Tightening up the belt.....

Yesterday was rough. It started off innocently enough, and I was pretty sure it would be awesome since it was a Friday. But then Murphy snuck up and knocked me over the head with a two by four.

I have a client who is kind of high maintenance right now. A co-worker from another department is supposed to be working with me and them. I realize that he has a lot on his plate, but since this client was basically dropped in my lap, I feel like I'm sinking in an ocean of pain. Yesterday was just one more time in which I felt out of my league.  I know it's OK for me to say: " I didn't know.", but I still feel pretty frickin' stupid. I realize that I am taking an email communication pretty personally, but I can't help that  I feel like I'm being chastised for an honest mistake. My department co-workers all assure me that he didn't mean it like that, and that they are sure it's just because he has so much going on, but gee whiz, give me a break. I didn't know.

To add to that, I have to plan my next surgery. Yep this will be the 2nd surgery on my right leg, and the 3rd all together. If they try to do it before the end of July, then I'm screwed because it will still fall in the guidelines of continuation from my last stint on short term disability, and I will only get 60% pay. So I have to work with the Doctors office to move it to mid August. *sigh*

I was also spending the day thinking my Auntie Elaine was going to die at any moment. I seriously sat with the phone on my desk waiting for that call to say she's gone. When I talked to Beth the night before, she said Bill was pretty sure she was going. She has refused to go to the hospital and her body has put back on another 20 pounds in water.

And then to top off an otherwise dreadful day, Dan sends me a bad news email. It seems that his position is being eliminated at his company, and rather than moving him laterally they will be demoting him. This means a $2.00 an hour pay cut.  Because of the way he is, always second guessing himself and seeking the assurance on what he is doing, he comes across as weak. So they want him to build up his knowledge and confidence and prove he can do better before they move him back up.  So not only do I have to stress out about the sudden decrease in income, but I have to deal with a man who's confidence and self esteem just took a nose dive. How can you build someones confidence so he can promote up, when the same persons just told him he was a loser?

The decrease in pay of course comes at a completely awful time too. I really relied on that additional money in Dan's checks to help when the bills went tight. I have it set up so that a certain amount of money from each paycheck goes to the bill pay account. But some months the bills might be a bit higher then others. And we rely on that extra that Dan gets to supplement if need be. Now I can't rely on that.

So...... we are going to have to cut back. It's amazing how you can adapt your lifestyle to a certain dollar amount and then feel so darn deprived when it's no longer that high. I'm only whining about this because I'm scared. It has been a VERY long time since I have really had to panic about money. I know we can make it, we've done it before, but right this minute that seems so impossible.

We have some things planned though.... We are thinking of dropping Vonage who has gone up almost $2.00 a month in the past 6 months. (apparently the phone taxes are increasing).  Dropping them means that we will be w/out a land phone. This wouldn't be such a problem if our Cricket mobile phones worked in our house. LOL.
Dan says he knows some people using Magic Jack.  It's only $20.00 for a whole year. So I think we will go with that. Can't hurt.....

And we've been thinking about our Cable Bill. We have Comcast and pay $160.00 a month for TV and Internet. We have not had any problems with either, except for the high bill. But I think we will keep the Internet, ($50.00 a month), and move to a satellite provider. The question is who?  Lorie says that Direct TV offers the channels that Dan and I watch for I think she said something like $50.00 a month. So that would save us $60.00 a month right there.  Dan is going to look into them more. We really need the like $29.99 a month deal...... :)

We of course will eat out less. Which was planned anyway. But now it will be more forced. And I will need to pay off my Library fine so I can get books from there. No more expensive just out video games, and other money involved entertainment will have to be limited/budgeted.  I think we will be playing a lot more of the board games we got for Christmas over the years. 

I am very glad now that we planted our little garden. While it won't be much this year, I will work and save to build a big one for next year. This year was to see if we can do it. Next year, we will do it grand style.