Fighting Sucks

It has been one crappy week people.

It started with needing to register our car.  We thought it was going to be your typical routine thing.  Well, we were wrong.  We needed to replace a part.  It wasn't a big deal except it took Mav's entire Saturday morning off to do it.  Whatever.  We got it to pass.  That's what counts right?

Saturday night I was expecting him to be home from work around 11:30.  Instead, I got a call from him.  The way he sounded I thought someone had died.  And of course I thought the very worse.  Instead he started cussing that someone had busted his passenger window out.  At least we had already got our car to pass safety and emissions.  What Mav wasn't aware of was we had some serious wind blowing that night.  I think the wind picked something up to shatter his window.  That was something else that needed to be fixed.

Then today, we had a window guy out to fix a crack in my truck's windshield.  Instead of fixing it, it cracked more.  He said he couldn't fix it and wouldn't charge us.  Oh goody.  But now, we're going to need a new windshield.

Next week, we're driving cross country for away rotations. Gas prices are insane! 

We have almost maxed out our credit cards.

He's applying for residencies.  He'll be flying all over the country.  

We're poor. 

All of this equals to one big fight between me and Mav.

And me being up way too late...

One Less Debt

In my hand is the title for my truck!  It's a wonderful, glorious feeling to know my truck, is actually and really my truck.  It's a good feeling you guys! 

And did I mention that we paid it off three months early?  Even better huh?

That's one less debt to worry about. 

This Better Be Worth It

We just paid for Mav's Step II test.

We had been warned by our friends to set aside this money because it's not counted into our student loans.  We just put the idea on the back burner.  We wish we hadn't now.  I'm now passing this lovely bit of information on to all you second years: set this money aside when you get your money!  DO IT!!  And yes!  I am shouting!!   

Ask me how much it was.  Go ahead.  Do it.  It was 1700 dollars.  1700 bones.  Yes.  That is a 17 with two zeros following the 17 part.  One thousand seven hundred dollars.  

I feel like I've been violated in some way.  

All I can say is this doctor thing better be worth it.  My heck. $1700? 

We be Poor Folks

We just got our student aid back.  And it's already spent.  Does anyone else burn through their money as fast as we do? 

Trust me.  It's not like I have a hole in my pocket.  We're pretty frugal.  We rarely go on dates.  The last one was in December.  Before that, was in August.  We didn't have a super fancy Christmas.  We don't have glamorous anniversaries by any means.  I'm pretty good at staying away from Target.  We take advantage of free activities.   

Maybe you could lend me some help with this financial thing.  Or maybe you're going through the same problem too.  Maybe we could help each other out here.   So I'm going to be honest about this whole money situation.  Really. 

So once the school gets its chunk of money for Mav, we get the remainder for living expenses.  It's about $11,000.  $11,000 for the semester, January 1 through July 1.  Roughly, $1800 per month to live on.  $650 of it goes to rent.  $310 goes towards a car payment.  We spend about $250, probably more, for bills: phones, utilities, car insurance.  We're up to $1,210 with rent, car payment and bills.  This doesn't count for gas for the cars, diapers, groceries or fun.  Wait, what's fun? 

I'm sure you're wondering how we afford to live.  Let me answer that question.  Credit cards!  Credit cards have saved our hineys.  But it's also going to get the best of us.  See.  Between our cards, we have a balance of about $6,000.  And we have to make payments with the remaining money for the month. 

Here's where we're scared.  We're pretty close to maxing out.  Then what?  What do we do?  The bank will laugh in our faces if we say we want  need a larger limit on our cards.

Luckily, I guess, we have the option of taking out more loans for fourth year.  But this is to cover interviewing expenses and moving.  And that is expensive. 

So by graduation, we will have racked up about $250,000 or so in student aid, in addition to maybe another $10,000 in credit card debt.  That's a grand total of $260,000.  Not counting interest, people! 

See the reason for my anxiety. 

I would love some input.  How do you survive?  Do you just push through it?  Is there some sort of trick?  Is this normal?