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Monday, September 1, 2008

The Thousand Dollar Question!

Things change so fast around our house. This week, DH's mom sold some land for a pretty hefty sum. So she gave each of her sons (3) $2000. Can you believe it??? How cool is that!!

Anyhow, so she gave DH $2,000 in cash. This was on Saturday afternoon. He was in a very good place, money-wise and mental-health-wise, so he told me that he was going to pay off all of the stores that he owes money to (!) and if there was anything left over, he was going to buy some cigarettes and give me the rest. That's very new, but not new. That's the kind of thing he would think to do before the bipolar took over (except he didn't have any bills except our mortgage, electric, etc., at the time).

The trouble is, he ran off to all the hardware stores/lumber stores/small engine stores, to pay his bills, and only one of them was open (Saturday afternoon in a small town on Labor Day weekend). So he did, thankfully, pay that one off, and his plan is to go in first thing on Tuesday, and pay the rest of them off. So I won't have to worry about paying for those! (I'm still in a quandary, maybe even more so now, as to whether I talk to the store owners or not).

But.....the thousand dollar question is....I gently suggested that maybe I should hold onto the money so that he wouldn't be tempted to spend it over the weekend. He told me he was absolutely sure he wouldn't. I'm not so sure. I know that if his state of mind remains exactly as it is now, that he will likely be able to hold onto that money. But his state of mind changing, well, that's kind of something that's more normal than if it didn't. I"m not confident that he can/will be stable for the entire weekend. And when he becomes less stable, well, that's the part where I don't think he can do it.

Well, who knows, bigger miracles have happened....I'll keep you posted. (At least one is paid off, and that's more than I had hoped for...)

2 comments:

perphila said...

Money...whoo hoo! I really, really hope DH stays stable long enough to pay the bills. I don't even dare give any advice. If you asked again to keep the money it might trigger something. Or it might not. The uncertainty is exhausting. The only thing I guess i would suggest is when he is stable for good period of time you both can come up with a plan of what to do about money in a situation like this, meaning when he is unstable. I know of some people who let the spouse control the finances even when they are stable "just in case". What ever works for you. My fingers are crossed.

Anonymous said...

Ya!! I'm so happy for you. You deserve it. Ya for money. I hope that DH stays stable until Tues.
Good luck.
Joann