Budget Crunch

We're back!

Our trip through the U.S. was pretty great, and it was wonderful to hang out will friends and family along the way. I'm really so thankful that we a) had enough savings to be able to do it and b) were able to see and do so much in such a short time (10 states in 14 days!) I don't regret our vacation at all.

But...the thing is, we need to get back on budget. I haven't gone through the receipts yet, but this trip likely cost us 4k. The car alone was nearly $2000, then there's the gas, and the hotels, the plane tickets, and the park fees, and the food (ummm, the food!) The worst expense though was unpaid leave. I don't make that much, but 9 days is nearly 10, which is half of my salary for a month. Not that I'm really complaining (I really needed some time off), but it was an expensive trip.

So the plan is to get back on budget, right. Well, except that we might not be able to right away. We've already had the fireplace guy come over and give us a quote. That price (4k) will go up if we don't get the work done before the end of August. We're finishing up the laundry room (likely another 3k after the remaining labor and buying a new washer and dryer). Then there's the garden (I'd like to replace the bolted spinach, lettuce, and radish bed with other cool season crops) and the dehydrator that we want to buy in order to use the grain CSA stuff that I got last summer... Well, the list just goes on and on.

All of this spending while both of our jobs, while safe for at least another 6 months, are questionably secure, is about to make me go into panic mode. I vote for a construction loan on the house, but my other half (who probably has way more money sense than I do) had nixed the idea. In my mind the value of the house will go up with the improvements we've made, and therefore it'll be like we bought a newer, nicer house, and we really have a bunch of things to do to this house before either of us will feel comfortable in it. We would get to keep our savings in savings and still get our house out of construction hell. But that's not going to happen.

So, the question is...what's going to give.

Option 1:
Finish the laundry room construction, but leave the downstairs bathroom unfinished until later.
We tape the drywall ourselves and do the flooring, and keep the washing machine from downstairs until we buy a set later.
We put the fireplace in during August, giving us one more month until that bill is due.
(approximate cost: 5K)

Option 2:
Finish the laundry room and downstairs bathroom entirely (we still tape the drywall and do the flooring)
Buy the washer and dryer, but skip the fireplace this year.
(approximate cost: 4k)

Option 3:
Leave the laundry room unfinished and keep using the creepy basement setup for a while longer
Skip the fireplace again this year, or pay more after September
(approximate cost: 0-5k)

Option 3 really isn't a pleasant option for us for a couple of reasons. 1) our contractor is back to work and we don't want him to move onto another job before he finishes our laundry room, and 2) we have a big gaping whole in the center of our house

SO...Do we live without a downstairs bathroom or without a fireplace? I vote for no fireplace, but my husband REALLY, I mean REALLY, wants a fireplace. We'll decide together, but I figure we can close the bathroom door for now and nobody will be the wiser for a while. We can finish the bathroom a few months down the road without the price going up significantly.

The question is, can we, in 2 months, put 4k back in the bank while spending 5k on the house? 9k over our necessary spending? Theoretically it's possible, but improbable. Maybe if we didn't eat, use electricity, or do anything that involves money. So I will be number crunching to see exactly how much money we actually could save. A wedding present for a friend, and my garden supplies are non-negotiable, but other than that, what do we really need to spend money on?

Oh, and why 2 months? Because that's the time that we have to have paid for the fireplace, and we don't use credit cards as a credit line (all debts are paid off in the month that we make the purchase).