Positive Changes In The Air...

I have to apologize for not posting more often and for slacking in dropping my Entrecards. I've been really busy lately and haven't had much time to spend on my computer. But it's all good.... we're going through a lot of positive changes and I just haven't had the time to post about everything because it's all happening so fast and keeping me busy.

One positive change is Adrian's new job. He's going into his 3rd week of Management training with his new company and will be getting his first paycheck with his salary increase next week. @@@@WhooooHoooo!!!@@@@ This past year has been a year from hell.... this time last year he had lost his job and was just starting with a new company taking a huge pay cut.... but hey... any job is better than no job... right???

We were literally days before having our home foreclosed on and we were selling everything we had that anyone wanted to buy trying to just keep our home and not become homeless. We managed to save our home.... but this whole year has been a struggle... we had to cut off our cell phones... and were without any phone for a couple of months. We cut anything and everything not essential to survival except our cable... it was our only remaining luxury.... but we did cut our service in about half to reduce the bill. We had to go from 2 cars to one... which has left me pretty much stuck at home while he's at work. It's been hard to keep gas in the car and food on the table... we've had to deem certain food items as luxuries... and I'm not talking about steak... that was a luxury before... I'm talking about chips and other snacks... fruits unless they were on sale really cheap.... things most people take for granted. I've even skipped meals to save food for the rest of the family.

So I'm happy to say that even though we won't be living in the lap of luxury... or probably what others even consider expected comfort... we will be living in more comfort than we have in the past year. And we finally did get our income tax refund! First though... we had to pay taxes with it... our property tax that was due in December and we didn't have the money to pay (who the heck thought it was a good idea to make property taxes due on Dec 20th?????.... obviously someone who has never had to worry about money!.... Thank you State of Georgia! Merry Christmas to you too...)and then our GA Income Tax that we owed because they didn't take enough out of the paycheck... again... Thank you state of Georgia! (Oh here in Georgia we also get to buy our car tags for our birthday! Happy Birthday to us!)But at least we were finally able to pay Georgia all the tax money we owed them.

Then we bought Adrian a car to drive to work. We paid $700 for a Ford Escort that is a POS but it has a good motor and transmission and will be cheap on gas. And I get my Van back!!! @@@@Whooo Hooo!!!!@@@@@ It needs about $150 of work done on it but it's drivable until we can do that in the next couple of weeks. We also had to get my brakes done and oil changed on the van.... we've had to put this off for a year... it was car maintenance or food... so we had to go with food. So I'm really glad to have my van back... it needs a good cleaning which it will also get in the next couple of weeks.

We plan to keep our monthly expenses down and not add new bills... our cable service will remain at the level it is now... we don't miss what we cut from it and really like not paying $180 a month for cable. I'll keep shopping at yard sales and thrift stores... and clearance racks.... which I've always done... it's a hobby... and I just love finding bargains. We'll keep shopping for groceries at Aldi and Dollar General and the sales flyers from other stores (we've always done that as well) and we'll keep our grocery spending down but I'm sure we'll enjoy a few more of the items we had to deem as luxuries. So I'm really happy to be living a bit more comfortably and with more freedom to come and go.

We're getting Sarah ready for her American Idol audition trip. And my son Jordan is probably moving back in ... he's been living with his twin brother Justin and his wife since he got divorced from his own wife back in the fall. He wants to move back in for a few months to save money for his own apartment. So I spent the day yesterday cleaning my stuff out of his old room... it was going to be my craft room... I have tons of craft supplies and Holiday decorations.

I'll post about our other changes and exciting things coming up later : )

~A Lil Enchanted~