Just one more month...

A few weeks ago, things were looking up for us (and by us, I mean me). Joshua had gotten promoted, I secured the internship, and although we had no real cash flow, we just had to survive until the new year.

True, all of those things still hold. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to "scrape by." It's just catastrophe after catastrophe. One weekend our joint account goes $400 negative because of the way a holiday fell. The next week Josh has a flat tire which costs $70 that we did not have room in the budget for. Week after that my heater core blows, so I can't drive my car. We tried to fix it, couldn't and put a Band-aid on it that means I have no heat.

The week after that Joshua gets another flat tire. He leaves the car parked at McDonald's on Wednesday night. Thursday there's an ice storm which leaves my car practically undrivable because with no heat, I can't keep my windshield clear of ice and fog. We manage to get a ride around town to get a tire, this one costing $80 which wasn't in our budget, and a heater for my windshield (which is highly ineffective).

This week, my personal account is $200 negative, because with all the extra expenses and the rent check, the money just wasn't there. On top of that, we're roughly $3000 in debt, have no money available to us, no way to get any, it's almost Christmas and we need to survive for the next 3 weeks.

At this point, I just don't know what to do.

There's always something; every week there is something. January is looking so far away. In January, we'll file our taxes. Josh should get roughly $2000 back, half of which will go toward paying an old tax bill. $500 more dollars go to his ex, but we should have a couple hundred to work with. I'll file my taxes and get back a few hundred dollars. I'll be working with Edward Jones and making the same amount he is, so we should be able to catch things up. The end of January should be better, but how do we make it until then without digging a hole that we won't even be able to get out of then?

I read some articles on MSN about how people have managed to pay off huge amounts of debt relatively quickly (like $25,000 in one calendar year), but all of those strategies seem too extreme--taking second jobs and such. I have decided, though, that we're going to do some belt tightening if it kills us.

No more movies (although we've only been to one movie [that we paid for] in the last month). No more eating out. No more splurging. No more trips all over town to visit folks, not because we don't want to be social, but because we need that gas for work and school. After I get out of school next week, my car is parked until I start at Edward Jones.

But suddenly, I just can't wait for the New Year.