I guess you could say that I've had it pretty tough the the last 12 years or so. I got divorced 6 years ago from a raging maniac. He doesn't have anything to do with his kids.

One of the reasons I moved to this new house was because now my ex husband doesn't know where we live. Not that it matters because he borrowed money from me the beginning of March and moved out of State. No one knows where he is. He hasn't tried to contact anyone since he left.

Then in March, it was the last Monday in March, my house caught fire and me and my daughter lost almost everything. All our clothes were lost. She lost all her furniture. We lost all our Christmas decorations. My youngest son got smoke inhalation and had to be treated. When something like this happens you really take stock in what you have and what is important. I could have lost my whole world.

The house I lived in was a house in progress anyway. As soon as something would be fixed, something else broke. The day I put it up for sale, my stove broke, a piece of wood on one of the cabinets broke and fell off and the shower head broke, flew off and almost knocked me out in the shower. To say I was done with that cursed house may actually be an understatement.

One of the reasons my kids have cell phones was because their dad used to haunt me. I can't begin to tell you how many times he cut my phone wires. He also cut the water line to the house and sawed off all the outside lights. They have the cheapest plan there is. If you are asking if he ever went to jail, well he did - twice. The cell phones actually come in pretty handy. My older son misses his school bus sometimes and he uses the phone to call me. My younger son is pretty active so it is nice being able to get a hold of him no matter where he is. I have a two year contract again with Sprint. Just about everytime it is time to renew, I get a letter from Verizon telling me what they can offer me so I call Sprint and they beat Verizon. It is very cool playing them off on each other.

As you can see the old house held a lot of bad memories for me. I used every penny I got from the old house and put it down on the new house. (Plus I put in $2,000 of my savings for a deposit when I made the offer.) It was almost 20%, so I do have to pay 3 years of PMI.

Anyway, I knew it was going to be tough when I moved. I had every penny worked out because I am very money aware. I even had the increase in my health insurance worked out. I figured they would increase it about $25. I even took into consideration that my daughter would pay her own car payment. (I know this is stupid stupid stupid.) They increased it $100. I'm going to take the kids off my health insurance. The health department charges $45 for a doctor appointment so if they get sick, I'll take them there. If something major happens I'll apply with the state. My co-payment to be on Medi-Caid is about $2,000 per month. They use gross income. My checks are paid biweekly so they use gross (minus any health insurance paid) x 2.167. Then they subtract $90 and than $1100 (for a family of 4). The left over is my share of cost. Household expenses are not taken into consideration, or the fact that I pay more in taxes than most teenagers earn in year. (Which is kind of sad because right now I claim 13.) Plus I have to pay manditory union dues and we have to have ourselves on insurance, so we have to pay that (otherwise I'd take myself off too). I would say I have close to $175 in mandatory deductions taken from each check. Not including the dental and vision care that I'm keeping for the kids and myself.

It is hard, but I guess I was never promised a rose garden.

On the brighter side, I am considering applying for a job that pays up to $11,000 more a year - tops. It would take two years to top out and it is further away from home and I would have to do some traveling. The down side is my kids are still little. I don't like the idea of going to Sacramento and leaving my teenagers home with themselves. I guess it is a catch 22. Maybe I'll apply and leave the choice to the higher power.

I found this saying on a money quote web page. I think it is nice.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

Anonymous quotes