September began with a heat blast, four days of over 100 and before that it was in the 90's regularly. We were miserable and only now figured out that we had a spare car windshield blocker thing and it fits just fine in the kitchen window. Lowered the temp in the front of the apartment by 20 degrees. Kitchen was hitting 90 when the sun came over the building and slanted in to the front wall. The heat dome finally broke free on Monday and all this week we will be seeing much more tolerable temperatures with a high of maybe 81 and the nights are in the 60's.
With only a little help we managed to pay all the bills. Managed SDGE on my own but needed about $30 more for my phone but help came through on that. So we're getting better sort of. Still treading water but getting our chins above the waterline now. We're not eating out as much, don't drive anywhere other than picking up the kids and going to the grocery store so that's a savings. Car is getting better mileage now also, almost 200 miles on a tank which I try to fill it around the half way mark if not the 1/4 tank.
And once again, someone mentioned our storage. It is not an option to just leave it, if we could find a cheaper place to rent I would figure out a way to do it. If we could find a way to sell some stuff we would do it. But again, considering it is a quarter tank to get there and back I do not have the money to pay extra for gas (at $4 a gallon right now) even with Amber giving me money for the shuttle runs.
So we're managing.
If we had a place that the total rent/mortgage was as much as we're paying for rent now but we had a garage or more room we would manage much better. Seriously, I've done the math as best I can. Even with a mobile home the space lease/rent if it's $750-800 and a mortgage/loan payment was 400 we'd still be okay. We wouldn't have to pay $500 for storage and yes, we would have trash/water/sewer/electric/gas but some parks pay for sewer and trash. I haven't been looking at listings much anymore because what's the use? I've got an idea of the average prices and looking at listings is no longer 'feeding my soul' it's just torture or window shopping knowing I don't have the money for it.
There was something else I was going to bring up and have totally forgotten what it was and went on a tangent. Oh well, next time.
Garden almost completely died due to the heat, the hose busted and the person who bought the hose just hacked off the two feet at the end instead of taking my offer to fix it. Manny the mantis is still out there guarding the tomatillos and he actually caught a bee the other day. The garden and my knitting are the two other things I don't have any extra cash to fix issues.
So yeah, we're 'managing' as I like to say about my garden, there's surviving and there's thriving. We're surviving best we can.
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