Reality

As soon as I stepped in the door yesterday evening Mama blindsided me with the “need” to spend $1000 on plane tickets to get her, Chase and Jake from New Jersey and to get her to New Jersey so they could make the trip back together. I thought I had come home to get her so we could go test drive a truck – little did I know. It took me a good half hour to get my head wrapped around that as reality set in.


I will put $3500 down to purchase the trailer we are buying. I will have to spend $3500 on a septic system to make the trailer livable. I will need about $3500 to put a metal roof and concrete floor in the shop so it will be ready for hay. To finish the hay I will need a baler which will cost about $3500. Added to all of that, the trip to and from Brittany’s wedding as well as my part in it financially will be somewhere close to…you guessed it, $3500. It will be interesting to see how this all works out but reality is such a wet blanket.

If you have not guessed we are going to have to pass on the truck and it is probably a good thing. The more I thought about it the more I saw it as an accident waiting to happen. Besides, I explained to Mama that it would be very unwise to make payments on a used vehicle that would ultimately raise our fuel consumption by $150 to $200 per month on top of the loan payments.

All in all, I feel good about that decision. I am not nearly so thrilled about the air fare costs – especially since I am not able to go. It is something that Mama needs to do for Chase, especially since I am not able to afford to go. It is his graduation, after all.

When we get back from Brittany and Andrew’s wedding I will have time to lick my financial wounds and see how to survive the remainder of the year. We are half way through March, thinking about June and July and planning for the last half of 2012.

No wonder it goes by so fast.