I have to testify!!
What a month! I think I have adjusted to the marching band schedule. It is wonderful to finally get used to getting up at 5:30am everyday and getting the girls up, ready, and off to marching band practice every morning. It is sad that it took so long, since we only have two more weeks and the football season is over. Surprisingly, the girls adjusted much faster than I did. They have been able to keep their grades up, too!
I made the choice over 14 years ago to stop working. I knew when I made that choice that I would not go back to being an engineering designer without starting over again, which would include going to school to learn the new technologies. I have never regretted my decision even once. I am very thankful that my husband makes more than enough for us to live on so that I can be home for the kids everyday. We have done very well on one income all this time, paying all of our bills, paying off our vehicles, and never carrying a credit card balance. When we moved into this home nearly three years ago I wanted to put in a pool. We had to take a loan for part of it, and we took money out of savings to pay the rest. At that very moment, the cost of everything we used and needed jumped. Clothing, food, gasoline. We still did very well, but I wasn't happy that we seemed to spend the entire paycheck and we were not able to put some money in savings.
I am not a New Years Resolution type of person, but in January 2013 I felt led to change some things in our spending and made the "resolution" to save a pound of dollars a month. To save you from Googling it, that is $454 a month. Since the day that decision was made I haven't added a dime to savings. I know that God was preparing me for the bottom to fall out! In February, our dishwasher needed repairing and I had cut back just enough that we had the money to repair it without touching our savings account. In March, one of the girls went back into braces for her teeth. We made a deal to finance it out at $99 a month without interest, but we had to put $500 down. We didn't have to touch savings. Also in March, the government announced that employees were going to be affected by sequestration, which meant that our paychecks could potentially lose ten paydays over the rest of the fiscal year. By the end of March, we had enough in savings to cover that loss. In April, my soon to be ten year old SUV needed some kind of brakes repair on all four wheels. I was able to put the $2300 on a no-interest credit card and pay it monthly over nine months. If you are keeping track, we are now paying out an additional $355 a month with braces and car repair. Our girls go to summer camp for a week each summer. We pay part and they pay part. In May, the balance of their camp week was charged automatically to our credit card...$840.00 hit the card, but I had forgotten that it would charge in May. Thank goodness I had decided to start working part-time in April because that gave me what I needed to pay the camp week when the credit card bill came due. I cannot recall anything too devastating hitting in June and July, other than a small trip for our anniversary in June and a holiday/birthday celebration in July. In August, our a/c decided not to cool anymore. We found out we have a leak in the coil on the inside unit and the entire unit-in and out-needs to be replaced. We can't afford the $7000 right now, so we had it serviced and recharged with Freon to see if we could hold off until the spring when we hoped to save the money for it. You guessed it...$400 to repair it but we had it. Also in August, we had to pay the girls' marching band fees and school supplies, and get a few clothing needs, which came to about $1000 and we had that, too. This is the moment it actually donned on me just how awesome God is!
I had been so busy with the kids and working, and plugging along trying to keep my head above the financial sinking level, that I hadn't stop to realize that the plan I made in January to put money in savings was God telling me to get ready for the storm. All along, with every hit we took, we never had to take a dime out of savings and we always had just enough to take care of it. I found myself so busy with school and marching band and homework and working part-time that life caught up with me in a potentially crushing way. Our source of income stopped. On October 1, the government shutdown. The government never actually shuts down, many still go to work everyday...they just don't get paid for it. That was us. It is very hard not to panic a little, knowing that we only had so much money in the bank, and we had no way of knowing how long the shutdown would last. After a few days of attempting to figure out how to make our cash last, I gave the situation to God and trusted Him to take care of it. Although it only lasted sixteen days, we managed to pay every bill and all credit card balances, and not touch savings. We should net $700 leftover after the back pay shows up. Praise the Lord! I am amazed!
Needless to say, that surplus of money, along with a budgeted "extra" paycheck in December, will go into our savings! The government is only guaranteed to be "open" through January 15. If they shutdown again, we will be in even better shape by then. Hopefully I will not feel as stressed next time, but I know God will prevail.
By the way, the a/c guy came out today and checked the system. We are still holding onto most of our Freon in that unit, so we are hopeful that it will continue to hold until we have the cash to replace it! Did I mention how great God is?
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