When it rains it pours

When Sean got his promotion in early December we finally felt a little relief since we are still paying off the garage and this would allow us to be able to increase our payments. We figured our $11,500 garage could be paid off in a year and a half (which wasn’t bad, but we really hate being in debt) but after his raise we thought it could possibly shave 6 months off of that time. Since the garage was built we’ve had a few unexpected expenses that had to be put on credit, but just a little at a time over the last 6 months, like Sean’s root canal - $200, Sean’s speeding ticket - $160, my computer monitor blew - $200, and my computer was crashing and I needed to reformat it with a new version of Windows - $115. Spread out it wasn’t much but it did lengthen the time it would take to pay off our credit cards.

But now, since December, since Sean’s promotion, the expenses are pouring down on us and it’s getting a little ridiculous. First, furnace stopped working - $100, then plumbing was blocked in main drain under house - $150, then Sean grazed the front of the Jeep on the garage, popping off the light cover and it broke - $135, And now, Sean’s computer got fried by a small power surge and we thought it would be cheaper to build around the parts that still worked. Good thought, in theory, but then his old computer had out dated pieces that aren’t readily available anymore and if we replaced exactly what he had and only one piece needed replacing later on it wouldn’t be available anymore and he’d have to have to replace almost everything inside again in order to replace one piece. So we went with the newer hardware but that meant we couldn’t use his old video card or RAM and had to buy that too. And then they said they wouldn’t be able to use his operating system still on his hard drive so we had to buy him a new copy of Windows as well (we can’t share one copy for the both of us). In the end, all said and done, $730! It started as $350!! Not to mention, my hard drives are still having issues that didn’t get corrected last time so I probably have to replace them before I lose all my data, at approx. $100 (but I’ll be using my Christmas gift money instead of credit, boo).

We know that not all of that had to be replaced immediately, some of that was our choice but it just all has hit us in less than 2 months and we’re just hoping this is where it stops. We’re acting so incredibly cautious now, which we probably should have done in the first place, but it’s also such a worrisome way to live. And now that we’re thinking of selling our house and there are repairs we need to do in order to be appealing to potential buyers (less than $1000 worth but its asthetics that could lower the value of our house if they are not done), and we wanted to sell in Spring because the housing market is skyrocketing again, and is predicted to double by next winter. We doubt our house value will increase by the same percent as the houses we’ll be looking to move into so we probably need to act fast on these repairs. AKKK!

Ok, my little freak out is done. For now.