Well here we are, the humidity in the Midwest is higher than the Eiffel Tower and the clouds of smoke have drifted from the lighting of fireworks. (wait, scratch that...the teenagers down the street just shot off some more firecrackers....anyway...) We've made it to July. It's no longer June-the point during the summer when you feel like time is laid out before you and all your plans and lists are just waiting for your abundant time and good weather to allow them to be crossed off, instead It's July, June has been replaced with the panic that there's only roughly four weeks left of dreadful humid, sticky, sweaty heat in which to accomplish all the goals, buy all the school supplies, cram in a last minute vacation to see family and resume the busyness of fall. Oh July.
July also happens to be midway through the year. Midway through No-spend year to be exact. It's time to let you all know how its REALLY been going. Oh.....did you forget? Here we are over here STILL not spending extra. Did we really make it this long? Well....I'll clue you in on a little secret. So far during No-Spend year our master bathroom shower AND toilet started leaking at the exact same time (conveniently) prompting a bathroom renovation that was supposed to be the very last thing we did to the house...because after all, if you're going to replace the toilet, you might as well do the floor while you've got the toilet up, and if you're doing the floor, you might as well expand the shower like you've been planning on, so the shower needs re-tiled as well...and you get the idea. We are keeping the existing vanity and counter tops to line up with No-spend year as much as possible. So be proud.
On top of the impromptu bathroom reno, spring brought the day when my husband laced up his grimy, dirty tennis shoes, put on his sweat stained baseball cap and went out to the shed for the inaugural, manly ritual known as the first mow of the season. He came stomping back in 45 minutes later declaring his riding lawn mower wouldn't start. He'd tried everything. He then marched his grimy shoes and baseball cap right back outside to succumb to the dreaded task of mowing our 1/2 acre lot with the push mower. But oh boy, did the cap come off and the sweat poured down his defeated face when he announced the push mower also had something wrong with it. WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? no, he wasn't kidding. There was absolutely no laughing involved. BOTH....I repeat, we have two mowers and neither one was functioning. A call was made and the repairman is swamped and his quote was at least 4 weeks out before we would have either mower back. Well, I don't know if you're familiar with how much rain we've had this season, but rain makes grass grow and the grass will not stop growing because the repair man is swamped. SO, I drove my obedient wife-behind to Wal-Mart...yes....I know....don't even say it....to buy the absolute cheapest, saddest looking, box so small I could lift it by myself into the back of my expedition lawn mower to hold us over for at least four weeks. Guys, we still don't have our mowers back....we'll probably see them at Christmas. It will be my husband's Christmas gift. He will get his self-propelled push mower and his ginormous riding mower back in time to pull them with a sled into the shed, have the freezing temperatures damage whatever it is that takes four months to fix on an old lawn mower and we'll send them back to the shop in the spring. This will be our new bit, supporting the lawn mower repairman's summer vacation. You're welcome, sir, for the trip to the lake...it's on us and our mechanical bill.
So in case you're keeping track, we're down a shower, a toilet, all the tile necessary for a bathroom renovation OH and wait, did you know there's cement board and mud and grout and a million other things that add up to spending way too much at Lowes on Saturday mornings. They entice you with nice dreams of fixer upper results, you get your family together, you drive in the pick-up to the store, its a fun family outing and then BAM a tub of mud costs $50 but you'll actually need one full tub and exactly three scoops out of the second tub to finish your job. You know, to do it properly.
Okay I'm really starting to get off topic now...back to the count, a shower, a toilet, tile for the bathroom and now a riding lawn mower and a push mower. But wait, lets back up...did you read what I loaded the lawn mower into....that's right...the second car we weren't going to use this year. WELL as this year has decided to be the year of expensive surprises instead of No-spend, I took a second job to work for the summer and so, we needed a second car so I could go to work and Micah would have a vehicle to use with the kids if he would need it. So, enter repair costs, insurance costs, license costs and oh yea...just for fun, my car needed a new battery.
Mentioning work reminds me that I woke up one day with a serious toothache. Like the worst kind that radiates through your jaw and up to your head. I knew exactly what it was. I still had all four wisdom teeth. I had been told many times to have them removed. The most memorable time was twelve years ago as I was visiting the dentist for the last time while still on my parent's insurance. I was getting married soon and he assured me I should get them out now, while I was young and they weren't bothering me (and I wasn't paying for it) but did twenty year old me have time for mouth surgery??? Certainly not. Why, I was attending college and planning a wedding and oh yea, working full time. But you know what....I want to go back and grab twenty year old me by the shoulders and shake her really hard and bend down into her face (because apparently I've grown taller in the last twelve years???) And I want to tell her I will never have more time for myself then I have right now. Things will never be less complicated, and more straightforward and I will never EVER EVER have as much time as she has now. But you know what....twenty year old me wouldn't listen to 32 year old me, I'm almost positive. So instead, what happened was, I juggled three kids, taking sick days off work, finding a sub, figuring out transportation for my kids to and from school, paid for the surgery myself and oh yea just for fun, my DD (designated driver for the impaired, high on pain killing laughing gas me) got called out to a SWAT call because some guy decided to hold someone hostage in an apartment on the same day my surgery was scheduled. But yea, I was too busy attending community college and playing wedding planner at twenty. It needed to wait.
So, just in case you've lost track, no spend year has cost us licensing fees, repair fees, new battery fee and insurance cost on a second car, a new toilet, a new shower, the tile for the bathroom, wisdom teeth removal surgery, not one but TWO lawn mower repairs and don't worry...we're only to February.
The last two months haven't been any kinder to our budget. In May I lost control in a bad rain storm on the interstate and crashed our truck into a guard rail going roughly 70mph. The air bags didn't go off, and everyone was okay. But it was a deductible cost on repairs for the truck. Another costly surprise.
The final surprise came in June when our air conditioner stopped keeping up. The repair men (we've had three estimates) say it cannot be salvaged and so we're looking at the cost of a new unit. That is a BIG unplanned expense to say the least.
Final count for No-Spend year in July: two lawn mowers, a bathroom renovation, multiple car expenses, mouth surgery, accident repairs on the truck and an air conditioning unit. This is depressing.
D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.
But, maybe not. Was the goal of No-Spend year money driven? Yes and No. We needed a financial overhaul and No-spend year was how we chose to attack it. But No-spend year was about establishing a mind set. An understanding. A contentment. Does it matter how much money you have, if your air conditioner breaks...its' unexpected. If you get in an accident and wreck your car....it's unexpected. Nobody plans for these things. That's why they're called surprises. But our mind set has also helped us to keep going during all of these things.
I truly have found a contentment unknown to me before. the bag of hand me down clothes means everything to me now. The gift of a candle, is excess and I feel spoiled now. The fact we have two working vehicles for when the battery doesn't start in one, or when I got in an accident with the other, is a luxury now. That we had car insurance to keep the deductible low, that I have dental insurance to be able to get my tooth pain fixed, that we have family who helps loan us small air conditioner units while we figure out what to do about a new one. And lets not forget, when you WIN A VACATION when you didn't think you would get one at all. All of that, is extra. It's all not necessary. Its all humbling to realize how much I have when I feel like I've lost so much and the bricks are piled high making a wall bigger and bigger attempting to stop us from gaining the full potential of accomplishing this goal. But it seems, when you're content, when you're optimistic, when you have your best friend for your life partner and you have God giving you blessings, you look at that wall and you see a rock climbing date and gear up.
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