Closing the Deal

It has been a roller coaster of emotions and finances these past few months. From packing up and moving, to putting our house on the market, from paying a rent and a mortgage to closing the deal, we have been through a lot as a family. Corey has been especially cautious with our finances these past few months as well. In his words, "Until that check clears..." meaning, we can't count on the house money until it is official because anything can happen.

Even with the fire in the canyon, the insurance company would not insure the house for the new owners until after the fire was put out. So, even then, we were waiting, hanging, until the fire was out. What if the buyers decided it wasn't worth it to wait? Or that it was too risky living in a place where wildfires happen? We had no clue about what they were thinking, so we kind of put our hopes of a fat check on hold.

And then my phone fell into a pool. Right in, under water. And wouldn't you know it, it turned on, it received messages, but the darned touch screen was inoperable. The only mode of operating the phone was incapacitated. Even with insurance, it would have cost us an extra $200 to get a refurbished phone. And Corey wouldn't budge on getting a new one. We were living just fine with me using his phone, and him carrying just his work phone. He insisted on waiting till we closed on the house, had the mortgage off our plate, and had our check from the new owners safely in our account. So, I patiently waited.

He even wanted to "trim the fat" so to speak while we were paying a rent and a mortgage. He asked me to cancel our cleaning lady! She only costs us an average of $20 a week, but he wanted us to conserve our funds until everything was cleared. I couldn't do that to her. She's a single lady and she depends on her clients for her income. So I decided to split the difference. I explained about the phone, the mortgage and the rent, and she understood. But I also told her that I could empathize with her depending on us as one of her steady clients. I told her that I could pay her for one hour of work ($20) out of my own personal money so that she would only be out $20 for this week, instead of the $40 we usually pay her (she comes every other week for 2 hours.)

I know that I could have budgeted more than the $20, but I felt like it was a fair meeting in the middle. After all, it's still my cash. I didn't have to use any of it, really, but my heart told me that it was the right thing to do to still contribute a little bit.

And then the magical day happened. Corey came by the house to have me sign the back of the check that had more money on it than we've ever held in our hands at one time. The check from the buyers that said, "Your old house is our new house." We put the money in, and went out that evening to celebrate. We had already planned on going out to eat anyway. We had a gift certificate to one of the nicest places to eat in town, L'Auberge.

A creek side resort with dining right on the banks of Oak Creek. The babble of the water, the ducks floating by, the dappled sunlight dancing through the trees all came together to create a magical setting. It was truly an evening of celebration.

Now that we are cleared of having to pay our mortgage, and we have the added comfort of cash in the bank, maybe next time, I'll tip our cleaning lady the remainder of what was missed this week. I think we can swing an extra $20.00 now.

Cleaning Lady- $20.00

Balance this pay cycle-$6.00

Happy Spending!