Empty.

Well we aren’t THAT empty, but close. Last babbly post I rambled something about Spaghetti quitting his video store job. It’s a great idea, and we are just using it as a crutch anyway. The job is taking it’s toll on him, and he is SO over working there.
Let me break it down, he works a full time job. It’s a good job, it pays ALL the bills, carries our insurance, and is THE job. Now we also have a seasonal job, that is Wrigley (yes the Chicago Cubs Wrigley field, he’s a vendor at a bar) that is great money, and only during baseball season. (we all know with the Cubs it’s not long) And then there is the video store… this job is year round. It’s about 5-15 hours a week, and it’s to cover food and gas.
Anyway, we’ve done a bit of money shuffling around, and it’s working out that we have more money coming in, SO the video store isn’t needed. BUT that being said I have a new job.
That being the food/budget police. Now I was before, but with out the luxury of the extra money coming in, I REALLY have to make this money work.
I have to say most people are amazed that I get $90 at Aldi (SUPER cheep store) to last me about 4 weeks. NOW that was not counting the weekly trips to the store (Jewel, WAY close but WAY more pricey) for milk, and eggs. So now I need to make this work, so it’s worth my while to drive the 15 minutes to Aldi, instead of 2 minutes to Jewel.
We also get NO McD’s, Taco Bell, Culvers (whimper) and with this hoping to drop a few pounds. I’m a simple cook, and I do cook well. It’s just the lazy factor in my job needs to go.
I buy pancake batter, and we eat from scratch, I also have a 80’s waffle maker so I make waffles in advance, freeze them, and wala. Breakfast. (just made 6 today, and these suckers are HUGE, like 6x6 huge) We like oatmeal too. And eggs are always a staple food around here. Scrambled eggs on a tortilla, and you pick out your sauce (Bagel loves honey, Weaky loves syrup, and Spaghetti and I have veggies and cheese sauce in ours)
Lunch is sandwiches. .99 for bread, and it’s either peanut butter and jelly, or bologna and cheese. Fancy you want? I’ll grill your sandwich and we can call it a Panini.
Dinner is meat, carb, veggie. We eat fish, chicken, and pork. Sometimes burgers but now I’ve gotten into a pork burger thing from the local Farmers Market, OMG they are good.
Snacks are fruit, granola bars, or crackers. We drink black coffee, or off brand of Crystal Light or water. No pop, Spaghetti is 1 year, 9 months and 11 days pop free (soda for some of you) or 649 days. So I figure if a guy who once drank a 12 pack of Coke a day could cold Turkey it, I could too. I tried once for New Years, did it for 3 months and went back. I stopped again on June 10th, and that makes me 23 days free!
We love it simple. Trying to BUY food then make food. So NOT buying the premade mashed potatoes, or the flakes in a bag (gross) I buy a 10 lb bag, peel, cut, boil, and mash. Nom. Nom.
I fight with Spaghetti each time. But I am NOT ashamed of going to food banks. Not the monthly ones. But there are ones that go to our town twice a year, and they give you food. He says it’s for the poor. Well sweetheart, I don’t know about you, but working 3 jobs to keep a roof over our house is pretty damn poor if you ask me. And yes that food is used.
I am thankful for my parents and Spaghetti’s parents. They usually buy the kids shoes, and clothes. My kids are the ONLY Grandchildren they will have, so spoiled is a given. If not from a store, I proudly support garage sales, thrift stores and second hand stores.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell would make life a bit easier. I know people live with SO much less then I have, and I need to learn to work with what I have, we have to learn to go with out. Plan ahead and not waste. It’s a good thing for the family.
Biggest perk, we get Spaghetti home more often. August 20th is his last day there, and we can’t wait. (I will miss the perks of free videos, and new releases the week before they come out)
So much has changed this year, the BIG room shuffle around the house (making the Sports/Pool table room back into a family room, making the front tv room/toy room into a library, and the man cave in the basement is now a toy room) the flow of the house, is 100x’s better.
The loss of Maggie May is still heavy on our hearts, but with that comes the fact that the kids play more with Sophie, we save money on dog food, and bills, my sister is more comfortable coming over (Maggie would jump at her and at 78 lbs my 4’9” sister had a hard time being around her)
And now that Spaghetti will be down to 2 jobs. One full time one seasonal. I’ve already freaked, knowing that he’s quitting in August, and we have a family wedding to go to ($100) and the car sticker for the year ($105) yikes. But that’s what Wrigley is for. Big things.
And we just got Spaghetti a ‘Straight Talk’ phone from Walmart. No contract, no commitments. $30 a month, 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and well he doesn’t use the web on his cell. I’m still with Sprint till the end of September, and then I’m going to get one too. We have a land line so that saves us minutes. I only said I HAVE to have a phone with a QRTY keyboard, and they do have one by LG that I like. That will probably be my Christmas present.
Sure it’s tough, but we think if we just save, work hard. Budget and plan ahead we can get through anything. We do have a credit card, and it’s for emergencies. (Maggie was just shy of a grand for visits, and putting her down)
We’ve been fortunate in this craphole of an economy to have 3 jobs, when so many people don’t have one. But Spaghetti works hard, and he took jobs that require Holidays, and weekends. He’s done so much for our family. I think SO much of a persons credibility and who they are speaks for how hard they work.
Now I must go and pull EVERYTHING out of our freezer, organize it and start attempting ‘Meal Planning’ wish me good luck!
Feisty

