The Good: By far, the highlight of the week was paying off Hospital #1! And I find it amusing that I wrote the check on Monday, mailed it Tuesday, and by Friday they had cashed it. Guess they needed the money. But knowing we paid off this bill that has been a noose around our neck was terrific!!!
To a much lesser extent, we started some of our back to school shopping. Neither child really needs much right now, thankfully. But I snagged 4 pairs of pants (3 for now, and 1 pair to grow) for $19 at Kohl's for Sassy. Then on to the consignment shop where I got her a brand new Justice shirt (still has the Justice tags) for $5, and an Old Navy skirt for $3. Bossy didn't fair as well on this trip, but he got a Halloween shirt for play. Everyone was happy.
The Bad: This started out as the star for my Good thing this week and went sour. Took my car in for a free oil change (yippee! Free!). And I needed two new tires (which we suspected for other reasons). Even though the tires were 4 years old, they had a warranty on them, which brought the total down to $72 for both tires.
Enter in the gift cards we have!!! $13 left on one, $35 on another, plus we had a $5 coupon. Our our of pocket should have been in the $20 range. Instead, I spend hours looking for the $35 GC. I have no idea where it went. GRRRR. So out of pocket ended up being about $56. Our car fund had $50 in (wow, look at that....saving up for maintenance actually works.....), so that just about covered it. But I am frustrated about the other Gift Card!!!!!
The Ugly: On July 31, the last day of our no eating out challenge.....we officially blew it. Schedule was screwed up due to my car and G-man's work. I wasn't able to go grocery shopping because my car was in the shop and G-man was at work. Cupboards were bare. So....I got the kids some fast food for dinner. G-man also picked up something for himself for dinner (he only had 40 minutes before he had to be back to work). We had already failed, but this one really was the nail in the coffin. I know it was $15, but it was the principle of the thing.
How was your week?
Again, awesome job on paying off the hospital bill! Don't beat yourself up too much on the fast food thing. Life happens and you can always try again in the future. The important thing is that you were able to cut back drastically and see results. Hang in there and don't beat yourself up too much. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://livingbetteronedayatatime.blogspot.com/2010/08/good-bad-and-ugly-august-1-2010.html
I am taking your no eating out challenge this month but I am allowing myself 1 exception - I have a coworker who I have worked closely with for 3 years whose last day of work is the 13th and we are going out for his last day - beyond that unless I have a gift card I am not going to eat out this month.
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