Money's tight this month; between the tree removal costs (thank you, friggin' snow), the cats' dental fixes, and my "dang it, let's get this phone issue resolved already," we're scooting along much closer to the bone moneywise than we have in a long time.

laurie_robey and I have worked very hard to keep our finances in good shape. Once upon a time we were so snowed under by credit cards that we ended up going to a debt counseling service and were dangerously close to bankruptcy ... two years of monthly cashiers' checks to the consolidated payments later we had managed to get ourselves out of it and decided we weren't going to be back in that situation again if it was humanly possible.

"Living well within our means" has had many advantages, not the least of which is that usually we don't really have to think about our finances much. It seems a sort of tautology, I know, but because we generally don't get anything we can't afford, anything that we do get, we know we can afford it. Almost all of our purchases are done with cash (or debit card, anyway), and we don't have to fret about whether the money will be there to pay for it.

This is a wonderfully carefree way to live your life, and I'd forgotten just how much I hated actually looking at my bank balance until this month. It's also very annoying to find myself thinking, "Hey, that new set of Dungeon Tiles looks mighty cool, I think I'll order it — oh, no, I'd better wait 'til after the next paycheck."

So I think, for a while, I'm going to have to get strict with my purchases and such again. No more minis/gaming books for a while, avoid restaurants, etc. It's not hard — I've certainly done a lot more stringent "doing without" in the past — it's just a mode of thought I haven't had to deal with for a while and really didn't miss.

-The Gneech