I’m so frustrated about money and bills right now. We’ve been having a tough year financially. There just isn’t enough money coming in, and it seems that every time we turn around something breaks down or needs to be fixed or replaced.

The latest in a long list of things to be replaced this year was the car. Our old car (it was 14 years old) died at the beginning of August and we bit the bullet and bought a used car to replace it. This of course is coming after we bought a new washing machine and dryer and a few kitchen appliances that had needed replacing earlier in the year.

Now we’re literally counting our pennies to pay the bills, buy groceries and of course to get my medications for my Crohns. One slip and we’ll be in terrible trouble. Actually I think we’re pretty much in terrible trouble right now – I’m just refusing to admit it.

Now I’ve just found out that our car insurance rates have gone up. I thought that they would be the same or be a little lower, especially since we have a newer – safer and I think more environmentally “correct” car. In fact that’s what our insurance company led us to believe when we were talking to them when we were transferring the insurance over from the old car to the new car.

Wrong … the bill is higher – at least for a few months anyway, until our new contract kicks in sometime in the new year (I think March) and then it will be a little lower, but it might not be lower than what it had been with the old car.

Our new car is a 4 door, 4 cylinder, sedan – should be fairly cheap to insure right? On top of that my husband and I have both been driving for over 25 years each -and we have PERFECT driving records. No accidents, no tickets, no driving infractions – nothing – ever. Our insurance company says they’re giving us a discount for our perfect driving records, but uhm … It really doesn’t feel like it.

Anyway … everything seems to be going up. We heat our house with oil and that’s gone up a bit this year, as has our electricity rates. Even our mortgage went up a little bit earlier today. So the budget I made a week ago needs to be reworked … to bad I haven’t figured out a way to add more money to our budget. LOL

I have a feeling we might be taking in a border in the next month or two if things keep going downhill.