Heavy hearts.

Sigh…

We have Maggie May.

This is our boxer. She will be 8 on April 21st. (boxers give you a life span of about 9-10 years) she has recently started a new habit of drinking excessive amounts of water. As in about a gallon plus some a day. Thus she pisses. ALL THE TIME. All over the house.

Well the rooms she’s allowed in. We can’t just take the water away. Obviously her body is telling her she NEEDS water. But why?

So we discuss with the vet, We came up with a FEW options. (few as in 5 different options…)

 

First Vet visit.

Test her urine, HOPE for a bladder infection or UTI. Do blood work to check all her levels.

Results

Sadly no infection. Nothing simple some antibiotics could fix. It’s her calcium. Needs to be retested. Oh and her lymph nodes seem odd to touch. Could be because she is older and loosing muscle mass. But still odd.

Price $268

Second Vet visit.

Test for Calcium. Also do ‘fine needle aspiration’ on her lymph nodes.

Results

The fine needle aspiration cytology came back “some sort of inflammation” (seems kind of vague for $152 doesn’t it?!)

The calcium test came back today with ‘Calcium is high’… again. We still have that vague feeling here. But for a steal of $108 dollars.

Price for visit $263 

So this brings us to now.

Oh yeah. What are we looking at?

Hyper-para-thyroid-ism.

OR…

Thyroid Cancer.

I guess they are SO closely related that is why we are still testing for both. AND with out doing an ultrasound on her throat and abdominal and biopsy whatever we find.We STILL don’t know.

We are just frustrated that we spent the last $263 dollars for tests that we could have just skipped and went for the ultrasound?

THAT is a very pretty $400 for the ultrasounds and the biopsy is another $200.

They also would LIKE a PTH test done, to better help the doctor understand what we are dealing with. Well when that $245 test is free. Let us know. Until then let’s just pick one. Hyperpara… or cancer.

 

AND they wanted to start with an X-ray of her chest. BUT if the ‘cancer’ hasn’t spread there yet. And we got a clean x-ray, then we could just flush $235 down the toilet.  AND even if we did start with the x-ray and they found a mass, they would STILL have to do an ultrasound and biopsy.

THEN…

if it’s Hyperparathyroidism THEN we can do a surgery to remove the benign mass that is creating her calcium to spike, her to drink excessive water and stop pissing all over our floors and feel better. And she can live a ‘normal’ life. (and we can stop going through ROLLS of paper towels, and pine sole)

We get NO estimate on that surgery, till we know for sure. (lots goes into that one for price, and at that point we will be pretty one on one with the doctor anyway. So he would tell us before we opted to do anything)

OR.

If it’s cancer.

We see how big it is. We could probably have a few more months with her if we go untreated…

Sadly we could never afford dog chemo. And not sure how much it would effect her life anyway.

Sigh…

We are crushed.

Maggie is stressed.

Sophie is concerned for Maggie.

They barely eat.

They sleep and mope. ALL. DAY.

All the barking, the constantly wanting to play, the wiggly butts, the running in the yard… it’s come to a complete STOP. This below is our everyday.

Our hearts are broken. Our minds are full. Our wallet is empty. Any ideas?

FEISTY.

Money is a figment of my imagination now.

Does not exist.

I write this in tears.

I just hung up the phone with my dad. Whom I had to call and borrow $350 from.

NOT something anyone wants to do. My dad is very, very structured in his bills, and taught me well. I once was obsessive with bills, and money.

Now with kids for some reason I suck at it. I don’t have the patience to sit and track, and instead of buying groceries, we eat fast food. I just check and in the last 10 days we spent over $70 in fast food alone.

