Thankfully Jason did find work however we hit a second speed bump when our tenants put in their 60 day notice at our house in Farmington, NM. They gave notice in April and moved out mid May. My mom so graciously offered to list and show our house for sale or rent during those sixty days and the days following. We had several serious inquiries however they have all fallen through along the way. This now puts us in the even more stressful situation of trying to carry two homes (rent/mortgage & utility bills for both homes). After months of stress about this house my sister contacted us about renting it when they move back home this fall. We couldn't be happier that they are wanting/willing to rent from us and we are relieved because we know they will take good care of our house.
Our last speed bump hit throughout this summer. Although Jason had found a job back in April it didn't pay nearly as much as his previous job had and to be honest the paychecks were barely enough to cover our bills but not our living expenses. My mom had offered to pay to me babysit my littlest brother this summer while we were in town visiting...it just turns out that we extended that stay to a two month trip (to enjoy camping, family, friends, a wedding, swim lessons, and more). This was a saving grace for us because it offered us the money we needed for living expenses and carried us through the end of July when we returned home. Jason stayed back in Texas (other than a week at the end of June and a week at the end of July) to work during these two months time.
This speed bump also includes the unexpected costs of having to replace the rotors, brakes, tires, and windshield on our mini van while visiting in New Mexico this summer. We had planned to take our van in to be serviced while visiting but in no way were we prepared for all those expenses. Plus we had a loan that we had forget a payment on and they took the remaining balance out of our checking account to pay off the loan while we were out of town, which was a huge unexpected expense.
Now with all this being said things are looking up...Jason was offered his job back with the company that fired him several months ago. With much hesitation we made the difficult decision to have him return to that company as it offers us adequate money to support our growing family as well as pay off our debt. With lots of help from our families to get caught up/current with our bills we are back on track with our money. Sadly we have acquired more debt since Jason lost his job but we will be working very hard over the next several months to pay our family members back as well as put our Emergency Fund back in savings and pay on our other debts.
This has been a huge learning experience for Jason and I, one that I hope we never have to repeat. Struggling to feed our family, pay bills, and get the necessities for our children is not a place that I'd like to ever see us in again. I hope to see us use all that we learned this year, move forward as quickly as possible and get to a place where we never have to worry/stress about these things again. On the plus side Jason and I are communicating much better these days.
We truly appreciate all the help that we have received! We never could have made it out of the huge hole we were in without our family providing for us in so many different ways. Thank you!!
For those of you that are working to become debt free remember we are all human, we will make mistakes, we will fall, but we can get back up, dust ourselves off and move forward!!
I hope to be able to update you all very soon with our progress on our baby steps!
