Celebration

This is probably only a big massive deal to Kristen and I. But yesterday I took our checkbook over to the Village of Romeo and Bruce Township offices and paid our summer taxes. Just because we were so proud that we were actually ready to pay a little early, we decided to actually pay a week early to alleviate the stress of September 15th for us.

September 15th is a cuss word in our house
Kristen and I learned a valuable lesson about buying a house, one which we hope we’ll never repeat. We closed on our house on September 15th, 2005 and that happened to to coincide with "tax day" in our community. Practically, what that means is that we have a lot of bills due on the same day. We pay our annual homeowners insurance, quarterly IRS tax payment, village and township summer taxes, and all our regular monthly bills on September 15th. It equates to about 3 months family wages due on the same day. It’s not stressful for us anymore because we know about it and plan for it. (Like this year, we’ve paid early) But it takes a year’s worth of saving to make sure we are ready for September 15th… (you have to say it with hushed tones.)

Celebration
So last night Andrea came over to watch the kids so we could go celebrate. We didn’t do anything spectacular, just dinner and walking around a bookstore for a couple of hours… but we had an extra spring in our step. I absolutely love accomplishing a goal. And to accomplish an annual goal even 1 week early feels especially good.