What's a girl to do?

Whenever we have a large bill to pay, we generally don't have the money to pay it. Up until now, my husband has not discussed with me how a bill like this would get paid. For example, there was a balance on his Discover card. When I looked at our joint Mastercard, I saw that there had been a cash advance. I asked him why. His response was that the interest rate on the Mastercard was lower than the Discover so he advanced the Mastercard to pay off the Discover. I was very angry, but I kept my calm. (I still get angry thinking about it.) I explained that if he would discuss these issues with me before making a decision, perhaps I can do something to help.

Earlier this week, my husband said to me, "Here's our bonus!" Of course I asked, "What bonus?" Well, he said that it was a reverse bonus as he hands me our sewer assessment. It's $1,200 and it's due on November 1. Darn Ninja bill! I'm sure somewhere in a conversation a long time ago he told me about this. Unfortunately, I can't remember. He did remind me that I asked him to tell me about these bills before making a decision. For that I am truly grateful.

Now the question is how are we going to pay this bill by November 1? He said that he has $400 in a savings account. That means we need $800.

I have $1,000 in my emergency fund, $1,500 in the Christmas fund, and $400 in my snowflaking fund. My challenge is this: How can I pay the $800 balance withough touching the emergency fund or the Christmas fund?

1. I will definitely use the $400 from the snowflaking fund. That makes $800 (my husband's $400 plus my $400) towards the Ninja bill, and I still have to find $400.

2. The Christmas account is funded by $200 every two weeks. I could cancel the transfer to the Christmas fund on October 31. That's $200 more towards the Ninja. Now I need another $200.

3. I was planning to increase the Christmas fund by an additional $200 every two weeks, beginning with the October 31 paycheck. I could put that off until my first November paycheck. (I wanted to give C1 and C2 computers for Christmas, but my husband balked at the idea.) Anyway, that's a post for another day.

Well, that's what I plan to do. My husband's $400 plus my $400 plus the $400 from my October 31 paycheck. Plan B will be to dip into the Christmas fund. The sewer assessment will be a Ninja bill no more!

Gratitude

Recently I read an article on MSN's Smart Spending Blog. Donna shared that she gave some random man on the street a dollar. She got lots of comments for sharing this information. I thought it was very refreshing to see that many of the commenters supported her decision to be generous. Of course, there were the naysayers who disagreed with her gesture of kindness. The recipient of the funds was very grateful.

Any of us could fall on hard times at the drop of a hat. Just look at our economy today. There are massive layoffs, citizens with huge mortgages who are struggling to pay them down or not paying them down at all, and the stock market affecting retirement plans and more.

I have a friend who lives in a very expensive suburban town. She and her husband had excellent jobs and a beautiful home. She told me about a Thanksgiving day where she volunteered in a soup kitchen. She was serving the clients Thanksgiving dinner. She said at one point she looked up only to see a former coworker of her husband. She said that their families used to get together quite often and had recently lost touch. This particular family had lost everything as a result of corporate downsizing.

Donna mentioned in her article that as she shared her wealth with the homeless man, a man in an SUV sped right by the two of them and made a rude comment. I'll bet Mr. SUV has never read the story of Lazarus -- Luke 16:19-31.

Boomerang

Yesterday, my husband told me about an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, The Next Bailout: Your Adult Children? Intrigued, I decided to check out the article for myself. The reason for my intrigue is that I have an adult child living at home. It seems that many, many, many parents do. It also seems like few parents expected to have their adult children "boomerang". I certainly did not.

It also seems to me that whenever the topic comes up, people sympathize with the adult child. I've heard comments such as, "It's expensive for them (adult children) to live on their own" or "(s)he is saddled with debt", namely, student loans.

I wonder why we are making excuses for these bright, creative, talented, often very well educated young people. I wonder why they can't work one, two, or three jobs to pay down their debt and begin savings. Why can't they find three to five people in the same situation to share an apartment to keep their housing costs low?

I was very surprised to learn that adult children living at home has become a common occurrence and that there is a blog on the subject appropriately called Adult Children Living at Home. It seems many people take comfort in the sentiment that it's happening all over, but that's not making me feel any better.