Saturday, February 11, 2012

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!



I must be lazy. How in the world do people keep up this pace?!

I should be fair to myself - my life isn't average. Still, though, I know that I'm not - I can't be - the only one that has a challenging life. It's just that this morning, I feel particularly challenged.

My mother had a seizure this morning - and that's always stressful. Add to that workmen in my house - spending my money!

I try not to worry about money matters. I have a budget that I endeavour to stay within, I save money - I try to be diverse in my savings strategy, and I work to make sure that neither my mother's nor my insurance policies default. I even save specifically toward an annual get away - which of course means not just saving toward my expenses, but also saving for extra nursing care while I'm gone.

Somehow though, my budget always gets messed up, and my savings gets depleted to almost starting-point by emergencies. Ridiculous thousand dollar emergencies! I know, you're thinking that I should be thankful - I have money to manage emergencies. Let me be very clear then... I work for a non-profit organisation. I have no benefits. Whatever life/health protection or services I need, emergencies included, I pay for out-of-pocket. If I loose my job in this economy, I loose near everything.

I've only recently started making enough money to save, so there isn't that much put away yet. (Forget that 6 months of salary buffer those idiot economics gurus talk about needing) My mother's savings have diminished greatly - thankfully not from being squandered, but spent on essentials, like her care, or those pesky emergencies I mentioned. The one such emergency that I'm spending on now is the bathroom.

I live in an old house. It was my grandparents' marriage home - built in the 1930s I believe, so it's old, and in disrepair. When the bathroom door collapsed off the termite and water rotted door frame last week, the plan that I had to renovate it got moved to the top of the priority list. Unfortunately, the cost was prohibitive. So I had to rearrange my budget, and scale back to repairing the bathroom now instead of saving toward renovating it later.

My vacation plans took the hit. I'm not happy about it, but what can I do - not fix my old, rotting, falling-down-around-me house?

It's just that I'd like a break. I'd like to be able to make a plan and have it go smoothly, without having to resort to contingencies B, C or D. It is emotionally and mentally taxing to have to be on your toes all the time. Think about it in literal terms - if you stand, walk and run on your toes all the time, eventually you'll get a cramp.

I'm catching a mental cramp, dammit!

No comments:

Post a Comment