Just found out she already filed

[ImprovedRomeo]

Well today didn't go well at all, we got totally blind sided by her attorney. Even though her attorney and mine agreed to a settlement on Fri that I'd pay her $1k per month and keep paying her end of the private school tuition. This morning her attorney claimed we didn't have any agreements and sorry for any misunderstanding. She ran the numbers again and they came out much higher, on top of that she asked that I continued paying for the full private tuition too. I told my attorney that in that case we might as well get the order through the court so STBX can't say she settled with me for less. Court would assign those same numbers.

So we went in but the judge said she won't have time until noon. So we came out and her attorney said why can't we settle on something so we don't waste all day here. My attorney said well we don't want to pay her half of the child support and she said 'well my client already agreed to that' ...uh what? that was the reason we were going to court. Anyway so then she goes runs some new numbers again for the past payments I owe her and they went up higher yet again my attorney said the numbers change a little bit and they didn't have the correct health ins cost in that's what made them lower earlier.

So now looks like I'll have to pay $2257 minus the $458 for her half of the tuition so we're looking at $1800/mo - that's a lot, almost twice as much so I'm going to have to figure out how to come up with that amount. It really sucks.

Later I talked to STBX...a little heart-to-heart too (she came over to me in the morning since her attorney was late and sat down next to me- I reached over and gave her a hug, she hugged back) but that's another subject. I asked her if she was happy that she was getting the maximum amount she could...she just said 'you should've taken the settlement my lawyer proposed'. I said what settlement? she said $1250 and you keep paying the child care/tuition. I said her attorney didn't present that option but it's about the same as what it is now anyway. Even she acknowledged that her attorney's weird- but I'm sure doesn't mind because it's working in her favor so far.

I'm staring at a spreadsheet putting together a budget and what I spend, I don't have $1700/mo free. I could do $1k without a lot of changes but $1800 is going to be tough. So this sucks big time.

I sent her an email asking for car insurance info so I can see where to cut back...she offered she can take over her car's insurance- which is probably $50/mo. I replied saying that would be nice because I really don't know where I'm going to meet those numbers. Sucks that we used to have savings, retirement funds and money left over...now it'll be tough.

The good thing is I'm good with managing money and finances so I'm sure eventually I'll figure it all out. Still, it just won't be the same.