January 19, 2011
Payday!
This paycheck ought to get us back on track and give us a little breathing room, thank God. I can replenish our emergency fund (wiped out due to last year’s medical bills) or send some extra to Visa, which I used for part of Christmas.
This check was a little higher than usual, due to Obama’s new economic incentive, I suppose. Actually, we found out it had some extra in it, to make up for the last pay period not having been figured with the new changes in the Social Security withholding. So the paycheck after this one will be the correct figure for the rest of the year.
Income: $1929.00 (biweekly, irregular amount)
Expenditures: $ 200.00 home equity line payment
13.00 cable
203.00 life insurance (hubby’s)
33.00 auto property tax (children’s cars)
111.68 medical bill (hubby)
275.00 church donation
146.20 dentist bill (child)
146.00 washer repair
162.03 groceries
92.48 gas for both cars
Yeah, the washing machine broke down, can you believe it? I guess it got lazy with the kids all off at college, and then when they returned for Christmas break, it just wasn’t up for the extra work! It really ticks me off---not only is the thing only four years old, but when I bought it I shopped around and paid extra for one that seemed to be better quality. Ha! At least the parts were still under warranty, so we only had to pay for labor. Next time it breaks, we’ll buy a new one.
That’s what happened with the oven, in fact. It broke down last fall, Thanksgiving week; can you believe that timing? When we determined the problem was the digital circuit board, which we had repaired once previously, we decided to replace rather than repair the oven. It was over 18 years old, and I had never liked it anyway. We used the opportunity to upgrade to a larger convection oven, which we financed due to a lack of cash. (We spent most of 2010 paying off unexpected medical expenses, after finding our health insurance deductible had been doubled without notice.) The oven was just over $1200 (it’s a wall oven, which for some reason are a bit more expensive) and was financed for 12 months with zero interest. We plan to pay it off in much less than 12 months, to make sure we don’t incur interest charges.
How about you? Are you finding that your appliances wear out sooner than they should?
