Rae Has an Upswing

So I'm sure that reading this blog has been a little depressing of late. Posts admitting that I'm not doing well, etc. But this month has been going... weirdly well. I'm kind of baffled. And the fact that it seems to be a good result of my efforts, rather than raw luck, makes it even more baffling.

Something I did.... paid off?

Okay, so I had 2 medical bills left over from my ER visit when I had the miscarriage. It was just the last bits that finally finished the billing process - you know how long those things can take. They totaled to about $200 that I hadn't budgeted for. I did have enough in my checking account to pay them off of course, and initially I kind of borrowed it from my unallocated funds that should have gone toward next month's budget. To be honest, I was very fortunate that my work insurance covered the more than $4k it would have been otherwise. But wait, there's more!

I saved $138 on my phone bill budget by switching from Sprint to Google Fi as I mentioned a few posts ago. No joke - by using wifi and being data-conscious while away from wifi, we ended up spending just about $25/phone after taxes and fees. So our phone bill was $50 for the month instead of $188 or even the $80 or so we expected.

I also got my deposit back on my natural gas by being in my apartment for a year - an unexpected windfall which negates my $25 monthly bill for almost 3 months.

Just those two things almost cover the medical bills.

Then I got my first bi-monthly paycheck on the 15th. My raise went through, and it looks like my take-home pay is going to be $160/month more than previously. So the unexpected expenses are now completely covered and then some.

And then, something I did not mention on my previous post - Corey got the job! It's full time but it is a small business, so he does not get benefits - but he is still overwhelmingly happy there. He also put in some training hours at the new job while offboarding at the old job, so his paychecks are going to be increasing either way.

Phew. Looks like we finally get to start saving something again. Now I just need to lose some weight and work on getting my credit card bonus money without overspending on the credit card. I may also look into selling platelets since it's for a good cause and doesn't take a lot of effort, and I'm also trying to get our annual gift-giving, like Christmas and birthday presents, organized so that we can buy things on sale and set up crafted items to give instead of spending a lot of money or making last-minute purchases.

It's a lot, but... hey. If it works, it works.