Why do I always feel broke?

Without a doubt, I have a higher income now than ever before in my life. Plus Leigh and I have finally started pooling all of our money, so our annual income went from almost $0 last year (I earned some euros in France but promptly spent it all on traveling, food, wine, and rent) to more than $50,000 together (I'm not going to say how much more than that for privacy issues and because the actual amount is a little bit fuzzy since Leigh works as a temp right now and might be doing something else sooonish). But then you must consider that we're both paying student loans now, ouch! Plus we have higher bills here in Alaska than ever before, double ouch! And since we're now working adults we find ourselves wanting to do things that cost more money, like taking a vacation in Hawaii. When we lived in the Lower 48 we could just hop in the car and go for a driving vacation. Now we have to fly to leave the state and driving holidays are more of a spring/summer thing. Anyway, life has gotten expensive and complicated and we're doing our best to deal with it.

Right now our goals are to pay off most of our credit cards, leaving only my airline card for daily use, and pay off the car and as many loans as possible within the next two years. By the time Leigh starts her RN program full time we should have a much simpler list of monthly bills. This all sounds great, but for now it's proving very challenging. For example, I scheduled to pay off my Ann Taylor credit card (which I used to purchase my "lawyer clothes" this summer), then did Leigh's Christmas shopping, so now we're basically broke until I get paid again. I hate this! I go to work, live modestly and still feel broke all the time.

Anyway, we'll be fine, it's just going to be a challenging 2 years. We can do it. We can do it! For now I wouldn't object to additional income. Maybe I'll look into something I can do from home like technical writing. I dunno. I was going to write a scholarly article about timber reform laws, but then I thought better of it. It would be a bad idea to write an opinionated article about something so pertinent to Alaskan law and politics while working for the Court System. I have a feeling that, if published, this would only lead to trouble for me. So I think I'll save my writing for after my clerkships are finished.

In other news, Leigh and I have both been kind of sick lately. It's no fun being in our house! I hope this passes soon so we can go back to our normal selves and eventually find ways to enjoy this crazy cold weather. I'm ready for skiing and ice skating weather so it doesn't seem like it's just cold for no good reason.

OK, I should do my job now...