I haven't posted in a while, between not having much new to report and with Thanksgiving and all. Tim and I are just trying to get through the month with as few expenses as possible, and so far we've been successful. December should be a good month for us, between a low credit card balance, two extra paychecks and my year end bonus I'm hoping to knock a decent sized chunk off our debt. I'm anxious to know what the bonus will be, the amount will determine a lot of what we want to do, but the company won't say ahead of time. We get them next Friday, I'll just have to wait! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining in the least, I'm just not very patient!

One cost saving messure we'll employ for next year is that I'm signing up for my companies Flex Spending program. They take money out of my pay check pre-tax and then they take that money to reimburse me on medical expenses. We pay a decent amount out of pocket for DH's medical care, he has a cronic condition that requires prescriptions and lots of doctor's visits, plus dentist visits for both of us and we both wear contacts. I figure we spend at least $2000 a year out of pocket, no sence paying taxes on that amount if we don't have to. The one drawback to the program is that at the end of the year, any money you didn't spend gets forfited, so you have $2000 taken out but you only spend $1800 by Dec. 31, you lose that $200. So, I'm going to have them just take out $1500, I know we'll spend at least that much for sure. I didn't track our medical expenses that closely in '06 so I'm underestimating our costs for '07. I'd rather play it safe. We're using Quicken now so I'll have accurate records for when we sign up again in '08.

We need to dip into emergency savings this month. I was really hoping we wouldn't have to this month, but DH won't get nearly enough overtime. As posted in previous entries, we had a lot of unusual expenses in October, and of course the CC bill is due Dec. 1. We'll have to dip into our emergency savings to cover the bill. Fortunatly, December is an extra pay check month for both DH and I (I get paid three times instead of two, DH gets paid 5 times instead of 4) plus I get my year-end bonus, so we can refill our savings right away and still have money for Christmas and our year end charitable donations. But I had hoped to put almost all the extra income towards our CC debt. Instead I've had to pay the minimum the last two months. It's zero percent interest so all of the payment is going towards the balance, but still I had hoped we'd be further along by now in paying it off.

It's just so agravating! DH and I make great money, and we just cannot seem to get ahead. We have little in the way of unnessesary spending, really just cable tv and the occasional dinner out, and every month something just comes up. I won't call them unexpected expenses, cars break and pets get sick, but why do they have to happen in the same week?. We have the money to pay for it, but then nothing extra can go towards the debt. Our food bill is low, our utilites are low, we have a cheap mortgage ($1400 inculding taxes and insurance) our cell phones are at the bare minimum, we only have one car payment. Not many places to cut back, and if we did it wouldn't make much differance. DH and I decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year to help with the gift budget, and the gifts we will be giving will not be expensive (not that we blow a lot on gifts anyway). Fortunatly we have no kids and a small family, our list is quite short!

sigh....If we can just get through December without any major expenses, we can get back on track. I just want this debt gone ASAP and it's just anoying me to no end that we've made so little progress.

$800 in repairs on DH's truck
$500 in vet bills for Missy
$200 to help out DH's mom
$179 for dinner out for our 1st wedding aniversary (we didn't exchange gifts, this WAS our gift!)
$200 to buy the proofs from the photographer for our wedding (saves us $$$ in the long run, we can print our own copies)
$55 for the eye doc for me (what insurance wouldn't cover, but I do get a years supply of contacts!)

In our defence of dinner out for our aniversary, everything except helping out MIL happenend AFTER we'd already gone out. Had we known about the vet and truck bills, we would have picked a cheaper restaurant! Now, we had the money for everything, but I was hoping to put it towards paying off our debt! Now November will be the second month in a row that I won't be able to put extra towards our debt repayment. December is an extra paycheck month because their are 5 fridays that month, plus I get my bonus from work (we've been told we WILL get one for sure!) so IF nothing else pops up, even after Christmas gifts and our year-end charitable donations, we'll be able to put a lot towards the debt! But DH's truck still needs four new tires, my car needs two new tires and work on the suspension...oh...I just gave myself a headache! At least Tim can do the work on my suspension, all we have to pay for is parts.