A Lovely Weekend and March Update

I had a really lovely weekend, this past weekend.  Michael came to visit me.  By coincidence, his parents were coming to Houston, too (though to see their grandbabies, not us!)–and so I had to give up the guest room at C and M´s house.  No problem, Michael and I stayed with his Aunt Michelle.  She´s his godmother, he was named after her, and he´s easily her favorite of her nieces and nephews.  And she doesn´t have any kids, and she and her husband are both very successful business owners–and they have tons of cash… that they love to spend on us Michael.

Staying with her was like a vacation for us. We only asked her for a place to sleep–but we got so much more.  Friday night, they cooked a delicious dinner for us.  Saturday during the day, we went to an art festival in a nearby park and had lunch there.  We came home and had margaritas on the rooftop deck and listened to music in the sunny breeze.  Then they took us out to a very fancy and delicious tapas dinner–and dropped us off at the symphony.

A while back I wrote about how giving up our season tickets to the symphony in New Orleans was one of the more painful budget-cutbacks we had to make.  My parents used to take me to the symphony, the ballet, and the opera all the time when I was growing up, and upon moving back to New Orleans, I became a season subscriber to all three of these fine institutions.  Michael loves them, too, and we had been enjoying these pleasures together for years.  Of course, that was the kind of spending that got me into lots of credit card debt, and it was certainly on the chopping block when I got serious about my finances.  But I miss it.

Michelle has all kinds of connections, and was able to get us complimentary tickets to the symphony (along with two drink vouchers!).  The seats were incredible (face value $260, folks), and Michael and I had a great time. Sunday they tried to take us biking around the city, but we were exhausted, so they went out and we opted to stay in and watch tv and just be together.  It´s so weird that this is what my marriage has become.  I knew it would feel like this going into it–but still, it´s weird.  I´m glad it´s only temporary.

My point is, I´m immensely grateful to have such a loving and generous family supporting us. And so, without further ado, here is my progress report for March:

NEW BALANCE	CHANGE from last month	DEBT (in order from highest interest rate to lowest)
$1,660.94	+$235.53	gas card
$0.00*	-$16.81	CC1
$0.00*	-$60.00	mom´s CC
$2,912.34	-$31.09	CC2
$0.00*	-$412.67	checking overages
$4,787.64	-$63.60	CC3
$7,405.50	+$69.33	CC4
$7,581.55	-$257.01	car
$5,250.00	$0.00	unsub2
$9,411.11	-$249.64	401k 1
$5,534.23	-$543.62	401k 2
$3,500.00	$0.00	sub
$6,000.00	$0.00	unsub1
$0.00**	-$2,460.69	IRS
$54,043.31	-$3,790.27	TOTAL

—

SAVINGS	CHANGE
$40,562.00	+$2,338.78	401k
$200.00	-$87.20	emergency savings
$1,900.00**	+$1,900.00	tuition savings
$500.00**	+$500.00	dental work
$43,162.00	+$4,651.58	TOTAL

That’s a total success of $8,441.85.

*I’m pretty happy about these 0s!  CC1 is the tiny one I paid off a while back.  I had been using it a little, kind of here and there and paying it off immediately, but this week, I put that puppy through the shredder.  (Michael still has his, so if we really need to use it we can.)  Mom’s CC was my very first CC–the one with which I have the longest credit history.  But… my mom’s had it maxed out for a while now, and I’ve paid what I owe on it, so I called and got myself removed off of this account and tossed that puppy in the shredder, too.  And that last 0 is from paying my checking overages (yuck!) because I closed my checking account.  Woohoo!

**The reason for the big boost this month was my tax refund.  They automatically withheld the $2460.69 that I still owed them, and I put the rest in savings for the next round of tuition, and dental work.  The tuition bucket is not quite full, but this was, of course, a huge help.

Oh yeah, and I´ve lost 19 lbs since I moved to Houston.  That´s only 4lbs down this month, but as you might recall, I fell down a slippery slope mid-month–but was able to recover.

I have a lot of uncertaintly looming, which is causing some background stress.  I´m trying to just keep swimming.  How was your March?