Before we made the move from Boston to Kentucky (AKA from ridiculously high cost of living to nice and affordable) I did some number crunching to see if my salary could support us while S got his art work back up and running and bringing in some funds. I knew things would be tight but on paper it looked like it would work. Maybe not putting away the savings or paying off as much debt as I had hoped but at least we could make ends meet without taking on new debt.
But so far everything about the transition has cost a lot more than I anticipated and the extra cash that I factored into the equation to cover our expenses has been falling short. One of the biggies is that our old landlord kept $1200 of our deposit leaving us only $90 returned. The list of "repairs" he had to make to the place after we left is quite lengthy and most of it could be argued but he's a lawyer and kind of jerk and I don't have the energy or time to fight him. So there's a big hit.
As for the move, a friend ended up flying up to help us drive/ handle the babies (which was amazing of her to do) but it meant we were paying for an extra hotel room and her food. We had a late start and ended up needing two nights stay. I did not do a very good job of estimating the fuel a fully loaded truck pulling a car through the mountains would gobble up. And I failed to factor in how much we would spend on deposits for utilities and getting the fridge and pantry restocked. All in all, I think the move was a good $1000 more than I expected.
On top of all that, our elderly dog got really sick as soon as we got here and we've been battling to get him better. The prognosis probably isn't good but I can't justify spending the $600 for full diagnostic testing to confirm that he has cancer and he's dying and there's nothing we can do. The vet agreed that the best course of action is to give him some meds (kind of expensive steroids) daily to help keep his appetite up and just enjoy what are most likely our last months with him. Which is a horrible blow after having just found new homes for some of our other fur babies before we moved.
So the bottom line is that the transition to our new life has been more difficult than I anticipated, I don't even have a clear picture of our finances at the moment since bank accounts, bills, and paychecks are all in flux which stresses me out to no end but I think we're potentially looking at a shortfall of around $500 a month.
Kind of feeling like a financial failure since I did such a crappy job of estimating what our new life would cost. I don't want S to have to scrap his dream of getting his business back up and running so soon out of the gate but unless things change and soon, he's going to have to get a job. And of course that means he's either working in the evening or weekends and we won't see each other or he's working during the day and we're back to paying someone else almost a full salary to raise our kids.
Gah.
Ack! Sorry the "startup costs" of moving were so much higher than you anticipated. Those things are really hard to predict and you did your best. Since it's been a couple weeks since you wrote this, I'm hoping you've got a clearer picture now of what your monthly cash flow situation will look like after getting through all those transitional expenses. Financial stuff aside, I also hope you're enjoying your new job and being closer to family!
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