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nockergeekWell, time for that joy of joys, bill time. This week, we've got all the major utilities - phone, power, and gas, plus cable and the cellphone. Oh, and the car. That's always the biggie. The great thing is, though, that we're within 9 months of having the car paid off, so in November, no more car payments! Definitely a cause for celebration.
However, on top of all those essentials, we have the other big chunk of debt - credit cards. Getting behind on our payments in October is still haunting us, but at least we're to the point where I'm not skipping payments now - I'm just making smaller payments. All the cards are over balance, and the smaller payments are less than the interest, but I'm doing what I can. Perhaps some of Z's art income can be turned to paying off credit cards, so we can get on top of the problem. I did some figuring - if I wanted to get all the cards under and make the minimum payments, it would take about $530 more than I have available this month. That's why I miss our bonuses so much. I hope we start getting them again soon. Trying to run a household on a moderate when you've got a lot of debt is most unfun, but we're doing what we can.
This then leaves us with the issue of what to do with our tax return. By my calculations, we should be getting around $1500 back from the Feds, thanks to the fact that Z and I can now file jointly. Obviously, part of that has to go to credit cards - that's a no-brainer. Let's put $1000 of it towards the cards. That leaves us with $300 for repairing/replacing our PS2, and $200 for putting towards the new 9" x 12" Wacom Intuos2 tablet that Z's always wanted. Okay, that works.
Speaking of the PS2, I found out what the problem is - it's totally lost the ability to read CDs. DVDs work fine - I put in Rat Race the other night to test it, and it came out fine. FFX and the Winter Jampack, both DVD games, work fine as well. However, Frequency and Crazy Taxi, both PS2 games on CD, all our old PSX games (including DDR), and music CDs all fail. Supposedly, this is a semi-common problem. A good cleaning might fix it, so we'll try that. If that works, we can put $350 towards the tablet, and $150 towards, oh... our car's 60,000-mile maintenance - something else we can't afford.
I like money. I just wish so many other people didn't have claims to my share. :)
However, on top of all those essentials, we have the other big chunk of debt - credit cards. Getting behind on our payments in October is still haunting us, but at least we're to the point where I'm not skipping payments now - I'm just making smaller payments. All the cards are over balance, and the smaller payments are less than the interest, but I'm doing what I can. Perhaps some of Z's art income can be turned to paying off credit cards, so we can get on top of the problem. I did some figuring - if I wanted to get all the cards under and make the minimum payments, it would take about $530 more than I have available this month. That's why I miss our bonuses so much. I hope we start getting them again soon. Trying to run a household on a moderate when you've got a lot of debt is most unfun, but we're doing what we can.
This then leaves us with the issue of what to do with our tax return. By my calculations, we should be getting around $1500 back from the Feds, thanks to the fact that Z and I can now file jointly. Obviously, part of that has to go to credit cards - that's a no-brainer. Let's put $1000 of it towards the cards. That leaves us with $300 for repairing/replacing our PS2, and $200 for putting towards the new 9" x 12" Wacom Intuos2 tablet that Z's always wanted. Okay, that works.
Speaking of the PS2, I found out what the problem is - it's totally lost the ability to read CDs. DVDs work fine - I put in Rat Race the other night to test it, and it came out fine. FFX and the Winter Jampack, both DVD games, work fine as well. However, Frequency and Crazy Taxi, both PS2 games on CD, all our old PSX games (including DDR), and music CDs all fail. Supposedly, this is a semi-common problem. A good cleaning might fix it, so we'll try that. If that works, we can put $350 towards the tablet, and $150 towards, oh... our car's 60,000-mile maintenance - something else we can't afford.
I like money. I just wish so many other people didn't have claims to my share. :)
