DH is still doing demo on the bathroom. At least demo is cheap, just the dump fees for the debris. Next month I have to pick out tile and paint. DH says I have to pick the colors since I never like what he picks. That's not true, the only thing he's picked out for the house that I didn't like is the stain color on our fence, it's looks orange! We also have to pick out the shower, tub, faucets, vanity and sink. I hate decorating, I always second guess myself about what will look good, and when you're spending this much money, it's especially nerve racking! And it's not like you can lay the tile, look at it for a week, and decide you don't like it. Once it's down you're stuck with it (litterally, it's stuck to the walls and floor! ).

Still waiting for DH's W2 so I can do the taxes. I have all the other data entered into Turbo Tax so once I get it, I can just plug in the numbers and we'll be ready to file immediatly.

Got our first real winter gas bill, only $134. Not bad, our January bill last year was double that. Between lower natural gas prices and a mild winter, this is going to be a lot better than last year. Part of our home remodel is to add insulation to the walls and roof (right now it's non-existant, they didn't insulate house in the 1940's I guess) so next year should be even better. I hope we can take the tax credit for energy conservation related home improvment items next year, I haven't been able to find out if that was just for 2006 or if it continues in 2007.

The budget has been tight this month, the time DH had to take off to visit his sick grandmother was un-paid, so two of his checks will be way below normal. Coupled with the high credit card bills from last month, we are pretty low on dough! He worked two extra shifts this past weekend, and he'll do one or two more extra ones this weekend, so hopefully we can replenish savings quickly and get back on track.

I've given up on trying to pay off our CC debt anytime soon. DH just will not get on board. The bathroom remodel was supposed to be realatively cheap, now he wants to go all out on it. He wants to do the kitchen next year, and God only knows what he'll want to do after that. Plus there is the stuff that must be done, like replacing the furnace and AC, and re-wiring the house. He wants to take a real (ie expensive) vacation this fall, he wants to replace his truck sooner rather than later, he wants to start trying to have kids this year too. In short, he just wants to live life like we aren't in debt (which, if we weren't in debt, would be fine). The best I can do is to keep us from increaseing our debt (and I've been successful so far), and paying the minimum due on our 0% interest CC and keep doing 0% balance transfers so we are at least not paying interest on our CC's. At the current rate we'd be done in 4 to 5 years, I'm going to try and get it done in three if I can. I had hoped when I first started this blog to be CC debt free by mid-2008 at the latest. That's just not going to happen now. DH just won't stop spending and I just don't have the energy to fight. The best I can do is to attempt to keep his spending down to where we can pay cash for everthing and not go further into debt.

...we've started our upstairs bathroom remodel. DH has gutted the existing bathroom and we are trying to decide if we should make it larger by pushing into our bedroom, or just working with the space we have. Pros and cons to both, of course. Meanwhile, we have to use the downstairs bathroom. What a pain in the butt that is! Nothing like getting up to pee in the middle of the night and having to trudge all the way downstairs and back up again (all the while triping over the dog, because she just HAS to follow me everywhere I go...). It will be worth it in the end, but meanwhile it's not a whole lot of fun.

I've paid off the CC's that DH ran up last month. Took a lot out of our savings to do it, but DH will be working OT to put the money back, and so far he has kept his promiss and hasn't spent any money unless it's been nessesary. So far, so good, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I had some gift certs from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket, so I've been shoping a lot recently. I've done really well, though. $56 got me 5 tops and a skirt at JC Penneys, and I got two skirts I've been eyeing at Eddie Bauer for less than half price. The skirts at EB weren't exactly cheap, $35 each (marked down from $80) but EB quality is excellent and their styles are clasic so I'll get years and years of use out of both of them. I still have $50 in gift certs left to use, so I'll be doing more shoping soon.

I've already got my new Turbo Tax software to do our taxes, just waiting on DH's W2 so I can finish them up. We should get a refund, that will either go into savings or to pay off the CC, depending on how well we can refill savings on our own. The one sad part of doing the taxes is that I see how much money we made last year, and then look at the bank balance, and wonder "where did it all go?". Well, I know where it went, of course, but I'm sure you know what I mean! When you look at your annual income, it looks like you should be living high on the hog, but when you look at your pay check, you wonder if you'll have enough to cover all your bills.

New year, same old problems. Well, to be fair, the car was fixed prior to Jan 1, but since I charged it, it's being paid for in '07, so I guess that counts as being a problem in the new year! I had to replace some doohickey on my Saturn, to the tune of $400 plus $80 for a new belt. And I had to get it fixed, I needed the part to pass my IL vehical emisions test. That's an odesey in itself, but that's a blog entry for another day.

Also, DH has been racking up the CC again, all in all our CC bill will be $2700 or so. And none of that is Christmas, either, I paid cash for all the gifts (not that we spent much)! Plus DH said he has $500 on his little CC. So once AGAIN, all our income is going to pay bills, nothing extra for our debt or into savings. And DH didn't work any overtime last week OR this week, so we have no extra coming in there either. The OT was available, he just declined it. Not only that, but he is taking unpaid time of in another two weeks to go home to see his dieing grandmother. I don't begrudge him the trip AT ALL, I totally understand and encouraged him to go, but since he doesn't get paid for time off, that's less income well have this month to pay. At least the trip is cheap, I used airline miles to get the ticket for free and the car rental is only $88 for 4 days.

If you've read previous posts, all of this sounds familure. I keep saying I'll get a second job, and DH keeps saying he'll work more OT and stop spending, no need to get a second job. So I don't look for a job, then he's good for a month and goes right back to his old habits. Screw it. I'm looking for a job this weekend. All my pay will go towards paying down the debt, since we can only seem to live paycheck to paycheck on our SUBSTANTIAL income because DH is an idiot. At this point, I can't control his spending, so all I can do is increase our income. I'm not starting a fight over this. He wants to spend $500 on computer parts, fine. He wants to spend $85 on his train hobby, fine. He refuses to clean out his old bachelor storage unit and save us $100 a month in rent, fine. I can't control his actions, I can only control mine. While we have this debt I can't buy a new car (the Saturn generaly runs fine but it's 8 years old with over 100k miles on it, it can't last forever) and I'm hessitant to get pregnant, because babies are so expensive (from what I'm told, anyway!). I'll be 31 in May and I'm not getting any younger, if we are going to start a family, it needs to be soon. So if he's not going to help, I'll just do it myself!

GRRRRRR!!!! This is so frustrating!