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It could have been worse...

January 14th, 2007 at 07:51 am

I'm not one known to just willy nilly spend money, not when it's cash anyway. I used to go crazy with the credit card, especially when they would raise my limit. But I know better now.

I have money stashed away for Medical bills as they come due. I have a really good friend of mine who is under-employed, has no insurance, is out of contacts, hasn't had an eye exam in two years, and is wearing a pair of glasses she got fitted for in Vietnam 6 years ago. Eye care is really important to me and America's Best was running a special, two pairs of glasses plus an eye exam for $69.95. I contacted her yesterday and told her I would like to pay for that if she wanted to get it done. She agreed and that's how I started out my morning.

It is fun truly to watch people try on eye glasses and help them decide what looks good. I let her fend off the 'upgrades', I would have been willing to pay for some of them as they were reasonable but I left the ball in her court. Her prescription has changed slightly, enough to need new glasses. I think she'll be really happy with them when they come. Total spent $85 because she'd gotten something extra that cost $15 and offered to write me a check for the difference, but I was going to give her $10 for something our group is doing next week so told her to keep $10 for that and she could give me $5 later on when she had it cash.

That started the downhill slide. The eye place is near Target. I don't often go to Target because it's not close by. I figured I'd missed out on all the good clearance stuff but felt the need to wander. I did see things that I could justify on a level, but I didn't really need them so I didn't get them. However, I did walk out of there with a long sleeve shirt (clearance ~$6.50), a couple tubes of toothpaste, and a rug that'll cover a cord so we don't trip on it. Total $13.07.

After stopping at home I went on to visit my brother at the bar he works at. I had 'lunch' except they serve breakfast til 3 pm so for $7 (including tip) I had 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, and 2 slices of bacon. We chatted for a while, it was pretty dead in there so he could stop and talk, and then I went on my merry way. I pulled the cash to pay for it out of my gas money.

I had a gift card for Best Buy. Again, not one really close by me but there was one near where my brother was so I stopped by to get a SD card for my mp3 player. They had one for $25 that I felt was good enough, my gift card was for $20 so I spent $5. While I was at Best Buy I got a call stating that my friends were going to the Zoo that afternoon in celebration of their youngest's first birthday. I had a little time to kill still (the Zoo would be on my way home from where I was anyway) so I walked next door....

...To Old Navy which was having a 50% off clearance prices sale. Man it was crazy in there, clothes piled everywhere despite the crew members trying hard to keep it somewhat functional. They had a lot I probably could have picked up for reasonable prices but I was trying to keep overall cost down so I stuck with two tshirts, another long sleeve to layer under stuff and one short sleeve. Total cost $7.39

Then it was off to the Zoo where I bought a membership because I had $45 saved up towards an annual pass, it's $9 just to get in for the day, and that would only make me $5 short of the pass total. Total cost $59.

A friend invited me out to dinner, I don't get to see her often so I agreed so long as we went cheap. Went to a cheap mexican restaurant, total cost $5 (including tip). Then we decided to watch a movie at her place, and I used my giftcard for Blockbuster.

I'm going to visit friends tomorrow that will take a good chunk of gas to do it. So I went ahead and put in my $10 gas card I had for Shell. Hopefully that will help balance things out so I won't need gas again until Friday when I get paid.

Total spent for the day: $174.36
Total to be repaid by other funds to be deposited next week: $116
Total unexpected expense: $58

Surprisingly enough, this doesn't drain my bank account. It does make it so I only have $45 held out for my next paycheck instead of $60 unless I change my mind about transferring the babysitting money I got on Friday and leave it in the bank to soften the blow of my spending spree. The only reason I was holding that money out was because I changed my withholdings back to 1 and I don't know what effect that will have on a 'normal' paycheck. $60 is how much I'm 'short' when the withholdings are set at 1 but since I'd been at 2 for a good chunk of the year I ignored it.

But you know what? I really didn't do all that bad all things considered. I got a lot of stuff but didn't pay a lot when you factor in the gift cards. And it's stuff I can use. And I rarely buy clothes so once in a while it's nice to get something new y'know?

4 Responses to “It could have been worse...”

  1. shiela Says:
    1168761918

    Wow! You had a big day.

  2. pjmama Says:
    1168762459

    A big day indeed! But it sounds as if you enjoyed yourself and made out pretty good. I've done much worse Wink

  3. Amber Says:
    1168796491

    That was really nice of you, helping a friend out. Brakfast until 3? who has breakfast so late...yes I agree you were very busySmile

  4. boomeyers Says:
    1168805509

    You did good avoiding the things at Target you really did'nt need. You need to add a social butterfly fund to your budget!

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