A Dime at a Time

Navigating life and finances

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Lost keys are expensive

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Getting an extra key made has been on the list for the 3+ years we’ve owned this car.  The need became an urgent one on Friday when I lost the only set we had.  Leave it to me to do something dumb when we can least afford it.  It happens — no sense in beating myself up.  I’m not the only one who has ever lost something important. [Read more…]

Storms of Life

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Storm clouds across the lake.

The winter storm is coming.  According to the forecast, the snow is supposed to start within a few hours.  Looking at the sky and feeling the heavy dampness in the air, I don’t think it is a bunch of hype.  Schools are closing early. The kids have had a lot of snow days, which is why I think they had them go in, even if for only half a day.  Work also told me to stay home.  Although we could use the money, I was relieved.  I had planned on stopping at the store, but I’ll be okay with what I have on hand.  Saved me some money right there!   [Read more…]

Delayed Update

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Yikes.  Here it is February 6, and I have yet to give an update.  Being without internet for the past two days didn’t help, but I also know that for accountability I should have posted something before today.  Anyhow, here are our current stats: [Read more…]

What $6,300 Looks Like

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$6,300

Here it is.  $6,300 later, we now have a brand new furnace.  The installation was done on Monday and took the entire day.  Given the age of our old unit, there were several other things (piping, valves, venting, etc.) that also had to be replaced.  We ended up needing the installer to come back today as our smoke detectors kept going off last night and the furnace sounded overly loud.  The excessive noise turned out to be a faulty exhaust fan, which was also part of the reason a nearby smoke detector was triggered.  Four hours later, everything looks to be running as it should.  Spending this amount of money is the last thing I wanted to do, but where we live, a working furnace is a must.   [Read more…]

A financial setback won’t make us quit!

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A few short years ago, a $6,300 furnace fiasco would have left me wanting to bury my head even deeper into the sand.  How do I know this?  Flashback to January 1, 2017, when we started our journey to dig out of $55,749.69 worth of debt.  That nasty number didn’t reach that level with proactive, positive behavior.  It came from years of denial, and most of all, not having a plan in place to do something about it.  While this week’s visit from Murphy was unwelcome, ours was the wrong door on which to knock.  A financial setback won’t make us quit! [Read more…]

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