on debt

Wow... it's been a really long time since I posted to either blog.

I've gotten caught up in a lot of mechanical issues about the kind of life I want to live and how I'm going to go about doing that. I guess that's appropriate for the month leading up to Rosh Hashana.

I injured my back a bit before Tisha B'Av and spent that shabbos lying on a couch having bits of "The Tightwad Gazette" read to me. I highly recommend that book, by the way. Some of the suggestions are hilarious, some are useful, and all of it is well written.

I must have been a bit high off of the pain killers, because I started an impossibly aggressive debt-reduction plan. (Okay, I started that crazy plan before I injured my back, so I suppose I have no excuse except my own stupidity.) Only now after two months of having to resort to eating dried beans because I miscalculated what I would need... I think I'm going to draw up some new amortization charts. The new payments will still be harsh ($945.66/month... in addition to the mortgage and car payments) but will have me clear of all debt except for mortgage and car in two years with enough left over for a more realistic food budget. Unless, of course, something else breaks on the house. Still, after having replaced the roof, hot water heater, windows, heat pump, one bathroom, two ceilings and the wall of the rec room... I'm not sure how much more *can* go wrong in my lovely lemon of a townhouse.

G-d willing, by the time I'm mostly debt free, the housing market will have improved to the point where I can trade in my lovely lemon for a "real" house in a frum neighborhood.

Then I can start saving for tuition. Day school tuition scares the daylights out of me, actually. I can shift the money I'm putting into my 401K to cover tuition for the first child, but the second? Where's that going to come from? The C's homeschool their children, but it looks like I'm going to be the primary breadwinner for the foreseeable future. Besides, I'm not qualified to teach anything more than secular studies.

K would laugh at me if she read this post. It's far too premature for me to worry about tuition payments. Then again, the only thing I am good at is long term planning. My monthly budget is in a shambles, which is why I had to re-adjust those amortization charts. I don't have the willpower to deny all my "wants"-- I just don't have what it takes to turn down that bargain $30 opera ticket... or that perfect Purim costume I saw at the local Ren Faire... not yet. It's pure foolishness to go without meat so that I can get that opera ticket but, well, I guess I'm still foolish. It's okay to still be a "work in progress," right?