Seeking God Knows What

Boo hiss, my keyboard is having some issues as in random letters and symbols appearing or suddenly typing in all capitals and ye olde iMac’s cd/dvd drive is having some real issues.  Darn thing needs to last for just a few more months.  We have discussed using a portion of our income tax return to replace my computer.  In the last 3 years we have gotten a fairly healthy check back with T’s mileage, child tax credits, and our adoption credit.  The last 2 years, we’ve used it to pay property taxes.  This year, our goal is to finish off what we need to for our “$1000 emergency fund”, replace my computer and pay the rest to our debt.

Anyway, I’ve been reading Jean Chatzky’s The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness:Feel Richer with What You’ve Got in the hopes of gaining some additional perspective and motivation with our finances.  Something I found interesting was, based on a research survey, people who pay their bills as they come in have a greater sense of happiness and feeling of financial control.  I am totally a person who puts them away until they are due or even after they are due, then I sit down once or twice a month and pay them all, feeling completely overwhelmed at the amount of money going out the door.  I’m always so paranoid about not having enough money, so I wait.  But I end up spending some of the money I was supposed to save for bills on some “essential” and then I don’t have enough to pay them all.

I’ve always liked watching Jean Chatzky do the money segments on the Today Show and I do think she has a lot good financial advice.  She just seems very down to earth and realistic.  I skimmed her Pay it Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a day while we were on vacation, though right now finding even $10 a day seems nearly impossible.   In fact, I’m trying to figure out how to find $10-15 every couple of weeks to pay a babysitter so we can participate in our small group from church, something I’m feeling a bit disgruntled about because we have really enjoyed the times we got together this summer bringing Widget to play with their kids (she’s the oldest of the 6 kids) but now most of them apparently feel like they wouldn’t be able to do a bible study if their kids are there.  We want to be a part of this group, sigh, but none of our family will commit to watching Widget on a regular basis, except the day my MIL watches her while I work (and even then I wonder if she really wants to do it or if she feels obligated now that she has been doing it for the last 2 1/2 years).  I don’t know any kids of babysitting age to ask, bleh.  It kind of gives me a headache to think about it.