The last straw

You'd think the last straw would have been about 6 or 8 months ago when I got served with papers that they were going to foreclose on my house if I didn't pay $12,000 within 30 days. Nope. What did I do? Borrowed money of course!

To pay that back we hit my husband's retirement fund. Cleaned it out. I repaid that loan and the bulk of a credit card that I owed $13000 on. A very good friend, also a lawyer, negotiated that debt down to $6000.

Still I thought we would be okay. But then for a few weeks after as soon as we were paid, checks went out to pay other bills. Sure the economy is hurting us. Business is down where I work. Our mortgage payment has gone up $300 a month in three years. Gas prices were out of control. Even food prices were starting to kill us.

This past Monday we were already in the red in our checking account, with several checks still to clear. That was it. I was done. I couldn't do this anymore.

I wallowed in self-pity for a day or so. Then I started to think. What could I cut out? Some immediates came to mind:

• No longer getting my nails done every 2-3 weeks
• No buying lunch on work days
• No stopping for fast food or pizza because I didn't feel like cooking
• No buying my coffee from Dunkin Donuts any longer
• No shopping just to shop

The next were the bills themselves. We have cell phones, so I turned off our land line home phone. Got rid of the paid cable channels like HBO and Showtime.

I would like to call my insurance and get that lower. But I am terrified of a higher deductable or not collision and then getting in an accident. I might have to just take that chance though.

The ironic think in all of this is that I am a bargain hunter. I do not pay full price for anything. I shop sales and clearances. I use coupons. I buy things at garage sales. People come to me for shopping advice. Where to find things cheaper, for coupons, for this and that. If they only knew.