Blogging away my stress.
Ugh, I hate it when money and life stress me out. You would think that after all this time on this journey, nights like these would be a thing of the past. Nope. Here I am, stressing yet once again. Usually, I would get up and blog about something with a more positive nature. Not tonight, though. For this post, I have decided to blog about the why behind my stress. I think in doing so, it will equally serve to help me work my way through the woes keeping me awake. Or at least I hope it does!
First of all, I try to stay positive. Honestly, I do! I know that allowing negative feelings to surface doesn’t really do much of anything to help the situation. All that does is create a level of mental defeat, and being defeated is something I will not permit. Battling debt is not easy, but no matter what comes our way, this is a battle we will win!
So then, what exactly is eating at me tonight? Well, I guess it is a lot of things. For starters, our car needs to go in for service. We go down to one AWD vehicle during the snowy months, so maintaining it is an absolute must. The estimated repair cost is $300. Hubs is taking it in for me this morning, which is something I should be handling. He has a long day of traveling ahead of him tomorrow so he shouldn’t be dealing with this. For me, getting a root canal done would be far more appealing than a trip to an auto repair shop. I should just put on my big girl panties and handle it.
What else? Money remains tight, and with all the holidays, it will probably continue so until next year. A month without paychecks from Hub’s surgery was tough. Then to add a month where yet more time is taken off, well, this leaves our accounts wanting to wave the white flag. The thing is, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are holidays that should be spent with friends and family. Since Hubs travels for a living, he already spends enough time in hotel rooms. Spending the holidays alone in a hotel room is beyond depressing.
Two overlooked bills to the tune of $395 have further added to my stress. One is for our ID theft protection, and the other is for our semi-annual road dues. My fault. The road dues I can put off for a few weeks, but the ID theft protection needs to be paid. In today’s world, I won’t be without it. For those of you who have been following our journey, you may recall that Hubs had his wallet (including his passport) stolen earlier this year. With his info still floating around who-knows-where, we need to stay protected.
Not money related, but our house looks like it was hit by a tornado. I never do well when things are out of place, and wow, are they ever! We don’t have a big house, so staying on top of things is necessary for survival. Well, at least in my mind it is! I’m a person who doesn’t like dirty dishes in the sink and right now, I have a sink full of them. I need solid 3-4 hours to whip the house back into shape, and I know that alone will help me feel much better. Clutter and mess only add to the stress.
So did I succeed at blogging away my stress? The jury is still out on that one. I do feel tired enough to go back to bed, so perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that I did.
What do you do to de-stress about life and money?
I think blogging away stress is very cathartic. Sometimes just writing all the bad stressful things down helps me recognize all the little things that are building up and then I can work on resolving them or making the intentional decision not to worry about them anymore. You have done so well this year at paying off debt. Keep up all the good work. Next year financial stresses will be a distant memory.
I do agree, blogging is vey cathartic. To an extent, it even gave me a checklist as to how best to prioritize. Not to wish away the rest of the year, but I am truly looking forward to the fresh start of 2018.
Ugh, getting stressed out is no fun, you poor thing. When I’m feeling stressed, I pray, move (like take a walk), and sing. I sing even when I don’t feel like it because once I start singing it gets to feeling more normal and less silly. If it’s the middle of the night I might take a hot bath which helps me fall back asleep. Or eat dark chocolate which is quiet and won’t wake my husband!
Praying was actually something I did do when I went back to bed. Giving it all to God can be helpful. My husband is a singer (or at least he thinks he is. Lol) and he is forever singing about something. I can’t carry a tune, so probably best I don’t take that up. May need to get a stash of dark chocolate and see what that does for me. Can’t ever go wrong with chocolate, can we?
I am in a constant state of stress, and because it is my “normal” state of being, I probably don’t even realize how bad it is. I don’t stress about money, I stress about the health of one of my adult children, living across the country. He has a chronic illness and does not really take care of himself. I have been dong most of the heavy lifting for 18 years, and at this point he does not cooperate at all. So, I guess my point is, life is not easy for anyone, we all live with stress, and you have to find ways to go to your “happy place” to deal with it sometimes. At least with money problems, you most likely will come out of it on the other side!! BTW, I enjoy your blog!
Oh, my. You do have a lot on your plate. No matter how old our children become, they remain a worry, even more so with chronic illnesses. So sorry you are going through this. Hugs and I’m glad you are enjoying the blog!
Well you can always look at the money stress from the other side….like look at how much room you have on those credit cards since paying off the last 11 months if a true emergency happened(don’t use the cards otherwise). 😉
We’ve all got worries whether money, health or something else.
My pissy post about my delusional sis in-law earlier this week made me feel a bit better to air out my feelings. I’d feel a lot less stressed if she’d GROW UP and not expect us to bail her out. lolz
Family……can’t live with them, can’t live without them(but I’d like to try to live without some of them….hehehe).
You’ll be fine. Go pet and play with your doggies. That always helps me!
Sluggy recently posted…This Week’s 4 Day Sale at Rite-Aid
Very good point. I’m eager to decrease the available amounts but certainly won’t do so until we have it all paid off. Your SIL, she sure is a piece of work.
Oh, you got that one right! Hubs reported back last night that when he went in her house it was like an episode of HOARDERS! I am sorry I didn’t make him pack a filtering face mask.
Sluggy recently posted…This Week’s 4 Day Sale at Rite-Aid
The need for a face mask? Now that is some scary stuff! I hope your hubby doesn’t bring back any cooties from being in that environment. Be sure to spray him down with Lysol when he returns!