This is what an Emergency Fund is for

I just had gum surgery, which cost $835 freakin' dollars.

Although I am terrified to touch our EF, which according to the Dave Ramsey plan is "only" $1,000 anyway, I am going to take $100 out of the EF to pay for this surgery. The remaining funds used to pay for the remainder are:

$100--reduced Mastercard payment
$100--reduced Discover card payment
$100--borrow from Ma
$200--take from other savings account which was created by a 0% credit card advance
$235--covered by funds from regular budget

And now, I have completely spent my annual FSA, which was only $1,500 and the maximum allowed contribution by my work. And it's only October. Still, I hope those $1,500 pre-tax dollars make a difference come April 15.

Another Decision Made

I have decided that, on top of all our other stressors in life (S's ongoing career/job search, still dealing with the aftermath of the custody battle) that if I can ease up on at least the financial stresses that will do us a world of good. I have decided that instead of putting $1,000 towards the credit cards each month, I will ease up and aim for a ballpark of more like $800-900, thereby freeing up some funds so I don't feel so panicked when we want to do something nice like have a romantic dinner out together. Or buy some new clothes. Or go see a movie that's not a matinee. B/c right now we almost NEVER do those things, and it's reflecting on our marriage.

I appreciate Dave Ramsey's "gazelle-intense" approach to paying down debt, but most of the folks he counsels have done stupid stuff with their money. All we did was try to win a custody battle so the baby could have a much better life with us. And we don't need to add insult to injury upon ourselves by struggling so much with $. Finally, I was smart enough to get most of the remaining debt--$11K out of $20K remaining--at fixed low-interest, at APR's of 6.99 and 4.99%. And the rest is currently at 1.9-0%, yes to expire next year but I'll deal with it at that time, now now. So I need to quit beating up on myself and making our lives miserable.

Ouch.

One of my retirement accounts has gone down over $1,300 thanks to the latest economic FUBAR. Fortunately, I am far away from retirement and there's no need to panic. And today I am glad beyond words that the bullshit bailout has been defeated.

Our Govt. is Full of Pinheads and Assholes

As soon as I can, I'm giving some $ to the Libertarian Party.

Skittish

I'm skittish even though S is now working. I'm skittish b/c his latest job is still up in the air for some reasons and we are still waiting to see where he will land on a more permanent basis. Even though I should pay off 1 of my CC's I want to hold onto my extra savings b/c I'm just so skittish! I've got an extra $1,000 I could and should apply to debt repayment, but I just can't make the move yet until I know more about what's going to happen to us, financially-speaking.

Raises

So a couple of months ago I asked Job #1 for a 10% raise. I had a page-long document with evidence outlining why I deserve such a raise including attachments such as unsolicited emails from clients saying how amazing I was. They came back with a 5% raise. We get a 3% raise automatically every Sept. 1. At first I was a little put out b/c really all they gave me was an additional 2% raise and then they're also making me wait until Sept. 1 to get it. I'm still a little put out but it's ok... for now.

Then last night I was at Job #2 and we got paid yesterday so my paycheck was in my box. The amount seemed a little high, and upon closer inspection I saw that my hourly rate had gone up and no one had even told me. Calculations revealed that I got an 8% raise!!! Oh... nice. And MUCH needed since S still has not been hired anywhere yet.

Definitely Stressed

I redid the budget today, again pushing back a possible date that S starts to bring home a paycheck. I am supposedly getting a 5% raise, as opposed to our annual 3% raise b/c I raised a fuss about getting a better raise this year, starting Sept. 1 and I wanted to use it to open a Roth IRA but now that doesn't look like it's going to happen then after all. Right now there are so many variables to guess at that it's hard to do any real financial planning.

• IF S gets hired in August by one of the agencies he's already interviewed at, then we will be sitting pretty.
  
• But if he doesn't get hired, then IF he starts the process to join our Reserves and takes the test on Aug. 9, it could take him a couple of months to get fully hired on, so we'll be sitting pretty in... late September? October? Possibly November? Jesus, that's a long time.
  
• And IF he still is not working anywhere in September, I am going to be withdrawing all kinds of money from savings and I'm so scared to do that. It might be better just to quit over-contributing to the CC payments temporarily, but that hurts me psychologically. Which is the worst pain?