"When it Rains it Pours" or "Can One Really Get Ahead in Life?"

It's not likely that a person would ever get through life without a financial setback.

But do they really need to happen every other year?

We bought our house three and a half years ago. It wasn't much to look at then, and still isn't, by the way. But there was the hope that we could make it nice with our limited resources.

We've been doing stuff gradually - paint a room here, new garage door opener there, clearing out unsightly bushes and landscaping, etc. The only truly major splurge we did was to get new windows because the old aluminum ones were broken and terrible. Less than six months after those were installed, my already pregnant wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And so we went through our medical period - childbirth (complete with time in the NICU), surgery for the wife, followed by some brief radiation treatment. Oh, and also some surgery for our newly born son. Medical insurance is great, but it doesn't cover everything, and it was a long time before all those bills and our new windows were paid off - but they did get paid off.

This year was the first year since we moved to Colorado that I didn't have to immediately take our entire tax refund and use it to pay off some other debt that we owed. It was kind of nice to have a little cushion in the bank. During my long working days of the winter and early spring, it was fun to daydream about things we might be able to do with the extra cash. I'm not talking going to Disneyland or anything - maybe just some modest upgrades in our furniture situation or maybe some fun summer activities for the family here in Colorado.

I've always been kind of uneasy about the plumbing in this house. While it worked, there were some things that happened (including smells) that didn't seem quite right. But if it's not broke, don't fix it, right? About three weeks ago, we woke up to water on the floor of the laundry room. At first we thought it was coming from the washer or the water heater or something, before finally figuring out that it was coming up through the drain hole. We did everything we could think of to fix it, but only made it worse. Finally, we gave up and resolved to call the plumber first thing Monday morning.

The problem was tree roots growing into our plumbing out in the front yard, and there were problems all the way out to the main sewer line in the street. To make a long story short, they gave us the option of the temporary fix with assurances that the roots would continue growing into the crappy (pun intended) 1970s era plumbing technology, or we could update all the plumbing and be assured that we would have happy flushing and showering until our kids reach adulthood.

The cost was substantial - we're talking five figures. The major "con" of not doing it was that the potential future repair costs would only go up if we let the shoddy plumbing in the yard and street continue to deteriorate. We didn't know what to do - we don't exactly have our emergency fund that stocked - so it would mean debt and payments once again. On the other hand, who wants to live a life of sewage backing up into the house?

We went ahead with the plumbing work. There's something to be said for indoor plumbing, but it's not like you end up with something that you can show for it - as in, check out our remodeled kitchen or awesome backyard deck/patio! Maybe we're spoiled. I guess if outhouses were still commonplace, our plumbing would be super cool.

The same week our oldest son went to the orthodonist. One major triumph of 2011 has been getting his braces paid off. Only now the orthodonist is recommending more treatment - at more than twice the cost of what we just paid off. We haven't decided about the teeth just yet. Oh, and did I mention that we are expecting a baby next month? Who knows the extent of financial obligations that will be incurred during that visit?

So any and all plans we had or were going to have for the next year or two or three all went down the drain in about a week's time. At least they stayed down.

I can only describe my feelings as discouraged. We try to live by sound financial principles. I track all the money that comes in and goes out and review it monthly. We pay full tithing plus generous fast offerings. I participate in the deferred salary program at work. If we do eat out, it's something affordable like $5 Little Caesers Pizza or Subway. We're still using the same 19-inch TV we bought 10 years ago. We have new iPods but we got them free for opening bank accounts. We don't buy stuff unless we know we have a way to pay for it. Oops, except we just did.

I don't mean to sound whiney. I know everyone has challenges and some are harder than others. I'm grateful to have a job that gets us most of the way there on the monthly budget. I guess I'm just expressing my frustration about the one-step-forward-two-steps-back way that things have been going the past few years.