Seeing the Blessings of Our Financial Stresses (and where I’ve been)

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In our last budget update, I mentioned that we’ve had some financial challenges that have been stressful for me. I am a list maker, so I like to write things down as I try to work through them. I made a list of everything that was adding to the financial stress that I was feeling.

I had planned on sharing my list at some point, though I hadn’t quite figured out how to make it into something that didn’t sound negative and whiney since that’s not my normal vibe.

Before I figured that out though, about two weeks after my last published blog post, my mom died, suddenly and unexpectedly. She was only 74. I haven’t really opened my laptop since then, aside from writing my mom’s obituary and eulogy.

There’s nothing quite like death to put your other priorities and stresses into perspective.

After taking the summer off, I’m ready to talk about finances again. We have a lot going on, so there won’t be a shortage of things to talk about.

We are still working toward financial goals and overcoming obstacles that stand in our way. We’re still finding ways to save money and trying to get the most bang for our buck. We still love making memories with our family through frugal travel and adventure. And we still spend less on groceries than families half our size. I will continue talking about it all.

Major Homeowners Insurance Increase

In January we had a huge increase in the cost of our home owners insurance. We are on the California Fair Plan because no other insurance company will take us because of the fire risk in our county. Consequently, the cost of insurance has gone up more than $1,000 per month!

Paying any kind of insurance is never very fun. It sometimes feels like throwing away money since we rarely file claims or use the insurance benefits. I try to focus on the blessing that it is to not need to file an insurance claim. We have friends who have lost everything in wildfires over the past few years. We feel so grateful not to be in that situation.

Cost of Dental Emergency

I wrote about my son’s freak dental accident from March. That cost us $3,500 for initial emergency care and $2,000 in further repairs so far. He will need additional thousands of dollars of dental work for more permanent fixes when he finishes growing. As our list of financial stressors grows, I have felt so discouraged when I think of how a few seconds of bad luck have had such a high financial cost.

Like I explained in my story of the accident, it could have been much worse. While dental emergencies are no walk in the park, they are much more solvable than a traumatic brain injury or blindness.  Even after the dental incident, our emergency fund has $20,000 in it. We’ll need to rebuild that up to our goal level, but the fact that we have emergency funds at all is a blessing and a comfort.

Major Delay with Investment Property

We did our due diligence before purchasing our investment property a year ago. We knew we would have to wait for a zoning change (that was already in process) before we could do much with it. The county told us they estimated the zoning change would happen by the end of that year (4 months from the time we were asking). When that didn’t happen, they told us it would be done by June. That was two months ago. Now they tell us that it may take another TWO years! That means it will be even longer until we can start getting a rental income from it, so we’re paying that mortgage out of our own pocket each month instead of having rental income to cover it.

We have been making it work each month even though sometimes it’s tight. We know that even though we have to wait, this property will be a good investment. I talked about the property here, here, and here, but I need to do an update to talk about the amazing deal we got on a 2,000 sq ft manufactured home for the property. We just have to wait for the zoning change to get it hooked up and start renting it. So even though we have this annoying hold-up in our preferred timeline, we know we have been blessed and everything will eventually work out for our good.

Future Loss of Renter

We do earn a small amount of rent from our investment property since we have someone temporarily living on the land in an RV. The county recently let our renter and us know that living in an RV is not allowed. She may be required to leave which will eliminate the $700 rent ($550 after expenses we provide for her) that we are currently getting. While it doesn’t make a huge dent in the mortgage each month for our investment property, it definitely helps!

In the meantime, we are happy to have someone there to keep an eye on things. And having $550 of cash flow isn’t nothing. It may not last forever, but we will appreciate it while we have it.

Paying for College

Our oldest will be going to college very soon. While she chose a very affordable college, has earned some scholarships, and is planning to pay for things herself, we still know that unexpected expenses will arise and we want to be able to help her.

We are grateful that our daughter was accepted to a university that is both academically excellent and affordable. It’s actually where both my husband and I went for undergrad! We’re thankful that she is motivated, responsible, and independent.

