Once I got older, after I graduated high school mostly, I figured out how having and not having money really works. If I had the money for something, I would buy it. Even if I knew I either didn't need it, or couldn't afford it in the long run. This practice, as I'm sure you could guess, got me into A LOT of trouble in the few years of being on my own. There are several individuals in my life that can personally attest to the issues and problems I had. The lessons I had to learn the hard way were in the double digits, I'm sure. If I really think about it, I'm sure that number is higher. Student loans, fancy clothes, apartments and cars are just among the few things that I, if I could go back, would change. Who would give up the chance to right and really dumb wrong if they had the chance to go back? I know for sure I would.
Eventually spending the little money I did have got me into so much trouble that if I didn't do something about it right then, I probably would have been in some SERIOUSLY deep trouble. After I joined the military, I had a steady pay check. I had a constant flow of money. My 20 year old self of course loved this. It seemed that trouble I got into before didn't matter as much because I had money now. Well...I was way wrong. WAY WRONG! I just didn't get it. I spent and I spent and I spent. I don't really think there are sufficient words for how badly I screwed things up. My credit, my bank accounts....just doomed from the get go. In June 2010, I bought a car. It was a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. I LOVED IT!! It was charcoal grey and it had everything. The most beautiful car I had ever seen...for me.
I had the car for a few months until after I got out of the Marine Corps. I could only afford it for a few months after I got out. I had no job and Zack couldn't afford to take on the payments. Especially with the new truck he bought before we got married. It was eventually repossessed. At the time I didn't really care because it was just a bunch of extra stress to worry about. After a few months, I missed that car but eventually that care went away. Until one day in the mail I got a letter from the loan lenders saying I owed them a BUNCH of money. Oh man so much money. I didn't have it. Ugh!
I took on odd jobs like babysitting and massages here and there, it wasn't enough. Not to mention the student loans I had procured. Geez! I had some serious collaborating to do. I needed to sit down and figure out what I owed to who. Talk about biting you in the ass right? That was ultimate bite in the ass because now I had someone else in my life to care about. It wasn't just about me anymore. It wasn't mine this or his that. It was OURS. After sitting down with my charming hunksband, we figured out together what bills we had and what loans both of us had. We could barely afford the little duplex we lived in. Obviously, I had more than him, but we figured out a plan and set that plan in motion.
I tried to find jobs around town. No one wanted a former Marine who couldn't manage to stay in one full enlistment(that's a story for another day). I was unsuccessful. Zack got orders shortly after that, and we moved out to Hawaii. I decided to put all that on the back burner for now because I really wanted to start a family. We had a substantial pay increase when we moved out to Hawaii. It is technically considered over seas even though it is still part of the United States. So we got an extra few hundred for that. Our BAH seemed like it skyrocketed. The housing we chose to live in was different from the on base housing. It was a government contracted installation so we only paid rent. The base housing took all of the BAH. These houses only took what they needed. That is why we decided to live there. We saved several hundred dollars a month living there. We were finally financially stable enough to start our family. Which I was quite happy about. This meant that I could go online or to the stores and baby shop to my hearts content. This...got me into more trouble. This time with Zack. He did not like how much I was spending on clothes and random baby gear. I did my best to justify my purchases, but sometimes that wasn't enough. I then started to think about how deep my already deep enough financial hole was already and I needed to just...stop. I tried really hard o save money and I tried really hard to limit myself on how much I did spend and save. I managed to save quite a bit, actually. For that, I was proud of myself.
In 2014, our laptop took a dive. When I say dive, I mean it kept getting virus no matter how much malware we had and one night it was destroyed. By that I mean it was thrown, across the room, for playing the same ad over and over. It was so annoying. Just over and over. You know that Hidden Valley Ranch commercial? It was that!!! Over and over and over. So Zack punished it!! Well I was upset, but not because he destroyed our laptop...which is one of those pricey items. I was upset because I had SO many photos of Mara when she was a baby on there along with many other photos of our life together so far and my life before. I managed to get them all off, thankfully!
Zack said that now that the laptop was broken, it's time to get a new one. This was his excuse. I forgot to mention that Zack also has expensive taste, only he's SUBSTANTIALLY better and restraining himself and saving then I ever was or have been. We got the same brand of laptop. It was cheap and on discount, but still expensive. That laptop lasted for...can you guess? 6 months. In that time I managed to save every photo I had and took all of them and put them on a USB. Smart. Ok, moving on...
Now I have no laptop. This time I was upset because it was my window to the outside world. As I said in the last post, it's quite isolating out here. One night I was in bed. I woke up to loud banging. Zack was still awake. It was about 3 in the morning. I got up to go see what the banging was. I was more worried that the noise would wake up my 9 month old daughter who slept with her door open. Turns out she can sleep through a hurricane. The noise was coming from the garage. We lived in the top apartments. It was above our garage. I went downstairs to find Zack blasting his god awful screamer music(the pig squealing kind, not the actual tolerable kind) and taking a tiny sledge hammer to the laptop!! What the hell old man!!! Again, mainly for the noise. I asked what he was doing he said viruses. Although I had never noticed a difference in the speed of the laptop or pop ups or anything, I accepted his reasoning, said shut the hell up! and went back to sleep. The next day I asked if we were going to go get another laptop. He said No! What the hell man! You're gonna destroy the laptop that I rely on for, you know human contact, and not replace it??? Ugh. He didn't seem to care at the time, but about 3 weeks later we went to AT&T to fix our phones. Something was wrong with his. While we were in the store, he saw the ipads we have now and got 2 of them. Ipad minis. I used this and no longer cared about the laptop. Mind you, ipads are expensive too, but he heard the amount it would be a month added to the phone bill and didn't mind that it would take 3 years to pay them off(which they didn't tell us of course).
Since then I've used my ipad for pictures, videos, and all manner of apps and programs that I really like. I got used to the touch pad. Eventually(with in the last year or so) I've leaned more toward getting an actual laptop. Zack said I had an ipad and didn't need a laptop since the ipad is basically a mini computer. Sure, maybe a little. However, there are many sites that are not supported on an ipad. Eventually I convinced Zack to get me a laptop. Consider it a birthday present.
It is so nice. Now I have to get used to a keyboard again. It's windows 10 so I can set it up just like my phone, which I did. That makes it easier because I don't have to et used to two different systems. It also came with a nice surprise that I didn't notice when I bought it. It's one of those 360 degree flipping screen ones. So I can use touch screen like I do with the ipad but have a key board. Nice right?
Let's just pray this laptop doesn't get caught in the crossfire of Zack's destructive pleasures. :)
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