I only mean the title in a very first world problem kind of way, we don't really know the struggle, as they say. Still, Wife and I are constantly trying to pay off credit cards and just when it seems like we are doing okay, something comes up to almost trip us up on purpose, that is the joy of life. I keep telling Wife we will be fine and surely have more money left over after our bills once we get past the Christmas burden, where we spend too much money on our boys, for no other reason than habit.
Along with their wants and needs, I keep carrying a tab at Lowe's, which I swear every month this will be the last time I use this card. Last month, I thought we were done, I owed about $300, and I was set to pay it off. Then we got all involved in moving Mijo to Boy's old room after he moved out. This basically led Wife telling me to just go buy a new steam cleaner since the one we have is older than the house. I did, and it worked great, but it also added another $300 to the account. I then tell Wife I'll pay it off this month, but we had the little scare with the air conditioners, and I realized I had not changed out the filters three months ago. Those filters are supposed to be good for only three months. Since I am feeling better today, at least right now, I decided to go and get the new filters to install them. I could have just bought the two that I needed, but then I don't have back-ups, like how I was, and I can't just change them, even if I put a reminder on my phone, I did. Then I have to decide whether I should buy two. If I am going to do that, I then need to reconsider buying four, because I get a discount if I buy 4 the price drops from $20.78 to $16.20, a substantial amount, and I will use the filters, eventually. Of course, this means instead of $40 and change for two filters, it was $138 and change, but I have enough filters to last me a year, 4 for the unit and 4 or the bedroom auxiliary return. I think I had already charged something like $60-$70 a week ago, so it won't be a surprise if next month the Lowe's account is still floating close to $300, even if I pay off what I was hoping would be the last.
But what can we do? Things need to be serviced, and stuff like this can lead to bigger problems if it is ignored too long. All we can do is continue to work to reduce the credit cards we don't absolutely need, like the Walmart account we opened, just to get Baby A the new X-box, we couldn't find it anywhere else, but they had it, at a super inflated price. I tell myself, "It's Christmas, get them what they want, it doesn't last forever." Boy is moved out, all of a sudden, though the expensive gifts are still continuing, even when we didn't get him a gift, he had bought stuff on my Amazon card and said "Thanks." I had to say no, after I found out because although we were slow, we did buy him a gift.
Someday, we will get caught up.
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