Huge load off my mind.

Last fall, I was let go from my teaching position. It was, overall, a good thing, but...

My income had been going straight to savings to pay tuition for the kids to go to private school for the past four years. 

This year, tuition went up by about $500 for the both of them.  It's still relatively low, but I wasn't sure it wasn't going to put it out of reach.  I talked to the business office, and they said there's financial aid through the school available. 

So, I applied.  I've been squirreling money away like we'd have to pay full tuition.  I currently have their full tuition bill in the savings, and have had for a couple weeks.  That, and Missouri just changed the rules on the education savings accounts to permit payment to private schools from that. 

We do have the money, even without financial aid, but we'd go from "can weather an emergency" to "can maybe keep the money market account open."  Maybe.

I applied for the financial aid in March, when it opened up.  I've been watching my email like a hawk.
The announcement didn't go to my email.  It went to Odysseus's.  We only noticed because his mom emailed something to both of us, and he wanted to read the details.  We found the email from the kids' school, then.  

We got it.  The school has granted us a good-sized tuition reduction, over the sibling discount that the pixie was already getting. 

That puts us from "can maybe keep the money market open" to "fully funded emergency fund." 

Yes, we're going to celebrate somehow.  Haven't decided just how, yet. 

No, I'm not going to stop squirreling money away like crazy.  In spite of the fact that our tax refund check next year should be bigger, partially because of tax code changes (thank you, Mr. President, for pushing the extra child tax credit and decreasing taxes a little bit in other areas for most workers), and partially because the EITC will be a little bigger without the $9K/yr pre-tax that was my salary for teaching college classes, I'm not going to stop squirreling money away.  Because insurance is coming up in October, then taxes in December.  And tuition next year.  And I want a fully funded emergency fund, plus all of the rest.

But for now, I'm just basking in the relief that our current load is going to be far less than I'd anticipated.