The Curve Balls

Sunday is bill day in my house.

The bills are juggled and sorted by balance, due date and priority.

It is like shuffling a deck of cards.

I gave up cable for Hulu and Netfilx.

I watch the number of GB I use on my cell phone each month.  I do not want extra fees.

I use Gas Buddy to find the lowest price in gas.

I head to Publix and CVS for the BOGO sales.

I use my toothpaste and shampoo to the last drop. Yes, I do add water to the shampoo bottle to get that one extra wash of my hair.

Soda has been replaced by water which saves a lot of money.

When I leave the house each week for my two night stay in Lexington, I turn off the central air.

I can't remember the last time I paid full price for any clothing.  I wait for the sales.

I drive to the landfill versus paying for trash pickup.

I now have a car payment, I am saving a lot on gas as my new car is more fuel efficient.

I plan my meals and don't mind eating soup three to four times a week.

I use a K cup for two cups of coffee vs. one.

With all these choices, I can get by,

But like with most people, it is the unplanned events that can throw the finances into a tailspin.

In the last  few months, it was car repair bills and frequent oil changes due to the high mileage on my old vehicle.

Laying out cash until I hit the deductible on my medical coverage or the $400 out of pocket for my eyeglasses.  There is the $235 per month out of pocket for my maintenance inhaler for my asthma. These are not items included in my monthly budget.

But still I manage to make it work as I move the money around like a dealer in Vegas.

I just paid to have my dryer vent cleaned out.  I always have a fear of a fire due to all of the "stuff" that accumulates in that long hose out of the house.

I know it is important to have regular maintenance checks on appliances and systems in the house.

Then you notice water on the living room ceiling in not one but four spots.  Call the A/C man, and it appears the pan under the unit is rusted very badly and now has holes.

Options are a smaller amount to have the old unit taken down, the pan replaced and the unit reinstalled. Or bite the bullet and get a new unit.  After a few phone calls for advice, I opted to go for the new unit to replace the 15 year old one.

Up bright and early Saturday.  Installation starts at 7:30 and by 9:45, voila it's all done.

If I had any idea this big bill was going to be rolling in, I might not have bought the new kitchen appliances or the new car.  While the appliances that were replaced were not broken at 30 years old they had pretty much reached the end of their economic life.  The new car replaced a 12 year old car with over 200,000 miles, oil changes every 5 weeks and repair bills that were adding up.

Common sense decisions but yes, I am second guessing those decisions based on the bill for this weeks HVAC replacement.

Well, once again it is Sunday and I am shuffling the bills looking for a "royal straight flush" instead of  "a pair of deuces".

Somehow I will make it work, I always have up until now.

Time to deal the cards and hope no new unexpected surprises surface at least for this week.

See you next week.