1/26/17 Nickel And Diming Me To Death?

    I hate the start of the year.  There are always recurring bills that pop up to slow us down.  First of all, we always overdo it during the holidays, although we showed a lot of self control, even if nobody gave a crap about the gifts, at least we didn't get poor from buying them.  Still, we charged about $900 in Dillard's, mostly because we bought some new clothes, $600 in Target, the bulk of the toys/pajamas for all the nephews and young ones.  Then there was $700 or so at Best Buy, helping out Santa, and another $500 or so on another credit card.
    That isn't so bad, but then we get the adjusted amount for escrow, and we have to either pay $811.00 or expect to see our monthly bill go up like $70.  That is how we gradually went from $2500 to $3200 for our mortgage.  I told Wife I wanted to pay whatever shortage we have on the escrow so our monthly mortgage bill doesn't change now that we refinanced.  That was pretty much the profit I had made from selling the boat, oh well.  Of course, I forgot about our annual HOA fee, which totally sucks because we have been paying $530 a year and I don't see that we get anything for that money.  There is a dinky park, and during the holidays, they do the absolute minimum effort to put lights on the trees.  I am convinced my fat ass could hang lights better than the company we hire every year, it is such a lame effort.
    The start of the year also corresponds with the start of the spring semester and that always means helping Boy out with what his loans don't cover, usually about $700 or so, for the 14-15 hours he is always taking.  Don't forget to add another $300-400 for books.
    And last but not least, my leg.  I finally got a bill which I decided to be super responsible and jump right on it.  I put the St. David's charge on a credit card, which was $812, thinking that wasn't too bad, only to get another bill for the next two months, that bill is $620, or so.  This does not include the fact that the receptionist told me not to worry about paying the copay every Monday that I go to the office to get re-bandaged.  He wasn't sure and neither was I whether I had to pay the $50 every time, but don't worry, some invisible person is keeping track and they had no problem sending me a bill that I owed $250 for all the co-pays I hadn't done.  I paid half of them a couple weeks ago, of course, I got the revised bill and I am still going once a week, so it is back to $250.
    I could either cry at all the dinky little bills, or I can be happy, for example, I didn't lose my leg.  I did finally see a little OT in my last check, so that is a silver lining on a brown turd.  I have to hope we get a ton of work and I get a couple weeks of OT, or that we get a fat income tax return from old President Trump.