5/18/22 Everything Has Gotten More Expensive?

     My dad asked how we were doing credit card wise, and it's a fair question, we have gotten in trouble in the past with too many purchases.  I hate to say that we are kind of in the same boat but not really.  From the outside, it might look like we are running amok, but I swear, we are trying to do so much better.  What can we do though, when everything has gone up in the past year?

    We can start with the mortgage; the escrow went up about $150, so our mortgage goes up that much.  Then our car insurance went up, probably because Boy had a third car wreck a few months ago, that went up from $260 to $350, almost $100.  Add to that Boy's gas card, which we had a loose agreement he would pay me $600 for a couple things, the gas card included.  This was on the history that his Shell card is usually around $200, it might be $180 one month, then $230 the next.  The last two months though, it was $265 and now $325 this past month.  I hate to ask him for more money, but he is working a good job, why should we be absorbing his driving habits?

    The solar panels might not be going up, but it is a very constant $311 a month, plus the $416 for the new A/C systems is another heavy cost.  I thought we were doing well, in the big picture, with our vehicles, currently only paying for the Telluride, but then some asshole steals my catalytic converter and now I have to pay $2300 for repairs, and the steering problems on the Escape cost me $2900, all on top of each other.  I just made the first payments on both those new wonderful bills I was not expecting.

    Wife was ok with me buying a new watch for myself when she got her promotion, but then I added Boy's watch on top of things, he is paying for half of it, since it was so much more than what I wanted to spend on a graduation gift, but between the two watches it is over $800 that we are paying out.  All these bills and then we have gas, with Wife driving to San Antonio every day.  Food bill with Mijo dying of hunger every day after school, we end up picking up something, then he expects dinner with mom at home.

    As hard as it seems for us, how are normal people on normal paychecks doing it to get by?  I'm tempted to refinance the house and borrow $50-$100k, just to have some extra money, but I don't want the refinance costs added to higher interest rates, and they climbed quite rapidly, all of a sudden.  Hate to say biden's America sucks, but it really is looking that way.