That. is. bullshit.

We are broke. Broke as shit.

It’s annoying, and it’s embarrassing. We are doing our dampest to make ends meet, and we get close, then we end up with a lazy 10 days and wonder what was I thinking? Just last week I wanted to really get into the office, and get back into my OCD ledger and file system.

But I was busy, then I got sick… I hate most of all pretending like we are not broke. I usually don’t. I’m honest with everyone that we have NO money.

Yes the economy is in the shitter, but I’m talking NO nothing outside of basics… except now I notice fast food seems to be our little perk?!

Gross.

So I’m bitter because I’m over weight, and now I’m more bitter because I spent $70 on fast food and we are super broke, and, AND I had to call my dad.

NOT happy. Very pissed.

He said he didn’t want to lecture me. He said he thought he did it enough when he was teaching me common sense. He said to treat yourself, it’s a must in this life. BUT make it a treat. Not an every day, or every other day thing.

Fanfuckingtastic that we are leaving for Arizona in 4 days. Not on my budget.

My inlaws are footing the WHOLE bill. Travel, food, lodging (they have a place they snow bird to) you name it. Awesome.

I love Spaghetti’s real day job, I do. I respect his boss, and the company, he’s been there going on 13 years.

It’s the shit hole video store. OMG I want to strangle those bitches. The are ALWAYS fucking calling the house. He is PART. TIME. as in no more then 15 hours, and NO MORE THEN 5 hour shifts!

OMG they screw him, KNOWING he is Mr. Nice Guy and won’t say no. Take tonight, supposed to be out at 10:30? They call at dinner, 2 hours before his shift… he’s closing. Which is now after midnight.

WTF. And he works the extra hours knowing we could use the extra money. Then there is Wrigley Field, YES he works at for the Chicago Cubs, he sells beer, makes good money doing it too. That helps. BUT we live over an hour south of Wrigleyville, and that’s not counting traffic. So a 4 hour shift of selling beer is a 10 hour day. Easy.

While I sit home and twiddle my thumbs.

Well care for our house, almost 5 and 3 year old children, two boxers, two cats and at the current moment (last 2 months) his parents diabetic cat too. AND the stress of the bills.

Fuck this. Fuck being a grown up. I quit. Tax return? Super, that my friends is going for the property taxes, because Illinois likes to rape us sideways in the tax department… someone again remind me why we live here?!?

I’m done. I need to NOW call Spaghetti and tell HIM I borrowed money from my dad. This should go over real well.

Then I’m going to go to bed. This day blows. Oh and I have a fucking head cold, my eyes water, my nose runs, and I sneeze every 10 minutes. Damn it. Hoping tomorrow is better… sigh.

Oh, and thanks for reading. Not one of my prettier posts, but that’s what you’re here for Blogger, the good the bad and the what the fuck moments.

Feisty

Opinions are like assholes. You just might think mine stinks.

It's evening and so with that I warn that my blogging, Facebook status, and Tweets are a bit more... harsh? Not filtered? Honest? You've been warned. Moving on.

So let's talk about Haiti.

I am over Haiti. I am SO sorry for all the Haitians out there, the loss and damage is horrible. That being said, I do care, but I don't.

I do not want to send them $10 on my cell phone bill, I don't want to watch celebrities sing for them, I don't want to have their orphan babies here. I don't want more people here when America can't seem to take care of itself.

Sure call me a heartless dick. But we have orphans here, we have people with out homes, with out jobs. I know these people. So seriously I am NOT giving jack shit to anyone. (but ME)

It makes me want to vomit that I spent 2 days trying to talk down my homeowners insurance bill, great they lowered it by almost $300! WTF! What if I would have just paid it!!?!? Fuck. I mean we are with out some staple foods right now, and I have to wait till next Tuesday till Spaghetti get's paid from his job to get food for my family. BET YOUR FLYING FUCKING WANKER LOVING ASS I AIN'T SENDING A DIME TO ANY FUCKING COUNTRY. The country of me, and my family is about ALL that gets my money.

I have to buget in preschool, bills, the car payment, and just regular bills, but hey lets give all the fucking Hatians a break, citizen ship and load the place up with Hatians, well because were a nice country like that. Sure I've got a roof over my house, with running water and heat, but lets face it folks, that's about it.

Fuck this shit.

I think it would be fan fucking tastic for us to take care of ALL our oprhans, foster kids, homeless, jobless, and struggling families, and then. AND only then start to care for every other flying fucking country.

