7/15/21 Do We Just Run Uphill?

    I know I don't have real problems, but I can still bitch and moan with the best of them.  I saw a Tiktok video of a girl having an anxiety attack or something about how she just paid so much for contacts and she has insurance which got her going on and on about her other bills and she threw out a very funny but sad line to the effect of "I don't know how many years I have in me... I'm not even having a good time, I am paying entirely too much money to be having a terrible time..." and she ends it with "they can keep the contacts, I have seen enough..."  Sadly, this is what life feels like for too many of us.  It is just a cycle of one bill after another and it seems we can never really get ahead.

    We refinanced our house after going through a credit consolidation program which got us out of so much debt it would scare most people, and when we did, I thought now we'll have our shit together.  With the refinance we kept close to $20,000 in cash which I thought would help with any small incidental situations, but no.  Life will still find a way to bend you over.  Right as we finished the refinance, our central A/C unit failed and being that they were 13-14 years old, I decided to replace them.  That cost an astonishing $25,000.  Okay, we'll pay it on a monthly, 5 years at $416.  Then the Escape gets an engine light which cost $900, plus they say one of the tires has a bulge or something.  Since Wife drives out of town daily, I put new tires on it, that's another $1200.  I tried to be smart and go pick up the Escape from Ford and drop off my Excursion for an oil change and tag inspection.  They find an oil leak (3-4 actually) and I wanted to ignore it, but the vehicle is 16 years old and I plan on driving it a few more years, so yeah, that cost $2600, plus they reminded me I haven't changed the tires on it in 6-7 years and they have rot on them.  I know they look like crap, but I need to say no somewhere.  That'll be another $1200, at least.  We bought the generator because they are telling us to expect blackouts and the freeze kind of scared me enough to make it a priority.  That was another $800.

    Wife has a tooth that is going to cost $2800 to fix or remove they told her 2 weeks ago.  School starts in a month and although Baby A doesn't spend half what Boy did on clothes, we are still going to go buy him new pants, shoes shirts, probably a backpack, that'll be another $700 or more.  I bought a watch I probably shouldn't have a couple weeks ago, but if I don't then fuck, all the money really just goes to keep us moving along with necessities.  I know an A/C is not a "necessity" but you try living in this heat, that ain't for me.

    This is turning into a crap fest.  I thought we would refinance and I would then be able to afford new trucks, waterfront land, a new pool, vacations every six months, gold watches once a year, but shit.  That money we saved from the refinance is down to a third and I don't want to lose that in case some real shit shows up, like the IRS fucking with us again, or if we have another car accident (Boy).  Sucks, but life isn't cheap.