New Year, New Bombshell...
So. In addition to still not having found a job, the roommate, who was supposed to stay until may, decided to tell us today that she is moving out at the earliest, the beginning of Feb and and the latest, the beginning of March.
No other advance warning that this might be a possibility, no discussions with us, nothing.
So now we have to scramble to see what we can cut out so that we can still pay all of our bills in an attempt to not have to find another roommate.
I wanted the place back to ourselves, sure, but not this soon. Not without financial backing to make it feasible. Or at least TIME to make it that way. Which, with her originally supposed to be leaving in MAY, I had. And, which, with her leaving at the outside, in a month and a half, likely sooner, I don't.
I know we can do it. And that it will be super tight financially, and that we will have to make some really hard decisions about what gets kept, what gets cut down, etc., but a little more time to prepare would have been nice. Especially having JUST gone through the HOLIDAYS.
And it isn't like her boyfriend's mom's place is GOING anywhere. It's not like it's an apartment that if they don't take in a certain time-frame it's gone.... Why she can't have the courtesy to have let us know a couple months ago that this was even an option, or to offer to continue to stay until May, or maybe at least April to help us make sure we can be okay on our own, I do not know. We helped her out when she was in trouble, is it really so much to ask that she do the same in return?
Of course, this really shouldn't surprise me. In light of recent(ish) events, she hasn't exactly shown herself to be the person even my husband thought she was. And he's known her for at least 15 years!
On the plus side, we get to be by ourselves again. And the extra room is freed up for storage/other uses, and the storage unit we have will go completely to HER. Which means I'll get those 20+ bankers boxes FULL of books and will finally be able to put them all on the bookshelves out back. That's about a $90 a month bill gone right there. (granted, she was paying half, but still....)
Mostly I just need to run the numbers now. I've shut off my CoH/V, which won't factor into the budges since it was on the credit card, and I'm keeping the payment on that the same to help get the balance back down, but without it it will make that balance go down much quicker, so if we NEED the card, we'll have it.
Already turned off our movie channels, and reduced our package a bit for satellite. If we really NEED to, we can go down one more package, or shut it off completely, but we'll see how that goes.
Got rid of long distance on our land line, since we pretty much don't use it anyway. I strongly suspect that we have to have an active phone line for the DSL to keep working, so that will have to stay (I need the internet to help me find a job) but I need to call and see if I can knock the plan down to the most basic possible while still keeping our internal wire protection. That's been on the phone line/bill forEVER, and it means that if something is wrong with the lines themselves, we don't pay for it to be fixed, so I want to make sure that stays. But since it's not something I'm sure they actually offer anymore (ie no one new can get it, but if you already have it you get to keep it), I need to find out if dropping to the most basic local package will eliminate that. If it does, we'll just have to work around it.. I can't risk something happening to the line and having to pay for repairs.
Beyond that, it's all numbers. How much is coming in and when, and how much needs to go out and when. Thankfully, both of our parents have offered to help in what ways they can to make things work and/or save us some money.
Sigh. When it rains, it pours, right? LOL.
But, at least I'm past the overwhelmed/mind-reeling stage (I got hit with this news as I was attempting to cook dinner) and the panic stage and am onto the logistics. Now I just have to have faith in myself, my husband, my magic, and the universe that I will get SOME kind of job sooner rather than later.
I think we'll be okay. It's just going to take some (possible major) adjustments.
But positive thoughts are always appreciated! *grin*
Later, yall.
No other advance warning that this might be a possibility, no discussions with us, nothing.
So now we have to scramble to see what we can cut out so that we can still pay all of our bills in an attempt to not have to find another roommate.
I wanted the place back to ourselves, sure, but not this soon. Not without financial backing to make it feasible. Or at least TIME to make it that way. Which, with her originally supposed to be leaving in MAY, I had. And, which, with her leaving at the outside, in a month and a half, likely sooner, I don't.
I know we can do it. And that it will be super tight financially, and that we will have to make some really hard decisions about what gets kept, what gets cut down, etc., but a little more time to prepare would have been nice. Especially having JUST gone through the HOLIDAYS.
And it isn't like her boyfriend's mom's place is GOING anywhere. It's not like it's an apartment that if they don't take in a certain time-frame it's gone.... Why she can't have the courtesy to have let us know a couple months ago that this was even an option, or to offer to continue to stay until May, or maybe at least April to help us make sure we can be okay on our own, I do not know. We helped her out when she was in trouble, is it really so much to ask that she do the same in return?
Of course, this really shouldn't surprise me. In light of recent(ish) events, she hasn't exactly shown herself to be the person even my husband thought she was. And he's known her for at least 15 years!
On the plus side, we get to be by ourselves again. And the extra room is freed up for storage/other uses, and the storage unit we have will go completely to HER. Which means I'll get those 20+ bankers boxes FULL of books and will finally be able to put them all on the bookshelves out back. That's about a $90 a month bill gone right there. (granted, she was paying half, but still....)
Mostly I just need to run the numbers now. I've shut off my CoH/V, which won't factor into the budges since it was on the credit card, and I'm keeping the payment on that the same to help get the balance back down, but without it it will make that balance go down much quicker, so if we NEED the card, we'll have it.
Already turned off our movie channels, and reduced our package a bit for satellite. If we really NEED to, we can go down one more package, or shut it off completely, but we'll see how that goes.
Got rid of long distance on our land line, since we pretty much don't use it anyway. I strongly suspect that we have to have an active phone line for the DSL to keep working, so that will have to stay (I need the internet to help me find a job) but I need to call and see if I can knock the plan down to the most basic possible while still keeping our internal wire protection. That's been on the phone line/bill forEVER, and it means that if something is wrong with the lines themselves, we don't pay for it to be fixed, so I want to make sure that stays. But since it's not something I'm sure they actually offer anymore (ie no one new can get it, but if you already have it you get to keep it), I need to find out if dropping to the most basic local package will eliminate that. If it does, we'll just have to work around it.. I can't risk something happening to the line and having to pay for repairs.
Beyond that, it's all numbers. How much is coming in and when, and how much needs to go out and when. Thankfully, both of our parents have offered to help in what ways they can to make things work and/or save us some money.
Sigh. When it rains, it pours, right? LOL.
But, at least I'm past the overwhelmed/mind-reeling stage (I got hit with this news as I was attempting to cook dinner) and the panic stage and am onto the logistics. Now I just have to have faith in myself, my husband, my magic, and the universe that I will get SOME kind of job sooner rather than later.
I think we'll be okay. It's just going to take some (possible major) adjustments.
But positive thoughts are always appreciated! *grin*
Later, yall.