Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Under financial stress

Isn't it funny how when you mind is racing and plotting to work out your financial situation so that everything gets paid and the family still gets to eat, it becomes very difficult to write a daily post...or is it just me?
Since I last wrote, I have had to find money for a major vehicle repair and now my dog is in for repair.
My car went in for clogged oil arteries and is feeling much better thank you. Thanks to dad for helping me out until the end of the month with the payment.
My dogs sometimes sleep in the house, and we mostly leave our gates open. So when I let my two dogs out on Monday morning at about 4.30am, they discovered my neighbours big Boerbul dog in the walkway between my house and my garage and Piglet who is a cross between a Maltese and a Dachshund (and therefore small) went into attack mode and ended up with a bitten mouth. Well, Monday was a bad day and I only ended up taking him to the vet yesterday afternoon. The vet said he needed to put him under and put in a few stitches and when I mentioned that he was very aggressive with large dogs, the vet asked if he was fixed and why didn't we just do that too since he was going to be under for his lip. Estimated cost : about R800. So I just put R1000 on my credit card to pay dad back for the car repairs and now another R800. Honestly I don't do impulse shopping with my credit card - it does me! As soon as I manage to pay the card up, some necessary or emergency purchase becomes necessary.
Dael is still unhappy with his job as his department seems to need to do an overtime shift of 12 hours every weekend. He got flu this past week and was off work from Wednesday until he returned on Monday. I keep expecting him to be given his walking papers but he is still there. He told me this morning that he has a lot of feelings of anger lately and instead of just bottling it up he wants to try and vent his anger in some form of exercise like working out which I think is positive. I think his anger comes from DNA as well as his age and his frustration with his work and with not having his licence and reliable transport. It will all come right with time. I am glad that he feels he can talk to me about it (even though I am the target of his anger sometimes) and I feel like I am the closest to him that I have ever been now as he enters adulthood. I have never done so much speaking to him about life skills and life situations as I have recently. He has never wanted to speak but has rather just acted and existed. He is doing a lot of thinking now.
Bradley is on another go slow with his schoolwork and looks at me as if I am talking Chinese if I ask him for any information on his schoolwork. We are working towards another crackdown which is a continuous cycle with Bradley. Improvement - Slack Off - Crack Down. I get tired of the sound of my own voice. I never wanted to be a nag but I am forced into the role. His new thing of the last few months is the attitude. He is constantly reminding me that he has 'rights' but doesn't seem to understand that rights also come with responsibilities. The emerging teenager....
This week brought retrenchments to our company. A lot of people who have been with the company for quite some time but are still deemed to be last in have left and others who were working in one position now find themselves doing something quite different i.e. a PA is now the receptionist. Very unsettling for a lot of people. Not so much for me though. I have faced this demon before and lived to tell the tale and I have also been with the company for 5 years and have worked in quite a few departments.
Winter is a little draining. Lots of dark mornings and evenings when you can't really get anything done. The days seem to run into each other. I'm lucky to be living where I am though because other parts of South Africa also have biting cold to contend with. We're a bit nippy and a jersey or jacket is required but we haven't even used a heater for the last couple of years. I just keep a couple of blankets in the lounge for evening tv viewing for the benefit of the humans and the animals.
Signing off.

7 comments:

  1. things will look up in time :)

    poor doggy :(

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  2. Dont feel alone. Everyone is cutting back, even the super rich seem to be down scaling. I too seem to never have an awesome month despite a bloody decent salary there is always something that comes up and swallows the extra cash. Medical aid savings is virtually gone and we not even half way through the year.

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  3. Don't feel lonely, in the same boat. I think financial stress is one of the worst and it seems to eat you up inside. Seems like May was a bad month altogether hope things look up for you soon!!

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  4. Thanks girls for your support. Dont worry - I'm not really blue. Just when things are busy, it is a bit difficult to think of interesting things to write about. I have been experiencing various degrees of financial difficult since having kids I think (about 21 years) so its the normal cycle. I always manage to get my head around it and come bobbing up again.

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  6. Sorry made a mistake above. I know that one too never without financial stress myself as a single mom. Got to pay car license end of June and have yet to go get a new drivers they add up to 500 bucks already. It seems that sometimes finacial woes worry one and sometimes not, lucky we have the 'not ' times or we would go crazy!!

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  7. Once upon a time my 30 pound rat terrier decided to take on two 180 pound Newfoundlands. Guess who won? She looked like she'd been shot in the butt with a shotgun! Honestly the wee dogs have absolutely no concept of their size in relationship with other dogs.

    As for finances, things will pick up again. Those of us who've lived through down times before recognize that things go in cycles. When you think about it, there's a whole generation out there who've only ever seen "good times" so this downturn is a bit of shock to them.

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