bepps

Man, April was quite a month. It started out with my thinking "Wow, look at this surplus of money I've got." That lasted about two weeks until I realized that I don't have a surplus, but I'm massively in the minus at a very critical time. Pardon me while I rant.

It all started Halloween 2008. I was living in my sister's laundry room, workin' all day, chattin' all night, drinkin myself to sleep every night. On Haloween, that changed. She finally decided that she was able to get everything together and move to another place, not having me there to provide a financial buffer. That meant it was time to get my own place. I got one right away and moved into it in an afternoon. I didn't have too much to move. I took a bed that she wasn't going to take, and a little love seat, my computer desk, and a few other things.

Not being in a side-room of someone else's house where they could come in at any time night or day to do their laundry, that meant that Angie felt it'd be nice enough for her to come down and live with me so, on November 7th (the night of the SG Disney meet) she did that. That was as good a time as any for her to come down. That way she could share what was pretty much my favorite day of the year with me. We had sex that night. Danger girl was conceived and, of course, born a tad under 9 months later.

Noteworthy, the primary product for the company I work for is water and holding tanks for RVs. In December 2008 that market crashed. The whole RV industry, with the exception of around two companies went belly up. Our company went from bringing in just under a million a month in net sales to $65,000. That's net sales and doesn't even cover our gas bill. Let alone electricity, shop payment, not to even mention payroll. Anyway, my checks got cut down to 1/10th what they were. It wasn't until just a few months ago (read three years later) that I was able to bring them back to where they should be. This culminated in the metaphoric crash I referred to in my February 10, 2009 blog. Then, of course there was the hospital bills from the physical crash that I referred to in the next blog that ended up (along with a few other incidents) destroying my credit.

The next Halloween was 12 months on the apartment's lease, meaning it was up, and it was time to make a decision as to what was going to happen with out living situation. Along with the financial crash, just having a newborn, finances were tight. Not the time to be coming up with a first, last, and deposit, plus take a week off of work and lose a grand in wages to move. Plus there was the credit issue making it difficult to get approved into another place. Getting a home loan, with the housing and credit situation being what it was in late 2009, was just completely out of the question. Resign we did.

Halloween 2010 came up and, while the financial situation had nearly turned around, ensuring that my account was $4k in the positive was proving to be pretty difficult. Still, the one bedroom apartment that was ideal two years earlier was no longer sufficient so we stayed in the same complex thereby keeping the deposit, but moved into a two bedroom unit.

Next Halloween, we were faced with the same situation. It was becoming repetitive and annoying. I opted to go with a 6 month lease which, while it was a few hundred more per month, would set the resign time to coincide with my getting a tax refund which gives me a short burst of funds. That'd allow for more options. Moving out of the unit we were in was important because, while it was the only one available at the time and didn't seem that bad an option (not that there was another option), it was right next to a busy street and we couldn't sleep with the windows open. Every few minutes a big truck would go by with it's engine brakes on or a Harley would go by with open headers waking everyone up. Moving into a different unit in the same complex just a few dozen feet away would make all the difference. It'd allow us to open up the windows at night, cooling the place down so we wouldn't need the AC on during the day. That'll account for a good $100 a month drop in the electric bill from May - September.

That brings us to the end of this past March. My refund was even bigger than I expected and I thought "Man, this is awesome. Now I can not only get a desperately needed second vehicle, but I'm gonna be able to pay off all the debt that we've accumulated over the past 3 years plus be able to finally get the dual purpose bike that I had been planning to get since 2007!" Well, reality kicked in and my primary car died. This happened right when a bunch of other stuff came in and what was supposed to be a massive surplus of funds quickly turned into a calamity where, not only was I not gonna be able to get the DP bike, I didn't even have enough to cover a move into a new place!

Having signed the shorter lease did two crucial things. First, it jumped the monthly rent up a sizeable chunk. That was expected of course and was a decision that I made figuring that I'd be able to just barely cover. However, once the credit company that sets the rental rates saw that I was able to cover the rent at the elevated rate, their renewal offer was the same as the 6 month rate. I thought "Uh, yea. That's not gonna happen." In all my scrambling to try and find another place, it ended up taking longer than I expected and for two months we went on a much higher month-to-month lease rate. That, combined with everything else, just obliterated all reserve finances. Even emergency reserve funds.

As I write this I still haven't been able to get the parts needed to fix the civic and I've still got tons of unpaid bills (as well as all the debt that I wasn't able to cover with my tax refund.) While I'll be able to pay most everyone back with my first check after the first, I'm still left dazed and confused as to how I could have let this happen. There's no way I'm letting May be anything like April. Hell, there's no way that I'm letting any month be like this last one.

I'm trying to think of a time when I went from such a relaxed situation to such a crisis situation in such a short period of time and I can't think of it. For the first time that I can recall, I actually turned to my friends here on SG asking for anyone who could to spot me some funds for a few weeks. This was successful. I can't even begin to say how gracious I am to those few who have helped out.

"Never, have the actions of so few, accounted for so much." No that's not the same words that Churchill said about the Battle of Britain but, to me at least, I think it's fitting.