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Home > Update on tax bill goal: Ups and downs, upcoming dental visit

Update on tax bill goal: Ups and downs, upcoming dental visit

May 10th, 2016 at 09:02 pm

AS and I celebrated Mother's Day with brunch and mimosas at a favorite restaurant and some lattes on the way home. Total cost with tips: $77.

AS's mom called and won't be able to make rent without a loan. Some resistance on my part and a heart-to-heart talk with A ensued, and we got her mom's promise to get some documentation of what's going on with budget that she's not making ends meet. But we are giving her $400. There are lots of petty angles I could vent over, especially involving AS's aunt, but I've already hashed it out.

To compensate, AS took another $1000 writing assignment for this month, which is going to be hard on her time. I'm torn: very glad for the money but worried about how hard she'll be working this month.

Mother's Day (affects both actual and future): $77
Money to AS's mom (affects actual and future): $400
AS freelance job net (affects only future): $650

Actual deficit: $5,083.79
Projected deficit w/ future money in: None! On paper we have a projected surplus of $8,587.44

AS's first dental appointments are tomorrow. We'll pay for them when we get the rewards card, but I'll put them in the spreadsheet right away as we get billed for them. I think I'm just going to tack them onto this goal and call it the "tax/dental bill goal" from now on.

We're putting the dental expenses on a Chase Sapphire card. I'm thinking I'll keep the eventual (approximate) $550 cash/$700 travel in the rewards account. The cash will be there as a mini-emergency fund. If we don't need the cash this year, we can use it to help pay airfare for a warm weather vacation in December or January.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Update on tax bill goal: Ups and downs, upcoming dental visit”

  1. snafu Says:
    May 11th, 2016 at 12:07 am 1462925273
    1462925273

    AS's mom's budgetary issue sounds familiar. Acknowledge this is totally None of my Business but I've been down this road with my much loved brother and experience taught me it gets more unpleasant with every repetition. Not only repetition but more frequent requests, more urgent, less led time...more budget tightening on my home front and a passel of disappointment for my DKs sometime later, for circumstances not yet imagined.

    I likened it to being an enabler to an alcoholic only $$$ was the weapon of choice.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    May 11th, 2016 at 03:49 am 1462938571
    1462938571

    I getcha. This is exactly why I'm always hesitant to give, not because of the money at the moment (although this is a super bad moment to give) but also wondering what the consent will lead to. AS was very clear this time that we're concerned about it becoming a habit (this is at least the 4th time we've "loaned" her money, not counting the time I paid AS's tuition with an unsecured loan on the promise her parents would pay me back; that time I got $200 of the promised $4000 and that was the last time we ever got a cent back from one of these loans). She said we'd give the money but we needed info in return about her current bills, income, and the rest of her situation.

    AS's mom called back and said she wants to figure this out on her own. But she's got us worried, so AS is going to call her again tomorrow and continue to suss out what's going on.

    Bottom line, we don't want to keep bailing her out, but she's AS's mom, who has always loved her even if she hasn't been great to her at times. She's not gotten a ton of breaks in life. We don't want her homeless or starving. AS is going to try and assess how serious it is when she talks to her tomorrow.

  3. snafu Says:
    May 11th, 2016 at 08:39 pm 1462999173
    1462999173

    Sorry, really a 'Hobson' choice. DH was always optimistic believing they would fix their shortfall with more work and less spends... I saw it as giving gifts of money as I couldn't imagine being reimbursed.

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