Prioritizing a New Porch

Our front porch, which is the entrance to our house, is in serious need of repair. We have known this for a long time, but last week it became more urgent (don’t worry… no one got hurt). We don’t want to just patch it (we’ve done that in the past). It’s kind of beyond that. If we’re going to do the whole replacement project, we’d prefer to upgrade and expand it. This will need to happen sooner rather than later, so saving for this will need to become a priority.

We knew it would eventually need to be replaced when we bought the house, so we are reminded to be grateful for the nine years we’ve gotten out of this porch. It’s always more fun to save for financial goals like trips rather than home repairs, but I think we will be really glad to get this one done and start enjoying it! It goes without saying that we are grateful to have a house, even if it needs repairs.

Bathroom Remodel

Last November, we completely demolished one of our bathrooms after a major leak. It is not replaced yet. In fact, it looks about the same that it did nine months ago. We’ve been so busy (mostly with fun things) that we haven’t had the time to finish it (or really even work on it) yet. While we have some of the supplies that we bought at the end of last year, it will still require more funds to finish.

We are blessed to have two other bathrooms, so having our third bathroom out-of-order hasn’t been the end of the world. It’s a little awkward to have guests go through our bedroom to use the master bathroom, but it’s fine. I’m also glad that Mike is willing to do the repair himself (with YouTube at his side), which will save lots of money. I grew up in a house with one bathroom for six of us, so I am reminded that having two bathrooms for eight of us really is a blessing.

Housing a Refugee Family

For the past three years we have let a Ukrainian refugee family live in our Airbnb rental (I talked about this in depth here, here, and here). They lived completely for free for the first two years as they tried to get on their feet. We even paid for their three cell phones each month. For the past year, they have paid us $500 per month. That isn’t nothing, but it doesn’t cover the cost of additional insurance, let alone any of the mortgage or utilities. Not having the $2,000+ monthly income we used to get through Airbnb is starting to be difficult.

What a privilege it has been to bring a family displaced by war to our home, help them learn English, learn to drive, navigate a new country, and make forever friends in the process. We are constantly reminded that all that we have comes from God and that we have the opportunity to use our bounty to bless His children. We did nothing to deserve the circumstances we were born into. It easily could have be us who were born on the other side of the globe and had our homeland destroyed by war. We would hope that if we had been in their circumstance that someone else would do the same for us.

Outrageous Water Bill

We just got a water bill for $896. Unfortunately this isn’t that first time that I’m stressed over a water bill. Someone must have forgotten to turn off the garden or orchard water. Unlike other bills, there is no way to check usage during the billing cycle which is two months long. It’s very likely that the next water bill will also be painful.

Having clean water that conveniently arrives at our faucets without any work from us is truly a blessing. There are so many people throughout the world that don’t have access to this luxury that we take for granted. Not only do we have plenty of water for drinking and washing, we have sufficient water to grow our own fruits and vegetables on our property.

Other Blessings We Can’t Forget

In addition to the blessing directly linked to each of our stressful financial situations, there are lots of other blessings we can’t forget about.

We are all healthy and well. This blessing is huge and can’t be overstated. Every time I get sick for a few days I am reminded what a blessing health is. So many people deal with chronic pain or disease or have family members who do. Our health, good or bad, can affect so many other aspects of our lives, including finances.

Mike has a good job. Unlike many attorney jobs, his doesn’t have weird hours or an overly demanding schedule. He has good benefits including health insurance and a pension. For the past six years he has even worked primarily at home without having to commute.

While I am currently a stay-at-home parent, I do have a college degree that would allow me to enter the workforce if needed. Right now my three youngest kids are in a hybrid school where they do homeschool for three days a week, so I’m not looking to go to work outside the home. I feel blessed to be able to live on a single income as a large-ish family.

When it’s all laid out like this, our financial stresses don’t seem so overwhelming. They’re certainly still there and will affect future budgets and money decisions, but they seem much more manageable when viewed with our blessings in mind.

It’s YOUR Turn!

Looking at stressful situations through a different lens has helped me relax and feel more gratitude. Reframing financial stress in a way that highlights the blessings was a good exercise for me. I hope you will try it too, whether it’s in the comments below, in a journal, or in your conversations.

What’s a financial stress that you have right now? How can you turn it around to see it as a blessing or let it remind you to be grateful?

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