We did it! We got our savings back up above $20,000…for now. Who knows when the next financial train wreck will happen and knock us off the rails.
Our reader may not be able to tell because we are not totally broke, but Christy and I have horrible luck, financially. Given that, it’s surprising we are in the position we are in.
I personally think we are responsible for the housing crash in 2008. It wasn’t Lehman Brothers, collateralized debt obligations, or subprime loans. It was because we bought a house in NJ two years earlier so the whole thing came crashing down to put our mortgage under water and keep us in this shit town.
The latest streak of luck was that after 14 years we finally decided to get our fire place repaired so we could use it. It’s going to be $2,000 in repairs. One of the issues was our damper handle broke off. No big deal. It just needs a new handle.
Guess what they don’t make anymore? You got it. The damper. So that’s another $500 to remove the old damper and install a new one.
I know what our reader is thinking. Woe is me…first world problems…blah, blah, blah. Shut it. This is our blog and I can bitch all I want.
All in all, we are grateful for what we have. I just wish life would stop nickel and diming us to death.
This month we saved our normal $500 in savings, plus an additional $6,900 from my annual bonus and the monthly child tax credit. But, we had to withdraw $2,918 to cover some expenses. We earned $4.60 in interest.
In vacation we saved $250. With my annual increase at work, we decided to increase our vacation fund by $50 a check. We don’t have plans for the little bit extra above that. We are going to let that remain in checking to have a little extra to cover our normal expenses each month instead of transferring money in and out of savings to cover bills. We earned .74 cents in interest.
| Savings | $22,237 |
| Vacation | $3,355 |