week nine report

March may turn out to be a tough month for the money diet.

Week nine started out well - come Friday I still had all of my $60. Then I started spending money like it was 2008.

Poor Paul, on top of the twice weekly physio appointments for his being hit by car injuries, now has sustained a running injury which is quite serious and is having to attend twice weekly massage and physio appointment for that as well (plus ultra sound and bone scans to try and figure out what is going on). All of the user fees he's paying for the car accident physio will eventually be reimbursed when he settles his claim, however, that could take years. And we do have extended benefits that will cover 85% of the other physio and massage, but he's paying user fees up front. In short, he's extra broke, I feel sorry for him, so I started dishing out cash for feel better treats.

Friday afternoon, with $40 still in my weekly fund, I had lunch with my friend Ryan. It started out well, as we headed somewhere for which we had a two for one coupon, but took a turn when my friend ordered a beer, then I thought oh what the heck, I'll have a beer too. Then he ordered a second beer, and even though I was still only half way through my first, I went ahead and ordered a second one as well. All in all, a lunch I thought would only cost me around $10 ended up costing $27. But it was a fabulous lunch and I hadn't seen Ryan in ages and it was a great vent session - he got married in October and had all kinds of things go wrong. Their caterer went out of business, their ceremony venue burned to the ground, their shuttle never showed up to take guests to the reception site. Shit ain't so bad for me right now.

Friday evening, a little bit tipsy, and I thought you know what, fuck it. I've had a shitty week, Paul has had a shitty week, I'm going to go get us some nice wine and a few other weekend bevvies. I headed to the liquor store and dug into my $100 spend on anything monthly money and did just that. And so it continued. By the end of the weekend I had nothing left in my weekly money, $40 left in my monthly money, and had wiped my slush fund (which only had $35 in it anyways) clean.

Yes, I shuffled some cash around. But I did not use a credit or debit card, and I did not withdraw any new cash. Failure? I think not. I'll just have to be a little more frugal for the rest of March.

And, fueled with weekend treats and with the assistance of my good friend Tatjana, we got our wedding invites mostly done. It involved a lot of cutting, folding, sewing, and taping. Still one more step to go before they are done, and then we can start addressing and sending them out. I also taught another big CPR and First Aid course to a parents group, and made another big payment on my line of credit, which now has less in it than my savings account does! That feels pretty dang good!

Now, because I postponed my Sunday morning long run due to a bit of a hangover, I have to go do it in the snow. Ugh. I suppose I deserve that.