Very Poor

We are so poor right now. I just can't figure out how we got that way.

Now, you have to understand, poor in my vernacular includes a still-reasonably-healthy emergency fund, as well as some mutual funds that we'd lose money on if we dipped into (what with fees and all), but are there for the dipping, should dipping be necessary. I'm the child of a bipolar man, remember, who spends like a bipolar man. I have serious financial 'issues,' and even the slightest bit of instability makes me a little, well, unstable.

But, still, things aren't rosy. We're having to take a couple of grand out of the emergency fund every month or two to cover our bills, because my salary alone doesn't do it, and freelance payments just never come in in time to pay the mortgage. So that still-reasonably-healthy fund will be a lot less reasonably healthy real soon if things don't get straightened out.

Taking off my and my neighbor's side mirrors didn't help the situation any, and Baroy's getting a ticket for an illegal U-turn and THEN for not wearing a seatbelt (he swears he was, but he took it off to get out of the car, and so when the cop said he hadn't been wearing it at all, he had no ammunition to prove him wrong), which will cost as much as the mirrors, if not more, plus there's the whole insurance thing, and woe is me woe is me woe is me.

The holidays wiped us out. I'm waiting on checks from the PTA board, because I front the money each month for our newsletter, and they're late cutting them due to one of our twice-yearly audits, so that money is coming out of my pocket right now. I have a bunch of doctor's bills that I've been putting off paying, mostly stemming from N's surgery back in June. (Yes, I SAID I was putting off paying them, and I meant it.) N's birthday is in a couple of weeks, which means a party, which means mo' money. I need to pay for the next term of gym classes for the kids (N's is like therapy for him, a pseudo social-skills group, so I really need to do it, and Em is so into gymnastics that I can't see taking that away from her, though it's possible I'm going to have to, even though we actually COULD afford it, it would just mean more emergency-fund hemorrhaging for a non-emergency). That's a nice chunk of change right there.

And have I mentioned that Baroy had less than two weeks of work last year? And that so far all the promising things he's been going for have come to naught? And that he is so depressed that it's almost worrisome, but he won't get help?

And amidst all this, what am I doing? Planning to quit my job, to work from home. I must be nuts. Oh, wait, that's right. I am. Certified, even.

I'll spare you the rest, because I know that long lists of other peoples' financial woes is SO MUCH FUN to read. But suffice it to say, I'm preoccupied these days.

Oh, but before you go. I'm crappy at figuring out how to put little buttons and stuff on my blog, but apparently this is DELURKING WEEK. So if you're reading this, you're supposed to drop me a comment, just to say hi. Or to tell me that you have a fabulous, benefits-laden telecommuting job for me that pays bundles and has no pressure and no stress and is exactly what I want to be doing with my life. One or the other.