.

The last few weeks, I’ve been quiet on this blog as I’m trying to focus on us starting a family and it is not going well…not well at all. After three failed IUIs, we decided to move forward with IVF.  The problem, I thought, would be the cost with is an estimated $8-$10K. We do have 20 percent of that expense saved in the baby bank account so initially we were faced with the problem of how to solve for the rest. Easy – right? We’ve saved for big purchase before but we were also battling the emotions of wanting to go to this next level sooner than waiting. If you’ve wanted something for so long, it’s easy to simply say let’s get a loan.

Our clinic offers a program for couples going through the IVF process that if you have three failed IVFs, they’ll refund a percentage of your money. I applied for that program and found out this morning that we were denied because of my AMH and FSH levels. My emotions are in overdrive right now because we want to be parents but now that we’ve been denied into this program, I’m worried that pursing an IVF would be a waste. I really don’t know what to do…

The next chapter...

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So our celebration of being debt free lasted as long as Nick Saban's celebration of wining the National Championship last night - short and sweet. We're on to the next chapter of our financial journey which is paying down the car loan from Mr. M's parents as fast as possible.

 

That means we are still using coupons, sticking to a budget and buying needed things on sale. At least I know what I'm doing this time....well, a better idea.



PS. THANK YOU for all of your kind words on my last post. I can only get through this adventure with support from God and people like you. Thanks again my financial family!

The last snowflake…

2012 ended with a bang as in the last week as in seven days I graduated from college with my Masters and finished off our snowball. I think I’m still in shock. Paying off that last payment and walking across that stage to get my diploma felt unbelievable as it was great to knock off two major goals.

This journey has taught me to be strong in my beliefs. Can you have a debt free life? Yes. Can you achieve your education without any debt? Yes. Will people think that you’re weird? Well, yes.

We traveled to the coast on the day that we paid off our last snowflake to celebrate and while we were there, Mr. M and I talked about what were the highs and lows of the last three years.  The biggest low – when we tried to get a loan to help pay for bills and were denied from every source – bank, credit cards, etc. and the high point was when we realized we could be resourceful and use our own personal strength to say no to friends, new electronics and eating out.

In 2013, we still have another snowball to tackle – the car repayment. I can say that I’m not afraid about the amount and that it is indeed doable.

There are no words.

There are no words.