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| she said yes! |
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| view from Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park |
So it's been a while, but we had a good reason. We were busy.
As you all know, I decided to get down on one knee and, most likely, commence to do one of the craziest things I've ever done. At least of things that fall into the category of one knee-d things. Now that Meg said yes (equally as crazy response), we have moved onto the preliminary planning stages.
However, this planning phase runs right up against our goal to pay off our debts. For instance, we went on a two day excursion to look at venues. Take into account gas, some road food, and random expenses along the way and you begin to add up. Hopefully, this expense will stop after we find a place.
At the same time, other items that need to be paid for have been cropping up. There's a few weddings and family affairs down the line that items need to be purchased for, an occasional odd purchase in April, and finding a doctor for Meg. For those of you unfamiliar with DC doctor offices, then allow me to explain. First, Meg's doctor simply ceased to exist and didn't bother to inform her patients. Second, doctors in DC are perpetually swamped, as all doctors are in this time period, yet here in the city you have to hunt for not only a doctor, but a friendly, helpful staff. In other words, it's nice to have a few nurses that answer the phone when you call and return messages. Needless to say, this process combined in co-pays has been a bit of an adventure. Hence, the added expense this month.
What threw us for more of a loop was the ability to calculate a fiscal calendar: what is the end of the month? Does that extra two days (which contains a Friday payday) part of the previous month? We discovered that we had been accidentally using those "bonus" days in the previous months. Therefore, to account for that we added in a few days in May, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd as money from April.
Added to this was the fact that Meg was paying for more things than I was, which is the reason she didn't pay off as much debt this month as I did. And previously, she was paying off double what I was. For us, the last two months have been real eye opener in terms of budgeting and how we spend our money. We do know that neither of us would make good accountants, but hey, life's a learning process. We are becoming happier, wiser, and less in debt slowly, but surely. This is hard. We've had arguments over small purchases. And large purchases. Things a year ago we wouldn't have given a second thought to, but this is different. These are choices, not imprudence.
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| Blackwater Falls State Park, WV |
Let's do the numbers:
Greg paid off $750
Meg paid off $214
An April total of $964
Total paid $7,216. Leaving us with $33,783 to go.
And yes we promise to start posting more. As we've said we've been busy.
