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Home > Adjusting Trajectory: Upward

Adjusting Trajectory: Upward

November 6th, 2016 at 02:41 pm


The tenants sign the lease on Friday.

We saved $160 by cancelling a junk pick-up. We've done two trips to the dumpster at my father's apartment building and will spend about $30 in refuse stickers.

We delayed driveway sealcoating until next year. Saved $160 on that, since we were an end of season request and we had workers needing access to the driveway for the interior work.

I spent $1,025 on new appliances (fridge/stove/dishwasher) at the Ding and dent event at Sears Outlet. And since I bought during Halloween season, I saved an additional 13%.

We saved tons of money doing all of the cleaning and painting ourselves. We recruited my inlaws for that. Any stepdad helped relay the bathroom floor and installed all the new light fixtures and closet doors.

My parents were helpful and purchased a set of four new tires for me. My inlaws purchased a needed tire for my husband's minivan. Plus both were helpful paying for an outing (movies/pizza) and dinner in (Chinese food, etc). Also sundries. And when my kids' were in need of extra funds, my mom put them to work at her house with tasks.

I've learned to stretch the budget by shopping only at Aldi's and The Dollar Tree. And I defrayed the cost of some convenience foods.

I was blessed with a dear friend who sent me a much-needed crockpot. Smile And I did find a find $10 Target card floating around an old purse that I forwarded to a young working mom making minimum wage trying to support her daughter. It was so nice to pay it forward. I clearly lived without it and passed it on.

I also cash-flowed older daughter's community college tuition ($1,450 plus helped out with about $200 in books). I did cover her $81 flight home from CA.

I did speak to the high schools about the inability to pay tuition until our financial situation changed; since my kids are partial scholarships, they front loaded those payments so the kids are current and can sit for exams (one in December, one in January).

So we've had to rental property income from 9/1-11/15 and thousands of dollars in expenses. I haven't tallied it up, but I will. We've cash-flowed most of it. We do have one credit card that we used to book work, though if it was billed, we paid it off.

This is a long and rambly. Just sort of a quick recap to myself of the timeline.

Next time you hear from me, I'll be setting some goals for ourselves for the remainder of the year.

I splurged yesterday at Walmart (while buying draino and light fixtures) and spent $.75 for a salt shaker on clearance. It was a cute fox that I admired when he was part of a matched set for $4.98. I already have squirrels that are on my mantle. Apparently the pepper shaker was gone, so he was reduced. I snagged him up and he's on the mantle with the squirrels and pumpkins. I decided he was too cute to pass up. Not needed, but wanted.

So upward.

9 Responses to “Adjusting Trajectory: Upward”

  1. snafu Says:
    1478447843

    Kudos, you have all done such a remarkable amount of work and continue moving forward under severe pressure. You have such an outstanding family, everyone seems to have stepped up to do what was needed to get through this difficult patch.
    DD #1 is home and ready to start Community College? Wonderful!

    Take a bow, you've meet the challenges and superseded it all!

  2. NJDebbie Says:
    1478448312

    Yes, I second Snafu's sentiment!

  3. crazyliblady Says:
    1478449270

    It is wonderful you have such greet family to help you to weather this storm. I applaud you for your grace under pressure and doing it all so frugally.

    Has DD #1 been attending college out of state?

  4. CB in the City Says:
    1478450167

    You've done so well. It's inspiring!

  5. laura Says:
    1478450919


    Thank you for the wonderful pats on the back! Yes, I am aware of how fortunate we are to have the family that we do! Definitely could not have done it and stayed on timeline and budget for the reno.

    Older daughter spent five months in California and is home until January. She goes back to CA for one month and then is going to see about signing in NYC. She's able to sign up at our local community college and take all of her classes (so far) online. She's done two psychology courses and one philosophy course this 16 week semester (two-eight week courses, one sixteen week course). She is able to keep up with her studies and model which is a better compromise than I had ever hoped for. She will repeat the process for spring 2017 semester.

  6. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1478454841

    Wow lots of help from family. Amazing. Is this the first no rental income you haven't had to cover it? How long have you had the rental? Have you ever looked at the costs/benefits long term? Sounds like you've been very fortunate until now? Can you tell us about it?

  7. Carol Says:
    1478457525

    How fun to have a cute little fox ( for 75ยข no less) as your trophy for getting thru these trying times! You are all terrific-- good luck going forward!

  8. scottish girl Says:
    1478541136

    You've done so well!

  9. Joanne Says:
    1478725307

    You should be proud of how well you have done. I admire your energy. Glad that things are working out. I always enjoy reading your blog,and reading about how well you cope with things in life.

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