November 5, 2002
Shortly after we moved into the new apartment, I reached my breaking point with all of our bills, particularly the medical bills. It seemed like every time I opened the mailbox, there were five new bills in there. Or five old bills that were being re-sent due to lack of payment. So I had a sort of localized nervous breakdown and refused to check the mail anymore and told Keith that the bills were now officially his job, because I couldn't handle looking at them.
In retrospect, this was not the most effective way to solve the problem.
Keith did a spotty job on the bills for the next couple of months, but between working full-time (more than full-time if you count the hour's commute via bus both ways), helping me out with Zeke when he did get home, and attempting to create some kind of super-organized system that never really came together, our finances were still pretty messy.
About three weeks ago I emerged from the mental fugue state I'd been in regarding our monetary situation and announced that I was ready to take over again. Keith acceded with a great sense of relief, and I sat down with all our bank statements from the last year, a calculator, all of the outstanding bills, and the checkbook. Three hours later, I had a budget worked out and a plan of attack for our remaining major debt.
Meanwhile, we radically changed the way we shop for groceries, stopped most of our other discretionary spending, and I discovered the joys of thrift and consignment shops.
End result of all this, three weeks later? Last week we spent less money on groceries than we spent in any single week for the previous year. Except for one medical bill from Children's Hospital that is currently in their financial aid system awaiting review, all of our medical creditors are completely paid off. The credit card bill has been paid down -- not significantly, but paid down nonetheless, and nothing new has been or will be charged to it. All of our utility bills are paid. We have enough money left over that for the first time in a long time, we are not looking at running out of money in our checking account shortly before payday.
The point is, our bills are paid, we are financially solvent, we are going to get the credit card paid off much quicker than I thought we could, and when that happens, we are going to be able to save, save, save. Meanwhile, we are eating better than ever before, due to the lack of convenience foods and presence of healthy whole foods in our diet. Best of all, rather than having a vague ever-present depressing sense that "we have a lot of bills to pay and not a lot of money to pay them with," I know exactly how much money we have, exactly where it's going, and exactly how much we have left over after paying those bills. It's a really good feeling. Mom pointed out, when I was telling her this on the phone the other day, that controlling your money, rather than letting your money control you, makes all the difference in the world.