Biting off More Than You can Chew

Last Wednesday I woke up with a terrible pain in my mouth. The gums around my upper right wisdom tooth were swollen. By Thursday morning, I could barely open my mouth wide enough to eat. It hurt to talk, chew, yawn, etc. I was afraid it was an infection and called my dentist to get an emergency appointment.

I went in later that afternoon to discover that I was right - I did have an infection. My dentist gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and referred me back to the oral surgeon I had a consultation with back in October about removing all four of my wisdom teeth. If I don't have that tooth pulled the infection will keep coming back. I can't afford to have all four teeth removed so my dentist suggested that I get a quote for just having that one tooth removed without anesthesia.

I called the oral surgeon's office after I picked up my antibiotics. It's going to cost $165 to have that one tooth removed. It's not great, but it's not terrible either. The soonest they could squeeze me in is Monday the 19th. I'll be on an ice cream and soft food diet for a while after that.

We don't have dental insurance (or vision insurance for that matter) so we have to pay the full cost of everything.

STOP!

Michael noticed that his brakes weren't working quite right last Tuesday. He made an appointment for the following day to have them checked out. Turns out that all four of his brakes had to be replaced.

Michael's car has to have working brakes. That isn't something to mess around with so we found a way to pay for the work and replaced the brakes on his car.

The Best Things in Life Are Free. But You can Give Them to the Birds and Bees. I Want Money!

We're trying to save up as much money as possible. It just seems that as soon as we get a little saved something major happens and we're starting all over again. We're doing okay financially, but not as good as we would like and there isn't a lot of money left over for savings.

After all of the money we've had to pay out in the past week we're feeling really poor.

I am currently accepting donations for the "Amber is Po' fund."

Crafts

I've decided that I'm going to try selling some of my needlecraft work. I've looked at some items on eBay that are similar to what I'm planning on selling. I don't think I would have a problem selling these items (dish cloths and hanging towels to start). My crafts are made better/look nicer than the ones I've seen for sale. IMHO

I never thought about possibly selling them until Michael and his mother mentioned it. I've always given them away to family as gifts.

We'll see how it goes. If it goes well enough maybe I can do that for income.

eBay

I've been a member on eBay for almost eight years now. I've been a buyer only until recently. To earn some extra money, I decided to sell some of my old books. So far I have sold two different sets and have made $30. I'm running a few auctions at a time to start off with so I can get the hang of things. So far so good.

I'm planning in selling about half of my porcelain doll collection (eight dolls) as well. I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to do that on eBay or not. It seems like it would be difficult to package them safely enough because they're so fragile. I may try to sell them on our local cheap cycle group instead.

Misc.

• For the most part we're doing okay.
• I'm trying to be creative and find more ways to earn money.
• I'm considering picking up a second part-time job.
• Bunsen's 5th birthday is today! Happy birthday Bunsen!!!
• We're still looking for a new home for Cat, the iguana.

{1141}

amber jean
in amber jean's Journal
Posted at 07:19:05 UTC