Serioulsy. Call me cheap and heartless, but I am just trying to take care of my kids, and my well being, hope and wish for my friends to keep their houses, cars and jobs, and then I can save up all my hard earned money to buy some more coffee save a fucking hatian.

I. am. over. it.

Moving on!

I can breathe again

Spaghetti and I had many long and daunting conversations about money this past weekend. Big ones, small ones, far fetched one, and serious ones.


With out giving too much information (too late!) we have been trying to get the taxes paid (we took them out of our escrow, the mortgage was fine, just the taxes just keep going up so high!) also with the taxes we had a bunch of medical to deal with (from Weaky's stupid "big head" check up's and Bagel's assault from the blinds over her window, and the dental from my crown) it has been a whole lotta medical, and a few other random bills.


Either way we did the money shuffle, we talked, reorganized things, and we are doing great. Yesterday I finalized the whole deal with balancing the checkbook, paying off the debt, and yes the taxes were paid (due Monday!)


I got so excited I organized the file drawer, to get the paper clutter off my big ass desk (big ass desk as in it takes up the WHOLE loft, and is a corner piece, with two side desks attached to the corner desk for the actual computer. LOTS of room for my clutter!) I still have more clutter to delete but there is actually room to breathe.


Speaking of breathing, we can breath again. Sometimes money gets so damn tight, it's like it is just chocking you. So we were able to pry the hands of bills from around our necks yet again.


Not saying I hit the lotto, or came into a boat load of money. And by the last post, you can see we just found ourselves a very nice monthly bill for the cute little beep beep in the garage! But with the way we sit and talk and discuss the money, all with no yelling, or arguing.


It's the one thing that I think keeps our marriage sane. We both know the money situation. We share everything, and we discuss what the plan of attack is.


Thanks Spaghetti for working with me, so we can both breathe again.

Eff You Friday. Numb arms

Screw me for not putting the $100 check we wrote to our friends for their wedding in the account. And screw them for waiting over a month to cash it.


I noticed the account was overdrawn yesterday, nothing new to this house hold. Whatever. We couldn't do anything till Spaghetti got paid today.

Fanfuckingtabulous. Spaghetti got paid and of coarse the mortgage was set to come out SO we are still overdrawn. Ummm... yeah. That was payday. So I still need $80 to just cover the account.


Weaky is out of milk (as of last night) I am on my last gallon of water, and we finished the last of our chicken last night.


Um so for dinner we have... tap water... waffles... or...


So I had to call Spaghetti at work. Every time the accounts go bad, my arms go numb. I swear I will lose my tree sooner then later. I called to tell him we need to take another one of the Wrigley checks (being held for the second part of taxes) to get us out of the red, and feed the babies.


The crazy thing is when someone told us, well, many someones, told us that raising a family is hard they were not kidding.


Most of my friends and family are broke. In the same boat as me. Wondering how the rent, or mortgage will get paid, how to possibly budget food with negative funds. And praying to god that both kids can get potty trained so diapers are one less thing to pay for.


Some of my family and friends are better off. It's not that they are rolling in money. We all have our debt. But I would love to be that family that can buy groceries, or just buy the kids or (gasp) myself a new shirt once in a blue moon.


We keep the kids accounts as they are. The get any money that is given to them, and I don't touch it. Working at the bank I saw SO many parents empty their kids accounts, swearing they would pay it back.


I guess out of all this money madness, I am just trying to get our house back into some kind of order. Less clutter, a happy place to be.


I think with the no money situation, I am SO much more hostile, and likely to just snap at the kids, Spaghetti or the poor dogs. I apologize in advance and for times past. The finances are a heavy burden to carry.

The funny thing is I love being a SAHM. But I almost can't wait to have some sort of job so I can make money for this family. I miss my Banker job, that was great money, and my monthly bonus' for making sales was great. That was insane.

First married. In our little condo, saving for a house. We had a mortgage of $542 (2 bed, 1.5 bath, brick condo in nice area of J Town) there was so much money coming in we put... get ready for this... $700 into savings a month!! I also had 25% of my check going to my 401K (oh, that is gone)

It was a wonderful life. But the big house, yard, and a family is what we wanted.

We can afford this house. The taxes are the bastards that are hurting us. I guess what I am rambling about is I sometimes miss the days of simple life.


While I love my dogs, cats, kids, house, and everything that goes with it. I just wish there was the money to just pay bills, with out doing the bill shuffle, of who can get put off another month. Or what can we eat this week?

I know pity party for one, is pity party for the whole country. But if you do have the money. Just understand that when you see a mom or a dad angry or just frustrated at the world. They just may have numb arms too.

