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Step toward July goal

July 15th, 2009 at 03:20 pm

Whew, back to real life! Thanks again for sharing my excitement in my last post.

One of AS's student loans hit, with $82 going to principal. That's $1240 down, $760 to go on my July goal. We'll be cutting it close but should make this goal.

Last week AS got barely any unemployment benefits because she used up her state funding, and stimulus unemployment wouldn't kick in until the next week, so we got about $300 less than we thought we would. Today, my paycheck and NT's reflected the three furlough days taken so far, so we got about $350 less than normal. Back in the bad old days, this would have been devastating--to my credit card, because I would have just charged even more than usual to make up the even wider gap between my paycheck and what I was spending during a fortnight.

AS's unemployment loss was an unforseen blow, but we were able to absorb it temporarily, and there will be a pay period in September where she'll get three unemployment checks instead of two, so we'll make it up then.

As for the furlough losses, we had already trimmed our budget in preparation for those months ago, when we first learned about them. So even though it felt strange to look at the smaller direct deposits, it actually won't have any new impact on our lives.

I also am losing $6 per month permanently because they've started taxing a benefit that we've always had but hadn't been taxed for before. And at the beginning of this year, my new healthcare and high deductible took a huge bite out of my paycheck. And of course AS's unemployment is about 60% of what she used to bring in, and will run out before the end of the year. I haven't had a raise in years, and probably NT and I will not get one this year or maybe even the next.

It hurts to see our income stagnate, and even get smaller and smaller, but I'm glad to know that we have a system in place to help us deal somewhat dispassionately with these problems, and a small surplus going to discretionary spending, savings and debt repayment that can be dialed back when there's less money coming in.

2 Responses to “Step toward July goal”

  1. Mrs Says:
    1247673900


    Ah ... the lifelong journey to money maturity! It is great to see that you're able to deal with these issues. I'm moving away from the "hoarding" mentality - designed to protect us from any major catastrophe (which hasn't happened). We compromised and put half on the debt - leaving us half of the savings. We were also able to transfer the remaining portion to a 2.99% for the next year. I've still got some savings and we are moving closer to being credit card debt-free.

  2. Affacturage Says:
    1247747568

    I learned a lot about economics through this blog. A well-written reminder to all about the impending issues that we are all going to have to deal with (or are already dealing with) in this country in the years to come.

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