When It Rains.......

........ It pours for sure. I can't believe how many things have gone so wrong ever since I quit working. Finances have been really tight and we expected that to be sure and have cut back on sooo many things to accommodate it. It's these unexpected things that are biting us in the butt and I feel like crabbing about it to make me feel better. And as lots of people say, blogging is cheaper than therapy so here it goes.
Starting the very month after I quit working, Zaden got sick and ended up at Primary Children's hospital for 3 days. That costs us a few thousand dollars of unexpected costs even after the insurance paid. Health care is such a racket. So we drained a lot of what we had in savings to pay those off.
Then we got a letter from the city telling us the position of our shed (which was here when we bought the house) was in violation and must be moved. They gave us a whopping 30 days to do it. Luckily we were able to get my family up here to help with those but there were still costs associated with it that were completely unanticipated.
Last month, right after Christmas (of course) costs, Mike's brakes on the Durango went out and we had to get those replaced before we had planned on. Only to be told that he also needs 3 new tires. I mean, I knew they were getting bad but I didn't realize how bad until I drove Caleb to preschool in the snow yesterday with them. I was sliding all over the place. So I came home and told him we really can't wait much longer on that.
Well we filed our tax returns on Monday night and were feeling good that we were getting enough back to pay off the credit cards and perhaps have a little extra to do something fun or at least pay for those tires he needs, when we woke up yesterday to a freezing house. The furnace was not working. We tried what we could to no avail then Mike called a repair man. He came over to tell us the circuit board was shot and since the unit was over 15 years old, it didn't really make sense to replace parts when in the long run it was cheaper just to replace the whole thing. So we bit the bullet and slapped a new furnace on the old cc. They were very quick and had it in and running by about 4 last night. Luckily we had the fireplace for backup heat in the mean time but knew the costs of running that all day every day would be astronomical. So I am grateful to have heat back. So goodbye rest of the tax return money.
I know things like this are going to come up. I am not so naive as to not expect that, but seriously all of this in the last 6 months!!!!!!!!! I need a job it seems but then we just go back to the circle of day care costs for 3 kids which are not pretty! It seems endless and just when we were thinking we might get a little ahead. It's always something.....right? And now we have to figure out a new plan for those tires.