#80 - Time to adjust, and a promise kept

Saturday, March 24

Today I am thankful for a dose of reality.  And a dose of optimism to go with it.

The reality is this: the mortgage on our new house is not a problem.  The property taxes are enormous, however.  We had expected (and I had assumed) that with our mortgage being a little less than our old 1st/2nd combo, and interest rates being so much lower, that some higher taxes would keep our payments roughly the same.  Katrina worked it out, though, and it's not roughly the same.  It's going to be a little rough.

We did get a raise to come here, but the property taxes eat most of that raise.  And we will have a higher fuel cost here, as well as higher food cost.  So we'll have to use our options and make it work.

If we pull out of this house and get one with lower taxes, that could change our entire financial picture.  But I really love this house.

We also, in light of this reality, made a decision to keep a promise to the kids.  We promised them a swimming pool.  And the swimming pool place had a sale that ended today.  But we had to decide where we would find the money.  So we made a decision to find it, I went to the pool store, and bought a pool.  We now own a 30' round pool.  Delivery will happen some time after we close on our new house.  It will be the first major upgrade the house gets.  Because we know from past experience that major purchases don't often happen.  The kids deserved it.

Besides, we're not going on vacation this year.  It's an almost-even trade.

I have to start preparing to make adjustments now.  I've had this large hotel room to myself for nearly 2 months.  Now I have to downsize so all 7 of us can be here for a month or 2.  We'll all have to chill a bit more.  And I won't have all this time to play games, read, sleep, or blog.  I hope I can keep the blog running daily.  That's the goal.

In a very sad note, my favorite sign in the area has been torn down and replaced.  The old sign was there just last week.