pay my parents back

We had planned to wait for my parents to come home from Mexico to start paying them, but my sister moved out of a house that my mom owns and my other sister needed some money to fix it up for the next tenant. So I gave her $500, which mom is applying toward what we owe her. Less money to give to our credit cards, but still helping our total debt. =)

My parents are back in town on May 15th in the evening. I’ll probably go see them later that week and give them some money.

We’ve budgeted $500 to parents each month for four months starting in May.

• $1,000 they lent us for our new bed
• $700-ish that they’ve lent us on miscellaneous stuff (mostly lent to me before we got married)
• $300 convenience fee for not making us get loans from people who charge interest =)

Very rarely do you get to have a $500 lunch!

I spoke to my mom today, we were talking about mattresses of all things. She mentioned that if a tempur-pedic or sleep number bed would help with my back, she’d lend us the money (zero-interest as usual) to get it now instead of us saving up for it. I told her that it would be easier to say yes to something like that knowing what we owe her already, since our plan is to get out of debt eventually!

She said that she actually couldn’t find her notes on it. She did say, however, that the school expenses were a gift. We both agreed that I never did pay her for the television. She said that we’d start a new balance with that. Cool! =)

So, to review:
Paid: Dryer (which is now in storage), most of car repair (I think I gave her $500 from her $600 loan), miscellaneous loans.
Gift: Washer (also in storage), fridge, school.
Unpaid: Television (approx. $550), and maybe $100-200 of miscellaneous.

I’m quite pleased. I think I’m pleased enough to reward myself with a new bed if my husband likes the idea!

Our current 5-year budget forecast calls for us to start paying my parents back in April, which is the reason why it’s important that I get a dollar amount from them soon so I can adjust that 5-year plan to reflect when we’ll be done paying them.

Anyhow, it has come to my attention that my parents are leaving the country in February. They may or may not be back before then, they typically go for about 3 months at a time. If they’re not back, however, I’ve decided to put the money that’s for them into savings to be “stashed” away until they come back. And if we earn a few pennies from the money, I won’t complain either…

I’m going to parents’ house tonight. Hopefully my mom has a dollar amount now on how much I owe her. I didn’t want to bring it up in the holiday season or while she had company. I think I caught a glimpse of a running tab on the side of her fridge (the side you don’t see unless you’re cooking!), so she may have been working on this.

It’ll make me feel much better to know how much I owe so that I can budget for payments and know how long it’ll take to be done.

I got a $500 money order for my parents today, which I’ll give to them at Thanksgiving. I need to figure out exactly how much I owe my parents. The number can be one of many, since there isn’t a clear distinction how much of my school-related stuff I’m expected to pay them back for.

Paid: Dryer
Gift: Washer and Fridge
Unpaid: $600 loan for car repair (Mom said she’d rather loan us the money than sell us her Camry, because it uses less gas than the Tahoe, but she still doesn’t drive it)
Unpaid: School expenses ($5,000 or so roughly, but Mom’s mumbled noises that she was “helping” me get through school and wasn’t expecting repayment)
Unpaid: $400 or $500 (having trouble remembering now) for a flat-screen television at a day-after-Thanksgiving sale two years ago
Paid: Miscellaneous loans, such as meals or bills that arrived to her house that she paid for me. I’ve done a good job of keeping up on those

So that makes $1,000-$6,000, a big range but I think it’s on the lower end.