WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE ?

I feel like I am back in the 70's when the kids were little and I was trying to figure out how to get a few more dollars each month to make sure ALL the bill got paid.  I never considered going back to work as raising 3 kids was a full time job.
Now I'm living in paradise and wondering how I can cut back here and there to make my dollars stretch. Going to work at 70 is not an option ! Although I hear Mc Donald's workers are aiming for $15 an hour. "DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?"  Don't you know my knees would just love me to get a job where I had to stand on my feet all day. NOT !

Each day as I go to the mail box I am hyperventilating because there may be ANOTHER bill to pay. OR . . .  maybe there will be a check from some closed account that Ger and I shared. It's a crap shoot and actually the high point of some of my days. (Sad to admit but true!) When I got home from my trip to visit my NY friends and MD grand kids, (that's a whole other blog) I had a stack of mail waiting for me. As usual 98% of it was junk but that 2% of real mail was just itching to be opened. I took 3 days to go through everything and went from doing the "Happy Dance" several times to moaning when I found a bill. But the Happy Dance won out and there was only ONE bill in the pile compared to THREE checks for me to deposit!  I LOVE getting money back!  The one bill that was in the pile was a whopper thanks to my very own stupidity that I really don't want to have to tell anyone about. (Let's just say it involved a really stupid senior moment!) But the money coming in was more than the money going out so I guess that makes me still ahead of the game.

(The church always tells us that God will provide and the more generous we are in giving the more generous God will be to us. That really disturbs me because I hate to think God is "keeping score". That is just so very, very wrong ! But just in case I make sure I tithe my 10% to the church each week.)

And then there are all the little unexpected things that pop up in our faces to drain the dollars out of our accounts. I had a "wind mitigation" and "four point inspection" done on my house so that I could get a less expensive home owners insurance policy. Of course I had to PAY for these inspections but my lower premium would save me money in the long run. NOPE !  My roof and electric wiring didn't pass the inspection so I am stuck with paying $6,000 A YEAR for home owners insurance. Maybe I should sell the house and save some money that way ?  But the mental institution would get pretty costly too so I guess I'll just suck it up.

So far I have cancelled my newspaper, eliminated a bunch of cable channels, change my phone service, given up my monthly massage, stopped buying things for the grand kids every time I go out and not gotten my car washed or house cleaned in ages. (Both of which I could do myself but REALLY?)
I have really cut back on eating out and shopping. It's kind of fun seeing how much I can NOT spend in a day. But today I had to suck it up and purchase 4 new tires for my car. I figure since the car is now paid for the least I can do is keep it running smoothly and not wait for a blow out while I'm driving 85 MPH on Rt. 95 with all the other insane Florida drivers.

So the money comes in and the money goes out. It is not at all like my weight. I can so quickly add the pounds on but they take forever to come off. Money, on the other hand, is just ebbing and flowing like the tide.  I just hope I don't drown.