W(t)S(o)IM(on)

we're broke.

-housepoor
-student loans
-paying too much in taxes both income and property
-consumer debt (an unfortunate consequence of all of the above)

so we're both getting refunds. money. oh, the sweet sweet sound o' crinklin' monies.

I was beginning to forget what a ten dollar bill looked like.

who am I kidding. I've totally forgotten.

so I'm sitting with a calculator, clipboard and handy dandy crayon (I can never find a pen when I need one, yet can somehow ALWAYS locate a fucking crayon) trying to allocate our imaginary money.

hence the creation of the What (to) Spend (our) Imaginary Money (on) list.

it ranges from the little things that those of you with disposable income take for granted like shoes, developing film from three years ago, curtains (this house has an ish load of windows), to big things like paying off a credit card or two (ha! yeah right) to planning a family vacation to buying a new laptop.

I sat down with my handy dandy crayon and had spent both of our returns within 43.87 seconds.

dangit!

...and I didn't even put my wishlist items like stand mixer, new pans and bread machine on there.

double dangit!

so I've come to the conclusion that I CAN and probably will turn into your standard american consumer, despite the fact that I'm extremely cheap and fairly minimalist, if given the chance.

negative.

we're putting all the money (save a grand or so) into debt coverage and perhaps reducing our monthly bills enough to buy a pair of shoes when we need them.

interest can go eff itself.

oh yeah...and it won't hurt that oqui's changing his with-holding, either.

supporting a family of four with a single man's post tax earnings has been fun, but I think we're gonna go ahead and skip it for this year.

you know...just for shits and giggles.