Almost 30 years ago, when my husband and I were first married and had little ones, we lived paycheck-to-paycheck for many years, always strategizing how we would pay bills to push them out as much as possible while hopefully avoiding late fees or (in some cases) having them damage our already horrible credit score even more. It was a delicate process - anything unexpected like a medical bill, house or car repair, or traffic ticket would have a long-term domino effect. I remember calling the bank's automated line (pre-online banking days) to check our balance with a knot in the pit of my stomach, waiting for the computer voice to tell me if we'd miscalculated and overdrawn the account. This was our life for a very long time.
But we worked hard, learned better budgeting skills, got increasingly better jobs and haven't had to worry about money in many years.
Until now. My husband was injured at work almost three years, has had multiple surgeries and had to find a different line of work (which pays less) because he has significantly reduced use of his dominant hand. Whenever he's recovering from surgery, he does receive a small amount from workers comp, but only about half of what his normal paycheck is. Add to the mix that I had a fight with cancer last year (and kicked its ass!!), so for several months my paycheck was 2/3 of normal, and we had to pay travel expenses for me to get treatment in another state (thank God I have amazing medical insurance through my job, so paying the cost of healthcare wasn't much of an issue!!). Then, earlier this year we took a long-planned overseas vacation (that we had already committed significant funds to) to celebrate our triumph over cancer, and although we were careful, the trip took it's own bite out of our savings reserves.
All of this has meant a big hit to our finances, but with the money we had in savings and careful budgeting, we've been ok until this month when savings completely dried up.
Happily, my husband was released by his surgeon to go back to work last week (we have great hopes this most recent surgery will be the last for a very long time), so we'll start getting a full paycheck for him again. It's been a long road, but I feel like we can really see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm not looking for advice - we're doing ok. But I realized this morning how much I had forgotten the stress and anxiety that comes from counting the days until your next paycheck, wondering if X is going to hit your account before your pay does, calling creditors to ask for a payment arrangement to buy yourself a little breathing room, holding your breath as the cashier hits the total button in case I miscalculated as I added things up in my head while shopping.
I realize that money doesn't buy happiness, but boy, does it reduce stress! I hope as we get back on our feet and start rebuilding our savings, I remember this lesson and appreciate how lucky I am that we have good jobs, a good family, and (hopefully) not have the constant stress of worrying about money anymore.
Submitted September 29, 2018 at 11:46AM by texadian_me https://ift.tt/2DDtQaw
