My daughter has been having chronic headache issues for about 16 months. We have seen doctors and specialists, had MRI's, tried prescription medications and vitamin regiments... nothing has worked. As a last resort, her neurologist suggested therapy. She said sometimes our bodies will do anything to not deal with painful things.

Finally in January, we were able to find a therapist that would see a minor. Very few we talked to would see minor's and even fewer still woudl accept insurance. Nearly all of them required cash payment. The therapist we found shared our faith (which was important to us) and sees minors. She did not, however, accept insurance. 

It was worth it to us to pay out of pocket if it would help relieve our daughter of her headaches.  But it wasn't cheap! We paid $140 per session, and she had sessions weekly for almost 3 months. As her headaches started to improve, we were able to space her appointments out more. Today is her last appointment!

I'm so glad her chronic headaches have disappeared! Two days ago, my daughter and I were at our eye appointments, and she was so happy to mark "rarely" when it asked if she had headaches. The therapist has been a God send to us and we are so thankful that her headaches are gone, and she was able to deal with "unresolved issues". 

We still have a ton of debt, but we are making baby steps toward improving it; but slowing our debt payments so we could cashflow her therapy appointments was worth every penny! There is nothing worse than seeing your child hurting and having no way to help them! With today being her last therapy appointment, I am excited to have an additional $500 a month to put back towards our debt and maybe be able to ramp up our progress a little bit, especially knowing my daughter has relief from her pain!

My financial goals for 2023 were to increase savings to $10000, which I may or may not make (but I am still trying!), and to decrease our debt to $13000. Assuming my progress continues as it has been, I'm on track to make that goal by October.

I have been working really hard to pay down debt and have not felt like we have made any progress, but over the last couple of weeks, we have had little bits of money come in (some bigger than others) and I have applied all of those towards our debt.

My son received a tuition reimbursement for his junior college. That was a $690 drop in the bucket! And so unexpected!

 The Husband also received a raise of just over 4% and that has made up a small shortfall we were going to have because of tax adjustments with a little bit of money left over to send towards debt.

 I receive a small extra payment on the 10th of each month for any extra services I do at work. It's usually below $100, but it is extra. I was able to send that to debt.

 My daughter was named editor of her high school yearbook because of how hard and diligently she has worked on the yearbook this year. As her reward, she got a refund for her yearbook that we paid for at the beginning of the school year. That was another $80 to send towards debt.

The last one I haven't actually received yet, but it should be coming soon-ish. I coached intramural soccer at my high school this year. I did this as a volunteer job and was happy to do it! But it was exhausting and a lot more work than I anticipated it was going to be. But I'm still glad I did it. The week after our tournament, I found out I am going to get a 4% stipend for coaching! It was so unexpected and I'm so excited! 10% will go to my CalSTRS account and then of course they will take out taxes, but after all is said and done I'm hoping to walk away with an extra $2500! I will probably split that evenly between savings and debt as my savings account has taken several hits in the last couple of months!

 I'm just hoping to stay the course and that each small drop will help fill the bucket.