Tennessee is where I wanna be

This post is about Tennessee, hence the title.


But not so much about the vacation, or what we did while there.


It was the fact that when leaving the mall in Tennessee. We grabbed ALL the different books on real estate around Nashville.


Amazing.


We currently have a little less then a .5 acre. 3 bed rooms. All little closets, 1 main bath, 1 half bath. Eat in kitchen, we do have a basement, attached 2 car garage, and a front living room, and the back den (pool table/sports room) with our added on deck and the new pool, our house could go for about $230 ish.

I am not complaining. BUT, when you look at what is available in Tennessee, well you get a bit excited about it. Let me grab a book and give you an example...


All brick home, 4br, 3 baths, sun porch, w/ hot tub, 2-car garage w/ above garage apartment (hello! for Frances!!) All for the big fat price of...

drumroll please...


$149,900.


Now I know I haven't seen the house, BUT these are all over! I mean acres of land, 4+ bedrooms, all for so much less then we are paying here!!

And the taxes!?!?! Holy shit.


Our taxes are insane. They are going up $500 a YEAR, since we lived here. We can afford our mortgage, but not the effing taxes!! (close to $6k this year!)

There taxes are what we pay in a few months!!


So here is the family deal. I told my parents right away. My mom said not with out her. That's fine I could sell my mom on Tennessee SO fast, I mean the weather, the land the quaint little towns. It's her subdivision but the size of a whole state.

Now my dad is another story. I do believe that it will take a WHOLE latta kicking and screaming on his part, but once he gets down there, he will love it. Promise dad.

Frances will go because she loves nice weather, she would want to be by her niece and nephew, of coarse me too. And she doesn't have much of a choice. She will go there with my parents, or with us eventually.


Spaghetti has NOT told his parents. Probably wants to be more sure, before he starts talking bout it.


I know the market for selling is shit right now. Probably will not happen for a few years, we have homework to do, on what towns are great, what ones are overpriced and what ones not to even look at.


Spaghetti would need a job, and packing this house would take a few years at that.


So in a few years I am hoping to be serious about Tennessee, our new home, a new life, and with our parents not far behind in the move.


So if you or anyone you know, knows a bit about Tennessee, I am looking around the Nashville area, maybe 30 to 40 minutes outside. Let me know. I am all ears.


Tennessee or bust!!

B.R.O.K.E

I must tell you back in December I came up with the award winning idea to take the taxes out of our monthly mortgage payments (over $500) to be able to pay bills each month (the taxes will get paid with our tax return) it was a way to shuffle money.

Let's just say thank god I did. Spaghetti is slightly in the dark on the fact that food on the table is not cheep. And he has a STROKE every time we grocery shop. He thinks that I am going to have the $500 difference from the old mortgage payments, I can just pay off the credit cards. $500 a month... um... no.

The idea behind the big shuffle of funds here, was so I could breathe when paying bills. So I am not holding the electric bill in one hand and the gas bill in the other thinking who gets paid first? I can actually pay them on time.

The credit cards are getting paid off, but not in $500 increments. Not possible. I think the biggest set back was last month I took Dong to the vet to get X-rays (she ate Piglet and part of a plastic Tigger) well instead of charging it, I forgot my Credit Cards at home (probably a good thing) and I debited the $421 vet bill.

So now we are trying to come back from that little set back.

The credit cards are not through the roof, they both have balances on them, and will pay them off in the next 6 months or so, sadly I must tell Spaghetti that it is not happening in the 3 months he thought it would.

Maybe a TMI to share with all of you. But I need to blog out my thoughts on this, maybe I won't stress as much about bills if I know that I am not the only one. (just reassure me that your all broke too? Please?)

I am thinking that the trips to the grocery store are the big item here. Outside of the mortgage, the diapers, formula, and food alone are easily a paycheck themselves. I went through the checkbook and balanced it. I then highlighted all the debits for fast food. $160 for the last 3 weeks and that was only 12 transactions (average of $13.33 a drive through)

Do we turn of more lights and live like cave men? Not sure what to do. I am doing what I can to pay everything. But the thing that scares me is, how would I have paid a mortgage that was $500 more a month? If I didn't come up with the shuffle money plan, who knows where we would be with money.

Anywho, that is my money vent. I do feel better, and I will talk to Spaghetti about this later.




p.s. If you know me or Spaghetti personally, I would appreciate it if you would not talk to him about my blog or the topics here.

He knows I have a blog. He reads it.

He does not like discussing the topics with others. I appreciate your respect for me and my blog.