How I feel...

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When someone tells me that they're trying to get out of debt

and then pays for lunch with their credit card.

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.