It's An Up and Down Adventure

There is probably a good reason that the "life is a roller coaster" metaphor has become more than cliche. It's because it is true.

A while back I posted that we owed taxes.  That was a simple post that didn't give you the full effect of what I was feeling at the time. I'm still not gonna give you the full story because that is a sob story if I ever heard one. Trust me...LOTS of tears.

But time heals all wounds and now I think I'm back on the upswing.

The basics are that yes, we owe taxes. Quite a bit more than we expected. There is still the matter of the clutch that we need to replace in our faithful car AND the fact that I was silly (read: "stupid") and counted my chickens before they were hatched. Counting on getting a refund from the government, I went against my best judgement and a let Andrew buy a new pair of skis before we filed our taxes.

Don't be like me, people. If there is anything I've learned from this, it is that nothing is guaranteed.

But moving on past my stupidity, I'm trying to look at the bright side. You might think there could be no bright side to owing the government money...and there really isn't. But there is a bright side to the situation in general.

To start with, lets look at our blessings. Andrew and I have been IMMENSELY blessed since we were married. We went from a couple that couldn't even afford an engagement ring, to being able to support ourselves independently. 

There is a good reason we owe taxes. I don't get taxes taken out of my BYU paycheck as long as I'm a full time student, and Andrew got 2 semesters worth of pell grants last winter semester. With that extra money we were able to purchase our own car insurance after getting in a car accident soon after we were married, pay of the doctors bills from my surgery, and put some money in savings.

That money was untaxed and so like I said, there is a good reason we owe this year, so I can't be mad. In fact, I can only be thankful that we were so blessed last year to have such an abundance.

Another thing I'm grateful for is that we do have money in savings. Often, I tend to look at the smaller picture and grump about the fact that we've never been able to achieve our savings goal because of all the unexpected, large expenses that come up. However, if I look at the larger picture, we've always been able to cover those expenses and keep a decent amount still in the account. 

Are there habits we can change? Yes. Could we have more in savings? Of course! But the point is that we have that cushion and this year is no different, we have the money to pay our taxes without creating an awful burden on our finances.

That brings me to what I was thinking about this afternoon. Obviously, taxes are going to leave a huge dent in our savings account. It's not the neverending supply of money that we all wish we had. Some things need to change in our spending so that we don't get into real trouble.


Some things need to be sacrificed. With Andrew not working weekends anymore, I had hoped that we could take more weekend photography trips to places like Bryce Canyon and Zion's. With the clutch near ground out, we're kind of stuck here, and with having to fix it, we won't have the money to travel. I'm learning patience.

We communicate more and we communicate better. Don't get me wrong, Andrew and I always talk. But you would be surprised at how a conversation about finances can quickly turn into a conversation in which we both share our hopes and dreams for our future, and then we feel closer together. If you don't buy that, it just makes both of us feel better about life because we know the other one has our back and we know that we value each others thoughts, needs, and opinions more than we do that new pair of skis or new camera lens. The money is ours and the goals are ours too.

This whole situation has made me really look at our priorities. We've been trying to get out of debt for a while now but now I realize how much more we could have if our money was ours. Don't get me wrong, we only have about 8,000 dollars in debt. Not bad for 2 full time college students.

It doesn't look like we'll be out of debt on the exact timeline I set for us, but we're trying our best and that's all the Lord has ever asked of us so really, it should be good enough for me. We're on our way, and we are not trapped. The debt was necessary, but we control our debt, not the other way around.

We have to be creative now with our spending. Gas isn't as high as it COULD be, but its not as low as it was either. We have to find ways to drive as little as possible (something difficult given that we both love to drive). This means more time spent at home, or within walking and biking distance. Luckily for us, Provo is fairly pedestrian/bike friendly and the weather is mostly cooperative. It could be worse, we could live in Arizona where you can't survive outdoors but you can't afford to survive indoors either. =P

There are expenses that can be cut out altogether, like eating out. Lucky for me, I love to cook. We decided that from now on, when we get a craving, instead of going out and satisfying it immediately, we put it on the week's grocery list and we'll try to make it together. It teaches both of us patience, and saves us money we would have spent at the restaurant. This also helps us to spend more quality time together and to learn something new together.

I've found that when you're married, working part or full time, and going to school, date nights are far more difficult to come by than when you were single. You live with your spouse, you see them all the time. While you don't mean to, you do start to take them for granted. More appropriately, you begin to take the time spent with them for granted. Even if you have a whole weekend, it is hard to do something special when you have laundry and other errands to do. On top of all that, sometimes its hard to make the extra effort to do something out of the ordinary.

Since we need to be creative with our spending, this almost automatically makes date nights more exciting. Activities now seem to present themselves almost as easily as "dinner and a movie" used to. I've also found that reading the school newspaper can give me a lot of ideas. The Friday paper always has several 2 for 1 specials advertised so Andrew and I can still afford to go out.


All in all, while finances are tight and times are hard, they are quite possibly the most magical they will ever be and I'm grateful for all my blessings in disguise. :)

And if you're wondering what the bold phrases are, they are my blessings. :)