In my last post we celebrated a meager success in savings. In this post I get to describe our meager loss of savings (you're welcome). We had a surprise trip to the vet for the discounted price of $99 and a tire replacement of $140. We are in between spring and summer classes which means the additional teaching income wont be back until the end of june. We have $100 to last us until the 30th. The lesson we are learning is tough. Im not sure how to make such a small sum of money last, we are used to credit cards to pull us through but we eliminated those. Life 2. Tcats 1. we get one point for having money in savings to cover the vet. Life gave us a suckerpunch. its rude like that.

we still have our $50 in savings bringing our grand total to $70. Right on for us! Ive got to be honest and say that right now that might as well be $1000. it just feels so solid to have something put away. Im going to find a way to stick $30 more to make it a hundred. In other news...lastest pet scan came with a $400 dollar deductible. In other other news....I have actually planned our meals through friday so we have no reason to eat out. Lets check the score Tcat-2 Life-1. this round goes to us.

Here is the first "official" we sat down and really looked report. Credit card debt 12243.. outstanding medical bills 2430. Car loan 3400. We have a mortgage but havent checked that balance and student loans. the good news is that we are current on all payments except the medical. Now mind you I had two major emergency surgeries last year so that figure is on top of what we paid out of pocket. I could take solace in the fact that our cc debt wasnt created by a shopping habit but I wont because here is the reality. we had to use them to cover emergencies because we didnt manage our money and had little to no savings. We have struggled to use cash only this week but it shows me our true attitude. We dont say no to ourselves - we dont set limits. For most of you that was a no brainer but when you hand over the debit card there is a true disconnect between how much your spending and how much you think you are spending. Our goal is small but we are going to save $50 this week. so lets recap..cash only spending (great start~crappy finish) putting 50 in savings (one small leap.....you get the idea)

Im digging all the feedback and encouragement so Thanks! Its great to know other people have been where we are and lived to tell about it. So....we actually sat down and created a spread sheet for all our debts (aka the elephant). We have decided that on Sunday evenings after the kids are in bed we will open a bottle of wine and go over our speadsheet for the week and get on the same page. This week we started by talking about how the elephant makes us feel, then we moved to who actually brought the animal in- which we got a little heated but in the end we concluded that one of us held the door open while the other one pushed him through the front door and we both helped to keep him feed and happy. The tricky part is in trying to figure out how to release snickers (aka elephant) back into the wild. Do I finish my last semester at school (creating more debt) or go to work (requiring child care and more money we dont have). I feel like finishing school is my ticket to creating wealth and security not to mention the earning power to live well. This is where you experienced folks come in...what do you think? Im all ears and so is snickers.