WOW this year has flown by, so much has been happening will do a little update but I am ready for next year.

We had to move this year as the owner of the last house wanted to renovate..they didn't they just upped their price andmoved someone else in..Funny thing is they wanted $640pw for the house they only got $595pw..funny thing is we would have paid that so we didn't have to move..but that is life. Our new rental came with a lot os isssues that we either didn't know about or that were suppose to be fixed and were not. We tried to negotiate with the owner for cheaper rent if he wasn't go to fix things, half the lounge had no elec/fan above stove had no filters on it, no down pipes attached to the house etc...things that needed to be done, so after 8 weeks of trying to get things done I called the housing inspector and also put in claim for compensation. within the week the housing authority came out wrote up a list of what needed to be done, they had 28 days to comply or rent would be reduced and if not completed by march 2025 then they would be fined between $2500-$10000...within 2 weeks everything was done except 1 door which they had to order a part for because it is an older door and no need to  replace the whole door. It cost him more because he had to fix things that we didn't even mention but the housing authority said had to be fixed. Then he asked what we wanted for compensation, we said not to worry about it as things were fixed and thats all we wanted. So for now things between us seem okay (although he lives in another state). So that saga is finally over.

My daughters IVF journey continues, she has unexplained infertility so has has a bunch (14 vials) of bloods done this month, one takes 3 months to get back and she is having a break till next year and will have some other tests/procedures done to see if they can find anything else as they just aren't sure what is going on, been over 4.5 years, has been expensive but will be worth it...so hoping around may next year to try again.

With moving, health issues and a few other things we just didn't get anything done with our budget like we wanted, didn't save anything etc, but have done our budget for 2025 and it looks good.

Goals for 2025

are to be debt free (should be april)

to  save $20,000 for a house deposit

to save $2500 for a newer car (not needed but hubby has macular degeneration & I can't drive due to dizziness so will have to upgrade to a car that will fit all 3 of us and our daughters kids (when she has them) so a long term goal but starting now...would also have our cars to trade in as well.

Also may have a possible compensation payment coming in (lawyers working on it now), not banking on it and could be a while before we get it..if we get it...and would have no idea how much it would be...not a lot I am guessing but whatever it is will be put towards a house deposit.

Non financial goal is to work on my health.

Thats about us for the year, nothing else planned except christmas which is paid for (except food we need to pick up closer to date) and we do ours christmas eve which will be a nice 82 degrees (28c)...christmas day will be hotter at 95 degrees (35c)...so glad we are doing it early

Hope everyone has a merry christmas and you are all meeting your goals for the year and your budgets are balancing (if you have one)

This is kind of a financial question but not sure how or if this is possible and can't really find out any information online and dealing with the IRS is hard from over here.

So not sure if many of you know but since the pandemic our dealings with the irs has been so exhausting...we can't do it online and after this last year I am just over it. I have an itin, purely for tax purposes, I have never lived/worked or bought any property etc in the US ever. Hubby has retirement income and SS so he has to do them. What I am wondering is can I relinquish my itin number and hubby just does that taxes as a single person? I really don't want to be dealing with them again and think it would be much easier for us...so if anyone knows the answer or can get me a link etc, that would be awesome...if not thankyou for your time.

Also I know it would cost more for him to do it as a single person but we can budget for that...its around $3-4000 in taxes already that we pay each year so that we don't owe...which we have owed in the last couple years as it keeps going up.