I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 28 years, disabled daughter, adult son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!Actually, the furnace isn't performing any antics, but we had the furnace guy out today to do the yearly maintenance check up. He said it is running at 93% which is pretty close to optimal, but we need to clean the clutter from around the vents and that will go up. The furnace is 16 years old and he said it should last another 5 years, possibly more as far as he can see. New ones for a house this size are running between $8000 and $10,000.
Hearing those numbers, I picked $9000 and divided it by 60 months. If I start saving $150 per month, in 5 years we will have $9000 for a new furnace. I'm sure there will be other money to throw in along the way, too, to get that up to $10,000. Or more likely as DH gets raises we will probably up the amount to $200 we are saving. Prices will probably go up in 5 years, but hopefully the possibly more than 5 years part will come into play.
I don't know if my mother will still be alive in 5 years, but she very well could be. My aunt C is still alive and she's older than mom by a few years. But I don't want this dropping on her, so the saving starts as soon as we've saved enough for the bathroom. At least it is long term saving and not having to throw as much as possible into savings as we can as quickly as we can so we have a chance to save for other goals, like with this stupid bathroom.
I do need to start a tax fund. Once mom is gone, there won't be a senior discount on taxes and the taxes on this house will be somewhere in the ballpark of $8000. I want to have money set aside to pay at least the first year. It is going to take a significant bite out of the paycheck once it is on our shoulders. Around $700 a month. And not leave much in disposable income. So getting the EF and the tax fund up to snuff as well as saving for that furnace will be priorites and saving for the electric vehicle and the Hawaii trip will still be distand priorities. But I am still going for that beach vacation sooner, rather than later.
The biggest thing we need to do is crack down on our spending, which has been off the charts and it has been due to getting takeout. At least we have figured out why I have been so exhausted the last couple of months. My thyroid has finally gone bonkers. It is the family curse, but it has hit everyone else very young in life, like in the 20's. It was fine seven months ago, but not at my recent test 3 weeks ago. So I see the doctor next week about that. It would have been sooner, but my doctor has been out of the office due to a family emergency and now he's going to be out much longer so I am seeing a different doc in the same practice. I am hoping to start on meds right away and hopefully get through this, because all I want to do is sleep and I have no energy to cook.
I am going to just force myself from now on. We charged almost $5000 last month getting takeout nearly every day, which means we are not going to save a cent for the bathroom repair in November, putting us behind in our savings goal. I'm just glad there was as much OT as there was and will be on the next paycheck since he has to work more next week as well. It is hard to care when you are too tired to care, but that was a huge number to see. Consequently, my credit score went up to 804. Funny how the more debt you have the higher your score. It was 782 when the card had a zero balance in September. I will get it paid off before any interest is charged, no worries there, but it will be close.
I am feeling old habits rising up that need to be squelched down before they become a problem. My brain was starting down the path of, oh, you can carry a balance into December just this once. You'll make it up then. I had to really fight with myself and say that no, I wouldn't, I was going to get it all done in November no matter how hard I had to squeeze. And I will.
I told DH that we really have to stop using the credit card. Which means he will have to start carrying some grocery money with him so that when he has to stop for something after work he isn't just whipping out the credit card to pay for it. He'll have the money. But the food budget has to remain tight. No more incidentals. Food has to be planned for even more closely than it has been. And the junk food habit has to be gotten over yet again.
November 11th, 2023 at 05:16 pm 1699722970
You post a lot about the food you freeze and can.
Why can your son not pull food out of the freezer and assemble an easy crockpot dinner?
You would be the first to tell anyone that $5000 in a month for takeout is absolutely crazy.
Especially when you have a freezer full of meat and jars of canned vegetables.
November 12th, 2023 at 01:52 pm 1699797141
November 13th, 2023 at 04:11 am 1699848672
November 13th, 2023 at 11:35 pm 1699918509
November 18th, 2023 at 03:42 pm 1700322157
If you can get a handle on that, well, you already know. Not to mention that takeout food is processed food, high in sodium (increases blood pressure, which increases risk of cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis) and sugar (contributes to systemic inflammation), as well as saturated fats. The fast food industry doesn't care about your health, they just care about profits.
I am just surprised, as you often talk about buying whole sides of beef, growing your own veggies, etc.
I haven't done this lately, but in the past, I liked to spend time on a Sunday cooking up a bit pot of soup or some other meal on a large scale, then apportion into individual serving sizes/containers and use for the rest of the week. You can't wait til you're hungry or you'll likely cave in to the nearest fast food joint. I used to have a secret craving for McDonald's every once in a great while (like once a month or so), but luckily I've avoided that completely. I do also on rare events go for Chinese takeout or pizza though. but it has been months now.
You have been so diligent about paying down your debt. Don't let up now!!