we recently came into some money - which I've been meaning to blog about for months...
when my grandfather died he left me $5,000 - he left my mother considerably more... like 30X that - my mother has owed me and my sister each 5k since about 1991 - and my sister figured this was a good time to FINALLY get it back - so she asked her (something I doubt I would have ever bothered to do) anyway... as usual opening your mouth pays off... we each got our money back from mom
so a few months ago I got a check for $10,000
as I'm sure you guys know - ten thousand dollars doesn't go far... so we've been figuring out exactly what to do with it - first we decided $5000 is NOT getting touched!! (for now it will be locked in a fire proof box and buried somewhere in the back yard) haaa
we originally were only supposed to get the five - and all we were going to be able to do with that was pay off Sam's student loans and save the rest - because I wanted to save SOMETHNG!! - I'm tired of having zero money saved!!
but since we wound up with ten... I thought we can save the whole five and use the other five to pay off the student loans and get some other stuff we 'need'
of course MOVING entered our minds... with 10 thousand dollars we could have moved pretty much anywhere in the country and had a half way decent head start - but the way things are with the economy and the fact that (aside from the occasional tensions and stresses of renting from and living next door to mom) we're in a pretty good place right now...
roof over our heads - check
food in our bellies - check
money to pay the bills - check
*knock on wood*
lord knows anything can happen at any time... but as things are at the moment, we're in a lot better shape than a lot of people we know - so to leave a place with VERY affordable rent, that is not in danger of being sold or foreclosed on any time soon and taking a chance in a new place, with a new job and all that just seems... CRAZY - so we quickly took 'moving' off the table
so like I said - we decided to pay off what little debt we had... Sam's student loans - which we've slowly knocked down and have now been paying about $95 a month on for YEARS!! and at that rate would take at least another couple years to pay off the remaining $2000 - so the first order of business was to get rid of that!!
which leaves us completely debt free *knock on wood* - and I will very much enjoy NOT watching that chunk of money leave our checking account every month!!
so then we had to think about things we 'need'
at first I insisted we NEEDED new living room furniture... everything we have is used or handed down from family - EVERYTHING!!
even my tv trays are older than me!! they look pretty much like THIS... only with straight sides and with a gold and greenish colored fruit basket instead of the nifty camp or hula scenes - and mine are actually old... not reproductions
anyway I've always been ok with all our old stuff... I do like it better than most of what you can buy in the stores... I prefer yard sale shopping to mall shopping because, aside from giving old stuff a new home and keeping it out of the landfill... it has character!!
however... there comes a time in (I think) every girl's life where she wants her living room to look NICE!! I'm tired of it looking like an overly cluttered dorm room - BUT as much as I'd like new furniture in here and as falling apart as our current stuff is - with our cat I just can't see spending money on nice NEW stuff
my cat is great - she never poops or pees anywhere but the litter box... but she does scratch the crap out of furniture!! :(
so - new furniture... off the table
so what is on the table?
a truck... we 'need' a truck... something with 4wd (especially THIS winter... sheesh!!) that can hold large items (like the used furniture we're gonna wind up finding through craigslist) haaaa
that should be about $1000
Sam needs new glasses - $200
I REALLY miss my fishies and have been WANTING a new aquarium since we moved out of our old apartment and I had to get rid of the one I had :(
so I'm getting a new aquarium/fish/etc. - for now I'll be happy with a 20 gallon - the whole setup should be about $200
ok so that is not a need... but I don't care!!
a closet... we plan on building a closet at the far end of our 'living room' (where our old computer was before we moved it into the bedroom) - we NEED more storage space!! this house is really not bad but the one thing it's lacking is CLOSETS
by lacking I mean it has NONE!!
if we're in this place for the long haul and I'm not getting new furniture then I would very much like to get rid of some of the giant old pieces we have... such as two very large end tables (that open up for storage) and a foot locker which I keep most of my craft/art stuff in... sure it holds the stuff so it's not all scattered around the house... but it's hard to organize that way and organization is key if you ever plan on starting let alone finishing a project...
and focusing more on crafty/art stuff is one of my main goals this year!!
soooooooooooo
build closet - about $200 for materials including a circular saw (we already have the doors... which we've had screwed together and been using as a room divider)
another thing that is bordering on want more than need is a new computer... it's a need in so much as our old computer is old and dying!! like REALLY dying... it takes a good 20 minutes just to get it started well enough to function - once it gets going it's ok... but it is sluggish and locks up A LOT - soooooooooooo
if a computer is a NEED (which I'm pretty sure you will all agree it IS) hehehe then we NEEDED a new one...
we decided on getting a laptop... and doing something to fix the old one well enough for Sam to be able to use it for his music stuff - or he will eventually build a new one for that purpose...
after what seemed like 4 months (but was really more like 1 month) of research and looking for something decent for the best price... Sam FINALLY decided on something!!
so now I'm blogging at you from my big (not so comfy anymore) chair with this nifty new laptop - which I'm slowly getting used to... I LOVE that it's portable and that I can sit right in front of the tv with it!! and I LOVE that when I need to I can just close it up and stick it somewhere where I can't even see it - so it's not beckoning me to sit down and waste time
some day I intend to take advantage of that too!! hehehe
but for now - I've been slowly installing some essential stuff and re-adding bookmarks etc.
I've decided NOT to take everything from my old computer and just plop it on this one... I kinda want to start from scratch - I always have all my old stuff on a cd if I think of something I need
anyway... new laptop (on sale) plus mouse (cause I HATE those pad thingies) and wireless router, altogether cost about $600 - actually I think it was more like $650... but I had $50 worth of gift cards
I guess that leaves us a little extra for cost overruns - which there ALWAYS seem to be
it's nice to have his loans paid off and be able to get some stuff we've been wanting/needing - and still be able to hold on to all of my original money from my grandfather!!
it's not much but it feels less scary knowing we have a little something stashed away
plus with the money my mother got, she's been able to get her property taxes up to date, put a new roof on her house (which was about to cave in!! seriously - while working on it, one of the roofers wound up with his foot in the attic!!) and replace the insulation and sheet rock in her bathroom and kitchen which had been severely damaged by the VERY leaky roof!!
she had a little fun at Christmas, flying my sister and niece out here and spending too much on dinner etc.
and she still has a pretty decent chunk of money - invested somehow where it's getting nice interest
but she knows the fun is done and she is back to her usual penny pinching ways - which is good - I feel better knowing she has some money stashed away... so she can work on getting her house back in decent shape, pay her taxes etc. and I HOPEFULLY don't have to keep waiting for the other shoe to drop!!
*phew*
I guess that's all for now =)
