Stupid Tax - our Achilles' Heel.

At least, it feels like an Achilles' Heel to me.

A stupid tax, for those who have not read TMMO, is money you spent (and otherwise would not have) because you did something stupid. We have paid stupid tax with zeroes on the end. :(

I try not to beat myself up about it too much, but had we not done these things, we would be past BS3 right now and cruising towards our investment goals.

bleh

Stupid Tax #1 (this is a biggie): Trading in our Ford Expedition for a Honda Odyssey.

You may be thinking (particularly with gas prices like they are) that this does not seem too bad. Well, the truth is that we traded in a vehicle that we loved for one that we tolerate because we convinced ourselves that 'it is getting old and will cost more in repairs' and that a lower payment initially was really what we needed.

Well, we spent an extra $13,000 (that is 13 THOUSAND dollars) in payments that we wouldn't have once the Expedition was paid off (you think that could have covered a few repairs?) and we also just spent $1200 on maintenance items on the Honda anyway! That $13k even accounts for the larger payment on the Expedition initially.

$13000 would have just about covered BS3 for us, we would still have the (paid for) Expedition, and the Honda doesn't really get better gas mileage than the Ford did...it is still a big, heavy vehicle.

Stupid Tax #2: We put granite counter tops in the kitchen.

Once again, this sounds like a pretty good idea. I mean, they look great and add value to the house, right?

Well, granite is pretty expensive to start with, and we have a pretty big kitchen. Added to that was the undermount sink you have to buy ($400), the new faucet ($250) and (this one we really didn't plan on) new backsplash!!

You see, we didn't think through the process very well. Our old counter tops were REALLY thick - like 2.5 inches. The new counter tops were 3cm think. Quite a noticeable difference. We ended up paying someone to come in, rip out the old backsplash and sheetrock, put in new sheetrock and a new backsplash (marble, of course) to the tune of about $1700.

The stupid is not done yet!!!

We also decided (since we had all this other new stuff) that we should have someone rip out the wallpaper, skip-trowel the kitchen and repaint.

Hey, while they're here, let's have them paint the living room too!!!

Are you catching all the stupid in this story?

Total stupid tax on this one: $6500.

Hey, wait a minute! That is almost EXACTLY what we owe to our credit cards right now!! That means that if we had not paid those 2 stupid taxes, we would no longer have credit card debt and our FFEF would be done.

I know there are other stupid taxes we have paid, but those 2 just kinda irk me right now.....

I will say that the only bright side to this story (if there is one) is that because we have been living on a budget all this time, we were able to pay cash for the kitchen renovation. We did not 'technically' incur any new debt....we just left the old debt untouched. :(