An FPU update ...

I haven't been doing any FPU updates lately. I apologize for that.
I suppose if we had been saving tons of money, knocking out debt left and right, I'd probably be writing about it very often out of excitement. As it currently stands, looking at our financial picture is mostly leaving me feeling very stressed and worried. (Although I have to add, at least I'm looking at it now and I can't imagine what sort of path we would be on if we didn't get in gear now).
This month Murphy visited us (uninvited I might add) and hit us hard with all my tooth issues. It has really stressed us.
And oh, remember when I bragged about our thankfully low debt that would be paid off in November (right here if you want to go visit a cockier me). Well, I was technically correct when I said in November we will be debt free aside from the house. However, I was rolling the second mortgage into the house category and have now realized (with a little help from dh) that the second mortgage is in fact in the debt category and only the mortgage is the house. And he's right because 1) the second mortgage is technically a Home Equity Loan. And it's almost double the interest than our regular mortgage and (here's where it becomes the problem) it's a balloon payment. Seriously, I didn't' know that until recently. They are only billing us for interest each month and the principal will be due in about 14 years, 6 months. Now, we have paid extra on it and they keep applying it to the interest, despite us calling to put it to the principal. :::sigh:: So in one swoop, our debt was doubled because of how we are viewing it. And with the money we will be receiving soon, we have decided to pay off the HE loan and then attack the credit cards. Our thinking is a) the HE loan is a pain because of how it is set up. b) if things get worse, the credit card companies can't take our house away. But the mortgage company, can. So we are eager to get rid of it.
With our current plan, it will take approximately 33 freaking months. Seriously, I want to puke about it and we are on a very modest budget I think. Mostly because of the house. This house. I have a love/hate relationship with it right now - because it takes 45% of our monthly take-home pay for the mortgage.
I will be honest right now, I'm very down about this whole thing. I had some people over last night for a craft night (who ended up buying some things from me) and I joked that I would pretty much do whatever they wanted me to - babysit, make things, help in any way shape or form these days. They laughed about it with me, and then the one mom told me a date she needs a babysitter, because they also knew I was serious about it too!
But I want this debt gone ASAP! I don't want to carry it for 3 years. If we could go back one year ago, we wouldn't have bought this house. But we have to start where we are. And this is where we are. And we are working on it, and we are attacking it. And I know it will get better. But, it is going much slower than I predicted. We should have had a chunk to put into savings this month. As it stands now, if we can make it through the month without running out of money, well, I will consider myself quite blessed truthfully.

Anyway, that is my update for now. It's not very pretty at the moment and it's not a lot of fun either frankly! I'm stressing about it all big time. But we have a plan. And we are digging our way out. Most importantly, we are changing out attitude on money and how we spend it and what we buy and redefining what is important to us.

But right now we are the turtle and not the hare. And that's okay, because in the end, the turtle wins.